The Valley of Amazement

Magic Gourd enters the story as one of the Cloud Beauties who work as courtesans for Violet’s mother. After her looks fade, Magic Gourd takes work as a servant in another courtesan house where she becomes Violet’s friend and advisor. Magic Gourd is resourceful and determined to make a better life for herself and Violet. She is forthright and outspoken, often lecturing Violet for her own good.

Over time, she fills the place of the mother who abandoned Violet. When the girl admits this attachment, Magic Gourd is touched but also offended. She is still vain and declares that she isn’t old enough to be Violet’s mother. She eventually marries a Shanghai merchant and achieves a stable future for herself.

Lulu is the charismatic owner of Shanghai’s finest courtesan house. Born in San Francisco, she is determined not to live an ordinary life. Lulu believes that Lu Shing’s art captures her true nature, and she seduces the Chinese artist, believing he can rescue her from an oppressive existence. After she becomes pregnant with his child, Lulu follows Lu Shing to Shanghai, where his family shuns her. Though they don’t want her firstborn, Violet, the family steals Lulu’s son. Without money or prospects, Lulu reinvents herself and builds a profitable business in Asia.

Not having learned the lessons of her past, Lulu is later betrayed by another lover named Fairweather, who steals her business and sells her daughter to a courtesan house after shipping Lulu back to San Francisco. Ultimately, Lulu repairs her broken relationship with Violet and helps reunite her granddaughter with her daughter.

Lu Shing is a tall, attractive Chinese art student studying in America. He paints a work called The Valley of Amazement that fascinates Lulu. She sees it as proof of Lu Shing’s sublime artistic gift. Instead, Lu Shing proves himself to be a weak-willed pawn of his family’s ambitions. He marries a bride chosen by his father and allows Lulu’s son to be stolen by his family.

Lu Shing’s art is also a sham. He is skilled at reproducing the work of others but no good at creating original paintings of his own. In a letter, he admits to Lulu, “You live in deep ponds. I float in the shallows. I fear that this will always be as true of my art as it is of my character” (820). In his later years, he never achieves anything, and Lulu comes to pity rather than admire him.

As a teenager, Loyalty gets his first glimpse of Lulu’s courtesan house. He’s entranced by the romance it promises. Years later, he becomes Violet’s lover in hopes of recapturing the essence of that memory. Loyalty is handsome and clever and has a magnetic personality that attracts both men and women. Violet becomes hopelessly infatuated with him. They have a stormy on-again, off-again love affair for years because Violet demands more devotion than Loyalty can give. Late in the story, he realizes how much he loves Violet. They marry, and he helps her find her missing mother and daughter.

Perpetual becomes Violet’s lover after reciting poetry that moves her. She believes he is a gifted poet who comes from a distinguished literary family. Perpetual proposes marriage and sends Violet and Magic Gourd off to his family’s estate in the village of Moon Pond. Once the two women are trapped in the rural hinterlands, Perpetual proves to be physically abusive as well as a liar and thief. He is killed while pursuing Violet, Magic Gourd, and Pomelo up the side of a mountain.

Edward is a wealthy friend of Loyalty’s who mistakes Violet for a common prostitute. After profuse apologies, he wins Violet’s love. The couple lives together in Shanghai as husband and wife, during which time Violet gives birth to their daughter, Flora. While caring for his wife and daughter during an influenza epidemic, Edward succumbs to the disease himself and dies. At the end of the story, Flora visits the grave of the father she scarcely knew.