After Hélène Cixous' proposal of the Écriture Feminine, [1] there has been one current to urge that women should return to their bodies and write for themselves. “Let your body speak for you!” has become an aim for later feminine creation. Although Xiang Jing was once dissatisfied “to find myself a female child, one other sex that differs with the male one — that could not possibly be accepted.”, she treasures now her feminine existence and finds that “a woman could maintain native things better and express her own experience in better natural way.” [2] Such feminine conscious raising requires years for its maturation. Despite many works of female nudes have been expressed by masculine hands, Xiang Jing stresses, however, that “from the beginning of art history, female bodies have their incessant representations, being put there and appreciated, yet never being taken as feminine “I” so that she could say something for her own body.” [3] This article then would explore somehow, the distinctive features of the feminine image in Xiang Jing's works as to see their values in context.
It was nearly a fact when Ye Meng (葉夢) once commented Xiang Jing's works: “Most of them are female — children or adolescent girls as subjects of her representation.” [4] But contrary to patriarchal lascivious voyeurism for young and well-built female bodies, Xiang Jing's Your Body (2005) is somewhat weighty and far from being slender or beautiful. Liao Wen (廖雯) pointed out: “The crucial thing for Xiang Jing is not that a woman artist has made a female body and image, but that she has 'remarkable personal language.'” And an interview with Xiang Jing has shown Xiang's own view: “What I want to express is the true feelings rather than providing seduction... a new way different with traditional ones to look at female bodies… hoping to express some inner things, at least my girls are not pretty and lovable ones.” [5]
Your Body has a huge size that seems to be a parody of male artists' works, such as Michelangelo's Moses and Rodin's The Thinker with their sublime quality.
Xiang Jing asserts that “This is also a male body” and her critic Zhu Zhu (朱朱) also notes that “This woman exceeds the ordinary man in a huge form and opens all her parts for our viewing without any concealment or privacy. [6] However, Xiang Jing's works