Gender Relations refers to the power relations between men and women. In a patriarchal society, men and women are not on an equal footing, men demonstrate superiority and women have a lower status than men. According to patriarchal values, men possess a higher status and play a dominant role, women are forced to live according to their gender roles, to be submissive. This notion of gender relations is like a culture, it affects the way men and women interact and perceive each other, it also spreads through the interactions between men and women. Unbalanced power relations between men and women are 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 hide her unconventional features in front of her husband. Through the interaction between Nora and Torvald, the unbalanced power relations between men and women are highlighted. Torvald had more rights than Nora, and he simply treated Nora as a possession of his. For Nora, she had to mask herself to adapt to patriarchal society. Eventually, she transformed herself 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 female protagonist and the unnamed male protagonist. They both symbolize the many men and women who lived in China during the Cultural Revolution. In the story, the female protagonist strived to achieve equal status with...... middle of paper...... men. To become a true individual, a woman must abandon her gender role and seek her own life. This would be a difficult time for women. Henrik Ibsen thus reminds society of the unbalanced power relations and society must resolve the problem. For How Did I Miss You, Zhang Xinxin presents the imbalance of power between the female and male sexes in China. The female protagonist is the mirror of 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 seeking equal status with men. Works cited by Henrik Ibsen. Four major pieces. Trans. James McFarlane and Jens Arup. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1981. Tam, KK, Yip, Terry SH and Dissanayake, Wmal, eds. A Place of One's Own: Stories of the Self in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. New York: Oxford UP, 1999.