What do you think?
Rate this book
I Myself am a Woman: Selected Writings
Selected writings by the revolutionary writer, feminist, and literary dissident Ding Ling (1904-1985), one of the most colorful and important Chinese women writers of the twentieth century.
376 pages, Unknown Binding
First published August 1, 1989
8 people are currently reading
299 people want to read
About the author
Ding Ling
59 books30 followersDing Ling (Chinese: 丁玲; pinyin: Dīng Líng), formerly romanized as Ting Ling, was the pen name of Jiang Bingzhi (simplified Chinese: 蒋冰之; traditional Chinese: 蔣冰之; pinyin: Jiǎng Bīngzhī), also known as Bin Zhi (彬芷 Bīn Zhǐ), one of the most celebrated 20th-century Chinese authors. She was awarded the Soviet Union's Stalin second prize for Literature in 1951.
Active in the Communist revolutionary cause, she was placed under house arrest in Shanghai by the Guomindang for a three-year period from 1933 to 1936. She escaped, and made her way to the Communist base of Yan'an. There she became one of the most influential figures in Yan'an cultural circles, serving as director of the Chinese Literature and Arts Association and editing a newspaper literary supplement.
Ding Ling struggled with the idea that revolutionary needs, defined by the party, should come before art. She objected to the gender standards at work in Yan'an. In 1942 she wrote an article in a party newspaper questioning the party's commitment to change popular attitudes towards women. She satirized male double standards concerning women, saying they were ridiculed if they focused on household duties, but also became the target of gossip and rumors if they remained unmarried and worked in the public sphere. She also criticized male cadres use of divorce provisions to rid themselves of unwanted wives. Her article was condemned by Mao Zedong and the party leadership, and she was forced to retract her views and undergo a public self-confession.
Her main work in these years was the novel The Sun Shines Over Sanggan River, which she completed in 1948. It followed the complex results of land reform on a rural village. It was awarded the Stalin prize for Literature in 1951, and is considered one of the best examples of socialist-realist fiction. It did not, however, address gender issues.
Always a political activist, in 1957 she was denounced as a "rightist", purged from the party, and her fiction and essays were banned. She spent five years in jail during the Cultural Revolution and was sentenced to do manual labor on a farm for twelve years before being "rehabilitated" in 1978.
A few years before her death, she was allowed to travel to the United States where she was a guest at the University of Iowa's International Writing Program. She died in Beijing in 1986.
She authored more than three hundred works. After her "rehabilitation" many of her previously banned books such as her novel The Sun Shines Over The Sanggan River were republished and translated into numerous languages. Some of her short works, spanning a fifty-year period, are collected in I Myself Am A Woman: Selected Writings Of Ding Ling.
(from Wikipedia)
Active in the Communist revolutionary cause, she was placed under house arrest in Shanghai by the Guomindang for a three-year period from 1933 to 1936. She escaped, and made her way to the Communist base of Yan'an. There she became one of the most influential figures in Yan'an cultural circles, serving as director of the Chinese Literature and Arts Association and editing a newspaper literary supplement.
Ding Ling struggled with the idea that revolutionary needs, defined by the party, should come before art. She objected to the gender standards at work in Yan'an. In 1942 she wrote an article in a party newspaper questioning the party's commitment to change popular attitudes towards women. She satirized male double standards concerning women, saying they were ridiculed if they focused on household duties, but also became the target of gossip and rumors if they remained unmarried and worked in the public sphere. She also criticized male cadres use of divorce provisions to rid themselves of unwanted wives. Her article was condemned by Mao Zedong and the party leadership, and she was forced to retract her views and undergo a public self-confession.
Her main work in these years was the novel The Sun Shines Over Sanggan River, which she completed in 1948. It followed the complex results of land reform on a rural village. It was awarded the Stalin prize for Literature in 1951, and is considered one of the best examples of socialist-realist fiction. It did not, however, address gender issues.
Always a political activist, in 1957 she was denounced as a "rightist", purged from the party, and her fiction and essays were banned. She spent five years in jail during the Cultural Revolution and was sentenced to do manual labor on a farm for twelve years before being "rehabilitated" in 1978.
