In Search of Spaces of Their Own: Woolf, Feminism and Women’s Poetry From China

This chapter discusses the traveling of Woolf's writing, especially A Room of One's Own, into twentieth-century China. It argues, that since 1928, when this text had first been discussed by Xu Zhimo, A Room has remained an important point of reference in the Chinese-language feminist theory and literature. Particularly in post-Mao China, many female authors have been inspired by Woolf's spatial metaphoric and her reflections on female authorship. This chapter proposes close readings of poems and essays by Chinese contemporary female poets, such as Lu Yimin, Wang Xiaoni, Zhai Yongming and Zhang Zhen. It demonstrates that Woolf’s ideas have reverberated throughout works by the most innovative avant-garde female poets of the post-Mao era.