Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. In the Vanguard: Li Ang’s Discourse on Gender and Politics
Yenna Wu
2. Li Ang as the Socio-Feminist Conscience of Taiwanese: Local Identity, Women’s Liberation, Political Activism, and Cross-Strait Outreach as an Author’s Venues and Causes
Murray A. Rubinstein
3. Li Ang on Extramarital Affairs
Chia-lin Pao Tao
4. Between Insight and “Inattentional Blindness”: Feminist Controversy over Li Ang’s Shafu
Yenna Wu
5. Figurations of “Biopower” and Relationship Dynamics in Li Ang’s Shafu
Yenna Wu
6. Make It Till You Fake It: The Four-claw Dragons in The Labyrinthine Garden
Aubrey Tang
7. Women, Politics, and National Identity: Revisiting Li Ang’s All Sticks are Welcome in the Censer of Beigang
Fang-yu Li
8. Romancing the Strait: Love and Death in Li Ang’s Seven Prelives of Affective Affinity
Ping-hui Liao
9. (Dis)embodied Subversion: The Mountain-pass Ghost in Li Ang's Visible Ghosts (Kandejian de gui)
Yenna Wu
Index
About the Contributors

About the Author

Yenna Wu is distinguished teaching professor and director of the Asian Languages and Civilizations Program at the University of California, Riverside.

Reviews

The collection of essays edited by Yenna Wu is a valuable contribution to the study of one of Taiwan’s most significant woman writers, Li Ang. Just as multi-faceted as Li’s corpus itself, the essays in this book critically examine her works from the perspectives of history, sociology, gender politics, and postcolonial studies. . . .The essays gathered in Li Ang’s Visionary Challenges to Gender, Sex, and Politics present compelling arguments about the way Li’s works probe into issues of history, politics, gender, class, sexuality, and nationhood in Taiwan.
*Modern Chinese Literature and Culture*

This book gathers together nine thought-provoking chapters regarding Li Ang’s nuanced critique of female sexuality and Taiwan’s politics.... The editor and contributors of the book should be applauded for their great contribution to Chinese studies and beyond. To conclude, Li Ang’s Visionary Challenges to Gender, Sex, and Politics is a scholarly volume that appeals to a wide readership and especially to those who share the diverse agendas and interests of Li Ang herself.
*ASIANetwork Exchange*

To get a deeper sense of Li Ang's mind and her personality, this book will be a useful resource. It feels like these authors have ducked into Li Ang's mind and heart and dissected her work. . . .This edited book about Li Ang and her writings can be both entertaining and educational.
*American Journal of Chinese Studies*

Yenna Wu's new book offers multifaceted perspectives on Li Ang, an intellectual rebel and creative writer of global importance whose fiction laid important groundwork for Taiwanese feminist, psychological, and political inquiry that continues today. This essay collection showcases the continuing vitality of Taiwanese fiction and the literary and ideological criticism it has inspired.
*Jeffrey C. Kinkley, St. John's University*