Trustees Feminine or ( Un ) feminine : Struggles over the Meanings of Femininity in Chinese Women = s Literature by Hong Jiang Working Paper

This article attempts to investigate how Chinese women writers themselves understand binary genders. Being named as the Aother,@ feminists in the west can speak from a politically Adifferent@ position against centered patriarchal ideology. By contrast, Chinese women in the 1980s find their female gender completely inscribed within the state feminism, which emphasizes Aasexuality@ rather than Adifferentiation.@ Therefore, this article focuses on the female double image, the masculine/feminine double, created by Chinese women writers in the early 1980s. This reveals Chinese women writers= struggle to find a way for women not only to reject the social roles that men have imposed on them and women have too often accepted but also to actively participate in deconstructing and reconstructing definitions of femininity, and to get beyond gender divisions. About the Author The author is an Assistant Professor at Colorado College, where she teaches Chinese language and literature. Her research interests include Chinese women writers and aesthetics. She has recently completed a book manuscript, Small Well Lane: A Contemporary Chinese Play and Oral History, for University of Michigan Press, and is currently working on a monograph on Chinese women writers. Copyright © 2001, MSU Board of Trustees Feminine or (Un) feminine: Struggles over the Meanings of Femininity in Chinese Women=s Literature