The study of female images in modern Chinese literary works

Van Fan' Postgraduate student; Department of Russian and Foreign Literature; Peoples' Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba 117198, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 3 FanWangz_nefuer@163.com

Galai Karina Nazirovna Doctor of Philology Associate Professor, People's Friendship University of Russia 117198, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str. 6, 3 FanWangz_nefuer@163.com

Images of women in modern Chinese literature play an important role in reflecting and developing social values, as well as in forming ideas about sociocultural changes and gender equality. One of the important elements of the analysis of modern Chinese culture and society is the study of female images in works of Chinese literature. We can gain a deep understanding of issues related to gender relations, social justice, and cultural transformations that are taking place in modern China by studying various characters and their fates in literature. The purpose of this article is to study female images in works of modern Chinese literature in order to identify changes in perceptions of women, their roles and status in modern society. In addition, she will examine the impact of these images on the processes of democratization and socio-cultural changes in China.

The study of female images in modern Chinese literary works is highly relevant in the context of modern social and cultural changes in China. Rapid transformations in society create new challenges and opportunities for women, and the study of their images in literature will allow for a better understanding of these changes and their impact on socio-cultural processes.

The research will be based on theoretical concepts from the field of gender and literary studies, as well as on sociological and cultural theories related to the formation of public perceptions of women and their role in society.

The results of the study will be of practical importance for understanding changes in public opinion about the role of women and their rights in modern China, as well as for developing recommendations to increase awareness of gender equality and promote democratic processes in society.

Women's independence and freedom are an important part of China's democratization process. Realistic and critical literature highlights the status of women as a vulnerable group in our time. The younger generation is deeply influenced by the ideological trend of democracy and freedom, and they are fully aware that this old feudal way of thinking, the essence of which is that a man controls a woman, must completely change, so the women's rights movement is still an important issue for the development of human civilization.

Lu Xin, Lao She, Chen Zhongshi, Yu Hua and other modern authors naturally depicted the real life of women and their experiences, exposing the remnants of feudal thinking and making public the tragic aspects of the heroines' lives. The power of literature lies in the ability to awaken self-condemnation in readers, making respect for women an integral part of the social moral code and a sign of a civilized society.

This article will analyze the situation of women in the modern world through the prism of three main theses.

1. It is difficult for women to become economically independent in a small-peasant economy.

Over the thousand-year history of Chinese literary creativity, we have created a large number of folk works and myths about love and marriage, such as "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", "Meng Jiangnu cries at the Great Wall", "The Legend of the White Snake", "The Shepherd and the Weaver", "The Fairy Match" and "Lotus Lantern" and so on. The background to the creation of these classic literary works is reflected in the exploitation of farmers by the landowner class in the conditions of small-peasant farming, which for thousands of years led to extremely difficult living conditions for people at the bottom. This shows that the long-standing feudal land system has created an unequal value for the creative work of men and women on an economic basis.

Whether it's Ms. Xianglin in Lu Xin's "Blessing" or Tian Xiaoe in Chen Zhongshi's "White Deer Plain", one can see that a large number of women at that time relied heavily on male labor as necessary for survival. Without a man, they face a serious crisis of survival. When a man is lost, the heroines do not receive sympathy and help, but instead they become vulnerable to discrimination, deception, oppression and exploitation from the lower classes of society.

Ms. Xianglin's love is tragic and, throughout the work, undergoes a transformation from helplessness to acceptance. Xianglin's daughter-in-law lives in a society where families are created according to class and the marriage of young people is planned by their parents. The orders of parents and matchmakers inevitably decide the fate of a woman. Women often have no other choice but to strive for love and marriage, so it can be noted that young girls have fantasies about a good husband and dreams of a successful marriage. Such feudal thinking has limited the aspirations of girls for thousands of years.

