猪副伤寒内蒙古工业大学学报（社会科学版）Journal of Inner Mongolia University of Technology
第20卷
第1期
（Social Sciences ）
Vol．20
No．1
2011
*收稿日期：2010－10－12
作者简介：刘天玮（1980－），女，内蒙古包头人，硕士，内蒙古工业大学外国语学院讲师，研究方向：英语语言文学。
Deconstruction of Patriarchy in The
Concubine ’
s Children 刘天玮，杨艳萍
（内蒙古工业大学外国语学院，内蒙古
落马贪官
呼和浩特010080）
Abstract ：Chine Canadian women had been oppresd by Chine male —oriented patriarchy in
Chinatowns．The Concubine ’s Children is endowed with a record of Chine Canadian women who fight against patriarchy and had the gradual awakening to the esnce of independence and freedom．From the perspective of feminist literary criticism ，this paper attempts to interpret patriarchy Chine Canadian women suffered and their pursuit for independence and freedom．
Keywords ：The Concubine ’s Children ；feminist literary criticism ；patriarchy ；awakening 中图分类号：K712．8
文献标识码：A
1Introduction
Deni Chong ，the prominent Chine Canadian female writer ，is famous for her family saga ，The Concubine ’s Children ：Portrait of a Family Divided．Winning various awards including
the
Governor
General ’
s Literary Nonimation Award ，The Concubine ’s Children has attracted extensive attentions and high prais．It gained instinct success as soon as it was relead．The reprentative comment made by The Global MAIL is cited here to testify the success of The Concubine ’s Children ：“An utterly absorbing tale of life lived ，spiritually speaking ，astride the globe．．．A meticulously rearched social and political history ，The Concubine ’
win10添加网络打印机s Children is ，above all ，a moving portrait of a people for whom the ethos of family value and home was so deeply ingrained that entire were sacrificed to it ”（Deni Chong end page ）．
The Concubine ’s Children portrays authentically the fifty years ’life experiences of Chong ’s grandmoth-er May －ying and the collective history of Chine Ca-nadian women．“Chine Canadi
an women have a
parallel history as their male counterparts do ，yet they have been sadly neglected for a equally long time ”（Jin Guo －Voices of Chine Canadian Women ，1996）．In Chinatown ，a man －dominated community ，they were oppresd by Chine male －oriented patriarchy．They were positioned as x slaves ，reproductive tools ，as well as private commodities．In The Concubine ’s Children ，May －ying is a Chine girl purchad by Sam as his concubine in Canada．She is an epitome of Chine Canadian women who has made great contributions in the survival and development of Chinatowns yet are wronged by the temple of patriarchy．蹲军姿>btoc
Under the oppression of patriarchy ，
Chine Canadian women have the gradual awakening to the esnce of independence and freedom．Thus ，The Concubine ’s Children is endowed with a record of Chine Canadian women who fight against patriarchy and ek for independence．Meanwhile ，the feminist
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critique is undertaken in this family saga which question women’s historical position as a cond x in patriarchy．My paper will follow some feminist critical theories and approaches to interpret the main female character—May－ying．From the perspective of feminist literary criticism，this paper attempts to interpret patriarchy Chine Canadian women suffered and their pursuit for independence．
2Theoretical Supporting烧烤店
Feminist literary criticism focus on patriarchy，the rule of society and culture by men．“It is concerned with the marginalization of all women：that is，with their being relegated to a condary position”（Wilfred L．Guerin，2004：196）．Virginia Woolf（1882－1941），the British scholar and teacher and also a leading feminist theorist，declares that men have and continue to treat women as inferiors．Men define what it means to be female and determine who controls the political，economic，social，and literary structures．Women，Woolf declares，must reject the social construct of femaleness and establish and define for themlves their own identity．To do so，they must challenge the prevailing，fal cultural notions about their gender identity and develop a female discour that will accurately portray their relationship to the world of reality and not to the world of men．Simone de Beauvoir（1908－1986），the French feminist，best known fo
r her treati The Second Sex，believes that men define what it means to be human，including what it means to be female．Being subordinate to the male，the female discovers that she is a condary or nonexistent player in the major social institutions of her culture，such as the church，government，and educational systems．Beauvoir believes that women must break the bonds of their patriarchal society and define themlves if they wish to become a significant human being in their own right，and they must defy male classification as the Other．Accordingly，women must define themlves，articulate their own social constructs of what it means to be a woman，and reject being labeled as the Other．Kate Millett，an American feminist writer and activist，best known for her1970 work Sexual Politics，argues that a female is born，but a woman is created．Women，Millett maintains，must dinfranchi the power center of their culture：male dominance．By so doing，women will be able to establish female social conventions as defined by females，not males，and in the process，they themlves will shape and articulate female discour，literary studies，and feminist theory．
