Negotiating Women's Independence

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Negotiating Women’s Independence

Traditional Women in Contemporary Taiwanese Women’s Writing

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N.E.R. Stokhuyzen

Student Number: s1241877

Media Studies

Cultural Analysis: Literature and Theory

Leiden University

Dr. Y. Horsman (advisor)

15 August 2019

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Note on Romanization

In Taiwan, an official system of romanization as nationwide standard has never been successfully adopted. Rather, many different systems are used such as Gwoyeu Romatzyh, Tongyong Pinyin, Wade-Giles, hybrids, and others. In the interest of consistency, I will limit myself to the use of Hanyu Pinyin in this thesis. Exceptions to this are direct quotations, titles, authors, and well-known proper names that already used different systems.

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Introduction

In the West, Taiwan gets generally lauded for their forward thinking, modernity, and democracy. Oftentimes, these statements are accompanied by expressions such as ‘as an Asian country’, or they’re compared to their ‘Mainland counterpart’. Taiwan does encourage these kind of comparisons by affirming the claim of being the most progressive Asian country. The progress of gender equality is one such aspect that gets frequently highlighted. The 2016 appointment of Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s first female president, and the recent legalizing of same-sex marriage are examples that demonstrate the progress the island has made in regards of gender equality. State issued reports such as ‘Gender at a Glance’ also show an increase in gender equality, socially and economically, to back those findings up.

However, in the last few decades, scholars have noticed a decline of feminist interest resembling some characteristics of America’s post-feminist era (Shaw and Tan, 2014: 352). Li Ang attributes this to the believe that the hard-fought for equality has already permeated Taiwanese society; women no longer feel the need to fight for it. The question we then face is: has Taiwan truly reached a state of gender equality that no longer requires a (radical) feminist movement? Through my study, I will show that in reality this isn’t the case and that there’s still a tension in Taiwan between formal and social equality.

In this thesis, my aim is to provide an analysis on the position of women in the contemporary Taiwanese society, characterized by its tensions of negotiating between modernism and traditionalism, as it is represented in contemporary literature. My focus will be on a selection of short stories as these are a popular medium used by Taiwanese women writers. I have therefore made a selection of six shorts spanning the last three decades, which I will analyze for this purpose. It must be noted that I’ve limited myself to stories that were already available in English translations found in anthologies and magazines1_{. This means that a}

selection had already been made of what was deemed to be well enough or popular enough for translation. However, my selection revolves around the central theme of economically independent women. These women struggle to negotiate between their new-found freedom and the expectations Taiwanese society has of them to maintain traditional values. As opposed to popular Western discourse, I will not compare Taiwan with other Asian countries or Chinese cultures. In my analysis, I will look only at Taiwanese culture and history in an effort to create a more focused study. However, for this study, I’m analyzing another culture as a European

1_{I used the following sources: Contemporary Taiwanese Women Writers: An Anthology, City Women:}

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woman and cannot deny the colored view that this creates. Although I try to maintain a neutral approach without othering the subject of my analysis, it should be clear that I can’t possibly form a complete understanding of the particular experiences of Taiwanese women. Having said that, this won’t keep me from forming a critical view from which to construct my findings.

In my analyses, I take on a feminist approach to point out the imbalanced structures of gender and sexuality in Taiwanese culture. Even though the start of the feminist discourse in Taiwan was inspired by Western- mainly French and American- feminist theories, Taiwan is known for having developed its own feminist rhetoric with original feminist theory to account for the Confucian influences of Taiwanese funü wenti ‘women’s issues’. In this light, I have chosen for my theoretical framework to mainly focus on Lu Hsiu-lien’s2_{feminist theory as}

written in her book New Feminism (Xin Nüxing Zhuyi, 1974). I use the original 1974 publication of Lu’s work, written in Chinese, and as such will provide my own translations. Lu’s book is seen as the bedrock of Taiwanese feminism. Tackling many Confucian traditions, she proposes a new kind of feminism to better suit the needs of Taiwanese women. In my first chapter, I will provide a historic overview to properly explain the characteristics that Taiwanese feminism took on and to understand the importance of Confucianism for that discourse. Additionally, for my analyses, I will use Simone de Beauvoir’s chapter on “Woman in Love” from ‘Part II’ of The Second Sex. De Beauvoir’s theory provides a better understanding of women’s desires for a romantic love, which characterizes many of the male-female relationships from these shorts.

My second chapter, the first analytical chapter, explores this romantic love. I will use Lu’s and De Beauvoir’s theories to analyze three shorts. I will first analyze Xiao Sa’s ‘The Colours of Love’, a story about a man seducing single working women for financial gain. I will show how the author uses a male focalization to critique the objectification of women. She also exposes the risk these working women face of losing their independence when giving in to the woman’s desire for romantic love. I will relate this to Lin Tai-man’s ‘Party Girl’, which tells the story of a woman seducing men to acquire wealth and stability. My analysis will show that this story emphasizes the futility of women’s attempts to reach economic independence and equality in the current society. Lin exposes Taiwan’s gender imbalances, though fails to provide a solution to improve those. I argue she instead suggests a reinforcement of women’s subservient position and traditional gender roles. The final short that I will analyze in this chapter, Zhu Tianwen’s ‘Fin de Siècle Splendour’, follows the love affair of Mia, a modern

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woman who denounces traditional love based in marriage. My analysis of this story will show how the importance of economic independence for Taiwanese women is emphasized while simultaneously maintaining the ideal of several Confucian values.

The third chapter will focus on female sexuality. Lu’s theory of ‘One-sided Chastity’ provides the background from which I approach this theme. This chapter examines one short:

The Devil in a Chastity Belt, written by the well-known feminist writer Li Ang. I will provide

an in-depth analysis of this story to understand Li Ang’s critique on the unequal expectations of women concerning their sexuality and the fate that economically independent women face under the prevalent traditional values.

In my final analytical chapter, I will primarily use Cockburn and Connell’s work on masculinities to explain the trend of women being undermined in the workplace. For this, I study two shorts by Lee Wei-jing that centralize women’s experiences at work. The two stories take different approaches; one focusing on male-female relations and one focusing on inter-female relations. ‘The Book Thief’ tells the story of a woman whose male superiors refuse to take her seriously when she complains about colleagues stealing her books; ‘Female Colleague’ follows a female CEO whose female colleague repeatedly confronts her with her unmarried state. Together, these stories expose the continuous struggles that financially independent women face at work caused by the traditional values that still influence their lives enforced by both men and women.

Lastly, I will use Joan Riviere’s psychoanalytical theory of “Womanliness as a Masquerade” to support my conclusion: contrary to the belief that Taiwanese women have reached equality, which the decline in feminist interest suggests, they have in fact run into a wall. Formal equality does not equal de facto equality. Ambivalent gender displays support the denial of de facto inequalities for the sake of women’s personal well-being. Due to the strongly prevalent traditional values that they are still expected- and expect themselves- to adhere to, women’s issues are no less in need of a feminist movement.

