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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2009
Zhang Xinxin and Zhang Jie are two contemporary Chinese women writers. They began to publish in the post–Cultural Revolution era, and became well–known in the early 1980s for their fictional depiction of the problems of urban intellectual women attempting to resolve conflicts between love and career, love and marriage, and ideals and reality. Although the works of both authors present a limited challenge to traditions they believe have served to oppress women, a clear generational difference is perceptible in the attitudes they each express through their characters. Zhang Jie, born in 1937 and reaching adulthood in the idealistic climate of the 1950s, presents characters strongly influenced by both Confucian morality and socialist ideals, while Zhang Xinxin, who was born in 1953 and grew up during the Cultural Revolution period (a disillusioning experience for most of her generation), presents characters who show little enthusiasm for political ideals and are less constrained by traditional morality.
1. For example: Jie, Zhang: Tian Ye in “Shei shenghuo de geng meihao?” (“Who lives the more beautiful life?”) in Ai shi bu neng wangji de (“Love is not forgotten”) (Guangdong: Guangdong renmin chubanshe, 1981), pp. 76–91.Google ScholarXinxin, Zhang: The heroine of “Yige pingjing de yewan” (“A tranquil evening”), Beijing wenyi (Beijing Literature and Art), No. 12 (1979).Google Scholar
2. Zhang Jie, “Ai shi bu neng wangji de,” in Ai shi bu neng wangji de, pp. 102–22.
3. Jie, Zhang, “Fang zhou,” in Zhang jie ji (Collected works of Zhang Jie) (Fuzhou: Haixia wenyi chubanshe, 1986), pp. 1–110.Google Scholar
4. Xinxin, Zhang, “Zai tong yi dipingxian shang,” Shouhuo (Harvest), No. 6 (1981), pp. 172–233.Google Scholar
5. Zhang Xinxin, “Women zhege nianji de meng,” Ibid. No. 4 (1982), pp. 95–120.
6. In an interview I conducted with Zhang Jie on 10 October 1988, she told me that as a result of writing the novel Leaden Wings (Chenzhong de chibang), which depicts a number of high ranking bureaucrats in a very unfavourable light, in 1982 she was threatened with expulsion from the Party and arrest, and was subject to attempts to smear her moral reputation. In an interview with Zhang Xinxin conducted on 29 August 1988, she told me that because “On the same horizon” was regarded as being linked to an Existentialist movement in Shanghai's Fudan University, both her college (Central Academy of Drama) and her personally were criticized by a high–ranking official of the Beijing Education Bureau. As a result, when she graduated in 1983 no work unit was willing to employ her and she had to wait almost a year before eventually being employed by Beijing People's Theatre. At the same time, no publisher would publish her works, so that “The last anchorage” (see below), written in 1983 was not published until 1985.
7. See Tianhe, Shi, “Lixiang de aiqing yu geming de daode” (“Ideal love and revolutionary morality”), Beijing wenyi (Beijing Literature and Art), No. 9 (1980), pp. 71–75.Google Scholar
8. Yi Qin, “Cong ‘Beijiguang’ ‘Fang zhou’ tan hunyin daode” (“A discussion of the marital morality depicted in “Northern lights” and “The ark”), Jiefang ribao (Jiefang Daily), 27 June 1982, p. 4.
9. Jing, Zhu, “Qing cong xinzao de huise wuzhong chulai,” (“Please come out of the grey fog your mind has created”), Wenyi bao (Literary Gazette), No. 2 (1984), pp. 25–26.Google Scholar
10. Xinxin, Zhang, “Zuihou de tingbodi” (“The last anchorage”), in Zhang xinxin xiaoshuo ji (Collected Fiction of Zhang Xinxin), (Heilongjiang: Beifang wenyi chubanshe, 1985), pp. 327–36.Google Scholar
