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A Semiotic Study of Lin Yutang's Depiction of Women

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A Semiotic Study of Lin Yutang's Depiction of Women Moment of Freedom from the Symbolized World - A Semiotic Study of Lin Yutang's Depiction of Women Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Jue, Wang Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 02/10/2021 07:03:38 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/560956 MOMENT OF FREEDOM FROM THE SYMBOLIZED WORLD -A SEMIOTIC STUDY OF LIN YUTANG'S DEPICTION OF WOMEN by Wang Jue Copyright © Wang Jue 2005 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF EAST ASIAN STUDIES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2005 The University of Arizona rk, Graduate College As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by (p./42w1 f entitled tde-,,,,t e,,,f ritiv t,,-, 1, ,' e 1/ 1 Se4,41...01`C L,y1.1.427,-,.-1 t fv, (01-, tA.,11/vzt).-v. and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of L') C of 'fi-, 1n1,r21 i¢ -2- date l.,t/ e date date date date Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ti Disseitati Director: date 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: -0° 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thanks first go to my dissertation committee. Although the committee is very diverse in terms of academic focus, each member has guided me to see the unlimited possibilities in learning with their unique style. During the different stages of my research, I was given ample room and guidance which motivated me to continuously expand and explore my academic interests. To be specific, Professor Dian Li's critical reading of each chapter, characterized by his thoughtful questions marked throughout the drafts, will be a benchmark of my own academic expectations. Being my academic advisor, Professor Li's insistence upon theoretical examination and methodological exploration of literary texts inspired me to look beyond the horizon of modern Chinese literature. Through her expertise in medieval Chinese literature, Professor Anna Shields taught me the importance of teaching and learning with a vision. Her high expectation for her students, demonstrated through her academic professionalism, has substantially enhanced my understanding of cultural studies through language and literature. Professor Chia -lin Pao Tao steadily guided me through her patience and experience, from the very first day I met her in her crowded office, in exploring the academic jungle. Moreover, being a historian herself, Professor Pao Tao also showed me the importance of exhausting all possible resources to enhance research by generously lending me books of her own collections on various subjects. My special thanks go to Professor Linda Waugh. Her confidence in her students and her expertise in her teaching and research has genuinely initiated my curiosity and daring to explore the subject of modern semiotics, a field that I knew nothing of prior to sitting in her classroom. In addition to the pile of readings she assigned in class, her commitment to her work and her students, through seminars outside her classroom and her engagement of students through concrete projects, signal her caring, her sharing, and her expectation, which have minimized the painful confusions that many of her students, including myself, experienced during the process of intellectual growth. The last words are reserved for my husband, Charles. His unreserved support and encouragement through his bright smiles are always the cure for my depressions and desperations during my journey of writing this dissertation. He is always the first reader and the severe critic, whose own liberal mind and opposition to gender discrimination, though sometimes differing from my women's viewpoint, is a living hope for those who believe in humanity and social justice beyond cultural boundaries. 5 DEDICATION In addition to my parents, who both taught me the necessity of living with tradition and the importance to look beyond it, this dissertation is also dedicated to both my grandmothers, who were born a year apart yet grew up in very different environments. Equally independent and resolute, the two grandmas were physically distinctive from each other. As a child I was in awe to see the contrast between a pair of elegantly bound "golden lotuses" and a pair of "liberated feet" clearly marked by broken index and little toes, a contrast which has forever lingered in my mind. As my cultural curiosity finally led to my academic inquiry, I found, gladly, that my grandmas were two of many individuals who had refused to follow social norms even