Voiceless Resistance: Gender, Colonialism, and the Limits of Agency in Xu Xi’s Hong Kong Rose

December 10, 2025

👤Author

Name: Shiqian ZHOU
Affiliation: 香港大學, The University of Hong Kong
Contact: u3605552@connect.hku.hk

📄Article

Citation Recommendation: Zhou, Shiqian. “Voiceless Resistance: Gender, Colonialism, and the Limits of Agency in Xu Xi’s Hong Kong Rose”. Synthesis, 4 / 2025: 202-224.
Pages: 202-224
Language: English
URL:https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2025/4/8_Zhou.pdf

Abstract

This paper argues that although Xu Xi advocates for a unique Hong Kong identity that resists assimilation into both Chinese nationalism and Western colonial narratives, her portrayal of Rose, the protagonist in Hong Kong Rose, ultimately fails to fully reject Orientalist representations. While the novel acknowledges Rose’s dual oppression under Western and Confucian patriarchal structures, it does not grant her sufficient narrative agency to transcend them. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Edward Said’s Orientalism, Gayatri Spivak’s concept of the subaltern, and Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s critique of Western feminism, this study demonstrates that Rose’s struggle for autonomy remains constrained by cultural expectations and colonial discourse. Her attempts to assert independence, such as engaging in extramarital intimacy or choosing emigration, are presented as emotionally conflicted and morally compromised rather than as acts of empowerment. Ultimately, the novel aestheticizes Rose’s endurance and positions it as a form of quiet virtue, rather than constructing a fully emancipated subjectivity. Despite its intention to critique patriarchal and colonial oppression from an insider’s perspective, Hong Kong Roserisks reproducing the very Orientalist tropes it seeks to dismantle.

Key-words: gender, colonialism, Chinese nationalism, Western colonial narratives, Hong Kong Rose

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