Readers can feel the contradiction and struggle between Sister Xianglin's feelings and the realities of her life. The traditions of society have become a "legitimate" reason for women to obey, give up, compromise and limit themselves. Therefore, the image of the obstinate Hunyu in "The Camel of Xiangzi" is undoubtedly very appropriate. The image of peasant women is also common in other works by Mr. Lao She. However, the researchers' assessments of Hunyu have always been ambiguous and contradictory. Some were given from a political point of view, some from an artistic point of view, but, more importantly, it was always a kind of personal likes and dislikes based on the normative requirements of x men for women. 

Few people love Hunya, but she is brave, cheerful, she loves when she wants to love, and speak openly about her love. O na dedicates himself to the hero of Xiangzi on his own initiative, without any hesitation at all. And when Hunyu and Xiang tzu are together, Hunyu is always ahead of Xiang Tzu. She is more sweet and sincere, whileXiang tzu seems hypocritical and cold.

Although Hunyu treats others negatively, she is sincere in her attitude towards Xiangzi, and therefore we cannot say that she is a bad person. She may have a bad temper, she may be rude and not educated enough. At the same time, she is not selfish, she has the same kind heart as other people. You can condemn this heroine for her rudeness and laugh at her lack of education, but you cannot condemn her and laugh at the sincerity that comes from the bottom of your heart. Thus, its positive and negative qualities are the same thing, which is a consequence of the expression of a living human desire. 

Mr. Lao She's works also feature the image of Zijun, a rebel whom a reactionary feudal class such as Sha Fei considers wrong and immoral. O n describes images of obstinate women, such as Hunyu and Da Chibao, who lack gentleness and virtue, overcoming the usual rejection of male society, which wants to see a woman exceptionally gentle and virtuous.

Lao She admires women who do not meet these standards in their works. His idea of women is not limited to the traditional "norms of the wife." Lao She uses the image of a rebellious woman to contrast it with traditional female images.

The author uses the image of a peasant woman to express the facets of a female personality in a traditional society and shows the fate of these women from the point of view of ethics, using these arguments as an anti-traditional starting point for criticizing the suppression and distortion of human nature by feudal traditional consciousness.

However, the influence of traditional thinking has deep roots in Lao She, and the images of shrews clearly reflect the author's potential patriarchal consciousness and his potential value dilemmas. The heroine Hunyu in Lao She's "Rickshaw" can be called unique, which does not follow feudal ideology. Hunyu boldly pursues Xiangzi, even against his father's will and despite being disinherited. She organizes the entire wedding process herself, which leads to dramatic conflicts and social contradictions.

Such inequality in social status and economic status not only did not make the couple happy, but also increased the pressure on the most impoverished Xiangzi. Xiangzi, who does not want to eat soft rice (Does not want to depend on women for food), does not want to put up with the pressure of public opinion and always wants to rely on his own labor. This is in stark contrast to the strong Hunyu.

The conflict between the thinking of the poor and the logic of the rich reflects the wrong order of things, a reasonable but incorrect calculation. Xiangzi's love for Xiao Fuzi, a girl from a poor family (a girl who was forced to sell her body to feed her family), comes from the heart. The care and love shown by him is Xiangzi's inner motivation to strive for happiness. He hopes that hard work will help him earn money to save Xiao Fuzi. In the end, Xiao Fuzi decides to commit suicide under the pressure of an unbearably painful life. Xiangzi's inner hope is shattered and his spirit falls. Hunyu's daring search for love is full of contradictions in the eyes of the world, and her unhappy family life is even more contradictory and tragic. The free choice of love requires not only courage, but also a clear view of the world, unshakable values and having your own views on life. However, under the influence of feudal ideas about the role of women, how can such views come from young women? Lao She not only reveals the injustice and lack of enlightenment of society through her novel, but also inspires people in their pursuit of happiness. The tragic ending of the novel leaves a bitter aftertaste: Xiangzi, burdened with a burden, passes away on the streets, having lost everything.

