Dian'er
靛儿
“The Girl Who Asked About a Fan”
Her Story
In Chapter 30 Baoyu compares Baochai to Yang Guifei, and Baochai is still angry when little Dian’er comes up and asks whether it was she who took her fan. Baochai turns the whole of it on the child: she had better be careful, she is not someone Baochai plays games with, and she should go and ask the ones she does play with. The fan is never found. That is all of Dian’er.
In Xiang Li's Hands
In profile, mid-step, one hand up with the thumb at her lip — the posture of a question already regretted. Rust jacket, yellow skirt. Behind her a wash of pale trunks marked with grey oval knots, a screen of eyes. She carries no fan.
The Calligraphy
靛儿 — indigo plus the diminutive, a child’s personal name and the only one the novel gives her.
Connections
- Xue Baochai 薛宝钗 — scolds her over the lost fan in Chapter 30.
- Jia Baoyu 贾宝玉 — whose Yang Guifei remark set off the anger she walks into.
Others of the same kind · maid – Baochai (All-spice Court / 蘅蕪苑) Ying'er 莺儿 · Wenxing 文杏 · Zhen'er 臻儿 · Tongxi 同喜 · Tonggui 同贵 · Xiaoluo 小螺 · Baochan 宝蟾 · Xiaoshe'r 小舍儿
Dream of the Red Chamber
Xiang Li painted all 413 characters of the novel between 1975 and 1985, the first person to complete the entire cast. See the whole collection · Chinese Empresses
