The wuxia/xianxia stuff is more about following the female lead's story, rather than it being from a woman's perspective. Edit: I mean, when you read it, just consider yourself some kind of ghostly camera following her. (How creepy). Saying that, I would love to read a paired novel. Like, husband and wife author write a story together. She writes from the female lead's point of view, and he writes from the male lead's point of view. That would be neat. Does anyone know if there are stories like that?
we aren't saying male MCs are distinct from each other more than the female MCs have a personality that is out of sync with their backstory from the get go.
I do read a few with female leads, bu very few like kumo no desuga something novel where the lead is a spider, so not much sex difference here.
I'm saying I agree with you but feel like it belongs to a slightly different (though very similar) topic.
Have you tried Kusuriya no Hitorigoto? Japanese novel with heavy influence from ancient china setting. The story revolves around the imperial court and the power dynamics in it, but the MC does not directly in the politic game. Instead she is a bystander without any ambition whatsoever that gets dragged by the tides, because the brass there had to ask (read: beg) her for help to solve their problems. Another novel to look at: Akuyaku Tensei Dakedo Doushite Kou Natta. If you want a female MC that takes her duties as an Army leader seriously than you should give this a try. Oh and the MC assassinate her whole family when she was 2 years old. Katahane no Riku is another novel to keep an eye out. This novel is a troupe killer to many japanese LNs (saying what's this is a huge spoiler). The MC is bloodthirsty and reminds you very much of Lu Bu from three kingdoms, But tempered with intelligence. The memorable part of this novel is the fact one of her antagonists just says one line and you'll wish you can paint the river with his blood. In this novel the MC is a warring Commander rather than a leader
I pretty much avoid any female protagonist stuff because it makes me feel uncomfortable when reading it
well, there are still good eastern novels with female protagonists...though majority has romance, eyy! also, by eastern novels, so japanese chinese and korean?
While I have only seen the anime, Moribito has a very strong female protagonist and is based off of a novel series.
What kinds of books are you reading? As far as I know, most Chinese novels with female protagonists are written by women. In fact, this is a much stronger correlation than you'll find in Western or Japanese literature. You can find famous male authors with a dozen or more books to their name with maybe just one or two female protagonists. The Twelve Kingdoms would be another good choice. They're a collection of short novels that take place in a fantasy not-China and most of the protagonists are women.