Opposition and Adaptation in the Poetry of Zhai Yongming and Xia Yu

Abstract

Only a year apart in age, Zhai Yongming (b. 1955) and Xia Yu (Hsia Yü)(b. 1956)¹ belong to the first generation of Chinese-language women poets who have given themselves license to write frankly about all aspects of their lives. Although each has at some point resisted being labeled as a “woman writer” or as a representative of women as a group, their work is written from a strongly female point of view. Clearly aware of the constraints imposed by traditional conventions of femininity, Zhai Yongming and Xia Yu assert their right to write about anything they choose, independent of traditional limitations on voice or subject matter. Ironically, their liberation from traditional roles has resulted in writing that is strongly feminine (in the sense of being specifically female). Until recently, much of girls’ and women’s actual experience was deemed an unsuitable subject for literature or art, and women writers could choose either a traditionally “feminine” persona (as defined by patriarchal society), or a gender- neutral persona.² A self-assured and sexually aware female persona was not an available choice, although one could argue that there had been a double standard and that the male counterpart of such a persona was acceptable for men. But historical and social forces in both the People’s Republic and Taiwan (pre- and post-1949) have weakened many old prejudices and institutional obstacles to women’s autonomy, and with the right to self-determination has come the right to self-expression.