Gender in Motion: Divisions of Labor and Cultural Change in Late Imperial and Modern China (Asia/Pacific/Perspectives) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0742538249 ISBN 13: 9780742538245

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005

Synopsis

Bringing together the work of distinguished China historians, anthropologists, and literary and film scholars, Gender in Motion raises provocative questions about the diversity of gender practices during the late imperial society and the persistence and transformation of older gender ideologies under the conditions of modernity in China.

While several studies have investigated gender or labor in late imperial and twentieth century China, this book brings these two concepts together, asking how these two categories interacted and produced new social practices and theories. Individual chapters examine agricultural and urban work, travel within China, overseas study, polyandry, the acting profession, courtesan culture, female politicians, Maoist work culture, and the boundaries of virtue and respectability.

Governing notions of the social order (and interrelated constructions of gender) changed radically in the modern era—initially with the questioning of the imperial, dynastic order and the creation of a Chinese republic in the early twentieth century, later with the creation of a Communist government and, most recently, with China's political and cultural transformations in the post-Mao era. As ideas and practices of gender have changed, the persistence of older rhetorical signs in the interstices of new political visions has complicated the social projects and understandings of modernity, especially in terms of the creation of new public spaces, new concepts of work and virtue, and new configurations of gender.

Contributions by: Madeleine Yue Dong, Bryna Goodman, Gail Hershatter, Ellen R. Judd, Joan Judge, Wendy Larson, Susan Mann, Kenneth L. Pomeranz, Tze-lan Deborah Sang, Matthew H. Sommer, Luo Suwen, Catherine Vance Yeh, and Wang Zheng.

About this title

About the Author:

Bryna Goodman is associate professor of history at the University of Oregon. Wendy Larson is professor of East Asian languages and literatures at the University of Oregon.

Review:

This is a useful addition to sexuality and gender studies on China. (CHOICE)

Gender in Motion is a rich and fascinating collection of essays on gender divisions of labor and space in late imperial and modern China. . . . All of the essays in the book are beautifully written, insightful and well edited. Taken together, the collection makes a vital contribution to our understanding of gender and social change in China. It will be of importance to students and scholars of China across a range of disciplines, especially history, cultural studies, anthropology and gender studies. (Tamara Jacka, Australian National University The China Journal)

Gender in Motion is a very satisfying volume with each study based on substantial research on primary sources or ethonographic material and presenting fresh and original findings. Each contribution is carefully contextualised within the relevant scholarly disciplines and debates relating to the topic....This volume will be an indispensable source. (Anne E. McLaren, University of Melbourne New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies)

Written by the leading experts in their respective fields, the contributions collected in this volume represent an important breakthrough in the study of gender in China. This book belongs on the shelf of all students of the dynamics of Chinese history as well as all those concerned with broader questions of gender relations. (Ted Huters, University of California, Los Angeles)

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0742538249
• ISBN 13: 9780742538245
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 360
• Editor: Goodman Bryna, Larson Wendy