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Irony in Xi Xi’s “A Woman Like Me”:
A Semiotics Perspective
Lany Kristono
Satya Wacana Christian University
Abstract
Taking most probably the 1980s Hong Kong as its setting, “A Woman Like Me”
depicts the modern Hong Kong and its people‟s quite modern life style. Unlike in the
Oriental tradition, in which a woman should play their traditional roles, the story is
opened by a description of a career woman sitting alone in a cafe, waiting for her
boyfriend and is ended by the woman seeing her boyfriend carrying a large bouquet of
flowers, walking into the café. A café and a bouquet of flowers as an expression of love
are definitely not parts of the Oriental culture. However, a deeper look into the
woman‟s thoughts reflects a very Oriental tradition beneath the superficial western lifestyle, which is often associated with modernity. Since café, flowers, and the woman‟s
job signify a much bigger meaning which refer to the people‟s culture and bedrock
belief, this paper would employ semiotics to reveal a possible meaning delivered by the
story.
Key words: café, flower, mortuary make-up artist, cadaver
Introduction
“A Woman Like Me” has interested me in several ways. First, it depicts the life
of a mortuary make-up artist, a rare profession which, I believe, is not one most
people dream to be. Even, I doubt if this is considered a profession in some, if not
many, societies. Second, it is a monolog narrated by the female protagonist, who is
also the beautician for cadaver, herself; thus, facilitating a first-hand vivid and
elaborate portrayal and a thorough understanding of the life of one having such a job.
Moreover, it pictures the beautician pondering on her relationship with a man. Such a
relationship often arouses curiosity, let alone when it is related to an unusual
profession.
The story also arouses curiosity because it is narrated from a café, where the
protagonist is waiting for her boyfriend. A rendezvous in a café implies a modern
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lifestyle, which is enhanced by the girl coming to the café herself before her boyfriend
does. This is contrast to the Oriental tradition, in which a girl should be picked up by
her date. Therefore, the setting should be a big, modern city in a recent era. Since the
story was written in 1982, the time setting is most probably the early 1980s, which fits
the reality that Hong Kong developed to a modern city-state under MacLehose‟s
administration in 1971-1982 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1341601/
Lord-MacLehose-of-Beoch.html).
The story ends as Xia, holding a bouquet of flowers, is entering the café. As
Xia goes to the café to meet his girlfriend, the flowers should be an expression of love.
In contrast to Xia‟s beaming face, the girl feels very sad. This leads to questions. First,
what ironies are depicted in the story and what they mean. Since flowers are an object
and a café, which can be a place, is also a building and; thus, an object, this study
would employ semiotics to answer the research questions.
The Study of Signs
Simply defined as “the study of signs”, semiotics examines “the role of signs as
part of social life” (Chandler, n.d.:1). Since it considers reality a system of signs,
Chandler adds, semiotics helps those studying it to be more aware of reality as a
constructed fact as well as their and other people‟s roles in the construction. Saussure
in Allen (2000:8) explains a sign as a combination of a signified (concept) and a
signifier (sound-image) instead of a word‟s reference to an object. In Saussure‟s
understanding, the meaning of a sign is determined by its similarity to and difference
from other signs (Allen, 2008:10). Peirce (2008:24) introduces three kinds signs; i.e.
symbol, icon, and index. A symbolic sign is conventional. However, its meaning must
be learned because it does not resemble the signifier. In an iconic symbol, the signifier
imitates or resembles the signified; whereas in an indexical sign the signifier is not
arbitrary but logically related to the signified (qtd. in Berger, n.d.).
Peirce believes that sign should be considered in its connection with the object
and the interpretant or the idea begotten by the sign (Surdulescu, 2002.). Quoting
Heinrich Plett, Surdulescu (2002:2) explains that a text has an arbitrary nature and is
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based on social conventions. In semiotics perspective, a text has a signifier, a signified
or the meaning related to the signifier, and a referent which is the reality the signified
points to. Referent may be in the forms of abstract concepts, current, historical or
imaginary events.
Connotation and Denotation
Connotation refers to the cultural meaning attached to a term, image, figure in a text,
even to the text itself. In contrast, denotation refers to the literal meaning of a term,
figure, text, or others. Therefore, connotation is related to the historic, symbolic, and
emotional matters suggested a term of image or ones that "go along with" a term or
image (Berger, n.d.)
Intertextuality
Modern theories perceive texts as having no independent meaning. Kristeva in
Allen (2000:35) argues that a text does not originally come from the the author‟s mind.
