The Semiotic Significance of “Objects” and the Analysis of Female Existential Dilemmas in Eileen Chang’s Tulip

EileenChang's rediscovered work, Tulip, has not yet received sufficient scholarly attention; however, its nuanced portrayal of women's predicaments and its dense deployment of imagery provide a valuable literary sample for analyzing the mechanisms of patriarchal discipline.Grounded in this text, this paper employs semiotic and feminist theories to focus on the signifying system of "objects," offering an in-depth analysis of the representation and potential breakthrough of female entrapment.Through a semiotic interpretation of objects such as "the door," "the celluloid bangle," "rouge," "the needle," "water," and "the elevator door," it reveals that these images not only constitute a systematic disciplinary prison for women but also translate female plight into perceptible microstructures of oppression through embodied writing.Within the framework of feminist and semiotic theories, this study continues Eileen Chang's persistent concern with women's existential conditions while filling a gap in current research through a systematic analysis of the network of objects in Tulip, thereby providing a new interpretive dimension for understanding female representation in modern Chinese literature.