Crossing Text -- The Two-Pole Reading of 20th Century Chinese Literature

Author: Wang Hui, Li Jun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-02-20
Features: The Dual Variation of Women's Culture – On Chinese Women's Liberation and Women's Literature
The establishment and research of women's literature saw significant breakthroughs in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Due to differing definitions, it encompasses varying connotations. Currently, academia holds several distinct views on this concept:
1. The "Female Image Theory" posits that any literature reflecting women's lives constitutes women's literature, regardless of the author's gender. This definition has a broad scope but relatively limited depth, failing to fundamentally demonstrate the independence and special significance of women's literature. It also struggles to differentiate creative works depicting women across different historical periods.
2. The "Female Author Theory" defines women's literature as the creations of female authors. This stipulation is overly vague, though it emphasizes the gender of the author, it does not facilitate in-depth analysis and research of the works.
3. The "Gender Theme Theory" refers to the creative works by female authors that depict women's lives. This definition narrows the scope but enriches the, offering a more nuanced understanding compared to the first two. It highlights both the gender of the author and the independence of the work's subject and theme. This theory "is not intended to challenge traditional literature but to call forth a new literary force—the group of women writers—with their unique life experiences and female perspectives, consciously enriching traditional literature dominated by male authors." It also carries historical and practical significance.
4. The "Gender Concept Theory" draws from a more representative Western viewpoint, arguing that not all works by female authors on women's lives qualify as women's literature. This perspective holds that female authors must "employ a different lens to clearly observe them and use a distinct semantic system to express them." This theory distinctly separates women's literature from male literature in terms of subject, theme, artistic thinking, and semantic expression, positioning it as a quasi-literary category in opposition to male literature. It is a product of Western women's liberation and the self-development of women's literature, yet it does not align with China's social realities and cultural traditions.
As is well-known, the Western struggle for women's independence and liberation from a male-centric society has been a long process. However, they have now achieved a greater degree of equality in social rights, dignity, and freedom, integrating their concerns for societal and women's healthy development. Combined with years of experience in women's literature, they have developed distinct modes of thinking, ideological concepts, cognitive methods, and independent semantic expressions, showcasing their unique characteristics in modern Western art.
While this theory does not fit the actual development of Chinese literature, it can serve as a reference and direction for the growth of women's literature in China. Among the four views, only the third aligns with China's social and literary realities, holding significant practical relevance. The women's literature discussed in this article adopts this theory as its foundational framework.
In China's long literary history spanning thousands of years, female writers have been scarce. Even when present, their works mostly revolved around domestic grievances and emotions, lacking broader social significance. They failed to form a cohesive movement or collective, merely appearing intermittently in literary history. In classical literature, while female characters were numerous and often typical, they were largely the product of male authors' aesthetic and creative expressions. Only during the women's liberation movement did a substantial number of female writers emerge, marking the development of women's literature.
The true liberation of Chinese women progressed gradually as the Communist Party of China led the nation in overthrowing centuries of feudal autocracy and establishing a new China. Humanity was originally composed of equal male and female halves, but in class society, particularly in China's feudal era spanning thousands of years, women endured relentless oppression and humiliation. Feudal patriarchal systems confined them to mindless "machines," bound by the "four powers"—political authority, clan authority, divine authority, and husband's authority—and stripped of their humanity and dignity. In the struggle against class oppression, women fought alongside men, gaining temporary social freedom and escaping class oppression. Yet, they remained tied to their families and male-dominated structures, failing to secure full human dignity and character.
By the modern era, with the introduction of Western national consciousness and scientific spirit, guided by Marxism, women's liberation gained clear direction and content. Chinese women gradually secured social status and rights, enjoying full political, economic, and educational freedoms. However, due to their relatively low overall cultural literacy, societal underdevelopment, and the lingering influence of feudalism and male-centricism, Chinese women's liberation did not advance in tandem with social rights and progress as it did in the West. They were not fully liberated or developed in physiological, psychological, or spiritual aspects.
Instead, they gained sufficient rights and freedoms to adapt to male-dominated social structures, without securing the social rights and attributes of the "other" gender. They failed to reshape male-centric societies to accommodate women's holistic development.
However, with the advancement of social economy and civilization, the gradual legal safeguarding of women's social rights and personal safety, and the widespread improvement of women's cultural literacy—especially with the rise of modern-minded female writers—women's liberation has begun a journey toward self-directed pursuit of comprehensive liberation and development.
Ultimately, it will dismantle male-centric social consciousness structures, address the limitations of one-sided societal frameworks, and enable women to achieve greater equality in human rights, economy, social status, and spiritual life.
Contemporary Chinese women's liberation is currently in this very process. Correspondingly, women's literature has traversed several distinct developmental stages, deeply intertwined with historical and social progress while also reflecting the evolution of Chinese literature at each stage.
In ancient China, under the long of feudal patriarchal ideology, women's literature existed but developed slowly. Despite the emergence of numerous representative female writers—from Zuo Wenjun and Cai Yan in the Han and Jin dynasties, Bao Mingyue and Mulan in the Six Dynasties, Wu Zetian, Li Yi, and Xue Tao in the Sui and Tang dynasties, Li Qingzhao and Zhu Shuzhen in the Song dynasty, and Ruan Lizhen, Wu Zhao, and Zhou Yingfang in the Ming and Qing dynasties—their works, apart from a few exceptions like "The Eighteen Poems of Hu Jia" and "Drunk on the Fragrance of Osmanthus," mostly lacked substantial social content and poor artistic expression, rendering them dim in the history of Chinese women's literature.
Modern women's literature emerged and developed alongside the rise of modern women's liberation movements, now spanning over 70 years. It has gone through three stages: the May Fourth period, the post-revolutionary period, and the New Period, marked by two major peaks: the May Fourth women's literary climax and the New Period women's literary climax.
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