Lust Caution Summary

The story “Lust Caution” by Eileen Chang opens with an elaborate, extended description of the appearance of the protagonist, Chia-chih, which depicts her hair, face, makeup, and clothing in excruciating detail. Many of the phrases used reveal the intentional nature of how Chia-chih has dressed: “full advantage”, “understated”, “nonchalantly”, “allowed” (Chang 3). These phrases imply that Chia-chih has made deliberate choices to project an attitude in the way she dresses.The emphasis placed on Chia-chih’s body and appearance highlights the value of women’s bodies, to themselves and society. Moreover, Chia-chih’s intentional choices about her body illustrate how women’s bodies were tools used to exercise agency. The world of “Lust Caution” is a society that perceives Chia-chih’s body as the only valuable tool she has to offer.
It is clear in “Lust Caution” that Chia-chih’s “weapon”
in the assassination plot is not a firearm, but her own body. “But if she presented herself as a student - always the most militant members of the population - Yee Tai-tai would be instantly on her guard. Instead the group decided to make her the young wife of a local businessman” (Chang 21). The symbolic difference between being a student versus being a wife is striking. Being a student represents the mind, and exercising the mind, and since Chia-chih is not permitted to present herself as a student, her value is restricted down to only her body. She has an integral role in the assassination, but her contribution is limited to seduction and sex. By acting as a wife instead of a student, Chia-chih acknowledges society’s dismissive attitude towards her mind and the higher value placed on her body.
Because Chia-chih’s body is so integral to the assassination, her body transforms from private business to public property. Her compatriots feel that she has become a subject that concerns all of them. “Even now it stung her to recall those knowing smirks - from all of them, K’uang Yu-min included. Only Liang Jun-sheng had pretended not to notice how much bigger her breasts now looked” (Chang 16). The move from public to private allows her compatriots to make a value judgment on Chia-chih’s body. Because her body is her only contribution to the scheme, Chia-chih’s body becomes Chia-chih: her body is the only part of her that has value in the eyes of her compatriots.
Not only is Chia-chih’s body the only resource she contributes, but her use of her body is also a sacrifice.
In order to convincingly play her role as a wife, Chia-chih has to sleep with the only one of her compatriots to have actual sexual experience, whom she loathes. “Of course. He was the only one who had been inside a brothel. But given that she had already determined to make a sacrifice of herself, she couldn’t very well resent him for being the only candidate for the job.” (Chang 24) The key here is that she makes “a sacrifice of herself”. In order to take part in this plan, Chia-chih has to pay the cost, which in this case is losing her virginity (which at the time, was significant), sleep with a man she loathes, and risk getting an STD: “For a long time, she agonized over whether she had caught something from Liang Jun-sheng” (Chang 27). The sacrifice Chia-chih makes only cements the value of her body. If it had no value, it would be no sacrifice to use it. The fact that Chia-chih considers this act to be a sacrifice indicates the high value society places on the bodies of
women.
Not even Chia-chih is exempt from this attitude about women’s bodies. While musing on the outcome of the assassination plot, she contemplates being shot by her conspirators. "Even if she survived a bullet wound, it would cripple her for life. She’d rather die” (Chang 29). The thought of her body being damaged is horrifying to her above all things. Chia-chih’s strong emotional reaction to the idea of being permanently injured reflects how important her body is to her. Because her body is the main recourse by which Chia-chih exercises agency, her body being damaged takes away her agency, which makes it vital for her continued existence.
Chia-chih’s use of her body can be perceived as noble. By taking part in a plot to kill a man working with the Japanese invaders, she is working for a cause that desires to strike back against their oppressors. This fact comforts Chia-chih: “In truth, every time she was with Yee she felt cleansed, as if by a scalding hot bath; for now everything she did was for the cause” (Chang 27). This reveals how society’s value judgment about women’s bodies affects Chia-chih: she feels impure using her body privately, but is willing to apply it for a public cause.