To understand Li Xuelian’s situation, you would be better served reading Kafka than Flaubert. Appealing her legal case all the way to Beijing is truly a Kafkaesque, Sisyphean process. Yet, Li persists because her honor is at stake. She was not merely betrayed by her ex-husband; he also dubbed her a Pan Jinlian, in reference to the infamous murdering adulteress of Chinese literature. The title is awkwardly Flaubertized, but the portrayal of China’s legal and political system burns like acid in Feng Xiaogang’s darkly absurdist I am not Madame Bovary, which opens Friday, Nov. 18, in New York.
Li and her husband Qin Yuhe hatched a plan to temporarily divorce, thereby entitling him to a newer, larger company apartment of his own. Of course, they were to subsequently remarry after sufficient time had passed, except Qin double-crossed her, marrying another woman instead.
Li is not sophisticated or well-educated, but she still will not take his treachery lying down. She will plead her case in court and when the provincial judges condescendingly dismiss her, she will appeal her case to the county seat and ultimately all the way to Beijing.