It is compiled from the prevailing texts. Bakhtin and Kristeva (Allen, 2000:36)
elaborate that the larger social and cultural textuality constructing a text is inseparable
from the text itself. As Barker (1994:256) states, writing texts is entering a larger-scale
of ideological conversation so that this activity means responding, objecting,
confirming, seeking supports, or assuming responses, etc. Therefore, embedded in any
texts are “the ideological structures and struggles expressed in the society through
discourse”.
A text, according to Kristeva in Allen (2000:34) is not a finished work. It is
aimed at encouraging readers to grasp meaning themselves. To do it, readers must trace
textual relations to gather meaning from inside and outside texts; i.e. from its historical
and social contexts. In result, reading is a process of moving between or among texts
(Allen, 2005:1).
Patriarchy is defined as a system characterized by men (father) (Murniati
2004:81). Matzner (n.d., par.1) states patriarchy is a social system, in which men
dominate so that women occupy the subordinate position. Having the dominant
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position, men exercise their power over women. Hall and Neitz (1993) defines power
as a group or individual‟s ability to control other people or other parties‟ behaviour.
A Semiotics-Perspective of “A Woman Like Me”
In decoding “A Woman Like Me”, I find the text‟s basic narrative arranged on
a binary opposition of an isolated, uncommunicative life vs. a normal, communicative
one. However, this monolog is constituted of basically only one basic narrative; i.e.:
I sat down, waiting for Xia
This basic narrative can be divided into two parts; i.e. before and after Xia came.
Before Xia came to accompany I to her workplace, they are happy couples sharing
merry days. After Xia came, their joyous relationship will last in a walk of three
hundred paces (Xi, 1998:162). Therefore, I select Xia‟s arrival, bringing a huge
bouquet of flowers, as the prime signifier. The arrival functions as a wall separating the
isolated, uncommunicative life I has due to her profession as a cosmetician for the dead
and the normal, communicative one she is going to have with Xia. Xia‟s arrival
signifies the impending end of their love relationship because as soon as he finds out
that I actually beautifies the dead instead of brides-to-be, he will be scared and leave
her—just like what Aunt Yifen‟s boyfriend did many years before (Xi, 1998:157-158).
The very beautiful huge bouquet of flowers Xia brings, which symbolizes love, is
ironically an index to their separation since flowers in I‟s profession symbolizes
“eternal parting” (Xi, 1998:162).
As the bouquet of flowers bears an irony, the text itself is full of ironies. Xia‟s
taking I to her workplace signifies a progress in their relationship; instead it will end
their love relationship. The bouquet signifies Xia‟s joy and enthusiasm to experience
the new stage in their relationship, but his excitement and enthusiasm will be replaced
by fright and apathy. Xia thinks I is a cosmetician for brides-to-be. In contrast, she
beautifies cadavers. I is a cosmetologist, yet her face is so natural.
The time after Xia came constitutes a very brief part of the text. Yet, it
significantly mirrors I‟s hopelessness. Since Xia spotted her sitting in the shadowy
corner of the coffee shop, I had not uttered any words in response to Xia‟s greeting her
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„Happy Sunday‟ nor to his handing her the big bouquet of flowers. Instead, I thought
she was just as dead as her sleeping friends (Xi, 1998:162).
The linguistic signs in “A Woman Like Me” may be read based on its
sintagmatic-paradigmatic codes; i.e.
Syntagmatic
Isolated, uncommunicative
normal, communicative_______
Cadavers
Xia
Workplace: quiet, lonely, scary
coffee shops: public, socializing, merry
I‟s workplace = prison
place to meet others
make the dead appear humane
make women like I dead
smell of formaldehyde
smell of perfume
flowers = eternal parting
flowers = love, joy, beauty
paradigmatic
Xi Xi‟s text juxtaposes cadavers to Xia. The cadavers enable I to live
sufficiently and independently, yet it is an index of quietness, loneliness, and isolation.
From today on you‟ll not have to worry about your livelihood.
Aunt Yifen had said.
And you‟ll never have to rely upon anyone else to get through life, like other
women do
(Xi, 1998: 155)
On the other hand, Xia symbolizes a life with a company, which will never be lonely
nor isolated. Living with Xia also opens the possibility for her female reproductive
organs to function, which enables her to build her own family. Contrast to her
workplace which is quiet, lonely and scary, the coffee shops Xia and I used to visit are
a place for socializing, communicating, a public place which should not be lonely, but
merry.