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Chapter One: The Formation of a Taiwanese Women’s Movement

Though the history between Taiwan and China and complexities of Taiwanese identities are certainly present in Taiwanese literary works, I will not go deeper into this subject as it is not the primary focus of this study. In this chapter, I will, however, elaborate on China’s history concerning the formation of a Chinese feminist rhetoric. This will accurately situate the works I intend to analyze both historically and culturally. In this introductory chapter, I provide such a backdrop because the drives, ideas, and values of Chinese feminism starting from the twentieth century, are present also in the works of contemporary women writers in Taiwan. As Chiang notes: “The female literary tradition in Taiwan's women's literature can be traced to early twentieth-century Chinese women writers, whose works […] traditionally refer to the ideal norm for femininity with positive connotations […].” (Chiang, 1994: 12)

1.1 Traditional Confucianist Values

When speaking of Chinese feminism, it is important to note that I’m not speaking of feminism as it is known in the West per se. I use the term feminism here rather loosely in referring to the discourse overall. Chinese feminists have used different terms for feminism and when relevant I will use those terms because of the different nuanced meanings they imply.

The reason why Chinese feminism should be seen as different from Western feminisms, is the fact that China has had a vastly different history with different values. Gender and sex as a concept started from Daoist and Confucianist traditional values. In these traditions, terms like

xing, ‘gender’ or ‘sex’, refer not only to one’s physical presence but also to the more

philosophical presence. That presence is intrinsically linked to the concepts of yin and yang. The principles of this binary concept take certain attributes, which consist of opposites, where one is tied to yin and one is tied to yang. Female (yin) attributes are often those which are seen as secondary to its opposite male (yang) attribute. Kwok-kan Tam aptly notes that “in such a cosmic view the differences between male and female are accepted as part of the natural order” (Tam, 2009: xi. My emphasis). This results in the manifestation within Chinese societies of an unequal hierarchical order. The subservient role females were expected to fulfil were therefore seen as their natural role and for a long time remained entirely unquestioned. One’s sex merely equaled the things they were supposed to do. These things were largely in service of their family (men), their community, and their nation. The roles of women were recorded in the ‘Three Obediences’ and ‘Four Virtues’. The ‘Three Obediences’ are to obey your father before

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marriage, your husband when married and your son in widowhood. ‘The Four Virtues’ consists of guidelines for virtuous women including such things as to not talk too much or to refrain from developing any talents like writing. As I’ve mentioned, these guidelines remained unquestioned and were considered to be dangran heli ‘only logical’ for long time. However, this would change at the start of the 1920’s.

1.2 The Women’s Movement in China, Nüquanzhuyi (1920’s)3

The traditional values started to be rejected due to the student protests in Beijing, and the May Fourth Movement and New Cultural Movement (1915-1923), which arose in response to Western imperialism. The movement promoted a reevaluation of Chinese culture with an anti-Confucian stance and embraced scientific and democratic Western ideals. This prompted the import of Western feminist theory as well. The then current trends of women’s professional and economic opportunities and women’s education came under scrutiny.

Interestingly, Chinese women chose the use of the word ‘nüquanzhuyi’ (nü meaning ‘female’ and quan meaning ‘rights’ or ‘strength’) over the use of ‘feminism’, or a direct translation thereof. This prevented it from being confused with the Western meaning. Nüquan ‘women’s rights’ became the movement’s main point of focus. To quote Croll: “For the first two decades [feminism] was used to denote the exclusive advocacy of women’s right […].” (Croll, 1978: 54-55). The Chinese feminist discourse, at this point, established an understanding of Chinese women’s issues as being a struggle only for formal rights and power.

At the start of the development of a Chinese feminist rhetoric, the call for a consciousness on women’s issues first came from respected male intellectuals like Lu Xun and Hu Shi. It was mostly men suggesting a reevaluation of traditional values. Tam mentions how a publication of Lu Xun’s short Zhufu, a story about a woman being passed down husbands in the early 1920’s, ignited a discussion about female identity (Tam, 2010: xiv-xv). During this time, the question of human as opposed to female identity got a lot of attention. Many women’s magazines, such as Funü Zazhi (“Women’s Magazine”) and Nüzi Shijie (“Women’s World”) were devoted to raising a female consciousness. Even though, arguably, male intellectuals did pave the way for a Chinese feminism to emerge, their writing could never truly show the living conditions and inequalities women experienced. Bo Wang rightfully points out that, as a result,

3_{Bo Wang mentions in ‘Engaging Nüquanzhuyi: The Making of a Chinese Feminist Rhetoric’ that the start of a}

women’s movement dates a little further back to the late Qing due to women questioning the practice of foot binding and starting women’s education (Wang 2010: 391). However, as Elisabeth Croll notes, there was no intended change in women’s role or status at the time (Croll, 1978: 55). In contrast, The May Fourth Movement did give way to the development of a feminist discourse, which would concern itself with such issues.

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many women writers from the early twentieth century did take the opportunity to “rewrite the cultural narrative and construct women’s subjectivities” in a patriarchal society (Wang 2010: 390). Consequently, women writers assessed and developed their own definition of

nüquanzhuyi and aimed to show that it was adapted yet distinct from Western feminism.

One of the differences, was the balance proposed by Chinese feminists of both women’s equal humanity as well as their femininity. It was important for women to pursue whichever talent they might have, whether that was considered to be traditionally female or not. Following this idea, women were motivated to develop their interests in male dominated professions, though, at the same time, they were asked not to discard their femininity. This meant that while women were encouraged not to ignore the ‘male’ talents they might possess, the importance of

xianqi liangmu ‘being a good wife and loving mother’ was still underlined. The possession and

further development of talents stood opposed to the Confucian ideal that a virtuous woman should remain without skill. Still, by continuing to put an emphasis on their roles as women, the Confucianist values would not be completely discarded. The reason for this can be attributed to the thought that both men’s and women’s roles were ultimately ascribed to them for the betterment of their nation. While women were no longer expected to be in service of men, they should, as always, still be in service of their nation and its future. Traditionally, only men contributed to their nation’s future through their professions and intellect. Women were now able to do the same. However, being a good mother and wife remained essential and was therefore still considered of great importance, something that shouldn’t suffer for the cause. Consequently, women were now able to serve through both traditional motherhood as well as a newly found independence. Therefore, we can conclude that Chinese feminism striving to improve the women’s position was not just in favor of women’s independent lives, it was also motivated by the importance of their nation’s welfare and the ability to contribute to that. The Chinese nüquanzhuyi broke through suppressive Chinese traditions and at the same time, being shaped by a Confucian history, it set itself apart from the more individualist focus of Western feminism (Ibid) by characterizing itself as a tool for the betterment of the Chinese nation.

1.3 The New Life Movement, Neotraditionalism and the GMD (1930’s)

The role that the Guomindang (GMD) played in the development of the funü yundong ‘women’s movement’ in the 1930’s, after the May Fourth Movement, should not be ignored. Croll, in her chapter on Guomindang China, shows how most supporters of the funü yundong

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came to celebrate the GMD’s ideas of emancipation and denounced those of their rival party, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party).

