Romance in the Rain is a novel on women's rights. The whole story is set in 1930s China (or later in 1960s Taiwan depending on the version) where Lu Zhenhua a famous general in Northeastern China has taken up to eight brides who all resembled each other in some way. Yiping was born in the eighth marriage and later, Zhenhua moves to Shanghai. He had laid aside his first eight wives leaving Yiping and her mother Wenpei in poverty while he lives lavishly with his ninth wife Xueqin (who was an opera singer he married her while she was 18 and he was already much older) with their children. Yiping's living conditions make her a bitter person especially when it comes to facing Xueqin.
Chauvinism was a very common trait that the novel condemned. Zhenhua sees any girl that resembles Pingping, he immediately picks her up and makes her his. Wenpei's family tries to object but they have no choice, after all, Lu Zhenhua was a powerful figure. Zhenhua sends a wedding down that looks like a riding suit, and marries Wenpei. Then later, he sees Xueqin and ends up also having another wife just a year later. The fact that Zhenhua collected his wives like stamps proves he's chauvinistic. Back in China, a richer man of higher status can have a wife and several concubines. It showed women had little or no say, she was required to hold her tongue before a man and that, only men were right. One can also see how Zhenhua showed his double standard when he beats up Xueqin, locks her up and her son Erjie (who was actually Guangxiong's son) while he could afford to treat women like collectibles which he throws away whenever he's bored. Guangxiong is also a picture of chauvinism since while he is dating Xueqin, he is also dating Anna who is one of his lovers.
The evidence of the feudalistic family dictum can be seen in how Zhenhua runs his family. I would pretty much hate to have him for my father, considering he beats them up with a horsewhip every time they displease him. I could agree with Erhao also that Zhenhua is a hypocrite. Erhao had a genuine love for Keyun but his nasty mother chased her and Adjutant Li off. Erhao had no knowledge of the baby that died prematurely until years later. This, of course, Zhenhua has no right to lecture Erhao because of how unfairly he had so many failed marriages. It's no wonder why Yiping got so bitter because of her father's ill-treatment of her. I mean, she is forced to go there to her father to beg for allowance while her half-siblings live so properly, she doesn't. The day Zhenhua whipped Yiping almost permanently estranged them from each other.
The transition from polygyny to monogamy was also explained. Some characters had a change in religion. Apparently, Zhenhua is an atheist (in a Chinese folk religion-dominated society) by the way he talks. Adjutant Li mentioned that Zhenhua doesn't believe in gods or ancestors. Ruping becomes a Catholic and so does Fang Yu. It seems Erhao also became a Catholic at some point. The Catholic faith has the rule of only one man and one wife. Fang Yu, in the original novel, became a Catholic nun. In ancient times, Shuhuan could marry both Ruping and Yiping but times have changed. Shuhuan could only marry either Ruping or Yiping. Basically, Zhenhua's marriages with his eighth and ninth wife were deemed illegal by the time Xueqin had an affair. Xueqin did mention to Wenpei that they're not madames but only concubines.
What must be noted also is the revenge theme. Qiong Yao challenged the wrongdoings of old Chinese tradition and also discouraged revenge. One can see this mistake in the protagonist Yiping in her desire to take revenge against her feudalistic father and half-siblings. In her case, she grows to realize revenge will only hurt her as well. After desiring to take revenge on Ruping by "stealing" Shuhuan - it caused her pain when Shuhuan read her diary. Perhaps another backfire of revenge theme was on Xueqin. So Xueqin became Zhenhua's ninth wife (and had to share him with eight others) but later, she also became Guangxiong's woman as pique. Xueqin thinks she can right another wrong by simply turning the tables. If Zhenhua can have many wives then why can't she have a lover? That was what she said when her dirty secret came out. It backfired on her because when she ran off with Guangxiong, her eldest daughter Ruping committed suicide (a plot removed from the 2001 version but was referenced nonetheless), she wasn't treated any better in Guangxiong's household after he rescued her from her being locked up in Zhenhua's house.
So while Qiong Yao was a woman's rights activist - she wasn't a female supremacist either.
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