Nora and her sisters

Abstract

In the context of Lu Xun’s critical pre-occupation with Chinese society and its cultural foundations, the socio-economic plight of women constitutes, without doubt, a lifelong concern of his artistic endeavour and social outlook. It is not only reflected in his literary oeuvre, but also in his scholarly writings, personal reminiscences, correspondences and public statements (e.g. “Talk at Peking Women’s Normal College”, December 26, 1923). While Lu Xun’s public position, albeit conservative and pessimistic in some respects, is generally one of unambiguous sympathy and support, his literary representation of women in Chinese society is less forthright and convincing as far as fair and just solutions are concerned. Like many progressive Chinese intellectuals of his time, Lu Xun was greatly inspired by the enormous success of Henrik Ibsen’s plays such as A Doll’s House, among others, and their forceful advocacy of women’s interests and the right to individual freedom, claims which found considerable resonance in the educated sections of Chinese society and leading intellectuals of the May Fourth Movement such as Lu Xun himself and Hu Shi, whose literary articulation and representation of social injustice and discrimination against women led to public debates and open protests with sometimes fatal consequences. This study focuses on Lu Xun’s artistic exploration and interpretation of the socio-economic plight of Chinese women in the first half of the twentieth century with particular reference to current Chinese and Western feminist criticism and the recent feminist dramatisation of Ibsen’s (and Lu Xun’s) ominous question concerning Nora’s future in the brave new world of twentieth century capitalism and male domination, exploitation and abuse.