Taiwan's Glory

Li Ang

TaiwanDNA.com Homepage

 

 

殺夫 by 李昂

Excerpt from Wikipedia.org

Li Ang (李昂; real name Shih Shu-tuan with Li Ang being her pen name) (born April 7, 1952 in Lukang, Taiwan) is a Taiwanese feminist writer. After graduating from Chinese Culture University with a degree in Philosophy, she studied drama at the University of Oregon, after which she returned to teach at her alma mater. Her major work is The Butcher's Wife (殺夫: 1983, tr. 1986), though she has a copious output. Feminist themes and sexuality are present in much of her work. Many of her stories are set in Lukang.

 

The Butcher's Wife and Other Stories by Ang Li

The Butcher's Wife is critical of traditional Chinese patriarchy. The heroine is sold into marriage with a brutal butcher much older than she. He dominates her sexually and takes pleasure in frightening her in various ways, including a visit to the slaughterhouse, after which the heroine in a disoriented state of mind murders him with a butcher's blade.

 

* 後殺夫時期的李昂 by 邱雅芳

* 李昂小說研究 by 洪珊慧

 

 

 

Chinese Patriacrchy

Chinese patriacrchy refers to the history and prevalence of male dominance in Chinese society and culture.

Mencius outlined the Three Subordinations. A woman was to be subordinate to her father in youth, her husband in maturity, and her son in old age. A cliché of classical texts, which is repeated throughout the tradition, is the familiar notion that men govern the outer world, while women govern the home. In the Han dynasty, the female historian Ban Zhao wrote the Lessons for Women, advice on how women should behave. She outlines the Four Virtues women must abide by, proper virtue, proper speech, proper countenance, proper merit. The "three subordinations and the four virtues" is a common four-character phrase throughout the imperial period.

As for the historical development of Chinese patriarchy, women's status was highest in the Tang dynasty, when women played sports (polo) and were generally freer in fashion and conduct. Between the Tang and Song dynasties, a fad for little feet arose, and from the Song dynasty onwards footbinding became more and more common for the elite. In the Ming dynasty, a tradition of virtuous widowhood developed. Widows, even if widowed at a young age, would be expected not to remarry. Their virtuous names might be displayed on the arch at the entrance of the village.

Features of patriarchy in 20th and 21st century China include the immense pressure on women to get married before the age of 30, and the incidence of female infanticide associated with China's one child policy. However, footbinding has been eradicated and trafficking in women in China has greatly reduced.

 

Women's Movements in Twentieth-Century Taiwan by Doris T. Chang

 

 

 

 

Feminism and Global Chineseness: The cultural production of controversial women authors by Aijun Zhu

 

 

 

* Aijun Zhu. Feminism and Global Chineseness: The cultural production of controversial women authors

Excerpt: In Chapter 4, Zhu turns her eyes to the relations between feminism and nationalism in Taiwan by analyzing Li Ang’s 1997 The Beigang Incense Burner. Zhu finds the novel “a direct feminist critique of the male-centered oppositional struggle for democracy” (203); its defiance and irrelevance towards nationalist interpellation caused its criticism. Zhu maintains that Li Ang links women’s sexuality to national politics and social issues, exposes how the “absurd political ideals” (p. 176) censored the female body, and reveals the irreconcilable differences between feminism and nationalism, thus arousing criticism from both feminists and the opposition party. She contends that the media’s reductive reading of the novel as a war between Li Ang and Chen Wenqian made the complicated relations between female sexuality and nationalist politics a sensational love triangle, with selling points of “sex, politics and scandals;” (p. 183) and critics’ reading of the novel as the insinuating fiction is only one way of reading. She notices that the masculine reconstruction of Taiwan literary history often “excludes women authors from literary and cultural significance,” (p. 176) so Li Ang has to go through a process of self-production as a woman author by producing “dangerously sexualized national history” (ibid.), and her characters have to negotiate their sexual identities with the oppositional movement.

 

 

李昂

李昂，（1952年─），臺灣作家，彰化鹿港人，原名施淑端，四姊施淑女（施淑）、五姊施叔青都是作家。

李昂於1952年在臺灣彰化鹿港出生，臺灣臺北的中國文化學院（現中國文化大學）哲學系畢業，美國奧立崗大學（University of Oregon-Eugene）戲劇碩士，回國後長期在中國文化大學中國文學系文藝創作組教書。

李昂的小說作品有《花季》（處女作）、《愛情試驗》、《她們的眼淚》、《殺夫》、《暗夜》、《一封未寄的情書》、《迷園》、《北港香爐人人插》、《禁色的暗夜》、《自傳の小說》、《花間迷情》、《七世姻緣之台灣/中國情人》等。

散文作品：《貓咪與情人》、《漂流之旅》、《愛吃鬼》等。

傳記文學：《施明德前傳》。

《殺夫》有英文、法文、德文、日文、荷蘭文、瑞典文等多種語文的翻譯版本在各國出版。

《迷園》有日文、法文翻譯版本。

《自傳の小說》有日文翻譯版。

《暗夜》有法文翻譯版。

1996年3月至1997年2月24日，主持三立都會台《絕對宗教》。

2002年獲頒臺灣第十一屆賴和文學獎。

2004年，獲法國文化部頒法國藝術及文學勳章（最高等級）

日本東京大學中文系教授兼主任藤井省三博士在《臺灣文學這一百年》書中推崇李昂是臺灣偉大的作家，說自己第1次讀李昂的作品，就感動得淚流滿面。

藤井省三也親自將李昂小說翻譯成日文在日本出版，《殺夫》、《迷園》、《自傳の小說》日文版本的翻譯都出於藤井省三博士的手筆。

 

愛吃鬼的華麗冒險 by 李昂

 

 

 

七世姻緣之台灣 / 中國情人 by 李昂

 

 

 

鴛鴦春膳 by 李昂

 

 

 

花間迷情 by 李昂

 

 

 

看得見的鬼 by 李昂

 

 

 

九十六年小說選 by 李昂

 

 

 

 

 

Taiwan Women Web

 

 

Taiwan's Glory * 台灣之光 * Taiwan's Glory