Alternative voices on Chinese women and Chinese modernity

: a study of women journals edited by Mandarin ducks and butterflies writers

Abstract

The question of woman is always central in the discourse of Chinese modernity. Discussions of woman's emancipation and her modern identity dominated the discourse of Chinese modernity from the turn of the 19th century to the 1930s. Prompted by the threatening Western imperialism and Chinese intellectuals' anxiety for modernity, Chinese woman's emancipation becomes a central criterion in the quest for a modern Chinese culture and nation state. The woman question in modern China is deeply embedded in the complex relationships between East and West, tradition and modernity, woman and the nation. Condemned as conservative and regressive by the May Fourth intellectuals, Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies writers are often neglected in studies on Chinese modernity. While a few studies begin to rediscover their contributions to Chinese modernity, their efforts to promote Chinese women's emancipation are still largely ignored. During early Republican China, Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies writers have edited various women journals and magazines such as Funü Shibao (Women's Times, 1911-1917), Nüzi Shijie (Women's World, 1914-1915), Xiangyan Zazhi (Journal of Fragrant Amours, 1914-1915) and Funü Zazhi (The Ladies' Journal, 1915-1920). Through these journals, I study the special strategies adopted by Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies writers to deploy different resources to construct modern Chinese women. I focus on the alternativeness of their strategies as compared with the dominant May Fourth paradigm on modern Chinese women, and ague that this alternativeness opens up multiple possibilities for Chinese women's modernization. Such alternativeness challenges the rigid dichotomies of East and West, tradition and modernity, women and the nation in the dominant discourse on Chinese women's emancipation. It also helps to rediscover the rich voices and imaginations of Chinese women's modern identity.

Date of Award	2 Oct 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Jun QIAN (Supervisor)