Ding Ling and Her Works

Final Paper

Ding Ling, also known as "Ting Ling", was a well-known Chinese author, writing both fiction and nonfiction. She was born in Anfu, China on October 12, 1904 and died later in Beijing, China on March 4, 1986. Because of the young death of her father, Ding Ling was raised by and looked up to her mother, who was an educator herself. Ding Ling is very known as an activist, mostly for women's rights, and because of this, young Chinese women were often the subjects of her fictional works. As a leftist, she was recurrently jailed for political reasons. A few of Ding Ling's works that exemplify her passion for women's rights are "Miss Sophia's Diary", "When I was in Xia Village", and "Thoughts on March 8 (Women's Day)."

In "Miss Sophia's Diary", Ding Ling demonstrates the controversy of capitalism in the country and also that of women's sexuality. In the work of "Miss Sophia's Diary", Miss Sophia is an attention controlling young lady who is battling with her sexual identity. She has claimed to have fallen in love with a young man even though she is usually not attracted to men. Ding Ling presents the capitalist dispute in the nation in that Miss Sophia is constantly torn between loving and hating this man. She loves him because he is beautiful, but she hates him because of his capitalist views, of which she does not agree with.

Another work of Ding Ling's is "When I was in Xia Village." In this work, Ding Ling displays the hardships and the gossip that is thrust upon Chinese women and also the flawed side of the CCP government. The woman in the story, ZhenZhen, who was working as a spy in the Second Sino-Japanese war, was captured by the Japanese and made to work as a sex slave during the war. She had also contracted a disease before she was able to return home, and when she finally did return home to Xia Village, she was all the village could talk about. The people of the village looked down upon her for the unavoidable things that had happened to her during the war.

Upon Zhenzhen's return to Xia Village, harsh rumors abounded among the people of the village. She had been raped and had been married to a Japanese devil. In an era where emphasis was still placed on the traditional female virtues and chastity, sleeping with the Japanese soldiers, regardless of her position as a spy for the Chinese, was horribly frowned upon. The women of the village were especially disapproving of her and tried to represent themselves as models of purity in order to contrast with her harsh past. Ling writes,

They even treated me as someone not of their kind. This was especially true of the women, who, all because of Zhenzhen, became extremely self-righteous, perceiving themselves as saintly and pure. They were proud of never having been raped (Ling 141).

The reason ZhenZhen had left the village is because when her father was adamant on her having an arranged marriage with a man of high status from another village, she became very upset and ran to the Catholic church in hopes of becoming a nun. On her way there, she was captured by the Japanese who were invading her village. The story reads: "Who would have thought that Zhenzhen would turn around in anger and run off to the Catholic church? It was at that moment that the Japs caught her" (Ling 137).

Ding Ling does a good job at portraying the hatred thrust upon Zhenzhen. Many times in the story, there are times when the narrator herself overheard gossip about Zhenzhen in the village. When wondering about the village, the narrator overhears a couple groups talking about the girl. The story says,

As soon as the owner learned that I was living with Liu Erma, his small eyes narrowed and he asked me in a low, excited voice, "Did you get a look at her neice? I hear her disease has even taken her nose. That's because she was abused by the Jap Devils." Turning his head, he called