Contemporary China's Young Women's Strategies of Traditional Identity Construction Mirrored in the Cyber Novel Naked Marriage

摘要

The feminine cyber novel Naked Marriage: A New Era of Marriage for the 1980s has attracted much attention. The novel mirrors China's young women's return to their tradition identity, thereby taking the initiative to use a variety of strategies to construct that identity: first, identification with being dependant on the male in the unbalanced power structure of gender; second, identification of female body as the capital to achieve the most exchange value in marriage; third, exhibition of traditional "Women Virtues" in conformity with the weaker position. They do not strive to challenge the present power structure of gender, but seek the above limited but assured benefits available in their traditional dependant role. They optimize the value of their body as capital to access financial successful men by their transformation into the carefully packaged physical appearance desired by men. They exhibit themselves as having traditional "Women Virtues", esp. submi ssiveness and tenderness, to avoid gender clash. As depicted in this novel, the 1980s female generation still has a very low status in China's present gender structure.