Writings
As Yuan exposed the role of women in their families, workplace, and other aspects of life, the women in her stories typically accomplished a financial feat. Either they achieved financial independence, or she showed the financial prosperity of the flourishing middle-class. Her writings attempt to demonstrate what women can do independent from men.
In contrast to Eileen Chang, who depicted the differences between social classes in China in a negative light, Yuan was raised in a middle-class family and did not show any animosity towards the economical differences in society, especially since the majority of the Taiwanese people have achieve middle-class status in post-war years. In fact, Yuan greatly enjoyed her middle-class life and often showed that appreciation through her literature.
Many of Yuan's stories end on a question and the plot is left unresolved. Her more recent work often deals with young people trying to resolve their inner conflict with an external experience.
Read more about this topic: Yuan Ch'iung-ch'iung
Famous quotes containing the word writings:
“It has come to be practically a sort of rule in literature, that a man, having once shown himself capable of original writing, is entitled thenceforth to steal from the writings of others at discretion. Thought is the property of him who can entertain it; and of him who can adequately place it. A certain awkwardness marks the use of borrowed thoughts; but, as soon as we have learned what to do with them, they become our own.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In this part of the world it is considered a ground for complaint if a man’s writings admit of more than one interpretation.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“For character, to prepare for the inevitable I recommend selections from [Ralph Waldo] Emerson. His writings have done for me far more than all other reading.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)