As different as the Arab and Chinese cultures may seem, such distinctions begin to blur when it comes to women’s issues and the common quest for feminism. Confronted by traditional and cultural constraints, both Arab and Chinese women have been engaged in the feminist discourses. Their approaches and efforts are categorized as parts of Third World feminism as opposed to its western mainstream counterpart. It is often argued that the Western mainstream feminism overlooks the unique experience and viewpoints of women in the Third World, because it was established based on the perspectives of middle-class white Western women whose understanding of women in the Third World was often mixed with racism and classism.
The above-mentioned hypothesis suggests that Arab and Chinese adaptations of feminism are different from their Western counterpart and from each other. What “difference” means here is not so much that each school develops its new theory from scratch. Rather, “difference” here refers to the various ways of understanding and manifestations each culture derives as a reaction to the Western theory. This study attempts to demonstrate this subtle yet profound difference by comparing the concept of female sexuality reflected in women’s literature as a test case. Two short stories by two women writers, “Sha Fu” (“The Butcher’s Wife”) by Ang Li from Taiwan and “Afa’a” (“The Snake”) by Layla al-Uthman from Kuwait, will be studied. This paper highlights the differences and similarities between the Arab and Chinese women writers in their interpretations of female sexuality, as well as examines the traces of influences of tradition and the Western feminism on their discourses. The exercise of such cross-cultural examination aims to contribute to a more profound understanding of Third World feminism.
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