Raise the Red Lantern

As a young woman, I was moved by a number of Asian films shown at a local Chicago theatre. Gong Li was often the heroine, or tragic heroine, of these. Raise the Red Lantern, a 1991 film directed by Zhang Yimou and adapted from the novel A Crowd of Wives and Concubines by Su Tong, was one such movie. I remember it being a hauntingly beautiful, stark portrayal of the fourth wife of the affluent Chen family and her hopeless attempts to escape the prison that this traditional life afforded. The red lantern symbolized the control and order of the traditional Chinese Confucian system, under which the value of women was often reduced to a commodity.

Though an entirely different time and culture, I find that many women (myself included) still struggle to find their inner truth and strength. In the past I have designed clothing.  Now I design and create jewelry.  I create because it is my innate nature. But one underlying motivation has always been to offer women a quiet way to express their own truth, outside of the mandates of fast fashion. I hand made and remade this pair of “Red Lantern” earrings until they felt whole. I hope that these red lanterns will symbolize the power of inner beauty, peace and knowing for women living within these modern times.