Chiuming berarti musim gugur yang cerah.Jiu Ming (dibaca ciu ming) berarti tolongEntah disegaja atau tidak, kedua kata yang diucapkan nyaris sama mempunyai arti yang berbeda namun secara harafiah memiliki makna yang sama bagi Madame WuSaat berusia 40 tahun, Madame Wu memutuskan untuk mencarikan suaminya seorang istri baru. Melalui jasa seorang Mak Comblang seorang wanita yang tidak terlalu cantik namun menawan, berusia lebih muda dari dirinya namun lebih tua dari para menantunya telah dipilih untuk menjadi Nyonya Muda. wanita itu diberinya nama Chiuming. Dengan nama itu diharapkan ia mampu membawa kecerahan ke dalam kehidupan Mr. Wu yang usianya bisa dimisalkan musim gugur, empat puluh lima tahun.Bagi Madame Wu sendiri, dengan adanya Chuming berarti ia mendapat bantuan untuk membuat suaminya senang dalam hubungan suami istri. Apalagi ia sudah memutuskan tidak akan melayani suaminya sejak malam perayaan ulang tahunnya.Demi menyenangkan sang suami yang awalnya menolak, Madame Wu selalu beusaha membuat Chuiming menjadi nyaris serupa dengan dirinya. Dalam hal memilih pakaian, bau badan, bersikap hingga cara melayani suaminya. Saat pertama kali tiba di rumah Keluarga Wu, Chuiming untuk beberapa malam juga berada dalam kamar baru yang dipakai Madame Wu dengan menggunakan tempat tidur bambu sebelum menempati kamar Mademe Wu yang lama.Saya jadi teringat cerita para pini sepuh. Zaman dahulu jika seorang suami, terutama dari golongan bangsawan dan raja ingin menikah lagi, maka sang istri yang mendapat tugas untuk mengurus segala sesuatunya. Dari mencarikan istri baru hingga mengurus malam pengantin. Dan jika wanita yang diinginkan tersebut menolak sang suami maka sang istri bisa dipastikan akan mendapat hukuman.Konon sang istri hanya bisa memendam rasa sakit hati demi kepentingan anak-anak dan keluarganya. Malah hal ini menimbulkan guyonan, jika sang istri yang dengan patuh mengurus segala sesuatu sehubungan dengan pernikahan suaminya di minta menggenggam sebutir telur mentah ,maka dalam waktu yang tidak terlalu lama telur itu akan berubah menjadi telur matang akibat rasa amarah yang terpendam dalam diri sang istri tersebut.Walau dalam kultur masyarakat Cina suami adalah pemegang kekuasaan tertinggi, namun terlihat bahwa sebenarnya Madame Wu-lah yang menjadi boss dalam rumah tangga Keluarga Wu. Ia dengan kecerdikannya mampu mengatur segala hal, dari urusan keuangan, kebutuhan sehari-hari hingga urusan pernikahan anak-anak dan suaminya. Serta mampu membuat ego suaminya yang memang kurang pandai tidak tersinggung akan campur tangannya.Melalui pernikahan yang diatur, Madame Wu selalu berusaha menjadi istri yang baik , walau ia tidak mencintai suaminya. Ia juga berusaha untuk yang bijaksana bagi anak-anaknya. Kedatangan seorang pendeta guna megajarkan bahasa asing kepada anak dan menantunya, belakangan juga merupakan guru baginya, membuat Madame Wu menjadi wanita yang kian bijaksana da dicintai oleh orang banyak.Bagi para menantu perempuannya, Madame Wu dengan cerdiknya mampu membuat mereka menganggapnya sebagai ibu kandung tempat berkeluh kesah dan dituruti keinginannya dengan sukarela. Walau sebenarnya egonyalah yang membuat ia tidak menginginkan ada perpisahan dalam rumah tangga anaknya karena bisa mencoreng nama Keluarga Wu, Madame Wu selalu mampu membuat menantunya mau melakukan apa saja sesuai sarannya demi kebahagian sang suami, yang berarti kebahagian diri mereka juga. Segala kerusuhan yang terjadi sepertinya bsia diatasi dengan kecerdikan dan kekuatan jiwa Madame Wu. Penyelesaian kasus Chuming yang dengan begitu saja terselesaikan, di tangan Pearl S. Buck menjadi sesuatu yang indah.Entah sudah beberapa kali saya mengakui kekaguman pada penulis yang satu ini. Kemampuannya menjembatani dunia timur dan barat patut diberikan ajungan jempol.Satu kekurangan yang mengganggu dari buku ini, di beberapa bab akhir ada penempatan kalimatkalimat berada dalam baris yang meloncat. Jadinya cukup bintang 4 saja yah..*Thx buat Drama Queen-mikir belum bayar hutang nih*
Madame Wu is the perfect wife in one of the most respected rich households in China. The Wu household has stood proudly for centuries, taking care of its farms and tenants, and for the past 24 years, Madame Wu has been the one making sure everything has run smoothly. From the raising of her sons to the hiring of the proper respectable servants, from checking the household accounts to pleasing her husband in every way, she has succeeded. Now, on her 40th birthday, Madame Wu throws everything into chaos. She announces she will be retiring from living with her husband and will choose for him a second wife. Despite her family’s horror and protest, she finds a simple and sweet country girl to take her place in her husband’s bed. She moves to her late father-in-law’s chambers and proceeds to spend her free time reading, thinking, and getting to know herself. But when her son begins to learn English from a foreign priest in order to please his fiancee, Madame Wu finds her beliefs about herself and her values to be greatly challenged by a man of God who she has begrudgingly come to respect. All of her pre-conceived ideas about the roles of men and women