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When I Was in Xia Village
"When I Was in Xia Village" was a short story written in 1940 by Ding Ling, a Chinese writer. The story was originally published in June 1941 in China's Culture (中国文化, zhōng guó wén huà), a Yan'an journal, which tells the story of a young woman named Zhen Zhen, who was abducted and forced into sexual servitude by the invading Japanese. She later worked as a spy for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as a Japanese army prostitute to collect wartime information. Zhen Zhen was treated differently with honor, pity, and disdain by her fellow villagers, as well as by Party members upon her return to Xia village.
Written during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the story is generally read as both a national defense narrative and a revelation of the dark side of communist revolutionary experience. Ding Ling subtly criticized the societal pressures placed on women in a 1940s revolutionary context. Furthermore, the story speaks to the inconsistencies between the Party's official rhetoric of women's liberation and its exploitation of women's sexuality in the name of revolution.
During the anti-rightist campaign in the late 1950s, the story was attacked for discrediting the Party and "glorifying" prostitution. It was further criticized as a blatant example of Ding Ling's own ideological problems and sexual immorality, and she was finally expelled from the Party before being "rehabilitated" in 1978.
Written during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the story is generally read as both a national defense narrative and a revelation of the dark side of communist revolutionary experience. Ding Ling subtly criticized the societal pressures placed on women in a 1940s revolutionary context. Furthermore, the story speaks to the inconsistencies between the Party's official rhetoric of women's liberation and its exploitation of women's sexuality in the name of revolution.
During the anti-rightist campaign in the late 1950s, the story was attacked for discrediting the Party and "glorifying" prostitution. It was further criticized as a blatant example of Ding Ling's own ideological problems and sexual immorality, and she was finally expelled from the Party before being "rehabilitated" in 1978.
- GenresChina
Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 1941
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About the author
Ding Ling
60 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)
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 25, 2022
In this short story we see that the women, even when victims, were demonized by their community and family, instead of being supported and helped.
We have the story of a travelling soldier who briefly lived in a village where one of the girsl was abducted by Japanese soldiers and was sexually assaulted for along time, as we understand from the text she was married at one point, and perhaps the abuses stopped but she now had an unspecified disease which was maybe going to be cured.
We see that while the girl's demeanour is quite aloof, almost dissociative of what happened, she is fully aware of people's opinion of her, of her status within the community and would rather leave than be submitted to the type of behaviour that is mostly victim blaming.
We have the story of a travelling soldier who briefly lived in a village where one of the girsl was abducted by Japanese soldiers and was sexually assaulted for along time, as we understand from the text she was married at one point, and perhaps the abuses stopped but she now had an unspecified disease which was maybe going to be cured.
We see that while the girl's demeanour is quite aloof, almost dissociative of what happened, she is fully aware of people's opinion of her, of her status within the community and would rather leave than be submitted to the type of behaviour that is mostly victim blaming.
December 5, 2022
+ Auszüge aus „Tagebuch der Sophia“
July 12, 2021
This was a very poignant sketch of a young revolutionary woman’s life in China during the Second Sino-Japanese war. The narrator is a woman herself who visits a fictional village (Xia or Hsia) as CCP cadre, during her tour of various villages as part of the party’s cultural campaigns. She meets Zhen Zhen, a young woman who was raped during a Japanese raid of her village and who is made a sex prisoner by the Japanese enemy. After Zhen Zhen escapes, she then is convinced by the Chinese Communist Party to return to the Japanese as a spy to retrieve information for the communist forces. She does so but contracts a venereal disease while across enemy lines and returns home to receive medical treatment. Upon arriving in her home village, she is received with scorn, especially among the older generation. She is still pursued by an old lover, though is still unable to bring herself to stay in her home village to be with him, believing it is better for her to stay as a stranger in the distant village where she will be receiving her medical treatment. In effect, she hopes to begin a new life, and find new meaning by studying and learning how to read and write.
Ding Ling herself joined the Communist Party in 1932, and was active in the League of Left-Wing Writers, after being arrested in republican Shanghai by the Kuomintang, she escaped to a communist base in Yan’an, and became a very influential figure there, directing the Chinese Literature and Arts Association and editing a newspaper. She was very critical of the gender dynamics within the party, and published her views, eventually being condemned by Mao himself, being forced to retract her views publically. By 1957, she was one of the intellectuals purged during the Cultural Revolution, spending five years in prison, and rehabilitated officially in 1978. Shortly before her death, she was invited as a guest at the University of Iowa’s writing program, and while there visited Canada for ten days, meeting the Christian socialist Margaret Laurence (who used to write for the communist newspaper The Westerner) and the Jewish anti-war activist Adele Wiseman.
Certainly a fascinating and honest writer whom I would like to read more of in the future. This short story touches on themes that were so pivotal in Ding Ling’s life and exhibits the courage she possessed to speak truth to her comrades, even when it came at great expense.
Ding Ling herself joined the Communist Party in 1932, and was active in the League of Left-Wing Writers, after being arrested in republican Shanghai by the Kuomintang, she escaped to a communist base in Yan’an, and became a very influential figure there, directing the Chinese Literature and Arts Association and editing a newspaper. She was very critical of the gender dynamics within the party, and published her views, eventually being condemned by Mao himself, being forced to retract her views publically. By 1957, she was one of the intellectuals purged during the Cultural Revolution, spending five years in prison, and rehabilitated officially in 1978. Shortly before her death, she was invited as a guest at the University of Iowa’s writing program, and while there visited Canada for ten days, meeting the Christian socialist Margaret Laurence (who used to write for the communist newspaper The Westerner) and the Jewish anti-war activist Adele Wiseman.
Certainly a fascinating and honest writer whom I would like to read more of in the future. This short story touches on themes that were so pivotal in Ding Ling’s life and exhibits the courage she possessed to speak truth to her comrades, even when it came at great expense.
September 21, 2023
Read for Chinese Modern Literature course. One of the best stories I’ve ever read. So poignant.
I’ll leave a quote my professor said that I feel is very true, even today: “she was assaulted and treated as a sexual object, yet the Party, who preached gender equality and female empowerment treated her as a political object. It is all the same. In either scenario she is just a tool for men to use.”
Truly, “how miserable it is to be a woman”
I’ll leave a quote my professor said that I feel is very true, even today: “she was assaulted and treated as a sexual object, yet the Party, who preached gender equality and female empowerment treated her as a political object. It is all the same. In either scenario she is just a tool for men to use.”
Truly, “how miserable it is to be a woman”
November 7, 2025
Very impactful! This kind of story gives voice to the people. I appreciate the narrator’s scoping view, rather than having a narrator who teaches the readers through her own opinion and personal perspective.
February 13, 2025
Intelligent commentary on women's sociopolitical identities during the second Sino-Japanese war. The author's backstory is super wild too...
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews