Yue MENG, doctor of history from University of California, Los Angeles, professor in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Jinhua DAI, professor of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature and director of the Center for Film and Culture Studies at Peking University.

Explores the literary output of female writers in contemporary China within a feminist framework

Includes perspectives in psychoanalysis, structuralism and deconstructionism

Offers a comprehensive study of key authors such as Yin Lu, Xin Bing, Ning Ding and Ailing Zhang

1. Introduction.- 2. Years of the "May Fourth" Era: A Floating Historical Stage.- 3. Lu Yin: "Wimps Standing in front of Life's Diverging Paths".- 4. Yuanjun: Rebellion and Sentimental AttachmentIntroduction.- 2. Years of the "May Fourth" Era: A Floating Historical Stage.- 3. Lu Yin: "Wimps Standing in front of Life's Diverging Paths".- 4. Yuanjun: Rebellion and Sentimental Attachment.- 5. Bing Xin: Fortune's Favored Daughter.- 6. Ling Shuhua: A Feminine World Trapped in a Corner.- 7. The 1930s: Myths in the Crevice of Civilizations.- 8. Ding Ling: Vulnerable "Goddess".- 9. Marching Towards Battlefields and the Bottom Classes.- 10. Women in the City: On the Margins of a Glorious Page of History.- 11. Bai Wei: A Survivor of Ordeals.- 12. Xiao Hong: The Brave and Wise Pathfinder.- 13. The Nineteen Forties: A Divided World.- 14. Su Qing: Women - "Civilians in the Occupied Areas".- 15. Zhang Ailing: The Knowing Smile of a Desolate Beauty.- 16. Conclusion