The Last Rose of Shanghai
75 pages • 2-hour read
Weina Dai RandelThe Last Rose of Shanghai
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Symbols & Motifs
Music
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses drug addiction, domestic violence, and misogyny as well as its graphic depictions of violence and death. It also discusses racism and antisemitism.
Music is a multi-faceted motif, communicating emotion and supporting multiple themes. Ernest and Aiyi’s initial connection is through their love of music, specifically jazz. Hearing Ernest play for the first time, Aiyi has a spiritual experience, leading her to hire Ernest and creating the foundation for her interest in him. To express his devotion to Aiyi, Ernest plays her favorite song, “The Last Rose of Shanghai.” While locked in her room and separated from Ernest, Aiyi imagines jazz songs in her mind. After Aiyi concludes that her love for Ernest is the reason that Yamazaki attacked her club and after she gives birth to their daughter while separated from Ernest, she thinks that she hears warped and disorienting music. Music is thus crucial to the theme of The Challenges and Rewards of Cross-Cultural Connection, namely through the lens of Ernest and Aiyi’s relationship. It is a point of connection, in which different genres and sounds interact, and it allows Aiyi and Ernest to express their feelings for each other despite cultural differences.
Music also underscores The Psychological Effects of Wartime Violence, chiefly in Ernest’s rejection of it after Miriam’s death. Ernest illogically blames music (as well as himself and Aiyi) for Yamazaki’s murder of his sister, showing the way that the shock of wartime violence can alter a person’s mind. Ernest rediscovers his love of music before he can reconnect with Aiyi, as this represents him healing from grief enough to be with his lover. Mishearing the air raid sirens as music is also what draws Aiyi towards the Japanese military base. In this moment, music becomes indistinguishable from the sounds of war, again emphasizing the way psychological trauma affects individuals’ ability to feel joy or experience beauty.
Ernest’s Injured Hand
Ernest’s right hand, scarred by multiple injuries, symbolizes the lasting damage created by war and hate. It bears a star carved by Hitler Youth, a symbol of antisemitic persecution, and is again targeted by a Chinese gangster who hates foreigners. When photographing the Japanese moving guns into Shanghai, Ernest receives a bullet wound in his right arm. It is this violence-marked hand that draws Yamazaki’s attention in the bakery, hinting at the way that violence is inescapable and often perpetuates itself.
Ernest understands the damage to his right hand and arm as a “curse” (166). This is his way to explain and categorize his experiences of violence instead of seeing himself as just one survivor of the impersonal forces of hatred and persecution, which ties this symbol to the theme of The Psychological Effects of Wartime Violence.
Shanghai
The city of Shanghai itself serves as a motif communicating the atmosphere of the novel, often reflecting the shifting dominance of war. Both Ernest and Aiyi find the city beautiful in moments of optimism, as when Aiyi goes to tell Ernest that they can live with their child in her family home and enjoys the “rare sunny afternoon” (282). Yet the city is often gray and empty as the war progresses and residents flee, are killed, or sent to concentration camps. During the attack on the International Settlement as well as the American bombing at the end of the novel, smoke obscures the cityscape, representing violence’s smothering effect on the characters’ lives.
Cars
There are a variety of cars in the novel, most prominently Aiyi’s brown Nash, driven by her chauffeur. Cars symbolize agency, safety, and freedom of movement in the text, and the fact that many of them are luxury vehicles suggests that wealth makes many of those things possible. Notably, Aiyi is the only woman in the novel with a car; the rest belong to Cheng, Sinmay, and eventually Ernest—and, of course, the Japanese. Cheng uses his car to control Aiyi’s movements but also to rescue her, and it is when the couple emerges from the protection of their car that Yamazaki murders Cheng. Aiyi uses her car to enable her love affair with Ernest, most prominently when she escapes her locked room and reunites with Ernest through both the planning and driving of her chauffeur. Aiyi’s access to Shanghai through her vehicle contrasts with Peiyu who, “with bound feet, rarely traveled” (335), emphasizing that Aiyi’s chance to live a non-traditional life is in part due to her car.
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