Maoist Gender Legacy, Post-socialist China, and Transnational Feminist Struggle

• In Event: Salvaging Socialist Gender Project in Today’s China

Abstract

Situating the Maoist gender project in the broader context of Cold War politics and its interconnection with feminist interventions in Twentieth Century around the world, this paper studies the persistent existence of the Maoist gender legacy by analyzing Chinese women’s life narratives. The analysis traces its relation to the multiple and transnational gender discourses circulating in contemporary China and globally, and assesses its significance in current struggle for gender equality in post-socialist China and in a transnational context. Engaging with and extending existing feminist theories on gender and narratives, this paper also explores ways to develop alternative analysis and theorizing about the relationship between gendered structure and agency, and of gender subversion strategies, based on the different path women’s liberation movement took in China, as well as the different ways ideas about gender are constructed in China.

Author

• Xin Huang, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee