| This dissertation is an examination of home economics education in China during the Republican period (1911--1949). For the educated upper- and middle-class of this period, new ideas about management of domestic space became increasingly important in China's quest for acceptance as a modern nation. I examine intellectual interpretations and idealizations of domesticity using the prism of home economics education (jiazheng jiaoyu) and homemaking (jiashi) as expressed in the popular press, in educational institutions, and in social work.; This exploration of shifting meanings of domesticity and women's roles in the home uncovers some basic processes of social change that have often been overlooked by historians of modern China. To what extent were practices of state formation normalized through changes in the home? Were Chinese women able to use changing notions of domesticity and home management to negotiate new roles and actions? My conclusion is that while there was some debate, educators generally agreed that the most important social role for women was carrying out their "natural" duties as mothers and wives. Education about the home was necessary to prepare them for these responsibilities.; The discipline of home economics developed to meet this need. This study outlines the development of this field; first as educators made suggestions about the requirements for home economics, and then as the discipline developed in selected institutions of higher learning. The disciplinization of home economics is an illuminating example of how discourses about differences between women and men and their "natural" social roles were institutionalized. By looking at the instruction of home economics in colleges and teachers' schools through archival and published sources, this work explores the ways that the state was involved in the formation of new domestic orders. Home economics as a field prepared women to manage their own homes, but also for professional management activities such as social work. As members of the national elite, home economists worked to improve their own homes and the families of others in order to secure social order and ensure future development of the Chinese nation. |
