I Myself Am A Woman By Ding Ling

Ding Ling is one of the many women writers during the age of New Culture who went through a process of uncertainty and self-discovery. She is also one of most praised 20th century Chinese women writers. She wrote many books and short works, including I Myself Am a Woman: Selected Writing of Ding Ling, which includes many of her short works. Some of her short works in the book are “Miss Sophia’s Diary”, “A Woman and a Man”, and “Yecao”. In these three shorts she showcases three different women as modern woman by displaying their thoughts and feelings. Through the thoughts and feelings, Ding Ling’s thoughts and feelings are also displayed as a writer. As an author Ding Ling’s thoughts become more public to the audience as she writes about the modern woman’s private thoughts in

In each short the modern women’s thoughts and feelings are presented differently as the author herself go though the process of uncertainty and self-discovery displayed by modern women. Each short differs that the audience through each woman’s relationship with the male figures sees each modern woman differently.

In “Miss Sophia’s Diary”, Ding Ling writes about Sophia, who is a modern woman, through diary entries giving the audience the perspective of Sophia’s life with complexity and contradiction displayed by Sophia’s thoughts and feelings. She has tuberculosis indicating she is weak but her thoughts and desires are strong making her seem powerful. Sophia’s thoughts about Ling Jishi include “I looked at his soft, red moist deeply inset lips and let out my breath slightly” (Ding Ling, 55). Ling Jishi is a tall man who Sophia met from friends and found him attractive provoking an image of her wanting to kiss him but she doesn’t. Sophia wanting to kiss Ling Jishi the first time they met portrays her strong desires and