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Title |
Swordswomen's World: An Investigation into Di Yi's Wuxia Novels |
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Author |
Tai, Hua-Hsuan |
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Associate Professor, Department of Taiwan Literature, Aletheia University |
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Abstract |
This paper is the first to investigate specifically the first Taiwanese female martial arts novelist, Di Yi. As the wuxia (i.e., martial heroes, martial arts, and chivalry) literary scene in Taiwan was dominated by male writers before 1980, it is of particular importance to study Taiwan’s first female martial arts novelist. This article first examines why Di Yi began writing after 1980, a time when the overall production and volume of Taiwanese wuxia novels were in decline. Analyses of interviews with Di Yi suggest that the absence of a female martial arts novelist in Taiwan prompted her to write. Having practiced martial arts, read a wide range of Chinese and Western literature, and mastered diverse professional skills such as fortune telling, Chinese medicine, and classical musical instruments, she took the initiative to express her wish for creative writing to the editor-in-chief of a newspaper. Thereafter, with incessant writer contracts and positive feedback from female readers, she has written an ample number of martial heroine novels, demonstrating that Di Yi wrote to quench her thirst for creativity but not to quest for external fame and fortune. This is her female novelist’s internal driving force to construct her Subjectivity. As a female writer, Di Yi is conscious of the need to distinguish the main characters from male martial heroes. Hence, unlike mere female arm candy portrayed in male-centered wuxia novels, almost every one of her works focuses on female chivalry narratives, in which women are either the most skilled, wise, and resourceful martial artists, or those who bear the heavy responsibilities to restore their countries and retaliate on behalf of their fathers. By defeating male characters with martial arts featured by tender and flexible sensibilities, she inverses the male martial paradigm of chivalry, showing her reflection on and critique of patriarchy. Since martial arts are the discourse power in the world of wuxia, Di Yi's softness over hardness is precisely her attempt to confront the male-centered mainstream of wuxia writing with a fluid, marginal combat position. Within the limits of established wuxia writing frameworks, Di Yi has created a swordswomen’s Jiang Hu (i.e., world), which is to some extent different from the traditional masculine aura. |
