''The Butcher's Wife'' is critical of traditional
Chinese patriarchy. The heroine is sold by her dead father's brother into marriage with a brutal butcher much older than she. He dominates her sexually and takes pleasure in frightening her in various ways, including a visit to the slaughterhouse, after which the heroine in a disoriented state of mind murders him with a butcher's blade. Li Ang is known for her idiosyncratic, candid and penetrating insights on gender politics in the social life in contemporary Taiwan. Beginning her writing career at the age of 16, she has published nearly twenty novels and collections of short stories centering on women in such topics as pubescent female psychosexuality, feminism and gender, sex and female subjectivity. Her bold and successive broaching of subjects bordering on the taboo within the cultural context of Taiwan has earned her extensive critical acclaim both in the world of Chinese letters and internationally. Translated into different languages and published worldwide, many of her works have been reviewed by leading newspapers in many countries, including
The New York Times, and made into films and T.V. series. In 2004, Li Ang was awarded the "Chevalier de l'
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" by the
French Minister of Culture and Communication in recognition of her outstanding contribution to world literature. ==Works==