Between the State and Gender: The Political Aspect of the “Country of Women” Narrative in Flowers in the Mirror

The female topic in Li Ruzhen’s Flowers in the Mirror has continuously received much attention, however, discussing gender alone can easily be restricted by modern ideas. The novel creatively presents female figures in the context of the state. The “Country of Women” idea is expressed both as a utopia and a national entity. The discourse structure of this novel would have a more comprehensive interpretation by considering the relationship between women and state power. In the overseas Country of Women, the gender identity is established in contrast to other states, where the structural gender opposition is represented as direct violence. Wu Zetian, the female emperor of the Celestial Empire, is depicted as a protector of women's rights and a tyrant who reverses yin and yang. Thus the female autonomy centered on her turns into nothingness eventually. The distinction between Chinese and foreign states mimics the gender norms between men and women, while the inverted structure of the Country of Women becomes an irony of the central empire. The female figures in the novel are both representations of reality and metaphors for males in political discourse.