Feminist Struggles in a Changing China

Abstract

This chapter examines roughly three cohorts of Chinese feminists as a way to illustrate shifting settings and constant contentions over gender equality: state feminists of the socialist period, post-socialist non-governmental organization feminists around the Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW), and young feminist activists ascending onto the public stage. Each cohort has adopted distinct strategies for their diverse agendas, conditioned by their particular historical contexts and social and political parameters. At the turn of the twentieth century, anarchist, socialist, liberal, evolutionary, eugenic, and nationalist positions shaped various feminist articulations. Chinese socialist state feminists in the early People's Republic of China (PRC) were an integral part of the international women's movement of the socialist camp that was represented by the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF). The chapter traces continuities and changes in Chinese feminist struggles while critically examining constraints and possibilities for further development. Socialist feminists’ comprehensive vision of Chinese women’s liberation crucially hinged on transformation of subjectivities.