During this time, the GMD started a revived interest in Confucianist values through the neo-traditionalist New Life Movement. This movement called for women’s emancipation as well as a preservation of values and virtues and return to traditional femininity. The new funü

yundong following these principles was believed to be the work of the GMD. At this time, new

laws were written and accepted, laws that would ensure women of rights to more equal pay, professional opportunities, and rights in the domestic space. However, as Croll rightfully inserts: “[…] the idea of equality of women was not carried through with absolute consistency [, in] theory the laws were capable of changing the domestic and public, economic, social and political relations between men and women, but the traditional social and economic position of women was not given due consideration.” (Croll, 1978: 156). This is hardly surprising considering what the New Life Movement stood for. We can observe that here already there is a tension between formal and de facto equality. Despite new formal laws, there are still numerous cultural and social patterns working to keep the existing inequalities in place. The second wave of Western feminism concerns themselves with this as well. However, for GMD China, it is even more critical as it points even to tensions within the New Life Movement itself, which is after all characterized by the contradictory nature of wanting to both improve women’s situations as well as return to traditional orders of feminine virtues. Still, after the victory of the accepted new laws, the goal of emancipation was by many considered to be reached. Not much more was to be done as feminists proclaimed that economic independence was within reach (Ibid: 157). In actuality, the new stipulations concerning familial relationships were still male-centered. In essence, the husband remained to have the right to control his wife’s property, taking away the hard-fought for financial independence (Chang, 2009: 52).

Many considered this the time for women to become a ‘new’ modern woman. Becoming such a new woman would be done by combining Western philosophy and knowledge while adhering to Chinese social values. Song Meiling, otherwise known as Madame Chiang, played a big part in setting up government-affiliated schools and training programs dedicated to teaching modern women, or ‘new women’, the ways of becoming a virtuous woman. This consisted largely of emphasizing the ideal of xianqi liangmu. Madame Chiang reiterated the importance of housework, a return to the kitchen, and motherhood. The GMD would continue these efforts after relocating in Taiwan. It is not surprising that Taiwanese women writers write about similar topics as Chinese women did in the early twentieth century, when a Confucianist

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symbolic order was first questioned, as Taiwan became a culture that stresses the importance of traditional values.

After 1949, when the GMD had fled from mainland China to the other side of the strait, the party immediately implemented their ideologies. The nation’s economic development was their number one priority, which meant that social welfare came second. They developed a family-centered welfare ideology (Ibid: 62), which urged women to take care of their family rather than venturing outside for work. However, the GMD still encouraged young women to work before marriage. Economically, this worked out well for them as they were able to use women’s low-cost labor.4_{The government further ensured the acceptance of their values and ideologies}

by incorporating the work of Confucius in the educational curriculum. The women’s movement here was once again led by Song Meiling and also focused on a return to traditions. She reminded women of their obligations to serve and love not only their family, but perhaps more importantly their nation as well. In many ways, the GMD made sure to continue the Confucian ideology that they first disseminated in China after the May Fourth Movement. The Taiwanese women’s movement was shaped by this return to Confucianism and would remain this way until a new feminist movement was introduced in the seventies by Lu Hsiu-lien.

1.4 Lu Hsiu-lien and Taiwanese Feminism

In the 1970’s, the authoritarian rule of the GMD softened partially due to the forced withdrawal from the United Nations. Politically, this meant that there was slightly more room for autonomous social and political movements. This is also when the “pioneering stage” - a term I borrow from Doris T. Chang (Chang, 2009: 46)- of the Taiwanese women’s movement started. This pioneering stage was initiated by the Pioneer Press run by Lu Hsiu-lien. Few people have been as important to the making of a Taiwanese feminist rhetoric as her. Lu finished her studies in the United States, where she was introduced to Western feminist theories. When she returned, she wrote and published her own feminist work New Feminism in 1974. In this book, she challenges Confucian gender roles and identifies it as the root cause of women’s suffering. She also critiques the patriarchal structures of Taiwan and reflects on the GMD’s implemented legislations. Laws that should provide women with more equal opportunities and financial independence, were rendered invalid as women’s subservience to

4_{By implementing this strategy, women took care of their families (the elder and the young) and exempted the} GMD from having to spend money on setting up childcare facilities. They were also able to profit from young women’s low-cost workforce. (Tang, 1997: 88–89)

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men was still maintained through marital laws.5_{Additionally, the professional and economic}

opportunities for women, though ‘ensured’ through written law, were scarce and much lower than that for men. The women that did enjoy a higher education and started careers received a lot of male critique (Rubinstein, 2004: 253). We can notice here the disparity of the ‘ensured’ equality and the actual situation that women were in. Lu problematizes this and identifies that societal structures, shaped by Confucianism are to blame. However, Chang notes: “[Lu Hsiu-lien] was not entirely immune from the pervasive power of the Kuomintang propaganda’s ideological indoctrination.” (Ibid: 76). The influence of the state-controlled education is still discernable in her work. The book was Lu’s effort to combine liberal feminism and traditional femininity (Ku, 1998: 116). In her own words, she argues that “feminism arose as a societal demand. Women had awakened to the fact that they were bright, capable, and could achieve gender parity. Gender equality is necessary to create a prosperous, harmonious society that recognizes and cultivates the unique talents of all individuals” (Lu, 2009: 45). In addition, in her ‘Portrait of a Feminist’, she describes her ideal feminist, among other things, as “proud of being herself”, “ambitious, responsible”, “independent” and that she “enriches her intellect as much as her femininity” (Lu, 1994: 297. Translated by Lu herself). From these quotes, it is apparent that while Lu strives for women’s equality, the place that femininity occupies in traditional values is nonetheless maintained. Similarly, Lu calls for a sense of self-esteem in women as well as independence and ambition. However, in New Feminism she later writes: “We love our nation, our family, ourselves.” (Ibid.: 303) She holds on to the sentiment prevalent in Confucianism, as supported by Song Meiling, of the need to serve their nation. While, she also mentions self-love, this notably comes after “our nation” and “our family”. We can detect already here that Lu is negotiating between the need for a feminist movement and the desire to preserve their traditions.

1.5 Contemporary Taiwan’s Working Women

In the chapter ‘Does Taiwan Need Women’s Movement?’6_{, Lu critiques the status of education}

and employment opportunities for women in relation to Taiwan’s economy and backs her findings up with several statistics (Lü, 1974: 58-68). She shows that over the years more

5_{As I have mentioned earlier through quoting Croll, the emancipation of women initiated by the GMD did little} to improve the unequal relations between husband and wife. This same thing happened here as, notwithstanding the legislation addressing gender equality, the traditional hierarchical interrelations of man/woman remained intact.

6_{New Feminism provides a translated table of contents in the back of the book. It contains several small grammar} and language mistakes. I have decided to use the original title, including these mistakes.

