Eighth Post!

[hoisinsauce]

It's one thing if mankind is hunted to extinction by ChatGPT, but I really do object to being executed by Bing.

(https://secretfanspace.dreamwidth.org/2511.html?thread=3169743#cmt3169743 )

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Re: Poetry - Rainy Alley (雨巷) by Dai Wangshu (戴望舒)

[(Anonymous)]

So this might be slightly dramatized, but here's Dai Wangshu's love life as I understand it.

Back when he was but a fresh-faced college kid getting thrown out of school for protesting, he crashed with a writer friend and immediately fell madly in love with his friend's little sister, Shi Jiangnian (施绛年). Simply put, she was 'a girl like a lilac.' Unfortunately, just like the girl in this poem, she barely acknowledged him - she had plenty of suitors and he was dead last in sex appeal.

Dai Wangshu continued to embarrass himself attempting to court her, including an awkward incident where he accidentally sent one of his love letters to the local newspaper instead of the manuscript he was supposed to turn in and they published it. Finally, he gave her an ultimatum - either marry him or he would kill himself on the spot. So Shi Jiangnian smartly diffused the situation by promising to get engaged, but that she wouldn't marry him until he made something of himself. She sent him off to France to study abroad and immediately eloped with a refrigerator salesman.

A few years later, Dai Wangshu came back to Shanghai with a shiny new degree and a broken heart. Eventually, another of his friends got sick of his moping and whining and once again set him up with his friend's little sister, Mu Lijuan (穆丽娟). Shortly afterwards, they got married. Unfortunately, Dai Wangshu was still hung up over Shi Jiangnian, and Mu Lijuan quickly grew tired of him refusing to take her seriously and writing tragic poems about his 'first love.' She asked for a divorce, but he threatened suicide if she left him - so she started cheating on him until the shame forced him to propose the divorce. Good for her, honestly.

Some years passed before Dai Wangshu once again fell madly in love, this time with a colleague named Yang Jing (杨静). Her family wasn't delighted about her marrying a man twenty years her senior, but the two of them were steadfast and enjoyed a brief marital bliss before things fell apart. See, she had married him for his fame and fortune, but he lost both when he was arrested and practically exiled during a period of political turmoil. Yang Jing started an affair with a man much closer to her age, Dai Wangshu probably tried to kill himself again, and eventually, the two of them got a divorce.

Ironically, after so many ill-fated suicide threats, Dai Wangshu ended up killing himself by accident when administering his asthma medication.