‘The House Filler’: Surviving the Changes in Modern China

"The House Filler" by Tong Ge.

“The House Filler” is a harrowing novel that recounts a young woman’s survival and endurance in early 20th-century China. This first book in the “China China Trilogy”  from new Canadian writer Tong Ge details in a simple yet richly textured fashion the life of an unwanted young woman in pre- and post-revolutionary China.

The resilient heroine of “The House Filler” is Golden Phoenix, an apt name for someone who continually faces potentially life-destroying events, yet manages to pull herself from the ashes and survive.

The story begins in Kaifeng City, in Henan Province, in the central-eastern region of China. Most girls in this period are married at age 16, but Golden Phoenix is already 26. The village whispers that she will soon become a “tiangfang,” (“house filler”) with little means of supporting herself, and a burden to her birth family.

An old Chinese town in Pingyao, China, the same region as the story’s setting. (Hung Chung Chih /Shutterstock)

Bound by Tradition

Golden Phoenix has been hobbled, both figuratively and literally, from an early age. A common cultural tradition for young girls in China at the time was a practice known as foot binding. A prepubescent girl’s feet are molded by repeated wrapping and sculpting techniques to create an ideal shape to please a potential suitor.

Golden Phoenix’s father was reluctant to make his daughter endure this painful experience. He waited until she was 12 years old before he finally gave in to the pressures of his culture. Unfortunately, the delay was costly.

The ideal result of enduring this cultural torture would be a pair of feet in a three-inch triangle shape. However, Golden Phoenix’s feet were one inch too big, resulting in less valuable “Silver lily water feet.” Despite her pain and humiliation, her feet were considered a disappointment to all.

Phoenix indulges in a rare moment of bitterness: “All this was because of a [--] emperor in the Song dynasty nine centuries ago who liked tiny-footed women.”

Engraving of a young Chinese woman wearing lotus shoes, 1860. (Marzolino/Shutterstock)

Deeper Challenges

“The House Filler” opens with a chance for a new beginning for Golden Phoenix, despite her age and below-standard foot binding, when her father receives a marriage proposal from a widower 10 years older than his daughter. He accepts the proposal. Having never laid eyes on her future husband, she is wary of her prospects, but hopeful.

Although this marriage with her mysterious husband turns out to be joyful match, the first few years are filled with many trials and personal conflicts due to the existing dynamics from her husband’s previous marriage.

Without any male children of her own, Golden Phoenix finds herself at the bottom of the family hierarchy despite being the wife of the head of the household. Her new adult stepchildren, Qi and his “pock-marked wife,” resent her potential as an obstacle to their inheritance and pursue a vindictive campaign against her behind closed doors.

Her husband admits that Qi is “a selfish child,” but he does not believe Qi would actively seek to undermine his new bride. Vain and foolish, Qi eventually does slip up spectacularly, resulting in his banishment from the family home. But this also instills in him a simmering hatred of Phoenix that will last for years to come.

Only the Beginning

The events of the first half of “The House Filler” could fill a novel.  However, the mid-20th century was a period of enormous and lightning-fast upheaval in the Asian theater, and the tribulations of Golden Phoenix were just beginning.

A cruel twist of fate occurs when Phoenix is beginning to make positive advancements in her life. She has fallen in love with her husband and has given him the children they both passionately wanted. Then misfortune strikes, leaving her a widow.

Worse still, his death is followed closely by a brutal Japanese invasion from which she cannot hope to flee because of her bound feet. Even when the Japanese occupation ends, a civil war between the government and the communists quickly fills the power gap.

A young Chinese woman faces the harrowing event of Invading Japanese troops, in "House Filler." (Everett Collection /Shutterstock)

Each historical shakeup brings a series of new crises that threaten Golden Phoenix and her family. As we experience her struggles throughout her life, the book’s title becomes more ironic as each year passes. Her ability to navigate the rough seas of events shows an iron core characteristic of anything but a “house filler.”

Ambitious Task

Ms. Tong has taken on the monumental task of describing the entire seven-decade life story of a woman who maintains her humanity while living in a whirlwind of political strife. Ms. Tong’s writing skills make the smallest details significant. She effectively reflects the daily personal life of her heroine while showing us the larger picture of how her world behaves and is constantly in flux.

Ms. Tong was born and raised in China, but moved to Canada in 1988. She started writing her China trilogy in 2004, beginning with this impressive novel. Despite facing challenges with writing in English and managing a long-term disability, she persevered and found a publisher.

Since 2012, she has published poetry and prose in both English and Chinese in publications like Prism, Ricepaper, Flow, Canadian Stories, and The Polyglot. Ms. Tong currently resides in Calgary, Alberta.

As a debut novel, it’s an excellent start, and I look forward to Ms. Tong’s subsequent novels in this series.

‘The House Filler’ By Tong Ge Ronsdale Press, Oct. 5, 2023 Paperback:‎ 250 pages

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