Feminism and Global Chineseness: The Cultural Production of Cont ...

Chapter One

The Cultural Production of Controversial Women Writers

For a long time, Third World women authors have had to choose between the feminist cause and the nationalist cause in the ambitious project of nation-building against cultural imperialism and neocolonialism. They are often confronted, particularly at times of national or racial crises, with questions like, “Which is more important to you, to be a woman or to be a Chinese / Black / Asian / etc.” With their exposures and critiques of various forms of sexism within their racial /national communities, they are frequently charged with misrepresenting racial or national realities and accused of selling out or betraying their race or nation, thus perpetuating the racial / national (male) ster­eotypes as the primitive, backward, and exotic other vis-à-vis the White man who embodies civilization, truth and all other things that spell superiority.