Summary
Mahlee, ostracized within her own Peking household as 'devil feet' for her unbound Eurasian form, navigates a precarious existence under her avaricious Chinese grandmother's shadow. Upon the matriarch's demise, a tentative bloom of hope emerges: love for Andrew Templeton, the American missionary's son, blossoms alongside her embrace of Protestantism. This fragile sanctuary shatters upon encountering Sir Philip Sackville and his daughter Blanche. The revelation that Sir Philip is her birth father and Blanche her half-sister offers potential belonging, only to curdle into deeper alienation as Andrew, repulsed by her Chinese lineage, transfers his affections to the fully English Blanche. Consumed by despair and a thirst for belonging denied her in both worlds, Mahlee aligns herself with the simmering rage of the Boxer Rebellion, conspiring with the similarly marginalized Eurasian, Sam Wang. Embracing the uprising as cathartic vengeance, she ascends to a potent symbol during the Feast of the Red Lantern: costumed as a celestial goddess on a gilded litter, she bestows blessings upon the Boxers, her presence a clarion call igniting rebellion through Peking's ancient streets. Yet, the inferno she helped ignite reveals its indiscriminate cruelty. Learning the American mission, housing Andrew and Blanche, faces imminent massacre by the Boxer horde, instinct – or perhaps lingering, unextinguished love – compels Mahlee to warn them. Her act of conscience brands her a traitor to the rebellion. Sir Philip callously denies her sanctuary in their escape, sealing her fate. Abandoned by both East and West, stripped of the Boxers' trust, Mahlee watches Wang perish shielding her from erstwhile comrades. Broken and utterly alone amidst the ruins as Western troops crush the rebellion, she consumes poison, her final act a silent, defiant refusal of the impossible choices forced upon her.
Synopsis
Mahlee, the Eurasian granddaughter of an avaricious Peking woman, is known to the Chinese as "devil feet" because her feet were never bound. Following her grandmother's death, Mahlee falls in love with Andrew Templeton, whose father runs the American mission, and she embraces Protestantism. Mahlee is introduced to Sir Philip Sackville and his daughter, Blanche, whom she discovers are her birth father and half-sister. Andrew falls in love with Blanche and shuns Mahlee because of her Chinese heritage. The dejected Mahlee collaborates with another Eurasian, Sam Wang, in bringing the Boxer Rebellion to Peking. During the Feast of the Red Lantern, Mahlee dresses as a celestial goddess and is paraded through the streets on a litter, blessing the Boxers and encouraging the people to join the rebellion. She then learns that the mission is in danger and warns the occupants, but Sir Philip will not take her with them as they escape. Mahlee has lost the trust of the Boxers, and Wang dies protecting her. After the rebels are defeated by the Western Allies, Mahlee drinks poison and dies.
Review Excerpt
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Beyond the Litter: Unbinding Identity in The Red Lantern
Emerging from the turbulent early days of Hollywood, The Red Lantern (1920) stands as a complex, visually opulent, and profoundly melancholic artifact. More than just a historical melodrama set against the backdrop of the Boxer Rebellion, it plunges the viewer into the fractured psyche of Mahlee, a woman perpetually caught 'twixt heaven and earth, belonging wholly to neither the world of her grandmother nor the world of her father, ..."
