Lang Wang, Beijing Institute of Technology
Vol. 43, No. 1 (Spring 2024)
ABSTRACT: This paper examines filial piety, mother-daughter bonding, and romantic love in the short stories of Feng Yuanjun (1900-1974). I argue that filial piety and mother-daughter bonding are not always harmonious but rather are constructed antithetically, demonstrating the complexity of female kinship in Chinese women’s literature. Furthermore, maternal love is depicted as permanent and transcendent while romantic love is transient and happenstance. Mothers in Feng’s works are the moral force of the entire family and a source of love and support for their daughters, challenging the prevailing conception that Chinese mothers are merely agents of Confucian patriarchy. Overall, I assert that Feng Yuanjun’s works complement, revise, and undermine the male-centered anti-filial piety and anti-family discourse of the May Fourth movement, departing from the individualistic free love model.
