Rethinking Childhood in Modern Chinese History (Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia)

At the cutting edge of the growing field of the history of childhood, this book shows how placing children at the centre of historical analysis enables the past to be viewed in new ways.

Demonstrating that changes in the way Chinese children were viewed and cared for emerged in the context of an international shift towards child-centred education, the book places Chinese childhood in a global context. It discusses how the state and the family interacted through policy, education, media and regime change, and highlights the centrality of science and technology to twentieth-century Chinese approaches to childhood. In addition, by seeking out the voices of children themselves, the book presents valuable testimony of the world viewed through young eyes.

As a study of how class, gender and age affected both representations of children and childhood and children’s real-life experiences, this book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Chinese studies, modern Chinese history and Childhood studies.

Isabella Jackson is Assistant Professor in Chinese History at Trinity College Dublin, where she was the Principal Investigator of the Irish Research Council Laureate Award ‘CHINACHILD: “Slave-Girls” and the Discovery of Female Childhood in Twentieth-Century China’ (2018-2024).

Yushu Geng is a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, having previously been a postdoctoral research fellow at NYU Shanghai and an Irish Research Council research fellow on the CHINACHILD project.