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30. Su Qing
- The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press
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qr Su Qing Su Qing (1917–1982) made her literary fame on the Lone Island, as occupied Shanghai was known during the War of Resistance against Japan. Like Zhang Ailing, another Lone Island writer to whom she is often compared, Su’s reputation is attributable to her literary achievements as much as her well-publicized personal life. As a divorcee, she was the subject of many rumors, which she fanned with the frank depiction of her unsatisfying marriage in her writing. Understandably, gender issues are one of the recurrent subjects to which she turns. Su is extremely critical of the social hypocrisy that keeps women under men’s thumbs. The system of marriage often comes ]VLMZ I\\IKS I[ Q[ M^QLMV\ QV ¹5a 0IVLº -^MV ¹;_MM\ *MIV +ISM[º an otherwise nostalgic essay about Su’s grandmother, is wrought with gender tension: The father is depicted as an intrusive force that disrupts the close relationship between grandmother and granddaughter. In writing if not as much in life, Su shows that it is possible for women to be independent of men, even if it can only be realized at a high emotional cost. 262 A Garden of One’s Own Sweet Bean Cakes (1943) For a while, I had four packets of sweet bean cakes on my desk. I thought I would never eat them, but I still could not bear to throw them out. A week ago, Cousin He Guan brought me these sweet bean cakes specially from Elgin Road. When he saw me, he didn’t waste any time on pleasantries, but immediately put the sweet bean cakes into my hand _Q\POZMI\KIZM[IaQVO¹AW]ZOZIVLUW\PMZI[SMLUM\WJZQVO\PM[M\W aW]1_MV\\W6QVOJWTI[\UWV\PIVLWVTaOW\JIKSaM[\MZLIaº?PMV PM_I[ÅVQ[PMLPM_IV\ML\WTMI^MIVLOWPWUMJMKI][M\PMZQKS[PI_ that had brought him here was still waiting at the door. I held onto him tightly and wouldn’t let him go, at the same time asking the servant to send the rickshaw away. So, he sat down and told UM ITT IJW]\ \PQVO[ QV Ua PWUM\W_V ¹