2. The value of women is reflected through sexual exploitation.

Tian Xiaoe in Chen Zhongshi's article "White Deer Plain" is a beautiful and rebellious girl, a transitional figure between traditional women and new women. The work "The Plain of the White Deer" gives a vivid description of the tragic fate of this woman. Tian Xiaoe, a woman from a learned family, was sold from the very beginning by her parents as a concubine to Guo Jiuren, who was old enough to be her grandfather.

As a concubine, she was bullied by her wife. However, she was not a gentle woman by nature. The will to live prompted her to "seduce" Hay Wa, after which she got the opportunity to live with Hay Wa in a cave dwelling. She thought it would last a long time, but fate was not merciful. This heroine has a rebellious spirit, and she dares to seek the love and life she wants, she is a leader: for a while she was even a representative of women in the Agricultural Association. She dares to take revenge, for example, decides to soak Guo Jiuzhen's "marmalade" in her own urine to get revenge.

Even though she is the lowest-ranking woman in the entire "White Deer Plain", she is also the only one who manipulates men, the only woman who has ever slapped a man, the only woman who urinated on the face of Lu Jilin and Lu Xiangyue.

However, her resistance was incomplete, and she ended up causing even greater disasters because of her resistance. Having lost the support of the Hei Wa man, she quickly succumbed to the patriarchal world around her and began to look for other men to rely on, and also quickly became a fallen woman.

After conducting an in-depth analysis of Tian Xiaoe's resistance, we will find that Tian Xiaoe's resistance is not a conscious resistance. She wants to use sex as the only weapon to change her social status. She has more freedom. than Lu Leng, a more active sexual choice, she realized the importance of the female body for men and learned to use her body to carry out "diplomacy" to obtain benefits and protect men. Sex is just her means, and status change is her true goal.

On the one hand, Heiva's choice is dictated by an instinctive need to be safe and live freely. By seducing Lu Jilin, she exerted influence on him, because in the harsh conditions of that time, it would have been difficult for her to survive without his protection. As a result, their relationship was mutually beneficial: he got her body, and she got protection.

In his feminist work "Mad in the Attic", Gilbert and Gerba present two uncharacteristic female images for Western men's literature before the 19th century — "angel" and "seductresses a". The work exposes society and its vices, hidden behind these images. We see the same division in Chen Zhongshi's work "The Plain of the White Deer". Tian Xiaoe has both a kind and obedient side, as well as a rebellious and depraved one. It is an "interweaving of two images": "angel" and "temptress". However, being a male writer who is still deeply influenced by the patriarchal discursive system, the author describedTian Xiaoe Chen Zhongshi through the prism of his own male point of view. By weakening her image of an "angel", he strengthens her image of a "temptress", nevertheless, as a result, through the interweaving of these images, the author composed a tragic song of resistance to the patriarchal system.

The value of "The Plain of the White Deer" lies in the fact that the author uses an impartial, calm and optimistic manner when describing his characters. In life, they work hard, resist difficulties, fight for life and compromise. This series of characters is an encyclopedia of images of rural China. Among them, Tian Xiaoe is at the center of the author's description. This is a tragic song written by the writer for thousands of rural women. Bailuyuan is an ordinary village influenced by feudal values, and Tian Xiaoe fought to the death, deeply etching her mark on the tombstone and feudal ethics.

In fact, Tian Xiaoe's tragedy is caused by the social restrictions that women have to face as an original sin: as soon as she was born a woman in such a society, she already paid for it. The low status of women, and therefore often their tragic fate, has existed since the matrilineal clan society disappeared. Tragedy mainly arises from the impotence of the individual in the struggle between personal and social forces. It is this impotence that leads to their tragedy.

 3. The value exploitation of women is reflected in the fruits of labor.

Ms. Xianglin in Lu Xin's work "Blessing" is the true embodiment of the exploitation of thousands of Chinese workers until modern times: a tragic fate made her a widow, her son was eaten by wolves, and the house was occupied by the landlord. She was not rich and worked as a maid. When she was performing her duties, her employer ridiculed her life experience and considered her an unhappy woman who had killed her husband and children. 

