Narrating Self and China Women’s Autobiography in Early Twentieth Century China Kristensen, Irina Publication date: 2016 Document license: CC BY-NC-ND Citation for published version (APA): Kristensen, I. (2016). Narrating Self and China: Women’s Autobiography in Early Twentieth Century China. Det Humanistiske Fakultet, Københavns Universitet. Download date: 27. Sep. 2021 Narrating Self and China Women’s Autobiography in Early Twentieth Century China Irina Kristensen Supervisor: Denise Gimpel PhD Dissertation October, 2015 University of Copenhagen Faculty of Humanities Dedication To my supervisor, Denise Gimpel, whose generous support and ceaseless encouragement made sure that this project saw the light of day. 2 Contents Abstract 5 Resumé 6 Notes on conventions 7 Introduction – A Theoretical Outline 8 Chapter One - Existing Narratives of China in the West 1. Introduction 21 2. Theorizing Narrative: Framing as Category of Analysis 24 3. Scholarship on Portrayals of China 26 4. The Evolution of Images of China 27 4.1. The Earliest Western Representations 28 4.2. Wondrous Images of China through the Eyes of Travelers and Adventurers 30 4.3. Images of Strange and Heathen China Formulated by Discoverers and the Jesuits 32 4.4. China as an Image of Backwardness and Weakness through the Lens of the 19th Century Missionaries and Diplomats 35 4.5. China’s Images Adjusted: Academics’ and Intellectuals’ View of China at the Beginning of the 20th Century 41 4.6. Chinese Image Formulators for the West 50 4.7. Chinese Women’s Images in the West 54 5. Appropriation of Western Images by Chinese Women Writers 60 Chapter Two - Female Images in Chinese Literature 1. Introduction 62 2. Theorizing Literary Characters: Men are Heroes and Women are Heroines? 65 3. Classifying Female Literary Characters 67 3.1. Women as Heroines 68 3.2. Women as Heroes 69 4. Images in Chinese Writing 72 4.1. Defining Chinese Literature 73 4.2. Which Texts to Explore 78 4.3. Female Images in Classical Texts 79 3 4.4. Female Images in Didactic Texts for Women 84 4.5. Female Images in Chinese Fiction 86 4.6. Women Writers’ own Self-representations 94 5. A Heroine but Also a Hero 95 Chapter Three - Chen Hengzhe: A Scholar’s Portrait of China 1. Introduction 99 2. Contradictions and Conflicts in Chen Hengzhe’s Autobiography 105 3. Old China Represented through Traditional Female Images 109 4. Images of Chen’s Younger Self as a Reflection of China in Transition 119 Chapter Four - Yang Buwei: A “Typical Chinese Woman’s” Portrayal of China 1. Introduction 133 2. Yang Buwei, a Woman Autobiographer 138 3. A Boy and a Girl, but First and Foremost – a Person 142 4. An Educated Woman 145 5. The Young Revolutionist 153 6. A Professor’s Wife or a Professor’s Wife? 155 7. “Commuter” between America and China 160 Chapter Five - Ling Shuhua: Interpreting China as an Artist 1. Introduction 169 2. Autobiography not Like the Others 177 3. Self-promotion by the Hand of the Other 184 4. Ling Shuhua as a Child Narrator 189 5. From “Neglected Child” to “Little Artist” 194 6. Ling Shuhua, a Cultural Interpreter 201 Conclusion 209 Bibliography 219 4 Abstract The present dissertation investigates three self-narratives written by Chinese women autobiographers in the first half of the twentieth century: Chen Hengzhe’s Autobiography of a Young Chinese Girl, Yang Buwei’s Autobiography of a Chinese Woman, and Ling Shuhua’s Ancient Melodies. Written with foreign audience in mind, these narratives provide a range of Chinese female images aiming to contest the predominant Western stereotypes about China and its people. Therefore the main argument of this study is that these women writers adopted the roles of cultural interpreters, which allowed them to position themselves as authoritative and representative voices and, at the same time, rejuvenate China’s image in the global arena. Scholarship in modern Chinese literature has already approached these texts from the perspectives of genre, gender, and translation studies providing many valuable insights into the questions of female subjectivity, autonomy and literary activity. This dissertation, however, adopts a new approach in that it applies various aspects of narrative theory in order to examine the autobiographies in question as spaces of intercultural communication (I apply Baker’s term of narrative framing, Abbot’s approach to narrative as a combination of a story and narrative discourse, and Fisher’s paradigm of narration as a way of human communication). Encouraged to write their life narratives by their foreign friends, these Chinese women writers enthusiastically responded to this call by taking authority into their hands and describing themselves and China on their own terms. Chen Hengzhe did so from the position of the woman scholar who, as a historian, possessed an ability to view and judge Sino-Western interactions from a larger perspective. Yang Buwei interpreted China for the West from the perspective of a “typical” Chinese woman with a quite atypical claim to have unique insights into both cultures. Finally, Ling Shuhua adopted the role of the woman artist who, as a true connoisseur of Chinese culture, had the authority to explain the beauty of its manifestations for the Western reader. The common feature of these women’s self-narratives is that they establish human connections across country boundaries by transmitting ideas and images, thus creating a meaningful dialogue between cultures. To highlight these issues this study operates with such essential key concepts as narrative frames, images, representations, power/knowledge relationship, space and cross-cultural communication. 