3Oppresd By Patriarchy
As Virginia Woolf points out that men socially and psychically dominate women and she also realizes the patriarchy that restricts women in society．Kate Millett also declares，one’s x is determined at
birth，but one’s gender is a social construct created by cultural norms．Consciously or unconsciously，women and men conform to the societal constructs established by society．In The Concubine’s Children，May－ying’s tragedy was determined by Chine man－dominated traditional culture．According to doctrines in Chine feudal society，obedience is considered as the fundamental virtue for Chine women．There are old doctrines such as“Three Obediences”，“Four virtues”and“Having no talent is a virtue of a woman”for traditional Chine women．Furthermore，concubinage was a product of man－dominated Chine traditions in feudal society．Man in Chine feudal society had absolute superiority over women．They had the right to posss more than one wife．Women who were looly called“cond wife”were in reality just concubines．Concubine was just considered as xual and reproductive tools．
In her The Second Sex，Beauvoir believes that “one is not born，but rather becomes a women，it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature”（Beauvoir，1952）．Beauvoir also points out that since the female is not male，she becomes the Other，an object who existence is defined and interpreted by the dominant male．She argues that women have historically been considered deviant，abnormal．In The Concubine’s Children，May－ying is marginalized as “the Other”and“the cond x”in male－dominated society．Though her buyer and future husband Chan Sam had to purcha a birth certificate and pay for her passage，upon landing in1923she is
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immediately contracted as a waitress at Vancouver’s Peking Tea Hou to help recover the cost of her importation into Canada．Moreover，Sam sacrificed May－ying for the ek of his family in China．As a concubine，May－ying was just looked as a good investment by Sam，and her duty was to earn money which Sam remitted periodically to the family in China．This is a reflection of obedience that Chine women should show to their husband．In effect，the oppression May－ying suffered from the man－dominated culture was an epitome of tho Chine Canadian women who worked as waitress in Chinatowns．May－ying’s mis-fortune underlines the collective experience shared by Chine Canadian women who survived physical and psychological abu throughout their lives．“Actually，Chine Canadian women made the untold contribu-tions whether in the development of Chinatowns or to their families in China”（Beyond Silence：Chine Ca-nadian Literature in English，1997）．Take May－ying as an example，she had been wronged for decades by her family for her misdemeanor of gambling and affairs with other men．In effect，relatives in China didn’t know that the impressive mansion Sam built in China was build on the back of May－ying，yet her contribu-tion was erad by Sam who never mentioned May－ying was the actual provider of two families．The mis-fortune of May－ying reflects how cruelly Chine women suffer from patriarchy in Chine man－domi-nated culture．
4Seeking for Independence
Beauvoir asrts that women are as capable of choice as men，and thus can choo to elevate them-lves，moving beyond the immanence to which they were previously resigned and reaching transcendence，a position in which one takes responsibility for onelf and the world，where one choos one’s freedom．In The Concubine’s Children，May－ying had the initial hope of normal Chine family life，of living harmoni-ously with husbands and in－laws，of producing sons to improve her domestic position and to take care of her when she would get old．However，immigration to Canada forcefully crashed her initial hope．The cruel life in Canada as a waitress made the Chine traditional life impossible and remote．“The young May －ying was tosd between the contradictions of her life as a lowly waitress and her wish to do honor as a wife”（Deni Chong，1994：29）．Paradoxically，May－ying’s working experience and her lower social status prevent her from becoming the gender and cultural stereotype－an obedient Chine houwife．She not only earns more money from waitressing than Chan Sam does from his occasional unskilled jobs，but also excels in playing mah－jong when Chan Sam us their home as a mah－jong parlour in the evening．It was May－ying who allowed Chan Sam to borrow her wages for his third home visit and even let him nd her wages and tips as regular remittances to Ch