11. Zhang Jie, “Zumulii” in Collected Works of Zhang Jie, pp. 188–255.
12. Xinxin, Zhang, “Feng pian lian,” Shouhuo, No. 2 (1985), pp. 4–92.Google Scholar
13. Xinxin, Zhang, “Wan yihui zuo zei de youxi,” Zhong shan (Bell Mountain), No. 1 (1987), pp. 44–73.Google Scholar
14. Jie, Zhang, “Tiaojian shang wei chengshu,” Beijing wenxue (Beijing Literature), No. 2 (1983).Google Scholar
15. Jie, Zhang, “Guanyu…qingkuang huibao,” Xiaoshuo jie (Fiction World), No. 4 (1984).Google Scholar
16. Jie, Zhang, Chenzhong de chibang (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1981).Google Scholar
17. Ibid. p. 327.
18. Ibid. p. 38.
19. Ibid. pp. 345–47.
20. Ibid. pp. 335–39.
21. “On the same horizon,” p. 190.
22. My interview with Zhang Jie on 10 October 1988 confirmed both of these possibilities. First she expressed the opinion that very few women are capable of being good cadres, then she said that because promotion is often based on the likes and dislikes of a superior rather than on personal merit, it is frequently those people who curry favour with superiors who are able to gain office.
23. Xinxin, Zhang, “Zai jingjing de bingfang li,” Beijing wenyi, No. 11 (1978), pp. 20–28.Google Scholar
24. “The ark,” p. 16.
25. Zhang Jie, “Qiqiaoban,” (Collected Works of Zhang Jie), pp. 111–87.
26. “The ark,” pp. 8–9.
27. “Tangram,” p. 176.
28. Ibid. p. 155.
29. Here it is necessary to differentiate between the personal views of the author and those she presents in her fiction. Though in my interview with Zhang Jie on 10 October 1988 she stated that she personally supported divorce for couples who simply no longer love one another, this does not alter the fact that she does not do so in her fiction.
30. Jie, Zhang, “Boximiya huaping,” Hua cheng (Flower City), No. 4 (1981), pp. 75–82.Google Scholar
31. Zhang Jie, “Ta you shenme bing?”, (Collected Works of Zhang Jie), pp. 256–319.
32. Leaden Wings, p. 274.
33. Ibid. p. 401.
34. “On the same horizon,” p. 177.
35. Ibid. p. 177.
36. Xinxin, Zhang, “Wo zai nar cuoguole ni?”, Shouhuo, No. 5 (1980), pp. 91–105.Google Scholar
37. “The last anchorage,” pp. 328 and 333.
38. Ibid. pp. 337.
39. Ibid. pp. 343–45.
40. Ibid. pp. 356 and 362.
41. “Tangram,” p. 161.
42. “Emerald,” p. 217.
43. “What's wrong with him?”, pp. 258–60.
44. “Love is not to be forgotten,” p. 120.
45. “Bohemian vase,” p. 78.
46. Quoted by Liu Quan in “The ark,” p. 12.
47. The dénouement between the three characters can be found in Leaden Wings, p. 396–99.
48. “The ark,” p. 47.
49. Ibid. pp. 48–49.
50. “The ark,” Shouhuo, No. 2 (1982), p. 28.Google Scholar
51. “The ark,” Collected Works of Zhang Jie, p. 47.
52. Though in my interview with Zhang Jie on 10 October 1988 she denied both of these possibilities, her explanation tended to support by first conclusion. According to Zhang, whereas in 1982 when she first published “The ark” she felt there genuinely was the possibility of pursuing lofty communist ideals, by 1986 the changed political situation made her feel that the possibility of pursuing communist ideals was so remote as to be virtually non–existent, hence she made the relevant cuts. Thus, though she says her belief in communist ideals had not changed, what had diminished was her belief that they could be realized–which can also be considered one aspect of political idealism.
53. “The ark,” Collected Works of Zhang Jie, pp. 4–5.
54. Ibid. p. 23.
55. “Philately,” p. 42.
56. “Emerald,” p. 241.
57. “How did I miss you?”: “self–confident”: he: pp. 94, 95 and 97; she: p. 95. “Stubborn”: both: p. 97.
58. Ibid. p. 100.
59. Ibid. p. 103.
60. Leaden Wings, p. 348.
61. Zhennan, Ceng, “Qi hang! Cong zuihou de tingbodi” (“Set sail from the last anchorage”), Wenyi bao, No. 4 (1985), p. 122.Google Scholar
