Ding Ling: Sophie, Sensation and Sex
Chinese Characters13 Huhti 2018

Ding Ling: Sophie, Sensation and Sex

In 1927, China's literary scene was struck by a sensational new character. Her name was Sophie, and she was tormented by sexual longing, unashamedly self-centred about her desires and dreams, and determined to carry out mental torture on her nice, reliable and rather dull boyfriend while lusting after a tall, handsome man she couldn't have. Sophie was the creation of Jiang Bingzhi, who became known under her pen name of Ding Ling (1904-1986). She became popular during a brief flowering of liberalism in China's cities, known as the New Culture movement, when ideas of political nationalism combined with daring new thought about feminism and social change. After Mao's victory in 1949, Ding Ling found herself in internal exile, forced to live in the remote countryside for decades because her views were considered "bourgeois" and "rightist." Yet in her last years, she was finally rehabilitated, and is remembered today as one of China's most important feminist authors. Chinese Characters is a series exploring Chinese history through the life stories of 20 personalities. Presenter: Rana Mitter Producer: Ben Crighton Researcher: Elizabeth Smith Rosser.

Jaksot(20)

Deng Xiaoping: Black Cat, Yellow Cat

Deng Xiaoping: Black Cat, Yellow Cat

He was nicknamed "the steel mill" for his capacity to just keep going on and on. He was Mao's lieutenant who was purged twice and rose three times, the final time to the very top. He enabled China's e...

4 Touko 201813min

Bruce Lee: Screen Warrior

Bruce Lee: Screen Warrior

He may still be the most famous non-western film star in the world. Yet he made only a handful of films in the early 1970s, none of which are artistic masterpieces. It wasn't his acting that made Bruc...

3 Touko 201813min

Mao Zedong: The Man Who Made Modern China

Mao Zedong: The Man Who Made Modern China

In the early 1920s, he was just a library assistant at Peking University. Yet by the end of his life, he would rule a fifth of all humanity, turn China into a major power, and destroy the lives of mil...

2 Touko 201813min

Factory Girls: Modern Girls, Modern Dreams

Factory Girls: Modern Girls, Modern Dreams

They came out of the countryside and helped to build China's industrial revolution. In the late 19th century, textile factories started to appear in the Yangtze delta, and working in them, teenage gir...

1 Touko 201813min

Cixi: Ambivalent Empress

Cixi: Ambivalent Empress

She rose to power behind the scenes in China's late 19th century imperial court, and became one of the most powerful women ever to exercise authority in the empire. Cixi was a dowager empress, and her...

30 Huhti 201813min

Hong Xiuquan v Zeng Guofan: The Duellists

Hong Xiuquan v Zeng Guofan: The Duellists

This was the duel that shaped China. Hong Xiuquan was a poor boy who went into a trance and became convinced he was Jesus's younger brother, with a mission to conquer China. Zeng Guofan was a loyal Co...

27 Huhti 201813min

Wang Jingwei: Revolutionary Renegade

Wang Jingwei: Revolutionary Renegade

He is condemned as China's worst traitor. What made him do it? In 1938, as China was plunged into war, Wang Jingwei defected to the enemy, Japan. Yet in his early life, he had been one of the great fi...

26 Huhti 201813min

Lu Xun: Compassionate Cynic

Lu Xun: Compassionate Cynic

To create one character who says something profound about the society you live in might be a stroke of luck. To create three suggests you really do have your hand on the nation's pulse. That creator w...

25 Huhti 201813min

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