Chinese Women Through Chinese Eyes

by Li Yu-Ning

The special focus of this book is the lives and experiences of women in China in the first half of the 20th century. Part One - Historical Interpretations - presents essays by Western-educated Chinese women and men, on the historical role of women in a time of great social and economic upheaval. Part Two - Self-Portraits of Women in Modern China - presents the views of women who experienced life in this period through essays and autobiographies that range from women as concubines to women as factory workers, from women suffering footbinding to women serving as nurses, from women in traditional role in a traditional family to women as scientists and teachers.

Genres: China, Feminism

288 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 1992

Reviews

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back before I read this book, I used to think that women's power was a Western idea, which China's women never thought of till Christian missionaries informed them in the 1800s. But Li Yu-ning and colleagues give us Chinese women explaining their own history and their sources of inspiration. The various essays explore traditions starting in the age before warlords, made by village matrons, wise women, and rebel leaders. They present a women's counterculture that has always been there, and is growing stronger. I was especially fascinated to read the account of Chang Mo-chün, a leader in the anti-footbinding movement. She was inspired as a girl by a local statue of the goddess Guanyin (Kuan Yin), who had unbound feet, and was the female saviour of the universe.