Miss Sophia's Diary

Miss Sophia's Diary is a short story by the Chinese author Ding Ling, in

which a young woman describes, through diary entries, her thoughts and
emotions, particularly about relationships, sexuality, and identity.

History
"Miss Sophia's Diary" was written in 1927 and first published in the influential
Early Republic of China "Fiction Monthly" (小说月报).
A major influence on the story was Ding Ling's personal experiences at that
time, including depression, exhaustion, and impoverishment. More generally,
Ding Ling was passing from the milieu of a girls' schools to the male-
dominated literary scene and involvement with some of China's most
sophisticated male writers.

Major themes
The major subject matter of Miss Sophia's Diary is a person's thoughts and
feelings. The "interior" nature of the story is reinforced by its setting in
a tuberculosis sanatorium.
Much of the diary concerns Miss Sophia's romantic attraction and sexual
desire, and even reveals her bisexuality. More generally, the diary displays
rapid swings of mood and outlook, and captures complex ambivalence of the
subject about virtually everything in her life.
Miss Sophia's Diary provides an unorthodox perspective on basic aspects of
life. It expresses frank, unflattering views of the male gender: "glib, phony,
cautious"  . . . "make my skin crawl" . . . "bastard". It also shows an
unflattering side of women: cruel, tough, selfish ("the lovely news that
someone got sick over me") . . . "savage" It turns traditional morality on its
head: the chasteness of her friends Yunglin and Yufang is "just one of those
strange, unexplained things in life."
The story shows a person in all her complexity and contradictions. For
instance, it shows how Miss Sophia is simultaneously able to exercise power
over others, and yet is powerless. A recurring motif is that she has the power
to command the attention of others, but not to make them understand
her. She is attracted to a man named Ling Jishi for his physical beauty, but is
stimulated by the jealousy of her friend Weidi. Moreover, Ling Jishi has "the
beautiful form I adore" but a "cheap, ordinary soul."
Furthermore, Miss Sophia has varying degrees of awareness of her own
complexity and contradictions. The author even speaks to her "readers" and
admits that the diary is just one (crafted) version of her experience, and just
another exercise in controlling the attention of others.
The emotional complexity of the character can be sensed from the fact that,
in the closing sentences of the story, her mood ranges from "profound
anguish . . . a mere trifle . . . agony . . . excitement . . . laugh wildly, I feel so
sorry for myself . . . pathetic . . ."
Ding Ling uses this story to criticize Chinese society for not accommodating
an independent woman like Sophia.

Historical significance
Miss Sophia's Diary is a landmark in the evolving role of women in China
during the era marked by the New Culture Movement and May Fourth
Movement.
A subtext of Miss Sophia's Diary, left unspoken until late in the story, is that
there is an irreconcilable contradiction between the instinct to be attracted to
someone like Ling Jishi and the fact that he is so irredeemably unenlightened.
Of equal historical significance is the interior nature of the narrative in Miss
Sophia's Diary. In contrast to other first person narratives, even those using
the "diary" format, such as the landmark A madman’s Diary by Lu Xun, Miss
Sophia's Diary is unusual in the frankness with which it reveals a real
person's emotions.

Comparative perspective
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert was a major influence on Ding Ling in
writing "Miss Sophia's Diary".