《外國語言文學(xué)與文化研究文庫：中國現(xiàn)當(dāng)代女作家作品英譯史研究》：
      3.1 Gender Related Social and Cultural Background
      3.1.1 Development of Chinese Feminism in This Period
During the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, the whole countr}r was involved in the political movement, and translation of literary works was greatly reduced, The year 1978 was regarded as a tuming point for the Chinese social life to get away from the control of political power and ideology. At the end of this year the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Conuuittee of the Chinese Communist Party was held in Beijing, and Deng Xiaoping's closing speech "Liberate the Mind, Be Practical and Realistic and Look Forward Corporately" marked the determination of the Party to open up not only in economy, but also in the fields of thoughts and
　　culture.
　　With the revival of humanity and humanism in the literary field, expression of individual emotions released from the control of political ideology and accusation of the historical trauma caused by the Cultural Revolution became the main theme of literature. Women's literature also began to thrive as a part of mainstream literature together with other types like Scar literature, lntrospection literature, Root-seeking literature and Avant Guade literature.
　　As a resul.t of vagueness and elimination of gender differences from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, the mainstream literature in the first decade after 1978 still didn't pay much attention to gender issues. However, some women writers, although greatly influenced by the mainstream thoughts, began to notice the difficult situation of women at the time and show female consciousness in their writing. They were well aware of the vulnerability of women's lives in face of dramatic social and political changes, and probed into the problems of conflicts between family and career for women, the gender identity of women, the attitudes of the society towards women and the disparity between self-realization and self-expectation.
　　In 1979, Shen Rong published her representative story At Middle Age. The work is usually regarded as one that belongs to introspection literature, and comments mainly focus on the difficult position of the intellectuals. However, it is also a reflection of women's dilemma at the beginning period of the New Era. The story is about Lu Wenting, the female protagonist, who was both mentally and physically exhausted under the double burden of family and work. Compared with traditional female characters, Lu Wenting acquired a new social role as a well-known ophthalmologist, which is a reconstruction of her identity, but her attitudes and expectation of her role in the family didn't change much from the tradition. This was a situation many career women, who were regarded as "Iiberated" at the time, had to face.
　　Wang Anyi's story And the Rain Patters On, appeared in the same year, but told a different story of a young girl Wenwen, who is the main character of her early series of works. Wenwen had a rich and colorful inner world and would not obey others blindly. Her individuality and faith in love was a breakthrough from the control of traditional ideas.
　　Love Must Not Be Forgotten, by Zhang Jie is generally regarded as the first representative feminist work of the New Era. It openly discusses the long forbidden issue of love, and highly praises the female protagonist's commitment to love and her unyielding spirit against prejudice. The story probes into the inner space of women which is filled with love and desire.
　　Since then, women writers began to abandon the sexless or neutral female images in literary works and began to explore women's identity and position in the society. Dai Houying's work Stones of the Wall also shows some female consaousness although the work is generally regarded as a part of Scar literature and the main theme of the book is humanism. The protagonist Sun Yue is independent and strong- minded, and at the same time she is in pursuit of love and happiness.
　　……