The Sayings about the Manchu Lady in Maugham’s The Painted Veil

Abstract

In Maugham’s novel, The Painted Veil, many Chinese characters are depicted in it. This paper will focus on the Chinese declined aristocrat, the Manchu Lady, one of the Chinese characters, trying to expound the profound connotation and cultural meaning from the imagological approach. In the novel, the description of the Manchu Lady can be divided into two parts: the things we heard and saw about her and our stress will lay on the former one, for she is the only character aroused the westerner’s interest and keeps an intimate relationship with one of the foreigners. How people talked about her could reflect their attitude toward her and we could not ignore it.