Gender and Chinese History

Until the 1980s, a common narrative about women in China had been one of victimization: women had dutifully endured a patriarchal civilization for thousands of years, living cloistered, uneducated lives separate from the larger social and cultural world, until they were liberated by political upheavals in the twentieth century. Rich scholarship on gender in China has since complicated the picture of women in Chinese society, revealing the roles women have played as active agents in their families, businesses, and artistic communities. The essays in this collection go further by assessing the ways in which the study of gender has changed our understanding of Chinese history and showing how the study of gender in China challenges our assumptions about China, the past, and gender itself.

Acknowledgments

Note on Terminology

Chronology

Introduction

Part One: Early Modern Evolutions

1. Les Noces Chinoises / Ann Waltner

2. The Control of Female Energies / Guotong Li

3. Collecting Masculinity / Yulian Wu

4. Writing Love / Weijing Lu

Part Two: "Cloistered Ladies" to New Women

5. "Media-Savvy" Gentlewomen of the 1870's and Beyond / Ellen Widmer

6. The Fate of the Late Imperial "Talented Woman" / Joan Judge

7. Moving to Shanghai / Yan Wang

Part Three: Radicalism and Ruptures

8. The Life of a Slogan / Emily Honig

9. Bad Transmission / Gail Hershatter

Glossary of Chinese Characters

Bibliography

List of Contributors

Index