Femininity and mother-daughter relationships in twentieth-century Chinese literature (Bing Xin, Zhang Jie, Chen Ran, Maxine Hong Kingston, Gish Jen)

This dissertation examines literary discourses on motherhood and femininity in China in the May Fourth Period (1919–1930s) and the Post-Mao era (1979–present), as well as in the works of contemporary Chinese-American writers. Through reading works of Bing Xin (1900–1999), Zhang Re (1937–present), Chen Ran (1962–present), Maxine Hong Kingston (1940–present), and Gish Jen (1956–present), this dissertation argues that motherhood is not a unified and stable concept in modern China. Rather, the representation of motherhood is gendered, historically constructed, and culturally framed. This analysis provides a vantage point for observing the historical shift in the meaning of femininity in Chinese society.; The modernization efforts of the twentieth century have had a large influence on Chinese feminism. Nevertheless, Chinese women, while dedicated to the development of China, have come to control the direction and course of their liberation. While mainstream masculine discourses focus on the economic and social liberation of women to the disdain of domesticity, the female writers examined here do not draw a simple line between the public and the private realms. Instead, through their writings on motherhood, they explore the issue of femininity within the family. Unlike the mainstream discourse, which favors a rigid division between tradition and modernity, the authors recognize tradition as a potentially potent source of the modern womanhood.; Like their Chinese counterparts, Chinese-American women have also turned to tradition to define and defend their identities. The Chinese heritage, as represented by the mother's stories and languages, is the source of crisis as well as inspiration for their daughters. The women writers' treatment of the Chinese tradition has created controversy, which bespeaks the struggle between the masculine and feminist sensibilities in constructing a Chinese-American identity.; For both the native Chinese and Chinese-American female writers, the relationship between a feminist identity and a national identity for women is a very important area of inquiry and contention. The five authors' writings prove that women's liberation is by no means a “dependent clause” of national or ethnic development. Mass movement or not, women's emancipation needs to address the deeply embedded structural and ideological sources of gender inequality before it can be called emancipation for women.