The Global Metropolis

Last Words does not offer a linear timeline of events but instead places readers within a transient, international locale. The story focuses mainly on life in the global metropolis, allowing the setting to take precedence over the novel’s own temporality.

The global metropolis liberates the narrator from restrictions in Taiwanese culture. As she connects with other migrants across Paris, Tokyo, and Taipei, the city space provides new

opportunities for self reflection. This sentiment is best expressed by Letter Ten when the narrator runs through the rain accompanied by her Icelandic classmate, Irma, her Italian classmate, Monika, and French classmate, Myriam:

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(82)

I nearly burst with glee, singing one song after another deep down in my throat in unintelligible (to them) Chinese…We were four children under Heaven, without nationality or student credentials, far from home, each abandoned by her beloved. (63)

Qiu conjures a romantic image of inclusiveness as the narrator finds herself in the company of young women, from three different countries, who are joined together by the youthful promise of the opulent city center. Paris is cast as an urban hub of supposed global culture, where nationality is a distant concern, because little distinguishes these women from each other.

Having left their hometowns ( ) , these friends find a new life in the city. The urban space is a cultural melting pot at the foundation of global society. The narrator remarks how each is without her nationality ( ), student credentials ( ), and other physical markers of identity and status. Since there are no obvious distinctions between each student, they can all share in the bittersweet experience of lost love.

The narrator refers to these women as “Children of Paradise” ( ). This is an allusion to the classic French film directed by Marcel Carné. As a connoisseur of French film, Qiu Miaojin was well aware of its cultural significance. The story of a loveless French courtesan, Garance, displaced in war-torn France, is strikingly similar to the narrator’s heartbroken

classmates. While not present in the English translation, this final delicate touch, truly romanticizes the image of the global metropolis.

Emily Apter cautions that the inclusiveness of city spaces is largely superficial. She writes that in global frameworks, city spaces are studied in abstraction from their national contexts. The city functions as a metropolitan center, where the wielders of economic power and social coercion remain anonymous. This results in a World Literature that often blunts critique in the name of liberal inclusiveness or cultural similitude. ⁷¹

It is easy to temporarily suspend nationality, credentials, traditions, or language but these women only associate through their collective effort to assimilate into French society. When the narrator sings away sorrows in her native Chinese, she acknowledges that the language is unintelligible to her companions because she’s the only Taiwanese woman in the group. This clearly indicates that even in transient spaces like the city center, the narrator retains a distinct Taiwanese identity that is completely foreign to her friends.

Qiu Miaojin’s idealistic descriptions of the global metropolis suggest a consensus on global culture; however, closer examination of the city space gives readers insight into the varied impact of globalization on American and Taiwanese cultures.

In Letter Seventeen, the narrator and her former university classmate, Yong, ride their bikes through Tokyo. Yong and the narrator were once romantically involved but now share a close friendship. The letter talks about continuously separating and reuniting throughout their travels. The narrator visits Yong in Japan, where an appreciation for the cherry blossom festival

Apter 298-320

takes them through small villages and country roads, until they reach the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. The narrator offers the following reflections about the trip:

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7 8 6 (119)

Two people so far from home, far from our loved ones, each of us having gone to live in a foreign country, reuniting on a foreign-beyond-foreign highway, pedaling on our rusted bicycles, one of us on the verge of death– what was this exile, roaming, and homecoming we were enacting? (153)

Chinese societies place great importance on geographical origins. Many Chinese are aware that their ancestors emigrated from specific villages, sometimes keeping accounts of both their mother’s and father’s family. While this may not be connected to shared cultural traditions, common geographical origins are important to conceptions of Chinese ethnicity. ⁷²

The narrator’s Taiwanese identity is similarly connected with gutu ( ) or her

homeland in Taiwan. Consanguinity and family lineage are very significant in Taiwanese culture.

A strong connection with jiaxiang ( ) or an ancestral home, further implies that interpersonal relationships and community are important to identity formation. The passage emphasizes having departed from their homes and native soil ( ). It continues by saying both women have left their loved ones ( ) in order to travel to two unfamiliar countries, ( ) referring to France and Japan respectively. The impact of this decision would certainly cause feelings of loneliness, isolation, or homesickness for the narrator.

Djao, Wei. “Being Chinese: The Ethnic Dimension” Being Chinese: Voices From the Diaspora.

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Tucson, University of Arizona Press, pp. 186-190.

In Mandarin, mosheng ( ) means unfamiliar, strange, or unknown. The narrator describes being in a mosheng ( ) guodu ( ! or an unfamiliar country, as well as mosheng ( ) gonglu ( ) or unknown roadway. She and Yong enjoy exploring their lives amidst the vastness of Tokyo’s urban sprawl, but they are aware of this constant cycle of exile ( ), roaming ( ), and homecoming ( ). For a narrator “on the verge of death” this projects feelings of being displaced. Once the narrator leaves her country, she sacrifices the geographical connection to her family, community, and culture in Taiwan.

Globalism presents new possibilities for migration. The narrator takes advantage of this opportunity for personal growth but migration also breaks with tradition by physically

disconnecting the narrator from Taiwanese society.

The English version translates mosheng ( ) as “foreign.” The translation strategy places less importance on the unfamiliarity or uncertainty of life in a foreign country because American society celebrates social mobility. The global metropolis is an adventurous atmosphere that rewards travelers for exploring different languages and cultures.

Last Words romanticizes the potential of the city space and the similitude of global culture. The multilingual narrator is free to explore foreign cultures as she forms relationships with other migrants, seeking the same advantages presented by the global metropolis. The narrator is enriched from by these experiences but she still grapples with isolation, homesickness and culture shock after being physically disconnected from Taiwan. This dichotomy challenges translation of her work because the translator must confront different reactions to globalization within both American and Taiwanese culture.