The Power of Weakness juxtaposes stories by Lu Hsun, revered as “the most important figure in twentieth-century Chinese letters,” and Ding Ling, his successor in writing in a realistic style about life in modern China. Six works of astringent social commentary locate moments of conflict when tradition and notions of social conformity are in flux. In his speech “What Happens After Nora Leaves Home?” (a reference to Ibsen) and his short stories “New Year’s Sacrifice” and “Regret for the Past,” Lu Hsun exposes how the anti-Confucian nationalist movement of the 1920s liberated women’s thoughts and expanded their expectations only to leave them stranded by outmoded customs and financial dependency. Ding Ling, reacting to the clash between the nationalist and communist movements dating from the late 1920s, moves on from Lu Hsun’s sentiments in her feminist speech “Thoughts on March 8 (Women’s Day)” and in her more hopeful short stories “New Faith” and “When I Was in Xia Village.” Named the “commander of China’s cultural revolution” by Mao Zedong, Lu Hsun (1881–1936) is one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. Ding Ling (1904–1985) was one of modern China’s most famous writers and cultural revolutionaries.
Author
Ding Ling (Chinese: 丁玲; pinyin: Dīng Líng), formerly romanized as Ting Ling, was the pen name of Jiang Bingzhi (simplified Chinese: 蒋冰之; traditional Chinese: 蔣冰之; pinyin: Jiǎng Bīngzhī), also known as Bin Zhi (彬芷 Bīn Zhǐ), one of the most celebrated 20th-century Chinese authors. She was awarded the Soviet Union's Stalin second prize for Literature in 1951. Active in the Communist revolutionary cause, she was placed under house arrest in Shanghai by the Guomindang for a three-year period from 1933 to 1936. She escaped, and made her way to the Communist base of Yan'an. There she became one of the most influential figures in Yan'an cultural circles, serving as director of the Chinese Literature and Arts Association and editing a newspaper literary supplement. Ding Ling struggled with the idea that revolutionary needs, defined by the party, should come before art. She objected to the gender standards at work in Yan'an. In 1942 she wrote an article in a party newspaper questioning the party's commitment to change popular attitudes towards women. She satirized male double standards concerning women, saying they were ridiculed if they focused on household duties, but also became the target of gossip and rumors if they remained unmarried and worked in the public sphere. She also criticized male cadres use of divorce provisions to rid themselves of unwanted wives. Her article was condemned by Mao Zedong and the party leadership, and she was forced to retract her views and undergo a public self-confession. Her main work in these years was the novel The Sun Shines Over Sanggan River, which she completed in 1948. It followed the complex results of land reform on a rural village. It was awarded the Stalin prize for Literature in 1951, and is considered one of the best examples of socialist-realist fiction. It did not, however, address gender issues. Always a political activist, in 1957 she was denounced as a "rightist", purged from the party, and her fiction and essays were banned. She spent five years in jail during the Cultural Revolution and was sentenced to do manual labor on a farm for twelve years before being "rehabilitated" in 1978. A few years before her death, she was allowed to travel to the United States where she was a guest at the University of Iowa's International Writing Program. She died in Beijing in 1986. She authored more than three hundred works. After her "rehabilitation" many of her previously banned books such as her novel The Sun Shines Over The Sanggan River were republished and translated into numerous languages. Some of her short works, spanning a fifty-year period, are collected in I Myself Am A Woman: Selected Writings Of Ding Ling. (from Wikipedia)
