Ha Jin’s “Flame” is about a woman named Nimei and her former lover Hsu Peng. Hsu Peng has written a letter to her after 17 years of no contact. The letter explains that he will be in town soon and would like to visit. When she was young her and Hsu Peng were in love, but her mother forced her to marry her current husband, Jiang Bing in order to provide for her family. Hsu Peng was angered and vowed he would get his revenge on Nimei.
Nimei wants to impress Hsu Peng since he is a high ranking military officer, so she starts making life changes. She paves her yard with bricks, starts jogging in order to lose weight, plants roses outside her house, and even spends all of her wages in order to earn her husband a promotion at work. The way this is done is there is an important patient Nimei is waiting on. He is Director Liao of the Cadre Department at the Prefecture Administration. He wants fish stew for dinner, but complains the hospital only has saltwater fish. Nimei has her husband buy and cook fish for him everyday which is how her wages diminish. She even has Jiang Bing take some of their savings out. When he is being released, she asks Director Liao if he can help her husband out with a promotion.
I wonder if Jiang Bing is like ‘the useless tree’ in “Chuang Tzu”. Nimei calls him a useless man and only uses him in the story to cook for Director Liao. He also doesn’t speak up about all of the changes that Nimei is making and how much money it is costing. He may not be doing much in her eyes, but he is still there when she needs him, he doesn’t question things and it’s allowed him to become more useful to her in the long run.
At the end of the story, Hsu Peng doesn’t show up and gifts the family 4 salmon. One salmon even has a hook still attached to it. This made me think, is Nimei a fish? Hsu Peng said he would get revenge on her. Now, he got her excited and made her do all of this preparing all for nothing. He was reeling her in before cutting the line like she did to him. However, does this actually make Hsu Peng happy? He seems to be living a great life in the letter, but if he was so joyful why would he go through all of this trouble after 17 years just to break Nimei’s heart? I think this story teaches the lesson that seeking revenge is not a happy way to live life.