Feminism In Shanghai Baby

The Chinese children that grew up after the death of Chairman Mao in 1976 were known as “Generation X.” This generation would be too young to have any memories of the turbulent Cultural Revolution and would come of age in a society transitioning into a market-based economy (Berg 316). Out of this came new waves of writers in the Chinese literary scene, including a group known as “beauty writers.” These authors were known to be beautiful themselves and their writings focused on female sexuality (Lu S. 167). Wei Hui, a self-proclaimed feminist, is also included in this group and is noted for her controversial novel Shanghai Baby (1999). The novel is about a Shanghainese woman trying to separate love for her impotent boyfriend and sexual desire for a Westerner. However, after looking deeper into the novel it is noticeable that it was written and marketed in a way that is aimed more towards public consumption instead of female empowerment. Through the emergence of the Internet, changing economy and youth culture, Shanghai Baby is marketed to the masses by means of exploiting female sexuality through the author’s own actions and the novel’s “body writing” which in turn restricts the position of women instead of improving it.

Wei Hui’s proper upbringing, compared to a contemporary writer Mian Mian, has often had critics wondering if Shanghai Baby, the novel she claims is semi-autobiographical, is authentic. Wei Hui was the daughter of an army officer and was raised in a strict household in Shanghai. She went through a year of military training and graduated from Fudan, a top university in Shanghai, in 1995 earning a degree in Chinese Literature. This vastly contrasts with Mian Mian who was a high school dropout and was clearly active ...

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...ve.” All of these things are attention grabbers; yet, it causes love and sex to seem like the only factors that lead to self-discovery. This can make females appear as if they only care about those components, rather than a fulfilling life, intelligence, or enlightenment.

There are aspects in the novel that can be seen as inspiring and influential, yet there seems to be more evidence of Wei Hui writing in a way to mainly gain sales rather than to portray a deeper significance of the position of females and youths in Shanghai. How would the Chinese and Westerners interpret this work? This would call for another round of debate and further research in order to define feminism, agency, and the body in both cultures. “Feminism – whether Chinese or Western – will continue to face the double-edged sword of celebrating women’s identification with the ‘body’” (Zhong 655).