LOVE, OBSESSION AND DESTRUCTION: THE PHILOSOPHICAL CONNOTATION OF LILIAN LEE’S NOVEL ROUGE

This dissertation focuses on the novel Rouge by the Hong Kong-based writer Lilian Lee, which is a fantasy novel that proclaims feminism by deploying a love tragedy, describing the social context and atmosphere of Hong Kong in the 1930s and 1980s, and the living and afterlife experiences of the courtesan Fleur. Rouge was first published in 1984 and subsequently adapted into a film in 1988, which won several awards at film festivals. The novel Rouge can be regarded as Lilian Lee’s most representative work and a significant cultural symbol of Hong Kong in the 1990s. Love is a universal human experience that has a significant impact on our lives, relationships, and our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Consequently, philosophers have long sought to gain insight into its nature, origins and role in human existence, which makes the exploration of love a core focus of philosophical inquiry. This research will examine how the novel Rouge explores the interplay between authentic love and ego love, and will also investigate the causes that led to Fleur’s tragedy.