ina long after the hou is completed and after their official paration．By depicting the historical circumstances，Chong recovers May－ying’s pivotal role in the family and in the survival and development of the community．In the cruel living condition，May－ying pursued freedom and independence gradually．Her independence is prented by her public appearance of wearing“a custom－tailored three－piece suit”and“a man’s tie and cap to match”（Deni Chong，1994：123）．Chong politicizes May－ying’s choice of the masculine dress：“When May－ying was en dresd in this way in the gambling dens and around Chinatown，it was as though she was making the statement that she was taking her rightful place in a man’s world；that a woman who made her own living，who didn’t depend on a man for support，should be respected．Perhaps more than anything，her masculine dress was a statement that a woman could do as she plead with her life．As if to prove some solidarity，she convinced two other women friends to do the same，to wear men’s suits and matching caps．They called themlves’The Three Sisters．’……”（Deni Chong，1994：123－24）．As a strong－headed woman，gradually May－ying broke through silence impod by patriarchy．In Chinatowns，she re－examined her relationship with Sam，and in the process she learned about herlf，then her lf－awareness grew．In addition to depicting her grandmother’s masculine suit as a silent statement，Chong constructs May－ying’s declaration of her own independence．After she decides to cohabit with a professional gambler，Chow Guen，instead of marrying him，she makes an open statement to Chan Sam against
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being sold one more time as a piece of xual property．She spitted out：“I am not for sale．You are such a greedy man．How could you？！He’ll never pay you，and I’ll do exactly what I want to do．”（Deni Chong，1994：125）．Following this declaration，May－ying continues to live as a sojourner and a married－bachelor woman．In the process of awakening，May－ying develops an independent spirits and she maintained her own identity by being independent．May－ying’s awakening not only breaks through her own silence as a Chinatown waitress but also the collective silence of the Chine women．Chong’s depiction of May－ying’s arch for independence reprents the awakening of Chine Canadian women．Through May－ying，Chong prents struggle and hope of Chine Canadian women，thus concretizing the transition of Chine Canadian women from subordination to lf－empowerment．By tracing May －ying’s awakening of her xual consciousness，lf －consciousness and her eking for independence and freedom，Chong showed the feminism embedded in this book．
5Conclusion
Through the above analysis，it becomes apparent that The Concubine’s Children reflects the theme
of x，and express the awakening of Chine Canadian women’s xual consciousness and their eking for in-dependent spirit．It is endowed with a a testimony to the strength，determination and spirit of Chine Cana-dian women who were oppresd by patriarchy and fought for independence．My paper，bad on feminist theories，explores Chong’s feminist conscious in por-traying May－ying，as a courageous rebel against the patriarchy society．May－ying’s pursuit for independ-ence reprents some aspect of the feminist beliefs．In her family saga，Chong melts a kind of feminist tenden-cy into her storytelling．Her feminist consciousness lies not only in her attempt of freeing May－ying from being further wronged by the temple of patriarchy，but also in her appreciation of independence displayed by her grandmother．Chong positions May－ying to fly beyond boundaries of her socially accepted identity as a marginalized gender in the patriarchy society．By breaking out of her caged life，May－ying can finally construct her identity as an independent Chine Canadian woman．
References：
［1］Deni Chong The Concubine’s Children－Portrait of a Family Divided［M］．Viking Penguin Books介绍天津
Canada Limited，1994．
［2］Momoye，Sugiman．Jin Guo－Voices of Chine Canadian Women．Toronto：Women’s Press，1996．
［3］Wilfred L．Guerin．A Handbook of Critical Ap-proaches to Literature［M］．Beijing：Foreign Lan-图书馆员
guage Teaching and Rearch Press，2004．
［4］Simone de Beauvoir．The Second Sex．［M］．Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group，1952．
［5］Chao，Lien．Beyond Silence：Chine Canadian Literature in English［M］．Toronto：TSAR Publi-
cations，1997．
从《庶出子女》看加拿大华裔女性对男权主义的解构
刘天玮，杨艳萍
（内蒙古工业大学外国语学院，内蒙古呼和浩特010080）
摘要：加拿大华裔女性长期遭受着男权主义的压迫。《庶出子女》这部作品就见证了加拿大华裔女性在经历了男权主义压迫后的觉醒。本文从女性主义的角度，分析了加拿大华裔女性在遭受男权主义压迫的同时如何寻求她们的独立身份。
关键词：《庶出子女》；女性主义文学批评；男权主义；觉醒
中图分类号：K712．8文献标识码：A
87
