Love Must Not Be Forgotten

Find True Love According to the great poet of ancient China, Bai, JuYi, “To fly together in the sky, two birds on the same wing, to grow together on the earth, two branches of one tree”, True love, what a sacred substance. It might be first sight or long living feeling between two people. Romantic love can be destroyed by time or event, and people will be leaving each other. However, a true love cannot be destroyed by anything, even though they can not be together, they will still stay in each other’s heart. In the short story Love Must Not Be Forgotten (LMNBF) is not only a story about love, it also represents the traditional Chinese society and the author, Zhang Jie’s identity, by reflecting what true love is, how true love is affected by society, and why marriage should be based on true love. First of all, the story explains what true love is. “[ZhongYu] always took with her one of the twenty-seven volumes of Chekhov’s stories ... She also warned me, ‘Don’t touch these books. If you want to read Chekhov, read that set I bought you.’”(Zhang 54). This quote highlighted that ZhongYu always bring the Chekhov’s novel with her for the trip. Therefore, when she gets tired, she can sit down and read the novel for the whole day. Not only that if ShanShan goes into her room while she is reading, she becomes like a fluster shy girl.
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“When [ZhongYu] mind was wandering just before her death, her last words to [ShanShan] were: ‘That set….’ She hadn’t the strength to give it its complete title. But [ShanShan] knew what she meant”(Zhang 55). Even before ZhongYu dies, the only thing she wants is to cremate the Chekhov’s story with her, because it is her memory, her dream, which her Comrade gave to her. Moreover, the story explains how true love is affected by society. “The ensuing sense of national outrage and betrayal ignited a storm of popular unrest in Beijing… radicalization of Chinese nationalism” (Ed. William A. Darity 521). Because of the Chinese