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Going to I‟s workplace for a funeral ceremony, people meet their friends and
see their sleeping relative or friend physically leave the world of the living. To I, her
workplace is where she spends most of her time, even on holidays and Sundays when it
is necessary. To make the cadavers ready for their funeral, I is „imprisoned in her
workplace. Her efforts to make the dead appear gentle, serene, and humane; hence
appreciated by the guests results in the society‟s treating her as if she were a cadaver
herself.
Making up the faces of dead people! My God!
My friends said.
… They disliked my eyes because I often used them to look into the
eyes of the dead, and they disliked my hands because I often used them to touch
the hands of the dead. At first it was just dislike, but it gradually evolved into
fear, pure and simple; not only that, the dislike and fear that at first involved
only my eyes and hands later on included everything about me (Xi, 1998:159).
As death is opposite of life, I‟s profession understand signs of beauty in the
world of the living differently. In her profession, perfume, for example, means
formaldehyde; while flowers which symbolize love, care, happiness, and beauty are a
sign of sadness and separation. So big is the difference between I‟s present world and
the „normal‟ world that I tells herself, “Ai! Ai! A woman like me is actually unsuitable
for any man‟s love” (p. 152, 162), reflecting her acceptance and surrender to Fate.
I, the protagonist of A Woman Like Me, suffers from the societal pressure,
which consider female cosmeticians working on the faces and hair of the dead as scary
as the cadavers; thus indecent members of the community. It is such a perception that
has driven Aunt Yifen‟s lover to get terribly shocked knowing her sweetheart‟s actual
job (Xi, 1998:158). It also has scared I‟s friends away so that “…my only remaining
friends being the bodies of the deceased lying in front of me” and I start to be as
uncommunicative as Aunt Yifen did soon after the man left her (Xi, 1998:159).
Interestingly, the societal view of I‟s job does not apply to male cosmeticians.
I‟s father was one and he married I‟s mother (Xi, 1998:161). Crawford (2006) argues
that entailed in the subordinate position is its psychological consequence. Freud in
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Morton (2008), maintains that people‟s attitude and identity are determined by their
innate anatomic essence. Being male and female provides a biological explanation of
the social and cultural differences between men and women; i.e. the different social
and cultural roles destined for them; in which women‟s life is governed by two things;
i.e. the societal ethics and the principles of patriarchy. Matzner (n.d.:2) explains, the
societal ethics demand “real men” to be attracted to “real women”. The term real
describes the communal expectation that men and women act conform to their
biologically determined gender roles.
The texts describe the roles the society fixes for women. In her attempt to
understand that Xia is going to leave her, I muses that
Men everywhere like women who are gentle, warm, and sweet, and such
women are expected to work at jobs that are intimate, graceful, and elegant. But
my job is cold and ghostly dark… Why would a man exists in a world of
brightness want to be friendly with a woman surrounded by darkness? When he
lies down beside her, could he avoid thinking that this is a person who regularly
comes into contact with cadavers, and that when her hands brush up against his
skin, would that remind him that these are hands that for a long time have
rubbed the hands of the dead? (Xi, 1998:161)
Unfortunately, I‟s job is not graceful or elegant. It is a strongly inappropriate job for
women as well as a seemingly most unpopular one. Aunt Yifen takes the job to replace
I‟s father. In turn, she transfers her skill to I so that the latter may be her successor. In
one of her ponder, I was wondering who would apply the final touch on her face when
she died later (Xi, 1998:153). Since her job does not fit the communal expectation of a
woman‟s job, I realizes that she is not a woman whom men will desire. How can one
who deals with cadavers be gentle, sweet, and warm if cadavers themselves are
considered cold and frightening?
As Xia mentioned his desire to accompany her to her workplace, I started to
remind herself that Fate had led her up to the starting line (Xi, 1998:154). Implied, her
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strong worry and belief of what will happen does not reflect her actual intention. To
console herself and to justify her thought and worry, she may say to herself, “That is
what Fate would like me to do.”
Conclusion
The discussion reveals ironies I a modern life style and city, which is only
superficial. Beneath the modernity is a traditional mindset about men-women
relationship. Regardless of time period and place, even regardless a financial
independence, as long as the ideology of patriarchy still permeates a community, the
unequal, gender-based societal expectations and demands remain. The communal
interference reaches personal matter, such as marriage. A woman‟s chance to get
married is largely determined by the societal expectations women have to meet. I will
most probably loses her chance to get married since she does not fit men‟s expectation
of a woman. Her being financially independent cannot free her from the societal
demand and existing ideology. Therefore, to console themselves and to justify a
decision contrast to their own belief and desire, they only can turn to the most powerful
being they know; i.e. Fate.
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