★ A Feminist Philosopher's Dialogue with the Canon: Engaging with Plato, Hegel, and Lacan, this work rethinks what it means to "become a woman" in a world that has never asked "what do women want."
★ Zhang Nian, hailed as a leading figure in contemporary gender studies, uses philosophical rigor and feminist acuity to expose how women have been constructed, excluded, and named within the core narratives of Western philosophy.
★ A Guide for All Disciplined Souls: Beyond addressing women's spiritual dilemmas, this book offers a profound theoretical explanation for the loss of subjectivity faced by all individuals in modern society, pointing the way toward liberation for every disciplined soul.
★ Rated 9.8/10 on Douban (China's equivalent of Goodreads)

Wielding the force of feminism, the author plunges us into the dense jungle of philosophical concepts, leading us to encounter Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Nietzsche, Sartre, Freud, and Lacan.

Taking "female consciousness" as the core thread throughout the book, the author defines it as women's reflection upon their own experiences, granting it a special status of "peaceful coexistence with human self-alienation" between "I think" and "I am." Its logical starting point is rooted in women's recognition of their unique bodily situations.
Drawing on Lacanian psychoanalysis, Zhang Nian argues that female awakening is never about "becoming a man of the second sex," but rather about confronting "sexual difference" and reconstructing one's own subjectivity.

This is a philosophical work of significant academic and practical value. With profound scholarship, keen insight, and innovative thinking, the author presents a feast of thought on gender and philosophy. Starting from the philosophical foundations of the "female" category, the book gradually unravels these concepts, ultimately returning to women's authentic power.

Zhang Nian

A feminist philosopher, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Humanities, Tongji University. Hailed by the media as a "leading figure in contemporary gender studies" and a "pioneer of feminist thought."
Academic Background: Ph.D. in Philosophy, with a long-term focus on critical research into female desire, situations, sexual difference, and ethical-political action. Her primary research fields include feminist theory, political philosophy, and cultural criticism.
Selected Works: Gender Politics and the State: On the Liberation of Chinese Women (The Commercial Press, 2014), Arendt: The Origin of Politics, and the translation of The Ethics of Sexual Difference.

Introduction: The Philosophical Temperament of Feminism
Chapter 1: The "Female Enigma" in Hegel’s Philosophy of Consciousness
Chapter 2: "Woman" in the Dialectics of Enlightenment/Counter-Enlightenment
Chapter 3: Existentialist Situational Consciousness and "The Second Sex"
Chapter 4: The Judgment of Psychoanalysis: Woman Does Not Exist
Chapter 5: Thinking Sexual Difference, Becoming Woman
Chapter 6: Human Rights Equality and Feminism
Chapter 7: The Principle of Sexual Difference, or the Three Faces of Antigone
Chapter 8: Identity Politics and Its Deadlock
Chapter 9: Female Desire and Revolutionary Feminism
Conclusion: Thinking Like a Feminist Woman
Appendix: Dialogue – Feminism is Something New; We Are All Beginners