She was disliked and was not allowed to appear in the Ancestral Hall during the New Year celebrations. The heroine was marginalized. As a member of a society, everyone hopes to be accepted by that society. People try to integrate into society and interact with it, the excommunication of an individual from society can be very painful, as we see in the example of the heroine. Since society did not accept the heroine in order to gain the respect of others, she decided to donate money to purchase a threshold in a Taoist temple, so she worked hard and spent all her savings. After she made a donation, she loudly announced to the whole world, tried to convey to everyone she met that she was cleansed of her sins and became the same as everyone else.

 This demonstrates her loneliness and fragility, as well as her desire to integrate into society and be accepted by the collective. However, it was New Year's Eve in a violent society, and her employer still considered her a bad woman, not allowing her to enter the ancestral hall to bring blessings.

Xianglin was heartbroken, she gave everything she had, but in the end she was still not respected. When she found out that she had been deceived, she took a kitchen knife and ran to the Taoist temple to cut down the threshold.

In the end, the heroine went crazy and died of hunger and disease in the cold winter. Xianglin was a product of the destructive feudal social system of that time and the result of the pressure of feudal ethics and morality. As a typical character with a tragic fate in a feudal society, Xianglin in Lu Xin's works reflects the realities of the dark era of feudal ism. The troubles that happen to ordinary working people are not only a personal grief, but also a social tragedy. Xianglin's daughter-in-law is a woman from the bottom of society, hardworking and uncomplaining, while all the fruits of her labor do not get to her because of deception and exploitation.

Xie Yinglan, associate professor of Chinese at Yuncheng University, writes: "Sister Xianglin's life was not only politically and economically oppressed and tortured, but also morally tortured; she was not only unhappy during her lifetime, but also died in fear. --- In her opinion, death is not the end of an unhappy life, but the beginning of even greater terror. This is a typical example of Lu Xin's deep observation of the fates of thousands of unhappy people in China's feudal society. A complete tragedy, it is precisely with this deep tragic power that the work shakes the hearts of people."

Ms. Xianglin is a rural woman from the lower strata of society. She has the hardworking, kind-hearted, simple and sympathetic character that traditional Chinese women should have. Possessing kindness and fortitude, meanwhile, like all women in feudal society, he found himself in an exploited and oppressed position. However, she had no idea about her status and the fate of the exploited and willingly accepted economic exploitation and spiritual enslavement from the feudal society, which is sad in her character. When there was a major change in fate, no one sympathized with Ms. Xianglin. She was in the middle of a controversial and painful struggle. Of course, she could not change her fate, so she became the object of humiliation, deception and contempt from the feudal society.

Conclusion

In the final part of our study on female images in modern Chinese literary works, it is necessary to summarize the results of our work and formulate conclusions.

The following tasks were set during the research: analysis of the evolution of ideas about women's images, study of the role of women in the democratization of society, assessment of the influence of women's images on the formation of public opinion about gender equality and socio-cultural changes in China.

As a result of scientific research, the following facts were discovered:

1. The analysis of literary works revealed changes in the perception of women over time and their impact on the formation of social values and norms.
2. The study confirmed the importance of women's participation in democratization processes and highlighted their influence on shaping public opinion and political change.
3. Research has shown that literary works can contribute to increasing public awareness of gender inequality and the formation of new values regarding the role and rights of women.

Thus, our research contributes to understanding the role of women in modern Chinese society and suggests directions for further research in this area.

We have found that modern Chinese literature actively reflects changes in perceptions of women, their role and status in society. The conclusions of our study suggest that modern Chinese literature plays a significant role in shaping ideas about women and their role in society. It helps to raise public awareness of the problems of gender inequality and social discrimination, as well as the formation of new values regarding the role and rights of women.

The prospects for further research include a more in-depth analysis of specific literary works, as well as a study of society's reaction to them. It is also important to study the influence of modern Chinese literature on the formation of youth culture and social movements in China.