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“Few in the field even knew that the archives Wang Zheng uses existed. Her research shows the inner workings of a radical albeit ultimately unsuccessful feminist revolution of culture in the early years of the People’s Republic of China (1949–64). As such it offers a brand-new picture of not only the feminist movement but also politics and culture in this most formative period.”—Dorothy Ko, author of The Social Life of Inkstones: Artisans and Scholars in Early Qing China
"Wang Zheng has a strong and compelling narrative voice, making her own position as well as her research methodology crystal clear. One of this book's major strengths is its great detective work in ferreting out strategies of feminist work. It makes a unique and important contribution to our understanding of the feminist movement in China and of the relationship between communism and the pursuit of gender equality."—Hu Ying, author of Burying Autumn: Poetry, Friendship, and Loss
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
part one
the women’s federation and the ccp
1 • Feminist Contentions in Socialist State Formation: A Case Study of the Shanghai Women’s Federation
2 • The Political Perils in 1957: Struggles over “Women’s Liberation”
3 • Creating a Socialist Feminist Cultural Front: Women of China
4 • When a Maoist “Class” Intersected Gender
part two
from feminist revolution of culture to the cultural revolution
5 • Chen Bo’er and the Feminist Paradigm of Socialist Film
6 • Fashioning Socialist Visual Culture: Xia Yan and the New Culture Heritage
7 • The Cultural Origins of the Cultural Revolution
8 • The Iron Girls: Gender and Class in Cultural Representations
Conclusion: Socialist State Feminism and Its Legacies in Capitalist China
Notes
Glossary
List of Interviews
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Wang Zheng is Professor of Women’s Studies and History and Research Scientist at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: Oral and Textual Histories and the coeditor of From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society, Translating Feminisms in China, and Some of Us: Chinese Women Growing Up in the Mao Era.
Summary
Presents a hidden history of socialist state feminists maneuvering behind the scenes at the core of the Chinese Communist Party. This book illuminates not only the different visions of revolutionary transformation but also the dense entanglements among those in the top echelon of the party.
Additional text
"Zheng Wang’s forceful and convincing argument . . . makes her new book a crucial intervention in the fields of PRC history and the history of Chinese feminism. . . . [and] should be required reading for anyone attempting to understand twentieth-century China."
