The pearls that Kai Ying loves stand for beauty, fragility, and hope. Herbalist Chu stocked them in his shop and used them to create precious, expensive skin creams in part because of their natural, beautiful luster. When she struggled with homesickness in a strange city, Kai Ying took one pearl from his stock each week, stashing them away to count the time until her apprenticeship ended. They represented her hope for a happier future, even as that hope shifted from returning home to staying in Guangzhou and marrying Sheng. But in their fragility, the pearls also offer a reminder that both bad and good things happen in life, such as Kai Ying’s traumatic miscarriage, Sheng’s arrest, or Tao’s injury. These events threaten to destroy Kai Ying’s hope, but the arrival of Suyin and her daughter rekindle it. It’s for this reason that Kai Ying names Suyin’s daughter Meizhen, or “beautiful pearl”—the baby girl herself represents the entire family’s hope for a happier, brighter future.
Pearl Symbol Timeline in A Hundred Flowers