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women did seek higher education but are afterwards discouraged to build a career and escorted back home to work in the kitchen. In the sixties, the number of working women consisted of less than half of the number of men. Many of them being either young teenage girls, working to support their mothers financially, or female workers in physical labor. Only a very small number of jobs was available to women which required a higher education. She found that: “The rate of unemployment among women who are educated is very low. It seems that the lower the degree of women’s education, the greater the chance that she will be employed because she is willing to do simple physical labor.” (Ibid: 66. Translated by me). She argues that this is not only a waste of education but also a missed opportunity as it is a great loss to society (Ibid: 62). According to Lu, education and a career are the gateway to women’s improved positions. Lu believes that women’s talents should, in contrast to Confucian virtues, be encouraged to be further developed and that there should be a reevaluation of the assigned social roles for men and women.

After Lu started Taiwan’s funü yundong, the island went through its industrialization. This boosted a rapid economic growth. The changes this brought about benefited urban, better educated and younger women, who received more opportunities generated by the economic development (Chou, 1993: 331). However, notwithstanding the fact that many more women were employed around 1985, higher-paying and decision-making jobs still failed to integrate more women and largely remained occupied by men (Ibid: 352). Additionally, since the publishing of New Feminism in 1974, the gender wage gap remains problematic in Taiwan7_.

Robert Marsh conducted two sets of interviews with Taiwanese men on women’s pay, forty years apart from each other. Contrary to his expectations, men’s attitude towards working women remained the same despite the immense socioeconomic changes Taiwan went through; a little under a third of the men disapproved of women’s equal pay. Their reasoning was ascribed to the belief of women having more responsibilities socially and at home (agreeing with Confucianist ideals) and to the perception of women’s lesser work efficiency, ability and/or intelligence on the job. In addition, older and less educated Taiwanese men were not more opposed to equal pay than younger and more educated men (Marsh, 2004: 167). This lack of change in men’s attitude is notable as it may serve to explain why women’s factual equality remains an issue in Taiwan.

7_{According to published Gender at a Glance reports by the ‘Directorate General of Budget, Accounting, and}

Statistics’, there’s been an improvement of about 8 percent compared to a decade ago. However, some years, including 2019, do not see a narrowing but rather a (small) growth of the gap.

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In conclusion, the trend of working women is considered to be an important indicator of women’s changing roles and status. Traditionally, women have been viewed as subservient to men in Chinese societies. When a feminist movement started to form, these values were attacked but continued to play an important role. According to Lu Hsiu-lien, this kept women from reaching their full potential in becoming themselves as well as in serving their nation. It is no surprise that in the funü yundong a heavy emphasis has been put on obtaining legal rights, such as equal pay and job opportunities, as a way to reach economic independence. However, even after obtaining these rights, little seems to actually change on sociocultural level. The relations between man/woman have largely stayed the same. Because of the indoctrination of Confucianism by the KMT, older generations are expected to have more conservative views than younger Taiwanese, born after the lifting of the martial law (as was reflected for example by the 2017 referendum on same-sex marriage). Still, as Marsh’s study shows, different generations barely showed a shift in men’s views on women’s issues. As can be seen in this phenomenon, the assigned and expected social roles given to men and women originating from Confucianism have been kept in place over time. Even though Taiwanese women’s financial participation keeps growing and their political representation is among the largest in the world, they still experience inequality at home as well as in the workplace. Taiwan remains a culture to value its traditions. As it keeps modernizing and changing, it appears to struggle; trying to combine the rise of feminist movements with the preservation of traditional values and an ideal femininity. We see a continued tension between a formal equality and a sociocultural inequality. The stand I take throughout my thesis is that this tension is exactly what the stories I analyze examine.

In the next part, I will analyze six different short stories, written by five different Taiwanese women writers, to analyze the effects that the incorporation of those traditional values in Taiwanese feminism have had on the status of contemporary women in Taiwan. To do this I have divided this thesis into three parts, each of which will focus on a different theme. In this next chapter, I will analyze three short stories on how they depict women in male-female relationships.

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Chapter Two: Male-Female Relationships, Romantic Love and Commodities

In my last chapter, I provided a historic overview. This has shown the importance of the influence of traditionalism in the formation of a Taiwanese feminism. I focused on the disparity between formal and de facto equality as a result of Taiwan’s continuous struggle between modernity and their traditions. In this chapter, I will focus on something related to this, namely how male-female relations function in Taiwanese society as it is reflected in literature. For this, I will discuss three stories: ‘The Colours of Love’, ‘The Party Girl’, and ‘Fin de Siècle Splendour’. Paragraph 2.1 and 2.2 will examine two stories that portray male-female relations that are characterized by how one party uses the other for personal gain. However, they do differ from one another. The first establishes a critical point-of-view on women’s submissive positions through the use of male focalization. The second actually creates the opposite effect using female focalization. I put these two stories in contrast with paragraph 2.3 by using a third story that differs from both others, which presents a feminist protagonist with a focus on individualism. The shared theme among all three is the disparate relation between economic independence and emotional independence.

2.1 Romantically Dependent Women in ‘The Colours of Love’

As I will move to analyze Xiao Sa’s ‘The Colours of Love’ (1988) and discuss the possible feminist issues that are raised in this text, it might be important to note that Xiao Sa did not proclaim herself as a feminist nor did she categorize her work as feminist writing (Markgraf, 2018: 107. Note 99). However, whether or not she categorizes her stories as such does not affect my reading in that I do find certain feminist issues to be brought to light in her story ‘The Colours of Love’. In my following analysis I will clarify how this story questions the independence of women that are financially well-off and examines the inconsistencies between formal equality and sociocultural equality rooted in a patriarchal society. The women that Xiao Sa presents to us are modern, often divorced, hold jobs and are able to spend their money freely. However, it becomes evident in the story that they’re not as independent as you might expect. There are rooted views in which women have traditionally been considered of lesser value and used as commodities. Moreover, these women allow themselves to be controlled by men as such because of their warped view of love. They devote themselves to a man, who, in actuality, wants nothing to do with them. Through its use of a male focalizor the novel is able to confront

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its reader with the implications of this attitude. This story is therefore not a celebration of women’s independence. Rather, it serves as a critique of the current situation.

