Feng'er
丰儿
“Second in the Room”
Her Story
Second maid in Wang Xifeng’s rooms, standing behind Ping’er. She opens doors, announces visitors, carries messages out and comes back with answers — the novel’s mechanism for getting Xifeng’s orders past the threshold. She has no arc, no quarrel and no ending on the page. Her name simply recurs wherever that household is in motion, which is often.
In Xiang Li's Hands
She is sitting down. Propped on a grey rock in profile, chin resting in one hand, blue floral jacket and wine-red skirt spread around her, red shoes shed beside her, bare paper everywhere else. Of all the errand-runners, the one Xiang Li paints at rest.
The Calligraphy
Inscribed 丰儿 high at the top right rather than in the lower margin — the given name with its familiar 儿, no surname, placed where the eye meets it before it meets her.
Connections
- Wang Xifeng 王熙凤 — her mistress, whose orders she carries.
- Ping’er 平儿 — the first of the apartment’s maids, and the one she stands behind.
- Jia Lian 贾琏 — the master of the household she serves in.
Others of the same kind · maid – Wang Xifeng and Lady Wang Ping'er 平儿 · Shanjie 善姐 · Caiming 彩明 · Jinchuan 金钏 · Yuchuan 玉钏 · Caiyun 彩云 · Caixia 彩霞 · Xiaoxia 小霞
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