A few years before her death, she was allowed to travel to the United States where she was a guest at the University of Iowa's International Writing Program. She died in Beijing in 1986.
She authored more than three hundred works. After her "rehabilitation" many of her previously banned books such as her novel The Sun Shines Over The Sanggan River were republished and translated into numerous languages. Some of her short works, spanning a fifty-year period, are collected in I Myself Am A Woman: Selected Writings Of Ding Ling.
(from Wikipedia)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 31, 2024
(Miss Sophia's diary)
August 16, 2022
So.
Freaking.
Interesting
But of course this dovetails with my interests and my projects and my things I want to think about, like: world literature, feminism, China, women writers, classics, etc.
The editors of this book did a fantastic job collecting, introducing, and annotating where needed, and I am so glad to have spent some time reading Ding Ling and learning about her place in history, literature and te Revolution.
Freaking.
Interesting
But of course this dovetails with my interests and my projects and my things I want to think about, like: world literature, feminism, China, women writers, classics, etc.
The editors of this book did a fantastic job collecting, introducing, and annotating where needed, and I am so glad to have spent some time reading Ding Ling and learning about her place in history, literature and te Revolution.
November 30, 2010
Review of some of Ding Ling's stories here: http://wp.me/sYiDX-dingling
July 14, 2020
Mijn verwachtingen waar hoog voor dit boek, het beloofde te zullen gaan over mijn twee grootste interesses van dit moment: feminisme en China. Echter deze verwachtingen kwamen niet geheel uit. De inleiding is geschreven door de vertaalster, een professor die gespecialiseerd is in feminisme in China en is erg ingewikkeld. Ik zou mijn Engels niveau wel als redelijk omschrijven, maar een groot gedeelte was voor mij niet te volgen. Toch zaten er een paar interessante gedachtes en vragen in. Het eerste verhaal van Ding Ling, Miss Sophia's diary viel erg tegen. De hoofdpersoon was niet erg sympathiek en ik heb een persoonlijke hekel aan verhalen waarin de hoofdpersoon verliefd wordt op een persoon die hele nare persoonlijkheid heeft maar erg knap is. Wat er exact feministisch was aan Miss Sophia's diary werd mij ook niet helemaal duidelijk. Toch was het op zich een boeiend verhaal en zaten er een paar mooie stukjes tussen. Meer losse verhalen die in chronologische volgorde in het boek staan volgen, daarbij zijn: Yecau, Thoughts on March 8 en Shanghai, Spring 1930 mijn favoriet. Doordat de verhalen in chronologische volgorde staan krijg je een goed beeld van de verandering van Ding Ling haar schrijfstijl en levensideologie. Ze is een goede schrijfster en er zitten hele leuke goede verhalen tussen. Vond ik het makkelijk precies te begrijpen waarom zij als feministisch wordt beschouwt, nee. Toch was het een interessant boek, maar eerder om een beter beeld te krijgen van de Chinese maatschappij en van propaganda dan van wat het precies inhoudt om een vrouw te zijn. Dat is mij jammergenoeg niet duidelijk genoeg geworden.
April 19, 2023
The two stars are for the introduction, the author got nothing.
February 4, 2025
(Miss Sophia's Diary)
Physically ill woman with TB (known to her) is actually also mentally ill (unbeknownst to her).
Physically ill woman with TB (known to her) is actually also mentally ill (unbeknownst to her).
December 22, 2020
In this book, Barlow provides historical and political background to the issues relevant in Ding Ling’s life from the May Fourth era to the Post-Cultural Revolution period. A biography of Ding Ling is also given throughout the discussion of Modern China’s history. This gives readers insight into how Ding Ling reflected society and gender relations of the time within her writings. Throughout the stories provided in the book, readers can see both how Ding Ling's political and social views altered over time.
December 31, 2012
Ding Ling is the most famous and most awesome of May Fourth Movement women writers.
Miss Sophie's Diary
A Woman and a Man
Spring 1930
Miss Sophie's Diary
A Woman and a Man
Spring 1930
Read
April 1, 2017Not sure what to rate this since I read it for class xD
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews