Gender relations refers to power relations between men and women. In patriarchal society, men and women are not on an equal footing, men show superiority, and women have lower status than men. According to patriarchal values, men possess a higher status and play a dominant role, women are obliged to live according to their gender roles, to be submissive. This notion of gender relations is like a culture, it influences how men and women interact and perceive each other, it also propagates through interactions between men and women. Unbalanced power relations between men and women can be found in many Western and Chinese writings. A Doll's House is a play written by Henrik Ibsen. In A Doll's House, Henirk Ibsen presents the female protagonist, Nora, as a conventional woman living in a patriarchal society. Nora had to follow the rules and customs. She always had to disguise her unconventional traits in front of her husband. Through the interaction between Nora and Torvald, the unbalanced power relations between men and women are shown. Torvald had more rights than Nora and treated Nora as if she were his property. For Nora, she had to disguise herself to fit into the patriarchal society. She eventually transformed into a New Woman, broke patriarchal values, and left confinement to search for herself. Through A Doll's House, Ibsen criticizes the patriarchal values ​​accepted by society. For How Did I Miss You, Zhang Xinxin presents the unbalanced power relations between men and women through the unnamed female protagonist and the male protagonist. Both symbolize the many men and women who lived in China during the Cultural Revolution. In the story, the female protagonist strove to pursue equal status with... middle of paper... man eating. To become a true individual, a woman must abandon her gender role and seek her own life. It would be a difficult time for women. Henrik Ibsen thus reminds society of unbalanced power relations and society should solve the problem. For How Did I Miss You, Zhang Xinxin presents the power imbalance between the female and male sexes in China. The female protagonist serves as a mirror to millions of women in China. She suffers due to her unconventional traits and through How Did I Miss You, Zhang Xinxin depicts a woman's difficult process of pursuing equal status with men. Works Cited Henrik Ibsen. Four main comedies. Trans. James McFarlane and Jens Arup. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1981. Tam, K.K., Yip, Terry S.H., and Dissanayake, Wmal, eds. A Place of One's Own: Stories of Self in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. New York: Oxford SU, 1999.