Ibsen and Peking Women's High Normal University

Sun Jian

doi:10.7557/13.3353

Authors

Sun Jian Nordic Literature Research Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3353

Keywords:

Ibsen, Peking Women’s Normal High University, A Doll House, Chinese Noras

Abstract

This article aims at exploring the great influence of Ibsen and especially his play A Doll House on the young Chinese girls studying at Peking Women’s High Normal University established for the first time in China at the beginning of the 20^th century to educate girls.

In its short history, the girls at the university were exposed widely to the progressive ideas and literature from the West. Ibsen, the most popular writer at that time, inspired the girls tremendously whose performance of A Doll House aroused a heated debate among the well-known scholars on such important issues as women’s rights, women’s liberation, new culture, art and literature.

Consequently there appeared at the university first group of modern Chinese women writers who picked up their pens and wrote about themselves and about women in China, describing themselves as “Chinese Noras”.

Author Biography

Sun Jian, Nordic Literature Research Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai

Sun Jian, Professor and Director, Nordic Literature Research Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai, China; Member of the International Ibsen Committee.