The Reinterpretation of Confucian Ethics and the Construction of a New Image of Chinese Immigrant Women in a Diasporic Context — Lily in Sour Sweet

Timothy Mo’s Sour Sweet, set in 1960s London, portrays a Chinese immigrant family struggling to make a living and examines how family ethics are reinterpreted in the context of migration. Through caring for elderly relatives, raising her child, running a takeaway, and learning to drive, Lily turns Confucian values such as filial piety, self-discipline, and self-reliance into practical resources for responding to unfamiliar circumstances. Rather than simply rejecting tradition, she challenges patriarchal authority while preserving obligations of care and gradually extends her activities beyond the household. The novel thus departs from stereotypical Western representations of Chinese women as silent victims and presents a new diasporic woman whose agency develops through everyday decisions. Lily’s trajectory reveals not the unchanged survival of Confucian ethics, but their selective adaptation within contemporary familial and social relations.