Analysis of Chinglish from the Perspective of Feminism

Xi Yan is one of the protagonists and plays a significant role in Chinglish. The paper applies feminism to analyze Xi Yan and to find out what it represents. As opposed to the traditional women, Xi Yan goes after physical pleasure and spiritual fulfillment and gains both spiritual and physical freedom. In contrast with Chinese men, she performs even better than men and wins a certain economic and social status. In terms of foreign men, she prevails in the relationship with Daniel, which is a symbol of the rise of women that portends the rise of China. The findings demonstrate that: Xi Yan symbolizes the transformation of modern women from being suppressed to the pursuit of spiritual and physical liberation; she is on behalf of strong women who try to improve the situation of women, in pursuit of equality; and the change in the relative power of male and female reveals the variation tendency of the relative force of the East and the West.

China for his sign-making firm.

Xi Yan and Traditional Women
From the view of Beauvoir, all subjects have the transcendental character to establish themselves specifically. Only through continuous transcendence and moving towards other freedom, one subject can achieve his or her freedom. Apart from the expansion to an unbounded and infinite future, no other approaches can explain the present existence. All existences as subjects should be both immanent and transcendental, while once transcendence goes back to immanence, the existence would be depreciated to "in-itself" and freedom would fall to artificiality. The male authority intends to fix the female to the role as the object in the society, pushing her to her only immanence, as her transcendence is transcended by the other essential and dominated consciousness (male). A traditional woman usually loses her freedom of physical and psychical just because of this moral fault. She is deprived of transcendence, and her immanence is imposed, which thus takes a form of oppression and frustration.
On the contrary, Xi Yan goes after physical pleasure and spiritual fulfillment. She has an affair with Daniel. In her opinion, "We were the new generation, who would pick good men, and live for love".
When Daniel asks Xi Yan whether she has sex with him for the sake of helping her husband be a mayor, she tells him "The romance was for me. Just me". Xi Yan breaks social rules ("the demands of a situation that constitutes her as inessential") and pursues desires ("the fundamental claim of every subject, which always posits itself as essential"). In this way, she gains both spiritual and physical freedom.
Although Xi Yan wants to drag Cai Guoliang down partly because of her husband and maintains the marriage without love merely on account of her belief in Chinese traditional thought-"Qing Yi", which does not mean that she is bound by traditional ethics and morality to some extent. Because "To emancipate woman is to refuse to enclose her in the relations she sustains with man, but not to deny them; while she posits herself for herself, she will nonetheless continue to exist for him as well". Xi Yan is not confined to her relationship with Xu Geming. And in the meantime, she does not break the marriage in pursuit of freedom. Making no mention of traditional ideas about marriage, Xi Yan gets the success of transcendence in this sense.
Xi Yan symbolizes the transformation of modern women from being suppressed to the pursuit of spiritual and physical liberation and from being soulless and like a breathing corpse to being alive.

Xi Yan and Foreign Men
Finally, in a sense, the East is commonly considered to be weak and feminine, while the West is regarded to be strong and masculine. Viewing Xi Yan as the personification of China and Daniel or Peter as the personification of America, then improvement of women's social status and the rise of women portend the rise of China. And the change in the relative power of male and female reveals the variation tendency of the relative force of the East and the West.
Peter tells Daniel that "the Chinese have maintained consistent growth over decades, at levels the West can only dream about" and "Back in the old days, a Westerner who could speak Chinese like a native-employers fought to give me jobs. And the women? ... whispering how tall I was. Today, in the major cities-foreigners are everywhere. Speaking Chinese. But they're architects and accountants and financial analysts and ...". When Xi Yan and talked in scene eight, Xi Yan says "Westerners have always fed us lies. That's why I'm a Chinese Nationalist", "But soon, it will be our turn to use you! What come around, go around" and "One day, China will be strong". Daniel, though, disagrees, thinking that China is strong now and the United States is the weak one.
In the play, Oriental culture has made a significant impact on Western culture; China has a much better economic situation than America and is going to overtake America.

Conclusion
Xi Yan is one of the protagonist and plays crucial role in Chinglish. She goes after physical pleasure and spiritual fulfillment and gains both spiritual and physical freedom, as opposed to the traditional women who are deprived of transcendence and loses their freedom of physical and psychical. In contrast with Chinese men who is named as the Subject and the Absolute. She acts even better than a man and wins a certain economic and social status, succeeding in transforming into "the subject" from "the other". In terms of foreign men, she prevails in the relationship with Daniel and Peter. If Xi Yan can be seen as the personification of China and Daniel or Peter as the personification of America, the improvement in women's social status and the rise of women portend the rise of China.
In conclusion, Xi Yan symbolizes the transformation of modern women from being suppressed to the pursuit of spiritual and physical liberation; she is on behalf of strong women that try to improve the situation of women, in pursuit of equality and a place in the male-dominated society; and the change in the relative power of male and female in the play reveals the variation tendency of the relative force of the East and the West.