Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Hundred Flowers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Redemption
Journeys and Growth
Suffering, Strength, and Resilience
Home and Family
The Promises and Failures of Communism
Summary
Analysis
On the train, neither Wei nor Tian can sleep. To pass the time, Tian tells the rest of his sad story. He met his girlfriend, Ai-li, in 1946 when they were both students and she visited a friend in Guangzhou. For Tian, it was love at first sight. Although the early years of their relationship were full of difficulty, the challenges of living far apart and the disruptions of the Chinese Civil War made their time together seem sweeter. But by the time Tian graduated and moved to Luoyang, Ai-li had already become deeply involved in the Communist Party. Tian resisted joining despite Ai-li’s encouragement. He struggled to find work and adapt to life in Luoyang. They argued.
Tian and Ai-li’s relationship bridges the time just before and just after the Chinese Communist Party took control of the government. At first, they seem to meet in an auspicious, promising moment of change and possibility. But as Ai-li becomes involved in Party politics, it soon becomes clear that Maoist China asks people to choose between the Party—and the power and status membership potentially represents—and other relationships. Instead of offering more choices to the newly freed Chinese people, the Party instead limits them.
Themes
Finally, Tian got a good job offer in Guangzhou. He was excited: it meant that Ai-li could return with him, and they could have the house and the family they’d dreamed of during their early courtship. But Ai-li now denounced those dreams as childish, bourgeoise fantasies. Then suddenly, she seemed to relent. She stopped going to Party meetings and promised to follow Tian to Guangzhou as soon as she settled her affairs in Luoyang. He left to prepare for their life together. Now, Tian admits, he was foolish to believe her. But then, he was young and in love. Three months after he left, Ai-li finally sent word that she was coming to Guangzhou. But when he went to meet her train, she was not on it, or any of the ones that followed it. It took Tian hours to realize she wasn’t ever coming.
Tian imagined a life with Ai-li similar to the one that Wei and Liang or Sheng and Kai Ying had, but Ai-li makes it clear that this old-fashioned—and by implication, elitist and bad—lifestyle has no value under Communist Party rule. This points to the ways that the Party takeover serves to weaken society rather than strengthen it. Like Wei, Tian suffers grief and guilt in the wake of Ai-li’s disappearance, and his life is destroyed by the Communist Party. However, although facing the pain of her loss wasn’t easy, Tian survived it and came out on the other side with greater wisdom about himself and others.
Themes
Tian still doesn’t know what happened but one detail about their final goodbye still haunts him: after he got on the train at Luoyang, Ai-li walked away and disappeared into the crowd without turning around for a final goodbye glance. Tian looks past Wei, as if he’s searching for her through the darkened window. Although he suspects Ai-li chose to disappear while Sheng had no choice, Wei recognizes Tian’s desperation all too well. He, too, knows the horrible feeling of sudden loss. Pulling his jacket around him, Wei reflects on how harsh the world can be for brokenhearted men.
Even if he didn’t acknowledge it, Tian realized that his goodbye with Ai-li was final when she failed to look back at him—her face was already turned towards her separate future and towards her Party loyalty. In contrast, Wei’s family didn’t allow him to leave without a second glance; Kai Ying and Auntie Song even followed him to the train station. Wei worries that he has lost their love and trust, though readers know he hasn’t. And Tian’s story makes him realize some of his own luck: Tian doesn’t seem to have a soul in the world who means anything to him other than Ai-li. While Wei hasn’t always treated his family the best, he still has several people who love and care about him.
Themes