2.1.1 Economic Independence

Markedly, all the women in this story are in a place where they can take care of themselves. They may all be considered economically independent and can decide for themselves how to spend their money. For example, they insist to pay not just for themselves but for Xianda as well. Xianda, although impressed, still won’t accept their independence. He has a contradiction in him where he “was glad to see a woman spending freely, yet he advised them in all sincerity to live frugally” (121). This is evident in the following passage:

Women are an unprincipled lot as far as spending is concerned. Those who are not fussy about what they eat are willing to spend a few thousand NT on a blouse or a skirt. Take Lan Jincheng for example: she was just a kindergarten teacher baby-sitting her pupils, yet when he went with her to one of the big stores she spent NT2,8008_{on a scarf. Of course it was her}

money. She was quite well off. Besides getting a salary, she was also a piano teacher. Women are sometimes quite good at increasing their earning potential. At least all the women he had loved were very well off. (125)

There are more instances wherein this need of control over women’s spending by Xianda is shown. He is supportive and approving of women earning their own salary, though still feels the need to judge their decision on how that money is spent. Next, he realizes that “of course it was her money”, which implies his awareness of this contradiction he has. However, he seems to struggle with the acceptance of women becoming more independent because of it. Additionally, Xianda downplays these women’s achievements or successes that allow them to live this way. He starts this off by describing the women as “those who are not fussy about what they eat”. Interestingly, this implies that neither type of spending is considered acceptable by him. He states that either they spend their money on food or it is spent on clothes. This is a gross generalization, but more importantly, by calling it ‘being fussy’, Xianda underlines his statement that neither which way women can be trusted with their economic independence. Moreover, stating that this happens only “sometimes” and describing it as “increasing their

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earning potential” also invalidates these women’s independence by ascribing a serendipitous nature to it. Xianda, although impressed, still won’t acknowledge these women’s independence.

2.1.2 Male Focalization

‘The Colours of Love’ is notably the only text of my corpus that is written from a male protagonist’s point of view. The story is told by an external narrator, whose knowledge is confined to the realm of the protagonist’s mind. The focalization remains almost exclusively with the protagonist Huang Xianda. Most other contemporary Taiwanese women writers tend to choose a female focalization. However, I argue that Xiao Sa’s narrative choice to use the male focalizor precisely enables her to throw light upon patriarchal structures. The patriarchal discourse, as Sheng Ying argues, is after all upheld by male writers who have “created myths about love and sex” (Sheng, 2010: 126). Sheng deconstructs these myths. She argues that most male writers see themselves as men who passionately admire women. In reality, these men hide their misogynistic tendencies through a false appreciation of women. Sheng concludes, using Jia Pingwa9_{, that “the male writer’s position with regard to women is clear: the sight of a}

beautiful woman is no more than a form of sexual enjoyment.” (Sheng, 2010: 128). This men’s view implies that women are expected to look a certain way to fulfil their roles in service of men. This is connected to the deep-rooted Confucian values where their assumingly inherent difference designates women to the subservient functions in society.

In ‘The Colours of Love’, Xiao Sa exposes this false appreciation of women claimed by male writers that Sheng critiques. She is able to do this through the use of a male focalization. The protagonist Xianda considers himself to be a person who values women. However, the display of his focalization provides an understanding of his actual view of women, which is in fact deeply misogynistic. This becomes clear when we read how he experiences an encounter with one of his girlfriends, early on in the story:

That day, glittering specks of light danced on her dress, her face, her arms and legs, and her hair. It was the sunlight pouring through the gaps in the foliage. He was quite taken with her profile, quiet and refined. Sitting

9_{Jia Pingwa is a Chinese writer, who wrote the well-known essay ‘On Women’ [Guanyu Nüren]. He discusses}

how beauty is men’s designated function for women, meaning that women must take great care of their beauty so that they may be admired by men. According to Jia, the reality of a male-centered society should be accepted. Fang Jincai also concludes that Jia believes that “women’s quest for equality is questionable because men and women are fundamentally different” (Fang, 2004: 80).

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himself on a stone bench he looked at her adoringly from afar. She sensed she was being watched. Her expression became even more enticing, and her fingers on the fan arched, ever so little, like orchid petals. Her thin lips parted slightly, emitting a sigh now and then. She was obviously a lonely woman, and he specialized in lonely women. He was confident he’d get them. (118-119)

The passage starts off with the description of a woman, comparing her appearance to nature’s beauty. Seemingly adoring her, his thoughts then shift into establishing the woman as easy prey, there to be conquered by him. The first sentence is ambiguous in regards to focalization. It initially seems to be external due to there being no indication of it being someone’s observation. However, as it is continues, it becomes clear that we are, as it were, watching along with Xianda. This invites us to adopt his views, yet, simultaneously, we distance ourselves from it because of his objectification. Through this fairly abrupt, though at the same time quite seamless, transition that goes from him ‘being conquered by her beauty’10_{to his}

‘conquering of her by him’, Xiao Sa is able to expose the objectification of women and the power imbalance that is often hidden by their false appreciation as discussed by Sheng. Every description of a woman’s appearance hereafter, whether he’s judging imperfections or applauding proper physiognomy and behavior, now leaves us with an uneasy feeling. Through this process, Xianda’s male gaze has become apparent. As a result, it sheds light on the ways to read the descriptions of women following this incident.

Following this passage, we soon become aware of who Xianda actually is: a scam-artist. He chooses a woman, gets her to fall in love with him, convinces her to loan him a large sum of money, and then disposes of her. He’s established this pursuit for himself as playing some kind of game.11_{He believes to have uncovered the ways all women act and prides himself}

for his aptitude and skill in this game. Consequently, he regards these women as something to be controlled and to be in service of him. Women don’t seem to have any particular value. The literary choice Xiao Sa makes in using a male focalizor allows her to reveal the implicit notions that structure gender relations. This would not have been visible if looked at these relations only at the level of formal laws or economic equality. Literature is therefore crucial to make cultural inequalities palpable.

10_{Jia Pingwa claims this to be the meaning of women’s existence (Ibid: 128-129)} 11_{There are continuous references made to this throughout the story.}

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2.1.3 The Desire for Romantic Love

Lu Hsiu-lien has identified these cultural inequalities to be partially rooted in Confucian traditions that led to women being treated as commodities. She explains how already from birth children are given a certain value based on their gender.12_{Prior to marriage, daughters are only}

valued for being able to work, to support the family. Lu argues that this isn’t caused by an essential ‘difference’ between the natures of men and women. Rather, it stems from a long tradition in which the family name, which is tied to their ancestors and reflects a certain social status, could only be passed down paternally. Daughters were therefore considered useless. Later, these daughters would become wives, whose value rests only on them being ‘tools’ used for the succession of the family (Lü, 1974: 71). Because of its long tradition, this was considered dangran heli and remained unchanged.

The history of ascribing a lesser value to women has ultimately led to the still present treatment of women as commodities. The women in the story of ‘The Colours of Love’, from Xianda’s perspective, are used as such as well. To him, women are passive beings, which can be used to further his cause. The women he swindles are for example used for their money. Furthermore, he envisions his future wife as an object that could serve him as well. In the story’s closing passage, Xianda’s future is visualized as follows:

When he had enough money he’d open a coffee shop, and then he’d take his mother’s advice and select a bride through the match-makers, someone with a clean past, someone from a good family. She had to be young and pretty, and most importantly, she had to have good skin. Then she could bear him a couple of kids, best if they were a boy and a girl. (138)

Firstly, it’s made clear that these believes are not something that is exclusive to men or to older generations; he and his mother are in agreement about the role of women. Secondly, he makes demands of his future bride in her appearance, and reduces her to her ability to “bear him a couple of kids”. These two aspects determine her value. In his demands, he remarkably refers specifically to her skin as what’s most important- her surface, not what’s underneath. This further emphasizes her lack of value as a commodity in presenting a sort of empty shell. Again,

12_{Parents are excited when a son is born and are congratulated by friends and family. However, when a daughter} is born they are generally disappointed and receive a sort of “That’s OK” as the typical ‘congratulatory’ message (Lü, 1974: 70-7).

