ABSTRACT
This article examines Yan Lianke's Tamen, a book about Chinese rural women in the socialist and post-socialist period. In proposing the English translation of the title as Shes, the author highlights the main topics and ideas expressed by Yan, keeping in mind not only the gender-study framework suggested by Yan himself but also Gayatri Spivak's categories of “subaltern studies.” In fact, her categories, starting from the question “Can the subaltern speak?” may explain the male voice that speaks out in place of the “silenced subject” in Chinese history. The relationship between these stories and her-story brings to surface other versions of modern China; these narratives dwell on taboo topics such as menstruation, female orgasm, homosexuality, prostitution, and a lavish repertoire of images linked to the body, as appurtenant to the author's style. These are all subjects rural women do not wish to speak about, and we find no trace of them in literature.
