Womanhood and sexual relations in contemporary chinese fiction by male and female authors: A comparative analysis

Abstract

In the introduction to his Modern Chinese Women Writers, Michael S. Duke poses a question that deserves more attention and discussion: "Does contemporary Chinese women's writing differ from contemporary Chinese men's writing7 And if so, how7 Wherein lies this difference?" (ix). In order to begin to answer this important question, I will compare, in this article, the female writer Zhang Jie's novella The Ark (1982) with three novels by two male writers, namely, A Small Town Called Hibiscus (1981) by Gu Hua, and Mimosa (1983) and Half of Man is Woman (1985) by Zhang Xianliang. 11 will draw patterns of contrast between them through comparisons of their representations of womanhood and of sexual relations. In doing so, I argue that there exist striking differences between The Ark and male texts with respect to the writers" perceptions of womanhood and ideologies about sexual relations. While the two male writers still adhere to traditional Chinese literary conventions of female characterization, Zhang Jie deviates from them by presenting a different type of womanhood. While the two male writers still regard the traditional pattern of man/woman relationship as the norm and even try to idealize it in their writing, Zhang Jie subverts this pattern by exposing it as the site of male power and dominance and therefore the site of women's struggle for their rights and liberation.