will be re-examined and what happens as a result will change the house of Wu forever.Pearl S. Buck’s novels are in a very select group of authors whose works I save for when I’m desperate for a fantastic piece of literature. She manages to just brush the line between gentle reading and thought-provoking. I finish every novel with a sense of fulfillment and a sense of challenge to utilize what I didn’t even realize I was learning. This book struck me especially. It not only looked at how women can pigeon-hole themselves into the role of wife and housemother but a way to change that. It challenged me to take a deeper look at how I am working to become a better wife to my husband, whether the things I do are for myself or for him or for both of us or for the simple reason that wives are expected to do them. Sometimes I berate myself for not running my household the way that I think my mother (in law or my own) would want me to, or the way that my friends expect me to. It’s hard to strike a balance in between what works and what challenges, and as women I think we sometimes get too caught up in being perfect and failing rather than finding fulfillment in the simple things we can do to please God and our families.But I don’t want to digress away from a review and into my own theories. If you enjoy historical fiction, especially Chinese, or stories about families – I highly recommend the works of Buck. She was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, and was a very prolific author. There are novels enough of hers for you to find something just as thought-provoking for yourself as this was for me.
What do You think about Pavilion Of Women (1995)?
This story put into my mind the true role of women in a family. Everything falls upon us to heal, fix, arrange, etc. It is in how we accept those rolls that defines us.I found similarities between this culture and polygamy for the early LDS people. Having come from a polygamist ancestry and hearing the stories it is the connection of the women that held it together.I fought through reading the book, but found that I enjoyed it in the end. It is often that the one we learn the most from isn't always the one that we are bound too.Quotes:Perhaps it is not so much knowledge as more understanding of that which you already knowBody and soul are partners and neither must desert the otherYou are free when you gain back yourselfAll the unhappiness in homes come because there was not loveFavorite Quote:To know how to read is to light a lamp in the mind, to release the soul from prison, to open a gate to the universe
—Karen
Initially I want to say that I received this book through the Goodreads First Reads program.This book has added to an area that I know needs strengthening for me, knowledge of the life of Chinese people. It is set in mid 20th century, prior to WWII, a time of change around the world and a time of growing change in China. It is the story of cultural and personal transition. Pearl Buck writes from her knowledge of the country and her knowledge as a woman.We see all that happens through the eyes of Madame Wu, the Lady of the Wu household who manages everything that happens and sees that all runs well, including her children's marriages. At the age of 40, she has decided on a new course of personal freedom that will shake up the entire household in ways she never intended and ultimately lead her to a level of self-hood she had never sought....she never knew it existed.At first I found myself put off by some of the formality of the lifestyle which became part of the writing. Then I found that, as Madame Wu began to step in new directions, so too did the novel and the writing. I became more excited in my reading.There are philosophical discussions and talk of how marriages can possibly last. This story takes place in a wealthy household that can afford to have such concerns.It is, I believe, a woman's book, dealing so much with woman's place in the world. It is dealing with China in the 1940s and some of the truths spoken here seem dated. However, some are timeless.Recommended for all who would like to visit another world, taken there by someone who grew up there and loved the people.
—Sue
Pearl Buck's writings about China take me back to a place I visited long ago. Her stories and characters are absolutely engrossing; this was no exception. Sometimes a book is full of quotes that I can't resist noting, and this was one of those:"... Madame Wu had long ago learned that the affairs of a great household must be managed one by one and in order.... She had tried to [do sometihng else]... and Heaven had prevented it. The time was not ripe, therefore. And as she had learned to do, while she pondered on large things, she acted on small ones.""You must learn to take from a person that which is his best and ignore all else.""Long ago she had learned that to seem to yeild is always stronger than to show resistance, and to acknowledge a fault quickly is always to show an invincible rectitude.""The sun belongs to uas all ... and we reflect its light, one to another, east and west, rising and setting.""... Listlessness must be met with firmness."
—Sarah
