Red Is Not the Only Color: Contemporary Chinese Fiction on Love and Sex between Women, Collected Stories

by Patricia Sieber, Chen Ran (Contributor), Chen Xue (Contributor)

The first English-language anthology of its kind, Red Is Not the Only Color offers a window into the uncharted terrain of intimate relations between Chinese women. As urban China has undergone rapid transformation, same-sex relations have emerged as a significant, if previously neglected, touchstone for the exploration of the meaning of social change. The short fiction in this volume highlights tensions between tradition and modernization, family and state, art and commerce, love and sex. These stories introduce an emerging generation of acclaimed, and at times controversial, women writers, including Chen Ran, Bikwan Wong, and Chen Xue. By presenting fiction from the PRC, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, the collection deliberately maps the literary contours of same-sex intimacy in broadly cultural rather than purely political terms. The perceptive and informative introduction surveys the social evolution of female same-sex intimacy in twentieth-century China, examines how each author engages with her Chinese context, and discusses how the stories compare with earlier representations of Chinese same-sex intimacy in the United States. Compelling for its literary quality, the anthology will also spur reflection among scholars of modern Chinese literature as well as readers interested in questions of gender, sexuality, and cross-cultural representation.

Genres: LGBT, Fiction, China

212 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 5, 2001

Reviews

[Pau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chen Ran's story in particular is excellent.

[Sabina Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

"*Red Is Not the Only Color* shows us how much we need new visions of love. While the editor claims her selections 'explore alternatives to the familiar plot of female doom and destruction' (18), destructiveness and particularly self-destructiveness weigh heavily in these stories. If the stories share a theme, it would have to be the fragility of love, especially love not supported by social norms and institutions."
– Sabina Knight, review of *Red Is Not the Only Color*, *The China Quarterly*, no. 171, pp. 770-71, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4618796

These stories will broaden understandings of same-sex intimacy, in part through their portraits of women in Chinese and Taiwan from the early post-Mao period into the 21st century. Readers will find especially helpful Sieber's informative introduction and excellent short biographies of the stories' authors.

[Kimfu]

I sincerely enjoyed this selection of short stories. They didn't touch me emotionally -- as of yet, no piece of Chinese literature has -- but I did find them enjoyable and thought-provoking.

二零一六年： 第三十六本书