The kind of love that can be successfully commercialized must contain some element of danger: a woman’s ruined reputation, a confession spoken too precariously, a fallen city. Liusu is a natural gambler in the sense that the fulfillment she derives from the affair does not stem from Liuyuan’s bold proclamations, but rather from his unexpected return and offer of marriage. She wins the bet, but does not necessarily win love.
In other words, Eileen Chang can write about the love of money in the same manner with which she approaches the love of man. There is a sense of unparalleled thrill created by the short 5 centimeters that separated horse #6 and horse #1. The notion of a $200 profit is, quite objectively, attractive. And this love is by no means a lonely nor private one: the crowd around me, spanning everyone from an elderly man in a checkered suit to a young woman with pigtails and 5-inch wedges, cheers in unison.