5 Resumé Mit studie undersøger tre selv-narrativer skrevet af kinesiske kvindelige selvbiografiforfattere fra den første halvdel af den tyvende århundrede. Disse er Chen Hengzhes Autobiography of a Young Chinese Girl, Yang Buweis Autobiography of a Chinese Woman samt Ling Shuhuas Ancient Melodies. Disse narrativer, skrevet for udenlandsk publikum, bidrager med en hel række af tekstuelle repræsentationer (images) af kinesiske kvinder og har til formål at modsætte de dominerende stereotyper om Kina og dets folk i Vesten. Derfor er hovedformålet med dette studie, at demonstrere hvordan disse kvindelige forfattere tog rollen som kulturelle formidlere, rollen som gjorde det muligt for dem at positionere sig selv som stærke og repræsentative stemmer, og samtidigt at antyde deres autoritet til at ændre Kinas omdømme på verdensplanen. Den moderne akademiske forskning af den kinesiske litteratur har allerede bidraget med genre-, køn-, og oversættelsesstudiernes tilgangsvinkel til disse tekster og suppleret med mange værdifulde kommentarer omkring den kvindelige subjektivitet, selvstændighed og literære aktivitet. Dette studie tager imidlertid en ny tilgang til selvbiografi. Jeg undersøger de udvalgte selvbiografiske tekster som rum for den tværkulturelle kommunikation ved at anvende nogle aspekter tilhørende den narrative teori (for eksempel Bakers ”narrative framing,” Abbots tilgang til narrativ som en kombination af en fortælling og narrative diskurs samt Fishers paradigme der beskriver narrativ som en måde mennesker kommunikerer på). Disse kinesiske kvindelige forfattere, opfordret til at skrive deres egne livshistorier af deres udenlandske venner, reagerede med en entusiastisk og selvbevidst forsøg på at beskrive dem selv og Kina egenhændigt. Chen Hengzhe gør det ved at positionere sig selv som en kvindelig historiker, der brugte sin indflydelse og uddannelse til at fortolke Kina for Vesten. Yang Buwei beskriver sig selv som en ”typisk” kinesisk kvinde, som ikke desto mindre har indsigt og viden om både Kina og Vesten og kan derfor positionere sig selv som en formidler mellem begge verdensdele. Ling Shuhua ser sig selv som kvindelig kunstner, en ægte kender af de kinesiske kunstformer, som er i stand til at forklare skønheden af hendes lands kultur til hendes vestlige læser. Tilsammen, har disse selv- narrative et fælles træk idet de formår at skabe et fundament for menneskelige kommunikation tværs landsgrænser. Denne kommunikation afhjælper ideudvekslingen og fortolkningen af de tekstuelle repræsentationer og i sidste ende fremkalder en meningsfuld dialog imellem kulturer. For at belyse disse problemstillinger, dette studie opererer med de essentielle koncepter såsom narrative frames, images, repræsentationer, magt/viden forhold, rum og tværkulturel kommunikation. 6 Notes on conventions 1. The Pinyin system of transcription has been used throughout, except in quotations from sources using other systems and in names familiar to readers of English in other spellings such as “Yangtze.” 2. Chinese characters and dates are provided for terms and names the first time they are mentioned. 3. Chinese names are generally written with the family name first, except in cases where the opposite is standard (i.e., Western-style names like “Janet Ng”). 4. Full names are given for authors with the same last name in places where ambiguity arises. 7 Introduction A Theoretical Outline The first half of the 20th century witnessed an unusual literary phenomenon – a few Chinese women writers, Chen Hengzhe 陈衡哲 (1890-1976), Yang Buwei 杨步伟 (1889-1981) and Ling Shuhua 凌叔华 (1900-1990), chose to make stories about their lives accessible to a Western audience by writing their autobiographies in English. The texts in question are Chen’s Autobiography of a Chinese Young Girl (1935), Yang’s Autobiography of a Chinese Woman (1947), and Ling’s Ancient Melodies (1953). Not only did these women write in a language foreign to them, they also employed the literary genre of autobiography (zizhuan 自传) (with the exception of the last text which does not openly declare its affiliation with this genre) that was practically unknown in China prior to the turn of the 20th century. That Chinese women engaged themselves in writing openly about their lives in English was unprecedented in China. Unprecedented, however, does not mean unexpected. The period when these women were born and came of age was characterized by the strong influence of Western ideas upon the new generation of Chinese youth.