Tradition. When Wang Lung in the first chapter goes into
the town to claim his wife, he goes to the barber to make himself more presentable for
his first meeting with his future wife. Whilst the barber is shaving Wang Lung's upper
forehead, he comments:
This would not be a bad-looking farmer if he
would cut off his hair. The new fashion is to take off the
braid.
However, Wang Lung,
horrified, draws back, saying that he could not cut his braid off without asking his
father. This is a novel where old ways collide with new habits and fashions, and Wang
Lung, as befits a character whose attachment is to hard work and the earth, refuses to
cut his braid off because he is a representative of tradition. Symbolically, the braid
therefore shows us the kind of character that Wang Lung is and the way that he will not
be swayed by the modern fads and fashions that others feel are so
important.
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