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this supports the idea of women being subservient objects for men. Not just from his, but also from his family’s point of view, we may conclude that the idea that women function as tools for men is still present.

The treatment of women as commodities goes even further if we look at the romantic relationships between men and women. Women have traditionally seen men as their masters and themselves as servants. This has resulted in an unequal balance of power between man and women in romantic relationships. Women are expected to give everything to men, though it is not received in kind. We see this happening with Xianda and his girlfriends. The women completely give themselves to him. There are several instances where we may observe this happening, which I will examine later.

Both Lu Hsiu-lien and Simone de Beauvoir have touched on this subject. Lu has written about this idea of women desperate for men’s love in New Feminism. She addresses the different experiences of love that men and women have and why that is:

Byron says that love is only a part of man’s life but for woman it’s her entire life. This is because for men they have many responsibilities and they have to work. They think it superfluous to spend too much time on a woman and once his desires are met, they vanish, but to a woman love equals her life, so when she is discarded, her world falls apart as she has been filling a void by perceiving the man as a god.” (Lü, 1974: 138-139. Translated by me).

De Beauvoir also discusses this subject in her chapter ‘Woman in Love’ in The Second Sex, where she discusses a similar view. De Beauvoir concludes her observation at the end of the chapter through quoting Balzac’s view. She states:

Balzac says: ‘In the higher order, man's life is glory, woman's is love. Woman is equal to man only in making her life a perpetual offering, as his is perpetual action.’ But there again is a cruel mystification since what she offers, he cares not at all to accept. Man does not need the unconditional devotion he demands, nor the idolatrous love that flatters his vanity; he only accepts them on the condition that he does not satisfy the demands these attitudes reciprocally imply. (De Beauvoir, 1956: 632).

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De Beauvoir, like Lu, explains that women’s lives are quintessentially love itself, but that the man who demands this of her ultimately doesn’t want that responsibility. Similarly, Xianda also characterizes the women he targets as desperate, as craving his love and attention, though he consequently distances himself from their need. There are several instances, concerning different women, where this becomes apparent:

Though You Juanjuan pretended to be nonchalant, he knew that the woman had taken the bait. She loved him; she was dying to see him. (124)

Wherever he went, she followed. […] There was no use in telling her off; she was determined to marry him. She said she did not want the money, she just wanted him. (129)

She put her dripping hands firmly around his neck and rubbed her body against his groin. He regretted his action: sometimes women are really … best left alone. (132)

‘I love you! I really love you! I love you so much! You couldn’t know … how much I love you. I don’t have children, but if I did, I’d kill them all just for you. I would, I really would. Do you believe me? Do you believe me?’ He was shivering all over. (137)

The women view Xianda as their entire world. This desperate love is what he wants to achieve in them. After all, he is ‘baiting’ women to make them fall in love with him and to gain their trust, using exactly that which makes them vulnerable: their apparent need of a man. He expects their full devotion. During sexual acts, he even demands their approval and affirmation of their love for him. Yet, after they take his bait and give him what he’s evidently asked of them, the desperate displays of affection annoy him to the bone. The women apparently can’t help but to immediately fall for this man. They devote themselves to him. This reveals the apparent need they still have of a man. Eventually, this devotion will entail their downfall as Xianda inevitably will reject them. While Xianda requires of these women to act in this way, he, like De Beauvoir shows, cares not to accept nor to reciprocate their devotion to a romantic love.

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The manner in which women are expected to give everything to a man, according to both De Beauvoir and Lu, is unviable for women, who should be allowed to live full lives. Lu suggests that love is a two-party endeavor and that one party cannot just mold the other into whatever they want. She claims that “since we can’t expect to make someone react the way we want them to, we really don’t have many reasons to stick to one certain value of life. Assuming that life’s purpose is to chase your goal- then love is one of the many values in life but it is not the only one!” (Lü, 1974: 139. Translated by me). She then explains that she doesn’t mean to ruin the “charm of love” and that ‘true love’ can be worthwhile. However women should remember that “no, your life doesn’t stop there, and the days should still go on!” (Lü, 1974: 140. Translated by me). Lu asks of women to reevaluate their views of love and to not let it become their entire world.

In a similar vein, Xiao Sa also seems to suggest that women should reevaluate their views of love. She does this by having Xianda note that not all women are like this: “Women who are too self-possessed and too self-confident know what they want. They do not need men to dispel their loneliness. They are hunters themselves preying on men who fit their expectations.” (122) This is significant in that it may serve as an example of a different way to go about romantic relationships for women; or as a call for women to awaken from their submissive behavioral pattern and be more independent. The roles of hunter and hunted are consequently subverted. In Xianda’s eyes, this is something negative, indicated by the use of “too”. However, his character and focalization have taught us to disagree with him. These women are described by him as how we would arguably describe Xianda himself. While he constantly prides himself for acting this way, he doesn’t allow for women to act similarly. This ties in with what I’ve mentioned before where Xianda approves of women who are economically independent, though disapproves of women showing that they are. They are allowed to possess money, though not to actually spend it nor to act independently because of it. It is implied that becoming more independent and more aware would lead to a reduced loneliness, which, in turn, leaves women less vulnerable to the ‘trap’ of romantic love. This is threatening to Xianda. The characters in ‘The Party Girl’, which I will analyze later, are an example of the type of women described here as “hunter”. Perhaps unexpectedly, it illustrates the implications of how this may still lead back to women subjecting themselves to men. I will later go further into this.

Economic independence has long been considered the end goal in Taiwan’s women’s rights movement. Contrary to that believe, ‘The Colours of Love’ shows that there are more

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deep-rooted believes and behavioral patterns in both men ánd women that withhold the improvement of the position of women in Taiwan. I agree with Markgraf13_{that in spite of Xiao Sa herself}

not claiming her texts to be feminist herself, we can still see ways in which she succeeds in raising feminist issues. She is able to expose the detrimental view that men may have of women in Taiwan through the male protagonist’s focalization, which reveals the still present patriarchal structures that could otherwise have been ignored. She is also able to showcase concerns, raised by Lu and De Beauvoir, that women’s distorted perception of love as a result of men’s expectations of them puts them in a vulnerable and submissive position. This uncovers women’s apparent dependence and need for men still exists. In addition, as Guo Shumei explains, because of the non-sequential and plotless format that Xiao Sa uses in her writing, the reader won’t focus on a plot as it isn’t there. Rather, because of the lack of structure, what counts is the general impression that readers get (Guo, 2010: 165). This, in turn, allows for the focus of the story to remain on these issues which Xiao Sa confronts the reader with: that economic independence doesn’t immediately implicate women’s emotional equality.

