The Influence of Westerners: An Analysis of Beijing from “rickshaw Boy” to “midnight in Peking”

The Influence of Westerners: An Analysis of Beijing From “Rickshaw Boy” to “Midnight in Peking”

Beijing was an entirely different country from what it was like for the locals and foreigners during the 1930’s as compared to the 1950’s, several years after the war. Based on the novels “Rickshaw Boy” and “Midnight in Peking” which were based during the specified years respectively, this paper will discuss the transitions of Beijing with respect to changes in Public space, architecture, and urban planning, gender roles and the position of women, and its class structure and patterns of privilege. One thing was common among both of the books – they showed how foreigners, especially the war, modernized Beijing and its traditions became more adaptive to foreigners.

In the book of “Rickshaw Boy,” the city of Beijing seemed to be of traditional Chinese houses before the influence of the Westerners. A line in the book stated, “The Cao house was spotless; even the servants’ rooms were clean. The Cao food was not bad and they never fed the servants garbage.” Given that, Beijing was too traditional, the houses very composed, very clean and spotless and emanated the roots of what an original Chinese house were to be. The servants lived within the same places as the masters of the house wherein they were afforded respect as equals, given the same amount of food that a normal being would receive.

However, in the book of “Midnight in Peking,” it was apparent that Beijing was a walled city that existed as a remnant of the capital city it was under the Qing Dynasty. Tremendous changes were met wherein clubs, bars, and other Western establishments were erected within the city. During such time, there were substantial improvements to the infrastructure of Beijing when compared to its neighbors who was not open to Westerners then, the bringers of modernization during such times. However, there were also foreigners who lived within the city and were situated in the southern gate. Those who lived on the other end, however, were the poor ones, the stateless people who were mostly composed of White Russians. The way of life of the locals, then was every bit as foreign and exotic to the locals with strong influence from Western designs.

With respect to class structure and pattern of privilege, “Rickshaw Boy” showed the Beijing people’s struggles as generally poor which was apparent through the daily life of Xiangzi. There was a line that stated, “The day he forgot this (that his talent was pulling a rickshaw) would be the day he forgot himself, and he’d then be little more than a beast that knew how to pull a rickshaw, lacking all traces of humanity.” This showed that the lead character had the simple dream of owning a rickshaw since he thought that this would make him rich. His aspirations were for him to become a better farmer, to be the boss of him and not to have the flourishing life that his boss had, just to live simply and independently. In fact, he fainted after his first day at work. He would’ve literally killed himself just to be able to save money on buying that rickshaw. However, Xiangzi’s boss was humane towards them. They were considered equal, were offered food that were eaten by their bosses ass well, and had ample space for them to rest.

In “Midnight in Peking,” however, the foreigners, especially the White Russians, treated the locals like they were slaves, servants, and objects to play with, especially the women. In fact, the Westerners erected more than appropriate number of night clubs where they would rent local girls as their prostitutes. Therefore, Beijing’s labor then were monetarily favorable to those that would succumb to the wishes of the foreigners, not like Xiangzi who worked a dignified job as a farmer but could still not elevate his poorness.

The women in “Rickshaw Boy” also showed that they still practiced the traditional expectations of women in China, those that were diligent in the house work. In the book, it was mentioned that Xiangzi worked for his master who had two wives. The two women could not agree on anything but doing household chores. In fact, the houses during those times were spotless, free of dirt and were never left unarranged. This was what was expected of women during such times – they were supposed to stay home, fend for their husbands, and see to it that every task in the house is taken care for.