Author(s)

Zhang Hongyong

Corresponding Author

Zhang Hongyong

Abstract

With Zhou Zixiang's novel collection On a Slow Boat to Hong Kong as the object, this paper analyzes the female images in the novel and finds that the novel mostly portrays tragic female images of "being insulted and battered". Its observation and reflection on the society reveals "the solidity and opposition between classes making their mobility and reconciliation hopeless". At the same time, it also describes a phenomenon worthy of attention among the characters at the bottom of society, that is, "the underclass characters harming each other". As a kind of "artistic reality", the novel is still based on "real life"- the author makes her experience from the underclass of the society source of her novel. Her works reflect the living conditions of the underclass females to some extent, especially her experience of being bullied, her despair toward the future life and the inter-harming among the weak females at the bottom of society. Zhou Zixiang's novel collection is a lament of females at the bottom of society in China.

Keywords

Slow boat to Hong Kong; Literature of women at the bottom; despair; stirring strains