Gender Dynamics Feminist Activism And Social Transformation In China

This book explores the extent to which women have been initiators, mobilizers, and driving forces of social transformation in China. The book considers how conceptions of women’s roles have changed as China has moved from state socialism to engagement with capitalist globalization, examines the growth of women’s gender and sexual consciousness and social movements for women’s rights, including for marginalized social and sex/gender grouops, and discusses women’s roles in society-state interactions, including many forms of social activism, cultural events, educational innovations, and more. Overall, the book demonstrates that women have not simply been passive receivers of the consequences of the forces of global capitalism, but that they have had a profound, active impact on social transformation in China.

This book is based on rich empirical data and findings concerning the lives, perceptions and ambitions of young middle-class female graduates, thus providing essential insights into the lives and viewpoints of a previously unresearched group in China from a feminist scholarly perspective. The study shows how the lives of young women and debates over youthful femininity lie at the very heart of modern Chinese history and society. With a central focus on women's issues, the book's ultimate goal is to enable Western readers to better understand the changing ideologies and the overall social domain of China under the leadership of President Xi. The empirical data presented includes interviews and group discussions, as well as illustrations, tables and images collected during a prolonged period of fieldwork. The insights shared here will facilitate cross-cultural communication with both Western feminist academics and readers who are sensitive to different cultures.

The year 1995, when the Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, marks a historical milestone in the development of the Chinese feminist movement. In the decades that followed, three distinct trends emerged: first, there was a rise in feminist NGOs in mainland China and a surfacing of LGBTQ movements; second, social and economic developments nurtured new female agency, creating a vibrant, women-oriented cultural milieu in China; third, in response to ethnocentric Western feminism, some Chinese feminist scholars and activists recuperated the legacies of socialist China’s state feminism and gender policies in a new millennium. These trends have brought Chinese women unprecedented choices, resources, opportunities, pitfalls, challenges, and even crises. In this timely volume, Zhu and Xiao offer an examination of the ways in which Chinese feminist ideas have developed since the mid-1990s. By juxtaposing the plural “feminisms” with “Chinese characteristics,” they both underline the importance of integrating Chinese culture, history, and tradition in the discussions of Chinese feminisms, and, stress the difference between the plethora of contemporary Chinese feminisms and the singular state feminism. The twelve chapters in this interdisciplinary collection address the theme of feminisms with Chinese characteristics from different perspectives rendered from lived experiences, historical reflections, theoretical ruminations, and cultural and sociopolitical critiques, painting a panoramic picture of Chinese feminisms in the age of globalization.

Based on recent research and insights from political activism, the volume explores changing manifestations and articulations of gender in China.

This book examines how gender and generational relations have been influenced by the vast changes in the Chinese society since the start of the Reform era in 1978. It offers a short introduction to China's recent development and the relationship between Chinese and Nordic gender research. Three articles in the book focus on how the developments in the Reform era have produced generational changes in feminist politics, in the labour market, and between young people and their parents – and what impacts these changes have for gender relations. Two articles investigate changes in middle-class motherhoods and fatherhoods towards more emphasis on intimacy and love between parents and child, but often in asynchronicity with traditional gender roles among the parents. In addition, the book comprises a review of a recent volume about transforming Chinese patriarchy, and an essay reflecting on what the implications for Nordic/Western gender studies of China’s increasing presence and influence globally as well as in the Nordic region could or should be. This book is a significant new contribution to gender studies and politics, and will be a great resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of Literature, History, Sociology, Politics, and Gender. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of NORA—Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research.

This book provides a scholarly overview of women's status in Hong Kong from a gender perspective. The contributors are associated with the Gender Research Programme at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The chapters offer substantive analyses on the indicators of women's status, including education, work, division of domestic labour, gender roles, women's movement, and public policies affecting women. The historical-cultural context of women's status and the cross-cultural relevance of women's studies are also examined. This book embraces both longitudinal as well as cross-sectional perspectives, and includes both quantitative and qualitative materials. It is not only a scholarly document on Chinese women in Hong Kong, but also a statement marking their changing status. Readers interested in women's issues, gender studies, and Chinese studies will find this book a useful reference.

In the process of helping women to help themselves, female activists have assumed a decisive role in negotiating social and political transformations in Chinese society. This is the first book that describes and analyzes the new phase of women's organizing in China, which started in the 1980s, and remains a vital force to the present day. The political and social changes taking place in contemporary Chinese society have, surprisingly, received scant attention. This volume enriches our understanding of the working of grassroots democracy in China by exploring women's popular organizing activities and their interaction with party-state institutions. By subjecting these activities to both empirical enquiry and theoretical scrutiny, a rigorous analysis of the exchange, dialogue, negotiation and transformation among and within three groups of political actors - popular women's groups, religious groups and the All China Women's Federation - is concisely presented to the reader. This book will be of tremendous interest to students of Chinese Studies, Political Science and Gender Studies alike.