Masaryk University Faculty of Arts China Studies Seminar Cultural Studies of China Michaela Kalábová Tracing the Impact of the Cultural Revolution on Women in Chinese Society Based on Comparative Analysis of Chosen Memoirs Bachelor's Thesis Supervisor: Dr. phil. Ute Wallenböck 2020 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the reference list. Brno, May 2020 …………………………………………… Author's signature Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. phil. Ute Wallenböck for her guidance and kind help during the process of writing this thesis. I would also like to express my gratitude to Evan Dawley, Ph.D. for his valuable advice, help and encouragement. Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents and my closest friends for their daily support. Abstract My bachelor thesis examines the situation of Chinese women during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), within the methodological framework of a comparative and narrative analysis of the changing face of women in Chinese society based on three selected memoirs. My thesis deals with the narrative aspects of these memoirs, how the protagonists were affected, and how specific events resulting from the Cultural Revolution have changed their personal lives. It considers the changes of social, personal and mental processes, which the protagonists in the chosen memoirs live and go through to make daily life meaningful. My study analyses how the authors remember and write about their past, comparing each one of the women's experiences as well as addressing the issue of the relationship between their memory and the historical background. My thesis is based upon three memoirs that describe their personal stories and experience in detail. The experience and relentless torrent of events have impacted their collective memory, the way they gather memories through the experience they have been through and how they recall and forget events, places and people. The Culture Revolution the women have experienced was a complex of events that has affected each one of them differently based on their social status. Some benefited from it and some suffered from the very beginning and became victims. The Chinese women's status and the way they saw themselves has relatively changed after the onset of the Cultural Revolution that has launched in the manner of destroying old traditions and customs. The negative changes brought a lot of distress and hardship, impacted their memory and the way of thinking. These changes came mainly due to the amount of campaign, reforms, drastic restrictions, a downgrade of people's standard of living and acts of violence. Keywords Autobiography, Chinese women, cultural memory, memoir, The Cultural Revolution, narrative, experience Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................7 2. Theoretical Part .............................................................................................9 2.1. The Introduction of the Cultural Revolution and Mao’s Cult of Personality................ 9 2.1.2. Quotations From Chairman Mao (Mao Zhuxi Yulu ⽑主席语录) ......................13 2.1.3. Red Guards (Hong Weibing 红卫兵) and Their Power ......................................14 2.1.4. Big Character Posters (Dazibao ⼤字报) ............................................................16 2.2. Revolutionary Women and the Iron Girls (Tie Guniang 铁姑娘） ............................18 2.2.1. Gender Inequality and Female Inferiority in Chinese History ............................20 2.3. Relationship Between Memory, History and Narratives ............................................22 2.3.1. Definition of Memoir ..........................................................................................23 2.3.2. Conceptual Definition of Collective and Individual Memory ............................24 2.3.3. Autobiographical Memory ..................................................................................25 2.4. Introduction of the Cultural Revolution Memoirs ......................................................27 2.4.2. Overview of Jung Chang’s Life ..........................................................................28 2.4.3. Overview of Emily Wu’s Life .............................................................................29 2.4.4. Overview of Ræ Yang’s Life ...............................................................................30 3. Analytical Part .............................................................................................31 3.1. Analysis of the Primary Sources and Subsequent Comparison ..................................31 3.2. General Chronology ....................................................................................................32 3.3. Chronology of Jung Chang’s History .........................................................................33 3.4. Analysis of Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China.................................................. 34 3.5. Chronology of Emily Wu’s History ...........................................................................50 3.6. Analysis of Feather in the Storm : A Childhood Lost in Chaos ..................................51 3.6.1. Beginning of the Revolution in Hefei .................................................................53 3.6.3. Life in the Mountains ..........................................................................................60 3.6.4. Final Overview of Wu’s Story .............................................................................61 3.7. Chronology of Rae Yang’s History .............................................................................63 3.8. Analysis of Spider Eaters : A Memoir .........................................................................63 3.8.2. Volunteering in the Countryside ..........................................................................70 3.8.3. Final Overview of Yang’s Story ..........................................................................73 3.9. Comparative Part – Overview of Similarities and Differences................................... 77 4. Conclusion ....................................................................................................85 5. References ....................................................................................................88 1. Introduction This bachelor thesis aims to analyse the impacts of the Cultural Revolution on Chinese women based on three selected memoirs of a particular period of Chinese history and elucidate all the difficulties they went through. The analysis of this thesis is based on the real experience of three women narrated in their memoirs. It considers all the possible occasions, influences and situations the protagonist had to face in order to explore the constructed memories of the Cultural Revolution. Like many other Chinese, these three authors had to experience the hardship of the ten-year-long revolution and face all its consequences. The majority of the population tried to erase this period from their memory. These women, though, after leaving China, decided to put their memories on the paper and recount their experience, mainly to warn the younger generation to avoid the same mistakes and to inform the world about one of the most traumatic periods in Chinese history. To understand the authors' experience and the way of narrating their stories, it is essential to present the general information and facts related to the Cultural Revolution and all its results and consequences. It is also necessary to introduce the events resulting from the party’s decisions and evaluate the reactions of Chinese people’s Moreover, it is also essential to mention the remaining prejudices that shaped perceptions of women based on the historical point of view as well as the issue of the relationship between memory and history and how people tend to remember things. The thesis is divided into five chapters, including Introduction, Conclusion and References. The first part of the main body of the thesis is the theoretical part, divided into four chapters and each chapter contains several subsections concerning a different kind of topic. The first chapter of the theoretical part deals with the history of the Cultural Revolution and all the general information. However, it does not cover the topic in depth in the sense of the political point of view. The second chapter deals with the women’s situation during the revolution. The third part deals with the relationship between history and memory and conceptual definitions of individual and collective memory. The last chapter of the theoretical part focuses on the summary of the authors’ lives. The theoretical part is followed by the analytical part which represents the core of this thesis. The analytical part deals with these three memoirs of the Cultural Revolution: Wild Swans: Three daughters of China memoir of three generations by Jung Chang, Feather in the Storm: Childhood Lost in Chaos written by Emily Wu and Spider Eaters: A Memoir written by Rae Yang. I decided to analyse memoirs because they deal with an important post of Chinese history from an individual standpoint. These three memoirs are known as the very bestsellers of Chinese memoirs written by women who were born in the People’s Republic of China but later escaped the regime to live !7 abroad. They are known for their authentic story that deals with the Cultural Revolution issue and thus serves the