though they were once forced to be crippled. Women such as them have at best been understood as cultural exceptions; at worst they were socially rejected. However, to my understanding, even though seldom appreciated, such individuals are the very reason why social norms have continuously been questioned and reshaped throughout human history. When my teenage grandma by her own determination unbound her damaged feet, her decision to control her body was more transformative than her physical liberation. Her liberated feet and mind enabled her to stand against the vicissitudes of later years when dramatic changes occurred to her peaceful and comfortable life. Although the other remained bound, she, too, challenged norms in her own way. The lessons learnt from their self-liberation and my parents' progressive outlooks of life are the hope and determination of each generation. This dissertation is dedicated to these important people in my life and all individuals who dare to live a life with their own hearts by refusing conformity for the sake of social control. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF PICTURES AND DIAGRAMS 7 ABSTRACT 8 1 INTRODUCTION: BETWEEN LOVE AND REVOLUTION 9 An Eclipsed Portrait 13 Literary Profile 17 An unrestrained essayist 17 An experimenting novelist 24 A returned essayist 28 Why Semiotics 33 Independent Mind and Indentured Body 51 2 SHELVED TRADITION AND COMPELLED MODERNITY 66 Heterodox Components of Chinese Culture 69 Iconoclastic Spirits of Women 78 Reconciling between Tradition and Modernity 86 3 DEMYSTIFYING SOCIETAL UNIFICATION 102 Manifold Society Depicted in Lin Yutang's Trilogy 107 Connection via Tradition in Chinatown Family and Juniper Loa 114 Cultural Composites in Looking Beyond 119 4 SIGNS, WOMEN, AND TRADITION 125 Diverse Women Embodied in Signs 127 Addresses: index of social stratification and power negotiation 129 Messages embodied in names 140 Back gardens: individual platforms 147 Individuality reflected in costumes and hairstyles 150 Multifaceted Tradition and Dynamic Womanhood 153 Portraits and pictures: declaration of family tradition 153 Rituals and funerals: annunciation of social conventions 156 Tackling Social Conventions with Signs 165 Welding Cultures via Signs 171 5 CONCLUSION 180 REFERENCES 192 7 LIST OF PICTURES AND DIAGRAMS PICTURES Top: from THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF SONG QINGLING 14 Bottom: from LU XUN DANCHEN BAINIAN JINIANJI 14 DIAGRAMS DIAGRAM 1: CHARLES PEIRCE'S TRIADIC SIGNS 37 DIAGRAM 2: ROMAN JAKOBSON'S SPEECH EVENT THEORY ...... 40 8 ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the nonconformist women depicted by modern Chinese writer Lin Yutang from a semiotic perspective. In his fictional universes, Lin unfolds the discrepancy between the type of virtuous women promoted by Neo- Confucian ideology and the dynamic womanhood in multi -class traditional Chinese society. A semiotic reading of Lin's fictional portrayals helps us comprehend his sensitivity to the recurrent pattern of female nonconformity -the indexical sign left in both historical and literary discourses. Lin read the sign differently than most modern writers. By re- imaging the diversity within the female realm, he creatively unchained habitualization of thought and language that composes the history of women. His creativity, demonstrated by his retrieving female agency in the fictional world, offers an alternative comprehension of history which has antagonistically disregarded women. Semiotic reading illuminates the dialogic force of Lin's alternative depiction of nonconformist women in the everlasting conversation of rectifying skewed gender relations. This research suggests that being vigilant of the symbolic signs and being aware of alternative messages embodied in the signs are the necessity to ameliorate gender discrimination, and to limit collisions between "us" and "them" in a rapidly globalizing modern era. 9 1 INTRODUCTION: BETWEEN LOVE AND REVOLUTION This semiotic study of Lin Yutang 4ìa (1895- 1976), a modern Chinese writer and Nobel nominee, mainly focuses on his fiction. As an influential essayist in the early 20th century China, Lin's contribution to modern Chinese literature through his humorous essays are commendable and praiseworthy. Through his editorship at magazines issued in 1930s Shanghai, including Lunyu ìßìp (Analects Fortnightly), Renjianshi 1I'ÀJ L (This Human World) and Yuzhoufeng -1-1--MA, (The Cosmic Wind), Lin demonstrated his increased interest in humanity, which contrasted to his decreased enthusiasm for political campaigns that he had shown in many of his 1920s' familiar essays.
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