Feminism believes that urban-rural differences, class divisions, and racial differences will lead to different attitudes of individual women towards the same proposition. However, there are few studies that explore the differences in attitudes of women of different ages on women's issues. The lack of results in this area is largely due to the lack of active older female individuals in academic and writing fields. In this sense, Yang Benfen’s writing is extremely precious.
Yang Benfen. (Photo courtesy of the publishing house)
Eighty-year-old feminism
After publishing "My Fragrance", Yang Benfen was called an "eighty-year-old feminism" by critics. Compared with the writing of other professional writers, Yang Benfen's female consciousness comes more from life experiences that span a longer time span, and the emotions and concepts generated by the impact of these experiences on individual life. It can also be said that it is the life realization of female individuals after fighting hand-to-hand with social history. In her new book "Sesame Bean Tea", three short stories vividly interpret the connotation of "eighty-year-old feminism". These three stories reflect on the situation of women from the perspective of body, love and social situation respectively.
"Old Lady Zheng" can be said to be a fable about the "female body". Mrs. Zheng has been denied the legality of her existence since she was born. Her parents hate beating and scolding her, which directly caused huge physical trauma to Mrs. Zheng. After entering marriage, she existed in the form of a "tool person". From a reproductive tool to a sexual tool to a household tool, she kept running away. After the death of her third husband, she thought "I could finally be alone and free." "live on earth" and feel content and comfortable. She loves to search for books and food in the city's garbage dumps. These discarded items were regarded as treasures by Mrs. Zheng, like gifts from God to her. There are two shocking details in the novel. "I" visited Mrs. Zheng's home twice and bumped into Mrs. Zheng's "unclothed clothes" twice. For the first time, Mrs. Zheng calmly took off her shirt, rubbed the mud and sunbathed. The second time I didn’t wear any lower clothes to prevent leakage of urine. "Clothes" are things used by women to hide their shame and ugliness in the patriarchal cultural system, but in Mrs. Zheng's "alone room", she no longer needs these. If this novel is placed in the history of contemporary Chinese women's literature, it is also of great significance. Compared with the young Duomi, Mrs. Zheng took off her clothes not to show off her "body's desires", but to gain legitimacy for her existence. This kind of action not only denies the constraints of cultural conventions on the female body, but also dispels the male authority over her with strong vitality. It also shows that women are equal to men and everything under the sun. The second chapter in
's novel collection, "Xiang Jun", can be said to be a reflection on "modern love concepts". Since the May Fourth Movement, women have pursued men's respect and recognition in the emotional world, which is considered to be the proper meaning of modern love. It is also common for men and women to have sex during a relationship, but it is often the woman who bears the consequences of the sex. In the novel, Xiangjun fell in love three times and got pregnant twice, which directly changed her fate. She secretly tasted the forbidden fruit with her first boyfriend for the first time, and was expelled from school because she was pregnant. At the Jiangxi Communist School, she gained the understanding and support of Teacher Jian and fell in love with him. Before graduation, she was expelled from the school again because she was pregnant with Teacher Jian's child, and Teacher Jian was also sent to the countryside. The two returned to Teacher Jian's hometown and lived in extreme poverty. Teacher Jian eventually died young due to overwork. The brave love between Xiangjun and Teacher Jian is admirable, but their final endings cannot support the correctness of their ideas. Although the novel tries its best to tell it in a plain tone, you can still feel the confusion and shock of the narrator, "The sturdy peasant woman in front of me is the once strong and free-spirited Xiangjun who whistled." Is it right to pursue love persistently? In the face of the times, should individuals go with the trend or go against the trend? These are questions left to the reader.
"Beans and Sesame Tea", author: Yang Benfen, version: Yuefu Culture·Guangdong People's Publishing House October 2023
A novel narrative based on sincere emotions
"Winter Lotus" explores the fate of ordinary female workers or female citizens in the city.Without the blessing of modern views on marriage and love, the marriage and love relationship between Donglian and Wang Baogen shows a very primitive temperament, similar to the pursuit and possession of females by males in the animal world. Wang Baogen was extremely flattering to Donglian before marriage, and worked as a long-term worker in her family for a year in a humble manner to win Donglian's heart. After the first divorce, he was unwilling to give in. He not only knelt down to admit his mistake and washed her menstrual belt, but also bought a gold necklace to please Donglian. Once in a marriage, women are just tools for him to demonstrate his male authority. Hitting, scolding, suspicion and insults are commonplace. Although Donglian has a guaranteed income, after her divorce, she will become an "orphan and widowed mother" who is bullied when she has conflicts with others. She accepted Wang Baogen's necklace not so much because she was attracted by the material itself, but because Donglian expected to gain the protection of the marriage order again. However, after agreeing to remarry Wang Baogen, he faced a more violent Wang Baogen. Donglian's dilemma can be said to be the common dilemma faced by women who get divorced after giving birth. It is often difficult for them to protect themselves and their children at the same time, and to fulfill the two roles of themselves as individuals and as mothers at the same time.
If you read these stories further, you will make even more shocking discoveries. Mrs. Zheng's unfortunate childhood was the result of teacher-student love influenced by modern love concepts. Mrs. Zheng's parents may be Juansheng and Zijun, or Lin Daojing and Yu Yongze. The mother of a female student was unable to continue studying because she was pregnant, so she took out her grievances on her child. "Female students" are the first form of Chinese women from tradition to modernity, but in a sense, they are not yet complete modern individuals. Love is their political means to practice revolution, but they cannot bear the consequences of love. Although the father sympathizes with the child, when he raises the child independently, he is more cruel to the child than the mother. Yang Benfen glimpsed the dark side of human nature under the vigorous social and cultural revolution from the perspective of Mrs. Zheng's childhood experience. The tragedy of Xiangjun in "Xiangjun" is the result of the conflict between modern love concepts and revolutionary culture. It is also a personal confrontation with the times. Xiangjun fell in love three times and got pregnant twice, but was punished all times. She had no choice but to follow Teacher Jian to live in the countryside. The love between Teacher Jian and Jun Xiang can be seen as the resistance of modern love concepts to feudal and authoritarian concepts of marriage and love. However, they all pay a price for each other. When life was extremely difficult, they chose to seek help from organizations, but at that time the organization that "disciplined" them had been disbanded. This was extremely ironic. "Winter Lotus" observes the shaping of life by children from the perspective of ordinary women. Donglian is a female worker and a small citizen, without much education. She couldn't stand her husband Wang Baogen's machismo and domestic violence and filed for divorce, but she never thought about getting rid of her vocation as a mother. After her divorce, she cut back on her clothes and went on a diet. Finally, because she was unable to protect her son, she asked her ex-husband for help, and fell into the trap of marriage again.
If professional writing is driven by rational cognition, then amateur writing may be driven more by emotion. The perceptual system established by Yang Benfen with her sincerity makes her novels natural, seemingly without any skills, but she presents the characters in the most appropriate way. She and Mrs. Zheng sympathized with each other, sympathized with her experience, and admired her spirit of brave life, but in the end she also frankly stated that they were not the same travelers before. She has never been able to make a judgment on Xiangjun's love and marriage behavior. The novel uses Xiangjun's life situation after middle age to indirectly answer and express her position. "Winter Lotus" uses an omniscient and omnipotent way to depict and present the ups and downs of ordinary women in secular marriages. This kind of long-lasting and deep concern for the characters and the attitude of not saying anything gives the novel a lasting aftertaste. Written by
/Proofed by Yu Peilin
/Editor by Gong Zhaohua
/Xue Jingning