2.2 ‘The Party Girl:’ False Female Empowerment

Xiao Sa’s story shows that women, who’ve been taught to devote themselves to men in romantic relationships, will eventually suffer in those relationships due to patriarchal structures. ‘The Party Girl’ (2006) shows what a more feminist approach could look like, which would, theoretically, provide a more balanced relationship for women. ‘The Colours of Love’ already suggests a different type of woman that subverts the roles of hunter and hunted. ‘The Party Girl’ provides an example of what these so-called ‘hunters’ would look like.

Lin Tai-man’s short story is both similar to and opposite from Xiao Sa’s. The story is told by a first-person narrator with a female protagonist. Contrary to ‘The Colours of Love’, ‘The Party Girl’ uses only female focalization. This allows the reader to form an understanding of women’s subjective experiences, but it also prevents the formation of a critical view. My analysis will point out how this text, as I will argue, still contains an acceptance of women’s dependence on men. At first glance, this text seems to be more feminist than ‘The Colours of Love’ because of its depiction of actual independent women, positive role-models. However, a close-reading will show that this is not, in fact, the case. Rather, this story portrays working

13_{The original German text reads: “Auch ihre Texte unterliegen einem Wandel und mögen je nach thematischem}

Fokus mal mehr, mal weniger weiblicher oder feministischer erscheinen. Zweifelsohne ist in ihren Werken jedoch "a sense of self-reflection and contemplation on [women's] roles" zu beobachten.”

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women with rights to financial independence, who still choose to lean on men for financial support.

2.2.1 A Female Role-Model

The story of ‘The Party Girl’ isn’t so much about the narrator as it is about the woman she meets at “a high-class social event” (37), who calls herself Hsu Tsui-hsuan. Like the narrator, she isn’t actually invited to these events. Rather, they simply slip inside in an effort to “meet other people who might further their interest” (55). The narrator tells the story of how Tsui-hsuan takes her home and tells her life’s story. We learn that Tsui-Tsui-hsuan shares her experiences with the narrator in order to pass on the skills of “how to chase men, or rather how to make men chase you” (52). During it, she proudly states that her dream is to own “lots of money […] enough to pamper myself, and to allow my family to do the same.” (47). She further elaborates on this and concludes: “Now, since I can’t realize my dreams by myself, the only way to do it is by marrying a rich man.” (48). From these lines, we can conclude that, not unlike Xianda from ‘The Colours of Love’, Tsui-hsuan is a woman who baits and uses men for her own financial gain. One difference is that for Tsui-hsuan this derives from an acceptance of her own incapability. Another difference lies in the phrase “or rather how to make men chase you”. This is important, because it indicates that in these relationships the woman is the one with power. That power is however concealed by ‘tricking’ the man into still seeing the woman as a passive being and ultimately letting him believe he is the one in power. Despite that not actually being the case, it still supports the view of men as dominant.

Tsui-hsuan claims she has learned how to take control of her own life and more specifically how to take control of her love life. This is shown in the following passage:

In the beginning, I would even fall in love, you know, but then I discovered that love is a very uneconomical thing. It costs money and it costs time, not to mention all the emotions you have to invest in it. And when you break up, it breaks your heart and harms your health. In the end, I just didn’t have the energy for it anymore. Unless it was someone who looked like he might make it big, I wouldn’t even bother to deal with him. (51)

As I’ve discussed earlier, De Beauvoir and Lu have shown how the experience of love is vastly different for women than it is for men. Lin Tai-man’s character makes the same observation. The emotional costs of loving and losing a man are simply too great for Tsui-hsuan to even

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consider being worth it. By characterizing love as something that “harms your health”, she underlines the consequences that experiencing romantic love as a woman can have. Tsui-hsuan has therefore resorted to viewing men purely as a means to an end. Refusing to become a commodity, she guards herself by treating men as tools instead. At this point, she’s established as an independent and aware female character that may be seen as a feminist role-model.

Much like Xianda, Tsui-hsuan looks in her endeavors for an ‘easy prey’. She says: “I wanted someone who I could easily control, and this guy appeared naive and trusting enough.” (51). This same thing happens in ‘The Colours of Love’. As I have explained, because of the use of a male focalizor, we actually condemn his behavior. However, here, the female narrator is the main focalizor of ‘The Party Girl’; we are invited to identify with and watch alongside her. Therefore, when the narrator indicates that she admires Tsui-hsuan, so too do we. Xianda and Tsui-hsuan are very similar characters. However, because of the different use of focalization, unlike ‘The Colours of Love’, ‘The Party Girl’ implies that this character is someone to look up to, which isn’t hard to do because the character is set up as a confident female figure.

2.2.2 The Sacrifice of Independence

It’s important to note that these characters are, in spite of their similarities, of course not entirely the same. Tsui-hsuan, no matter how resilient, continues to depend on men. She even accepts this as an absolute fact. Because of this accepted reliance, her ‘way to the top’ doesn’t come without sacrifice. Both the narrator and Tsui-hsuan experience these sacrifices:

The thing was, though, lately I’d felt that I was getting a bit plump around the waist, and I blamed it on the coffee and the milk. But since there was no way I’d be able to quit coffee- you need some things to spice up your life- I had to sacrifice health and nutrition instead. (38-39)

There was no way I’d go to a normal senior high school, even though my grades were good enough- I could’ve had my pick of the best schools. But think about it: going to senior high school, you have to study all the time. You are lucky if you don’t end up severely short-sighted, and you certainly don’t have enough time to stay in shape and maintain a good figure. (49)

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The first passage are the thoughts of the narrator. Her thoughts confront the reader with the impact that the objectification of women in a patriarchal society can have on women’s health. The second passage is Tsui-hsuan’s experience. She sacrifices her education so that she could “maintain a good figure”, which is something she needs to do to remain desirable for men. The passages show that a woman’s worth is determined by her appearance, which determines her desirability. This means that, ultimately, men still determine their worth. The acceptance of this believe by Tsui-Hsuan has made her sacrifice the opportunity to further develop herself.

Her decision not to attend a normal senior high school seems somewhat contradictory in the sense that she is here sacrificing something that could lead her to an independent and financially successful life. Instead, she will “stay in shape”, which will allow her to find a husband to financially depend on. This implies the traditional believe that a successful career and wealth is something exclusively male. Lin Tai-man’s character is portrayed as a woman with power. However, my reading shows that in order to reach her goal, she sacrifices her independence and affirms men’s power over her.

When she tells the narrator about her first break-up this becomes even clearer. She describes this as such:

So I went to see him, asking him to give me a reason or at least come up with some excuse. He said, ‘My father thinks you’re too much for me to handle, and that I’m not the right guy for you. He also told me that once I get my doctorate, he’ll find a nice young lady for me from a good family. I was glad that he told me the plain truth instead of trying to feed me some lame excuses. I didn’t blame him, honestly.’ (52).

