brides holding high blood-stained cloth the morning after their weddings to prove that they had been virgins. Since then, she has been terrified she won't bleed if she has sex, and this anxiety effectively keeps her a virgin. Gradually all men lose interest in her, and she has stubbornly vowed to remain a virgin for the rest of her life, having learned to masturbate. Reception Li Xiaojiang wrote that Women Speak "did not incite a whirlwind when it appeared in 1988 because, for most intellectual and career women, a base of social equality and group consciousness had already been laid". Adaptation In Golden Fingernails, the experiences of four of these women (A, C, E, and F) are interwoven into one story. References sexual revolution Sexuality in China Chinese literary works Marriage, unions and partnerships in China Feminism in China Feminist literature Chinese contemporary short stories