Sisterly Same-Sex Sentiment
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SISTERLY SAME-SEX SENTIMENT: NON-EROTIC FEMALE RELATIONSHIPS IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY CHINESE LITERATURE AND SOCIETY A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Ning Zhang December 2017 © 2017 Ning Zhang SISTERLY SAME-SEX SENTIMENT: NON-EROTIC FEMALE RELATIONSHIPS IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY CHINESE LITERATURE AND SOCIETY Ning Zhang, Ph.D. Cornell University 2017 This dissertation is a genealogical investigation of the thematic significance of female same-sex sentimentality in the construction of the space of female imaginary in modern Chinese literature from the beginning of the twentieth-century to contemporary popular culture. By focusing on the textual and cinematic representations in female-authored fiction and woman- centered films, I argue that female same-sex sentiment is primarily a psychological intimate relationship developed from the modern institution of education, in which women will try to avoid developing friendships with the opposite sex in order to maintain the virginity and the chastity that have historically been characterized by patriarchal censorship as moral codes for women. It helps the young female go through her social recasting of self-identification in the transitional stage from kin-inflected family to institutional-based society, and simultaneously convey her into a “homeward” journey of heterosexual marriage. It therefore reflects the integrity of heterosexual mechanics. On the other hand, this intimate relationship between women raises a suggestion of female homoeroticism. By shifting the focus from whether female same-sex sentiment is purely non-erotic or really homosexual to the questions of within which institution and in what language that this female intimate relationship becomes suggestive of being homosexual, I argue that its “in-between” position lies in a lack of feminine discourse based on real gender differentials. The suspicion of homoeroticism in female same-sex sentimentality is neither a representation nor a confirmation of female homoeroticism. Rather, it is a reflection of woman’s self-awareness of not slipping into homosexuality that has been labelled as both physically illicit and mentally abnormal. Secondly, it is also a reflection of the fact that feminine pleasure has politically been conceptualized on the basis of masculine parameters and has to remain inarticulate in language. In this sense, female same-sex sentimentality has destabilized the fixed boundary of the binary system of heterosexuality from within the monolithic discourse of masculine Oneness. It thematically performs women’s dynamic interacted-ness with the nation-state system, as well as the discursive (de)construction of gender as a man-made category brought by the new visions regarding the constitution of the subject, gender, and sex in the fields of feminism and gender studies. BOIGRAPHICAL SKETCH Ning Zhang received a B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature from Nankai University (Tianjin, China) in 2003. She came to the United States and earned an M.A. in East Asian Studies from St. John’s University in New York in 2008. She published a Chinese novel and translated two American non-fiction books into Chinese in 2009. She then entered the Ph.D. program in Asian Literature, Religion and Culture at Cornell University, completing and defending her doctoral dissertation in November 2017. iii In memory of my father. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would never have been able to finish my dissertation without the guidance of my committee members, help from professors and friends that I met at Cornell University, and support from my family and husband. First and foremost, I would like to express the deepest gratitude to my committee chair Professor Edward Gunn, for the patient guidance, inspirational advice and invaluable help that he provided throughout my study at Cornell University. The dissertation would not have achieved its current depth without his erudition, insight, and always being helpful and responsive. Similar, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my committee member, Professor Brett de Bary, who has always been kind and supportive whenever I encountered difficulties in either academic research or personal life. She simply exemplified to me the best characteristics of being a successful professional woman. I am also deeply indebted to my committee member, Professor Natalie Melas, who broadened my vision into a comparative panorama of world literature. I would like to thank Professor Haiping Yan and Professor Petrus Liu for guiding my study at the beginning of my Ph.D. and for enriching my knowledge to the genres of drama and martial arts. I would also like to thank Mrs. Yufen Lee Mehta and Professor Nick Admussen who have always been warmly supportive. My time during my Ph.D. study was made enjoyable in large part to many friends that I met at Cornell who have become a part of my life. I am grateful for Xiangjing Chen, Pei Jean (Eno) Chen, Junliang Huang, Clarence Lee, Wenteng Shao, Jinjing Zhu, and Wah Guan Lim, for their help, company, kindness, and generosity. v In particular for this dissertation, special thanks to my sisterly friends that I met from elementary school to college in China, who have been together with me on my life journey and whose influence works through the choices that I make in my everyday life, which build and lead to my future self. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family for all their love and encouragement. For my mother and mother-in-law, who visited me from China and gave me a great help in taking care of my young kids, so that I could focus on my dissertation research. Most of all for my loving, supportive, encouraging husband, Bo, who has always been supporting me and encouraging me in my choice of career. And, for my wonderful children, Eleanor and Elvin, who gave me the true experience of what maternity might mean for becoming woman. Thank you. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Biographical Sketch .......................................................................................................................iii Dedication ......................................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgments ...........................................................................................................................v Chapters Introduction .....................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 The Republican Era: A Legend in Memory .................................................................29 Lu Yin and Her Romanticism of Sisterly Community .....................................................34 Ding Ling and Her Literary “Sisters” ...............................................................................42 Ling Shuhua: The New and Guixiu (Boudoir) ..................................................................67 The Turning to “Others”: A Woman Soldier’s Own Story ................................................75 Chapter 2 The Chinese Revolution and Post-Revolutionary Political Propaganda ......................87 Eileen Chang: A Continuity of the Republican Legend in the Era of the Chinese Revolution .............................................................................................................93 The Song of Youth: Romanticizing Revolutionary Literature through A De- romanticization of Women .................................................................................100 The Red Detachment of Women: De-sophistication in the Quest for Exterior Uniformity ..........................................................................................................................................110 Chapter 3 Elite Literature and Transnationalism ........................................................................120 Wang Anyi: A Voice within the State Discourse ...........................................................125 Yan Geling: From Transnationalism to Nationalism ......................................................141 Hong Ying: An Internationalized Voice of Women’s Writing .......................................156 Chapter 4 Post-modern Romance and Contemporary Popular Culture ......................................168 Post-Jin Yong and Qiong Yao ........................................................................................168 The Disposition of Sisterly Sentimentality in Post-modern Popular Culture .................183 The Cinematic Images of Female-female Relationships: A Polarization .......................194 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................216 Bibliography ...............................................................................................................................225 vii INTRODUCTION Female same-sex sentiment is a new image that became visible in Chinese literary field at the beginning of the twentieth-century when China was driven into the course of modern civilization with the impacts of scientific knowledge and philosophical ideas from the West. As women had been liberated to being allowed to receive education in modern institutions, the young female developed an intimate relationship with a sisterly figure that she selected as an ideal ego who mirrored a panoramic trajectory of female