Reinventing The "New Woman":Li Jieren’s Creation And Translation

The female figure is one of the most splendid aspects of Li Jieren’s novels.At first reading Li Jieren’s works,we are surprised by the bold transgressions of sister-in-law Cai,the shocking words of Mrs.Huang Lansheng,and the strength of sister-in-law Wu in taking the initiative in life.However,after reading through Li Jieren’s work on women,we can see that there are two types of women in Li Jieren’s writing:the "new women" with a strong sense of female self,such as Sister-in-law Cai,Sister-in-law Wu,Mrs.Huang Lansheng and even Chen Lihua.The other category is the "old-fashioned women" he created in his short stories,who are weak and powerless,with tragic fates and low personalities.The first chapter compares the transformation of Li Jieren’s image of women from the ’old’ to the ’new’.The old-style woman is similar to the image of the persecuted in traditional literature,but has imperfect attributes and is the breeding ground for Li Jieren’s love of country and countryside."The New Woman,on the other hand,is a personalized writing that transcends the grand mainstream narrative,a "new woman" in everyday life,alluding to the "literature of man".It is a work of professional transformation in which Li Jieren responds to the literary market but maintains his literary autonomy.The second chapter explores the reference role played by French literature in translation in Li Jieren’s reinvention of the ’new woman’.As a translator of new literature,Li Jieren’s choice of translations was unique.Western women such as Moliger,Pilon and Madame Bovary provided both action and ideological guidance;in his imitation of translated literature,Li Jieren acquired insight,a way of writing about women’s souls and a narrative strategy of compassion and sympathy.This makes the image of the ’new woman’ vivid and lively.The third chapter explains the localization of Li Jieren’s "new women".The unique cultural environment and family economic structure of the immigrant society,in which"light gifts and precious life",allows the "new women" to adapt quickly to the local community,abandoning the decadent and weak temperament of Western women and blossoming into realistic,alert and strong flowers of life.However,the "new women" of the local community have an old,secular flavour that is difficult to shake off,which reduces the progressiveness of Li Jieren’s portrayal of women and creates a misunderstanding of the image of women in translation.The image of the "new woman" created by Li Jieren is the result of a complex interaction between foreign and local forces,with the West providing a variety of external support and the local community having its own strength and limits,which together enrich the connotation of the "new woman".