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In the early stage of establishing New China, the government claimed to support a new socialist image of women liberated from feudalism. Thus, the ‘prostitutes’ had to be reborn as ‘workers who could make a living by themselves’ by working at productive labor. The works handling the alteration of prostitutes mostly show the rehabilitation through labor as a theme while the work Red Powder is mainly composed of a desire for material and erotism. The work Red Powder shows the ‘desire’ that was considered as a taboo in the socialist ideology of the time. By placing the ‘tabooed’ code such as ‘desire’ in front of the work, it is against the ideology that the new Chinese society was aiming for at that time. The realization of erotism between a prostitute Xiao e and a son of ruined upper class Lao pu of the characters includes the resistance to deviate from socialist ideology, which needs to be paid attention. The work Red Powder shows a beauty of tragedy and sorrow by focusing on the looks of characters who failed in adapting themselves to the new social structure of new China, and the devices like ‘taboo’ and ‘violation’ are playing the central role in this work. The characters of this work are the ones alienated from the time such as prostitute, disabled person, and surplus human. Both Xiao e who refused to work, and Lao pu who was living lethargically refused to be rehabilitated into socialist-type humans, which means they are the ones who already violated the social ‘taboo’ as the people who were ousted to the outside the boundary of state. Just as the women’s desire for consumption is usually connected to moral disorder and violation of sexual custom, Xiao e is also described as a morally-dissolute, extravagant, and femme fatale look. Her femme fatale aspect could be seen when she freely used her own sexual allure to get what she wanted. And due to her vanity and extravagance, her husband Lao pu embezzled the company’s public funds, and eventually, faced a tragedy of being shot to death. Such a tragic ending for those two main characters who broke social ‘taboo’ not only means the failure of erotism, but also shows a discord between personal self and ordered society.
