The Bathing Women

The Bathing Women (Simplified Chinese:大浴女, Pinyin: Da Yu Nü, literally "Big-Bath Woman") is a novel written by Chinese author Tie Ning and published in Chinese in 2000, translated into English in 2012. The Bathing Women focuses on the lives and personal growth of several characters as they live in the turbulent times of The Cultural Revolution and the economic boom of the 1980s. The plot focuses on several feminist themes such as gender inequality, misogyny and sexual liberality. Plot summary The Bathing Women focuses on the main character Tiao, a Beijing publisher who on chance begins an affair with the older married actor Feng Jing, her sister Fan and her long term friend Fei, as they grow up in the chaos of The Cultural Revolution. The novel is set simultaneously in the 1960s and 1980s China. The work addresses issues like sexism, gender roles, and Chinese cultural double standards. The novel opens with the protagonist Tiao, a successful executive for a Beijing publishing company, entering into an affair with the married actor Feng Jing. Feng Jing is internationally acclaimed for his portrayal of the hardships of the victims of the Cultural Revolution based on his own experiences in a labor camp at the time. Throughout their relationship Feng Jing promises Tiao that he will leave his wife to marry her. The setting of the novel flashes back to a moment in Tiao's youth, in which she witnesses the public denouncement of one of her school's teachers, Tang Jingjing. Ms. Tang had recently had a daughter out of wedlock and is labelled as a "female hooligan". As punishment for her transgression she is given a choice: either reveal the name of the father of her daughter or be forced to consume feces, Ms. Tang not wanting to humiliate her daughter, chooses the latter.