Keeping the Nation's House: Domestic Management and the Making of Modern China (Contemporary Chinese Studies) - Softcover

Schneider, Helen M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0774819987 ISBN 13: 9780774819985

Publisher: UBC Press, 2012

Synopsis

Keeping the Nation’s House unsettles the assumption that home economics training lies far from the seats of power by revealing how elite Chinese women helped to build modern China one family at a time. Trained between the 1920s and the early 1950s, home economists did not believe that a clear line separated the private (nei) from the public (wai). They believed that the home economics courses taught in centres of higher learning would transform the most fundamental of political spaces -- the home -- by teaching women to nurture ideal families and manage projects of social reform for a strong, modern China. Although their discipline came undone after 1949, it created a legacy of gendered professionalism and reinforced the idea that leaders should shape domestic rituals of the people.

By focusing on the vision and aspirations of the women who shaped a discipline, this book offers a gendered perspective on the past and reveals how women intellectuals dealt with the transition from the Nationalist to the Communist era.

About this title

Book Description

A groundbreaking account of the elite Chinese women – home economists – who helped to build modern China one family at a time.

From the Inside Flap

The term home economics often conjures images of sterile
classrooms where girls learn to cook dinner and swaddle dolls, far
removed from the seats of power. Helen Schneider unsettles this
assumption by revealing how Chinese women helped to build a nation, one
family at a time. From the 1920s to the early 1950s, home economists
transformed the most fundamental of political spaces – the
home – by teaching women to nurture ideal families and
manage projects of social reform. Although their discipline came undone
after 1949, it created a legacy of gendered professionalism and
reinforced the idea that leaders should shape domestic rituals of the
people.

Edition details

• Publisher: UBC Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0774819987
• ISBN 13: 9780774819985
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 336