Kay Schaffer - Women Writers in Postsocialist China

What does it mean to read from elsewhere? Women Writers in Postsocialist China introduces readers to a range and variety of contemporary Chinese women's writing, which has seen phenomenal growth in recent years. The book addresses the different ways women's issues are understood in China and the West, attending to the processes of translation, adaptation, and the grafting of new ideas with existing Chinese understandings of gender, feminism, subjectivity, consumerism and (post)modernism. By focusing on women's autobiographical, biographical, fictional and historical writing, the book engages in a transcultural flow of ideas between western and indigenous Chinese feminisms. Taking account of the accretions of social, cultural, geographic, literary, economic, and political movements and trends, cultural formations and ways of thinking, it asks how the texts and the concepts they negotiate might be understood in the social and cultural spaces within China and how they might be interpreted differently elsewhere in the global locations in which they circulate. The book argues that women-centred writing in China has a direct bearing on global feminist theory and practice. This critical study of selected genres and writers highlights the shifts in feminist perspectives within contemporary local and global cultural landscapes.

Kay Schaffer is an Adjunct Professor in Gender Studies and Social Analysis at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

Xianlin Song is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Asian Studies at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

Asian Studies Association of Australia Women in Asia Series

Editor: Lenore Lyons (The University of Sydney)

Editorial Board:

Susan Blackburn (Monash University)

Hyaeweol Choi (The Australian National University)

Michele Ford (The University of Sydney)

Louise Edwards (University of Hong Kong)

Trude Jacobsen (Northern Illinois University)

Vera Mackie (University of Wollongong)

Anne McLaren (The University of Melbourne)

Mina Roces (University of New South Wales)

Dina Siddiqi (The City University of New York)

Andrea Whittaker (The University of Queensland)

Mukkuvar Women
Gender, hegemony and capitalist transformation in a South Indian fishing community
Kalpana Ram 1991

A World of Difference
Islam and gender hierarchy in Turkey
Julie Marcus 1992

Purity and Communal Boundaries
Women and social change in a Bangladeshi village
Santi Rozario 1992

Madonnas and Martyrs
Militarism and violence in the Philippines
Anne-Marie Hilsdon 1995

Masters and Managers
A study of gender relations in urban Java
Norma Sullivan 1995

Matriliny and Modernity
Sexual politics and social change in rural Malaysia
Maila Stivens 1995

Intimate Knowledge
Women and their health in North-east Thailand
Andrea Whittaker 2000

Women in Asia
Tradition, modernity and globalisation
Louise Edwards and Mina Roces (eds) 2000

Violence against Women in Asian Societies
Gender inequality and technologies of violence
Lenore Manderson and Linda Rae Bennett (eds) 2003

Women's Employment in Japan
The experience of part-time workers
Kaye Broadbent 2003

Chinese Women Living and Working
Anne McLaren (ed.) 2004

Abortion, Sin and the State in Thailand
Andrea Whittaker 2004

Sexual Violence and the Law in Japan
Catherine Burns 2004

Women, Islam and Modernity
Single women, sexuality and reproductive health in contemporary Indonesia
Linda Rae Bennett 2005

The Women's Movement in Post-Colonial Indonesia
Elizabeth Martyn 2005

Women and Work in Indonesia
Michele Ford and Lyn Parker (eds) 2008

Women and Union Activism in Asia
Kaye Broadbent and Michele Ford (eds) 2008

Gender, Islam, and Democracy in Indonesia
Kathryn Robinson 2008

Sex, Love and Feminism in the Asia Pacific
A cross-cultural study of young people's attitudes
Chilla Bulbeck 2008

Gender, State and Social Power
Divorce in contemporary Indonesia
Kate O'Shaughnessy 2008

Gender, Household, and State in Post-Revolutionary Vietnam
Jayne Werner 2008

Young Women in Japan
Transitions to adulthood
Kaori Okano 2009

Women, Islam and Everyday Life
Renegotiating polygamy in Indonesia
Nina Nurmila 2009

Feminist Movements in Contemporary Japan
Laura Dales 2009

Gender and Labour in Korea and Japan
Sexing class
Ruth Barraclough and Elyssa Faison (eds) 2009

Gender Diversity in Indonesia
Sexuality, Islam and queer selves
Sharyn Graham Davies 2010

New Women in Colonial Korea
A sourcebook
Hyaeweol Choi 2012

Women Writers in Postsocialist China
Kay Schaffer and Xianlin Song 2014

Domestic Violence in Asia
Globalization, gender and Islam in the Maldives
Emma Fulu 2014

Gender and Power in Indonesian Islam
Leaders, feminists, Sufis and pesantren selves
Bianca J. Smith and Mark Woodward (eds) 2014

Women Writers in
Postsocialist China

Kay Schaffer and
Xianlin Song

First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

2014 Kay Schaffer and Xianlin Song

The right of Kay Schaffer and Xianlin Song to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Schaffer, Kay, 1945
Women writers in postsocialist China/Kay Schaffer and Xianlin Song.
pages cm. (ASAA Women in Asia Series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Chinese literature Women authors History and criticism.
2. Women authors, Chinese 20th century.
I. Song, Xianlin. II. Title.
PL2278.S38 2013

ISBN: 978-0-415-68274-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-79922-2 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman