Chapter Seven
Opposition and Adaptation
in the Poetry of Zhai Yongming
and Xia Yu
Andrea Lingenfelter
Only a year apart in age, Zhai Yongming (b. 1955) and Xia Yu
(Hsia Yü)(b. 1956)^1 belong to the first generation of Chinese-
language women poets who have given themselves license to write
frankly about all aspects of their lives. Although each has at some point
resisted being labeled as a “woman writer” or as a representative of
women as a group, their work is written from a strongly female point
of view. Clearly aware of the constraints imposed by traditional
conventions of femininity, Zhai Yongming and Xia Yu assert their
right to write about anything they choose, independent of traditional
limitations on voice or subject matter. Ironically, their liberation from
traditional roles has resulted in writing that is strongly feminine (in the
sense of being specifically female). Until recently, much of girls’ and
women’s actual experience was deemed an unsuitable subject for
literature or art, and women writers could choose either a traditionally
“feminine” persona (as defined by patriarchal society), or a gender-
neutral persona.^2 A self-assured and sexually aware female persona
was not an available choice, although one could argue that there had
been a double standard and that the male counterpart of such a
persona was acceptable for men. But historical and social forces in
both the People’s Republic and Taiwan (pre- and post-1949) have
weakened many old prejudices and institutional obstacles to women’s
autonomy, and with the right to self-determination has come the right
to self-expression.
While Zhai Yongming and Xia Yu can be said to have cast off
traditional constraints, each has engaged traditional Chinese culture in
various ways. This chapter will touch on some of these forms of
engagement, including their critiques of the traditional institution of
marriage, their expression of previously forbidden emotions or