CHAPTER TWENTYTHREE THE ART OF WOMAN WRITERS 1. Th e Upsurge of Woman Writers Th ere was a great upsurge in woman writers during the 1980s in terms of both numbers and quality, a phenomenon that drew the attention of observers. Th e literary works of woman writers of diff ering ages and diff ering experience appeared at each stage and in each literary trend to diff ering reactions, leading to the work of woman writers becoming an important component of 1980s literature. Th e use of gender (“woman writers”) as one way of describing this literary phenomenon during this period was related to literature’s historical situation. As some critics have pointed out, there were two “high tides” of woman writers during the twentieth century: One was during the “May Fourth” period, and the other during the 1980s.1 Th e woman writers of the “May Fourth” period, such as Chen Hengzhe, Bing Xin, Lu Yin, Feng Yuanjun, Ling Shuhua, Bai Wei, and Luo Shu, and, somewhat later, writers such as Ding Ling and Su Xuelin, participated in the “liberation of the self”, “freedom of marriage”, and other social campaigns through their lit- erary writings as part of the enlightenment trend of thought that had intellectuals at its core. Th is writing not only accorded with the need of women to “discover” themselves, but also received attention as a social issue concerning “women’s liberation”. Moreover, their writing, in so far as it promoted innovative forces, was supported and guided by intel- lectual circles. However, precisely because the work of woman writers primarily received attention for participating in “social movements”, the setbacks met by the enlightenment movement they followed and the shift of attention in society from culture to politics led to a decrease and divisions in this form of writing by women with “oneself” as its object. In fact, during the 1930s and 1940s, only Ding Ling, Xiao Hong, Zhang Ailing, and a few other woman writers were active on the literary scene. 1 See: Li Ziyun, ‹Th e Vanguard Eff ect of Woman Writers in the History of Contempo- rary Chinese Literature›, Contemporary Writers Review (Shenyang), no. 6, 1987. the art of woman writers 405 From the 1950s through to the 1970s, this situation continued, with only Yang Mo, Ru Zhijuan, Cao Ming, Liu Zhen, and Hanzi among the few woman writers to enjoy relative success. As a result, the great upsurge in the number of woman writers during the 1980s marked a stark contrast with the previous era. Th is new situation was primarily aided by trans- formations in the whole of society and in the literary environment. Th e social and cultural rediscovery of the “female gender” and the tendency toward the “opening up” of literary subject matter and style eliminated certain obstacles to woman writers wishing to enter the realm of lit- erature. Furthermore, the special social position of women in Mainland China during the contemporary age—the reduction in inequality with men and other circumstances in the workplace and society, and a weak- ening of gender prejudice—was also of assistance to women entering the realm of literature. For women, “writing” was no longer a special right that required protection. Considering the age (natural age and literary age) of woman writ- ers during the 1980s, it is possible to make the following delineations. Firstly, there were those writers who were already well known during the 1950s and 1960s (or even earlier), and those who were middle-aged when they fi rst demonstrated their creative powers aft er the “Cultural Revolution”. Th e former group of writers included Yang Jiang, Wei Junyi, Zong Pu, Ru Zhijuan, Zheng Min, Chen Jingrong, and Huang Zongying, and the latter group included Zhang Jie, Shen Rong, Dai Houying, Dai Qing, Cheng Naishan, Hang Ying, Ye Wenling, Ling Li, and Huo Da. Th e most infl uential piece of work by Dai Houying2 was the novel Ah, Humanity!, published in 1980. It refl ected on the repression of human nature by politics during the contemporary period from a humanistic standpoint in describing the tragic plight of intellectuals. Th e contro- versy over this novel was a part of the debate over humanism during the “liberation of thought” movement in the early 1980s. Another group of woman writers during the 1980s was the so-called “educated youth” writers. Most of this group, which included Wang Anyi, Zhu Lin, Qiao Xuezhu, Lu Xing’er, Shu Ting, Zhang Kangkang, Zhang, Xinxin, Tie Ning, Zhai Yongming, Tang Min, Huang Beijia, and 2 Dai Houying (1938–1996) graduated from the Chinese Department of the East China Teachers’ Institute (now the East China Teachers’ University) in 1960. Her major works include the novels Ah, Humanity!, Death of a Poet, Footsteps in an Empty Valley, and Brain Fissure, and the short story and novella collection Th e Shackles are Soft ..