Poquette has a bachelor's degree in English and specializes in writing about literature. In the following essay Poquette discusses Lee's contrasting of art and reality in Farewell My Concubine.

From the first few paragraphs of the novel, Lee sets up a contrast between art and reality. The novel begins with a discussion of the acting that prostitutes must do to make their living, then moves on to talk about how professional actors also must remove themselves from reality and play a role for their customers. As Lee notes, "The stage is populated by brilliant young scholars and beautiful ladies whose exalted passions are more vivid than the drab colors of our workaday existence." From this overt expression of the contrast between art and reality, Lee goes on to include several other direct addresses to her readers about this contrast. "The actors bask in the admiration of hundreds...