Pauline Chen has undertaken to bring a Chinese classic novel of the eighteenth century, “Dream of the Red Chamber” by Cao Xueqin. The Red Chamber. Pauline A. Chen; Alfred A. Knopf; 400 pp. The sum total of a woman's value is her ability to produce a male heir. To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the author. Abstract. The 2008 English translation of Liu Zaifu's book Reflections.