After that, she decides she needs to change. Tsui-hsuan is here, again, presented as stronger and ‘in control’- she doesn’t just idly sit by, nor does she allow herself to have that dependence of a romantic love like the women in ‘The Colours of Love’, even though “it still hurts to think about it” (52). From the reply, we can tell that families not only expect their sons to marry someone from a similar upbringing, they also expect the women to be submissive and subservient so that their sons may handle them with ease. This is, again, an example of how women are treated as tools and seen as replaceable. While Tsui-hsuan doesn’t care to be treated this way, she does accept this as a fixed reality. As she attempts to remain in control over her life, she takes this moment as a learning opportunity. This results in her learning how to present herself as a desirable woman to marry a wealthy man. The narrator looks up at this woman for

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her resilience and, more or less, vows to follow her in her footsteps. After women were granted economic rights, in Chinese societies, as Li Xiaojiang puts it, the traditional roles of the family prevailed and “they merely became ‘working’ wives and mothers” (Li, 2002: 112). These women still lean on men, as do this story’s narrator and Tsui-hsuan. The structures functioning in Taiwanese society, apparently, still hold these beliefs in place. While it is not its message, this story shows that women themselves contribute to this as well. The women in the story have learned not how to possibly change their fate as a woman, but how to adapt to these conditions, ultimately reaffirming traditional beliefs.

2.2.3 Reinforcing Male Dominance

‘The Party Girl’ stands in stark contrast to ‘The Colours of Love’. The former seems to be more feminist than the latter. A close-reading, however, reveals the opposite to be true. ‘The Party Girl’ portrays independent and determined women and presents them as role models. Though, my analysis shows that there is an implicit acceptance that still exists. The ‘role-models’ still reinforce the traditional belief that women are designated to submit themselves to men. Xiao Sa’s story functions in the other way around. By exactly showing women’s dependency through the eyes of a man, it establishes a distancing, which allows for a far more critical reading. Lin Tai-man’s female characters accept their lives as dependent on men. Consequently, because of the focalization, the behavior that underscores that dependence is rewarded in the story. This encourages readers to agree with those views. There does seem to be criticism concerning the objectification of women. The characters also observe the limits that their so-called economic independence gave them. However, they aren’t actively trying to improve women’s position and only care for improving their immediate conditions. Lu touches on this in New Feminism as well. She creates a set of basic guidelines for her new feminism. Her last point reads: “Unless you're ready to take on the responsibilities of equality, you're just not fit to demand equal rights. Unless you first set a standard of reference to evaluate a situation, your critique on it just isn't justified.” (Lü, 1974: 135-136. Translated by me). In short, she asks to practice what you preach. This is not what the characters in ‘The Party Girl’ do. The women in the story want a better life for themselves. They are aware of gender inequalities- there are even some instances where they criticize how their current situation is negatively influenced by the mere fact that they are women. However, instead of challenging this, Lin Tai-man reinforces it by having her female characters accept their reliance on men.

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2.3 Balancing Modernity and Tradition in ‘Fin de Siècle Splendour’

‘Fin de Siècle’ (1990) is the third and final story in my corpus that focuses on male-female relationships. In contrast to the ones discussed earlier, the protagonist in ‘Fin de Siècle’, Mia, doesn’t use her partners as tools. Rather, she enjoys her relationships. However, she does show conflicting behavior of wanting to be a modern woman, while simultaneously showing a desire for wanting to be treated as a traditional woman. I will examine these contradicting tendencies to show Mia’s ambivalent nature. This will contribute to my stand that there is a discrepancy in the equality that Taiwanese women believe to have obtained and the traditional values we still find them to adhere to.

2.3.1 Rejecting and Holding on to Traditions

Mia claims not to be interested in love nor does she regard being a wife as something necessary to live a full live as a woman. She is more focused on her self-worth and personal happiness, instead of happiness derived from, for example, pleasing a husband. This is seen in the following passage:

Love was too wishy-washy, too degrading- like Ah Xun and his wife, forever engaged in a mean-spirited tug-of-war. She did not even have time enough to feast her eyes on the world’s many splendours. She decided that she’d create a brilliant future for herself whatever it might take. Material girl- why not? She’d worship things and she’d worship money. Youth and beauty were on her side; she worshipped her own beautiful body. (52)

Here, first, Mia makes it clear here that she doesn’t plan to sacrifice any part of herself in the name of love. She is independent and narcissistic; she chooses herself. This narcissism points to the (considered Western) rhetoric of individualism. Many critics of ‘Fin de Siècle Splendour’ (such as G. Qiu, S. Chang and D. Wang) have pointed out the obvious references to Western culture and its materialism that are present in the story and have explained it as presenting some form of Taiwan’s downhill trajectory- using words such as ‘apocalyptic’ and ‘eternal downfall’. From a feminist point of view, individualism can be regarded, like McRobbie finds, as a “vital role in the undoing of feminism.” (McRobbie, 2009: 5). The risk of individualism is explained by Scharff as individual achievements being believed to be sufficient to overcome social constraints (Scharff, 2011: 121); I will later return to this subject. Secondly, in this

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passage, Mia critiques conventional relationships and love (in the form of marriage) as degrading and as a “mean-spirited tug-of-war”. In doing so, her character is depicted as independent and clearly anti-traditional. However, her disapproval of such traditions becomes much more complicated. A good example of this is apparent in the moment after she breaks her idolization of Japanese model Abe Hiroshi, whose “manly eyebrows “she especially likes:

In the same month Abe Hiroshi wore a rose-red cashmere V-neck pullover and a turquoise necktie on the cover of Men’s Non-no. He also starred in a film with Minamino Yoko playing a fashionable girl. For some reason all this seemed to deprive Mia of something. Overnight, she discovered that she was no longer in love with Abe Hiroshi. (52-53)

Afterwards, she assesses that:

It was an unfair relationship, one-way traffic. Even if she were to die for the love of Abe Hiroshi he belonged to the public; he would not even give her the hint of a smile. She was surprised that she had been tricked. Abe Hiroshi was a narcissistic fellow so full of himself he had no room for anyone else. A narcissistic woman may be lovable, a narcissistic man is just unmanly. (53)

This realization comes after seeing that movie Abe starred in as well as after seeing him on the cover of a magazine sporting a pink V-neck sweater. (The name of the movie isn’t mentioned in the story, but I have identified that Mia refers to the live-action anime adaptation of Here

Comes Miss Modern. Miss Modern follows a tomboy, who believes in women’s right to have

a career and denounces arranged marriage. Though, she inevitably falls in love with the man her parents had chosen as her fiancé.)

Afterwards, Mia is “deprived of something” and later also stops wearing androgynous clothes. Her reaction to those images speaks for how she feels about traditional notions of femininity, gender roles and male-female relationships. She disapproves of the idea of marriage and the traditional role of women in that. Like in the stories discussed before, she rejects the idea of that one-sided type of love Lu and De Beauvoir discuss. Abe seems to be symbolic in this to her as she rejects him right after having seen the movie in which a modern girl, in the end, still agrees to marry him. However, she does hold on to other traditional notions of

Negotiating Women's Independence