Miss Sophie's Diary

Ding Ling · 1904–1986 · China

Originally Shafei Nüshi de Riji (Chinese)

Why it matters

A young woman confides her frank sexual longing and restlessness in a diary that shocked 1920s China. Ding Ling's landmark of female interiority in a literature that had rarely permitted a woman's desire.

At a glance

Intimate diary form with introspective, sometimes fragmented emotional shifts.