Raise The Red Lantern Analysis

In the film Raise the Red Lantern, by Chinese director Zhang Yimou (1991, Zhang Yimou), we are shown the story of Songlian and her experiences as the new fourth wife of her master. The struggle between tradition and modernity as well as femininity versus masculinity is prominent in the film as Songlian is thrown into the Chen family compound, fully governed in Confucian tradition, and the capitalist democratic competition between the wives and Songlian’s rebellion to tradition causes many problems in the compound as well as showing the how society is very male dominated. The wives, or sisters as they call each other, are always in competition with each other as they all try to fit into their roles as the wife to the master Whoever the master decides to sleep withholds the power for the day, and is shown through the ritual of the lighting the red lantern in front of the respective wife’s house. This preference is shown by the wife getting to pick the meals for the day, receive foot massages, and get the most attention from all the servants. Each wife is a different personality, the first being the oldest, but is more respected because she birthed a son for the master. The second is the manipulative
He supports the traditions because it gives him all the power, but he breaks them when he wants and or benefits him. It very Machiavellian in a sense that what he does, he does for his own benefit and glory. When Songlian caught the master having an affair with Yan’er, Songlian was mad and the master told her not to be childish and forget about it. When the third wife was caught having an affair with the family doctor, the Master sentences her because it’s not to his benefit to have a cheating wife. This dichotomy that women were not allowed to cheat on their husband, but men could have as many wives as they wanted is another difference in the power between men and women during this