The terms 'white moonlight' and 'cinnabar mole' both come from Red Rose, White Rose.
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history
Published in 1944. 佟振保, a respectable, Western-educated Shanghai manager, has an affair with 王娇蕊, his friend's passionate wife, but gives her up and marries the pale, proper 孟烟鹂. The opening explains the title: marry the red rose and in time she becomes a smear of mosquito blood on the wall while the white one stays moonlight before the bed; marry the white rose and she becomes a grain of rice stuck to your clothes while the red one stays a cinnabar mole over your heart.
culture
Its two images are now everyday words: 白月光 for an idealized love you never had, and 朱砂痣 for a passion you lost and cannot forget. 关锦鹏 (Stanley Kwan) filmed the story in 1994.
