Proceedings of the 2025 5th International Conference on Culture, Design and Social Development (CDSD 2025)

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The Semiotic Significance of “Objects” and the Analysis of Female Existential Dilemmas in Eileen Chang’s Tulip

Authors
Shuyue Fu1, *
1School of Chinese Language and Culture, Zhejiang International Studies University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310012, China
*Corresponding author. Email: 22040101039@st.zisu.edu.cn
Corresponding Author
Shuyue Fu
Available Online 26 February 2026.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_12How to use a DOI?
Keywords
feminist consciousness; Eileen Chang’s fiction; semiotics; Tulip
Abstract

Eileen Chang’s rediscovered work, Tulip, has not yet received sufficient scholarly attention; however, its nuanced portrayal of women’s predicaments and its dense deployment of imagery provide a valuable literary sample for analyzing the mechanisms of patriarchal discipline. Grounded in this text, this paper employs semiotic and feminist theories to focus on the signifying system of “objects,” offering an in-depth analysis of the representation and potential breakthrough of female entrapment. Through a semiotic interpretation of objects such as “the door,” “the celluloid bangle,” “rouge,” “the needle,” “water,” and “the elevator door,” it reveals that these images not only constitute a systematic disciplinary prison for women but also translate female plight into perceptible microstructures of oppression through embodied writing. Within the framework of feminist and semiotic theories, this study continues Eileen Chang’s persistent concern with women’s existential conditions while filling a gap in current research through a systematic analysis of the network of objects in Tulip, thereby providing a new interpretive dimension for understanding female representation in modern Chinese literature.

Copyright
© 2026 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 2025 5th International Conference on Culture, Design and Social Development (CDSD 2025)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
26 February 2026
ISBN
978-2-38476-541-6
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_12How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2026 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Shuyue Fu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/02/26
TI  - The Semiotic Significance of “Objects” and the Analysis of Female Existential Dilemmas in Eileen Chang’s Tulip
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 5th International Conference on Culture, Design and Social Development (CDSD 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 95
EP  - 104
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_12
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_12
ID  - Fu2026
ER  -