- Zhongliang: These are the clothes you wear? The books you read? This is the life you lead? These silks and satins are hideous. Do you know what's happened in the world these ten years? Do you? Russian Revolution... Great War... battles against the warlords... Chiang's pact with the Communists and his betrayal of them... freedom from arranged marriages... male-female equality... the youth shedding their blood without regret... Do you know about all this? The girl students of Peking wear black skirts and short tops, tight at the waist. They carry a little red flag in their hands and stroll by the walls of the palace, walls tall and red, bordered by weeping willows swaying in the breeze. The Peking sky is blue and clear. The palace eaves are decorated with gold, and white kites sail through the air... higher and higher... further and further away... until you can't see them. Do you really want to spend your whole life here?
- Ruyi: Did you love her?
- Zhongliang: What's it to you? You came to Shanghai just to ask me that? You put on Western clothes and suddenly you get sassy with me! Who do you think I am? Do you know how many women I've had? I cheat them and use them! I hurt them, crush them beneath my heel! And what do they do? They still want me. They kneel before me. They cry for me, smile for me!
- Ruyi: Did you love her?
- Zhongliang: I'm no longer your household servant, you know. We men rule here in Shanghai!