A century-spanning "Women's Roundtable"
"Women across eras and regions face common dilemmas in their'pursuit of freedom and resisting constraints', and literary narratives allow this commonality to transcend time," noted Yuan Xiaoyi, director of the Institute of Literature in Shanghai and professor at Normal University, during the first discussion. Focusing on de Beauvoir's posthumous work The Inseparables — written in 1954 but unpublished until 2020 due to its intimate nature — the panel explored the awakening of female self-awareness. The novella, centered on the friendship between the two teenage girls, traces the journey of women in their search for the sense of"self.
Chinese translator of The Inseparables, Cao Dongxue, highlighted nuances from the French original: "In French, the word specifically referring to female friendship is 'sororité', as the traditional term 'fraternité' (brotherhood) originally denotes the bond between brothers. Feminists coined this term to claim discursive power." She emphasized that the "pure and passionate" female friendship portrayed in the book is rare in both Chinese and foreign literature: "This non-utilitarian, mutually reflective relationship is precisely the spiritual support contemporary women need in a fast-paced world."
Zhang Pingjin, a professor of Shanghai studies at Tongji University, added that the complexity of mother-daughter relationships — intertwined with love and control, warmth and tension — reflected through the teenage perspective in de Beauvoir's work remains a core issue in the growth of many young women today.
