[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-153311-en":3,"doc-seo-153311-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},153311,962084925502,"Emma Mercer","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8",2,"Literature","American Visa - Lipstick - American Visa","A single red lipstick becomes a pivot for memory, revealing how beauty was policed during the Cultural Revolution and how Western-looking ideals were treated as forbidden yet admired. Through the narrator’s relationship with her sister Sea Cloud and her mother’s harsh discipline, everyday rituals like New Year preparations intensify resentment and conflict. The chapter connects hidden objects, confiscations, and private longing to childhood scenes and longing for recognition beyond rigid rules.","TABLEOFCONTENTS  \nLipstick I  \nRevenge I  \nLishao Village 27  \nThe Story of Ju 35  \nSubway Rhapsody 65  \nMy Aunt-in-law 81  \nFoxSmell 99  \nChu Jia 117  \nAmerican Visa 135  \nLotus 155  \nSong of Four Seasons 159  \nLIPSTICK  \nIn some deep corner of the dinner table,Ifound an old lip-stick.  \nThe cover was gone,its green plastic body coated with darkgreasy dirt.I wiped it with a tablecloth and held it under mynose.I smelled the fragrance of wild roses.Slowly I turned thetube as far as it could go.About an inch of scarlet red appearedbetween my fingers.The print of someone's lips on the top,itsangle so tender that I dare not touch it.Whose lipstick could itbe?Who still had the guts to keep a lipstick in 197I,the primetime of the Cultural Revolution?Anything which was relatedto beauty,whether Western or Oriental,had been banned.Grayzhongshanzhuang—Mao's suit—became the uniform for the mid-dle-aged and old people,and the green and navy blue uniformsbecame young people's most desirable objects.All the womanhad short hair cut just below their ears.Some girls tied theirhair with rubber bands into two brushlike pigtails.They werecalled revolutionary brushes because they resembled thebrushes people used to write critical big-character posters.  \nWhose lipstick could it be?My sister Sea Cloud's or mymother's?Sea Cloud's power seemed limitless.Although she  \n# 2 AMERICAN VISA\n\nwas only twelve,and was two years younger than me,she wasthree inches taller—five foot,five inches—and looked like myolder sister.In fact she had me completely under her thumb.She made me do her share of the housework,which was onlyone-third of the work I had to do.Her excuse was that I had nofriends to see and no places to go to anyway.She made me tellher a story every evening.If I refused,she pinched and cursedme as my mother did:dead ghost,woden-head,abacus.Sometimeswhen the pinch was too painful and I grabbed her wrists,shewould holler for my mother.My mother always punished mewith the bamboo stick behind the door.She said that sinceIwasthe oldest daughter,I should love and take care of my youngersisters and brother.I had two sisters and one brother.Fortu-nately,my youngest sister stayed with my grandma in Shang-hai,and my brother was not as wily as Sea Cloud.Everyone saidSea Cloud looked exactly like my mother:big double-liddedeyes,long clean eyebrows,straight delicate nose,and clearwhite skin.She looked like a foreigner,people also said,withadmiration in their voices.  \nIcouldn't understand why Western books and ideas were poi-sonous but to look foreign was desirable.Whenever I couldn'tbring any food from the food market or broke a bowlor burntrice,my mother would sigh:If only you were half as smart asSea Cloud.I talked back in my heart:If only she could do herown homework.  \nEvery Chinese New Year,my mother killed one of the chick-ens I raised and made chicken broth.She asked me to bring abowl of chicken soup to Sea Cloud,who was always sick in bedwith a stomach ache or a bad sore throat just when every handwas needed for the holiday preparations.I hated Chinese NewYear.It meant endless washing of dishes and vegetables in coldwater and listening with an empty stomach to guests feasting  \nand laughing.I slowly dried my swollen frost-bitten hands onmy apron,staring at the hot chicken soup with hatred.I'd beenwashing dishes piled up to my chest from nine to three o'clock.My mother said,\"Don't pull a long face.You should love yoursister and take care of her.She's sick.\"As soon as my motherturned her back,I spat into the soup and stirred it with mygreasy finger.Then I brought it to Sea Cloud with a big smile.  \nThe lipstick.My sister wouldn't have hidden it inside the table.She had her own steel box with a lock on it.Ifit had been hers,she would have shown it off long ago.  \nThen it must be one of Mother's old belongings.Somehow ithad escaped the Red Guards'confiscationsin the fall of 1967 andhad been lying in the table since then.The dinner table was theonly piece ","cbCaimU83Ml5U5qb","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimU83Ml5U5qb","pdf",871257,1,10,"English","en",105,"# LIPSTICK\n## American Visa\n## Lipstick-related memories","[{\"question\":\"What does the old lipstick symbolize in the story?\",\"answer\":\"The lipstick embodies forbidden beauty and the tension between banned Western/beauty ideals and the narrator’s longing for them.\"},{\"question\":\"Who does the narrator suspect might have kept the lipstick?\",\"answer\":\"She wonders whether it belonged to her sister Sea Cloud or her mother, then reconstructs how it could have survived confiscations.\"},{\"question\":\"Why is Sea Cloud so influential in the narrator’s daily life?\",\"answer\":\"Sea Cloud dominates household routines, forces the narrator into work, and makes her tell stories, creating resentment and pressure.\"}]","American Visa - Lipstick - American Visa | 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