The discursive formation of the 'new' Chinese women, 1860-1930

This dissertation interrogates the discourse surrounding the transformation of the traditional Chinese woman into a modernized, educated new woman, by examining the promotional tactics that re-enforced gender stereotypes. My inquiry begins with the 1860s, when Protestant missionaries started to publish essays on traditional Chinese women. They were the first to make a connection between China's weakened international status and the deplorable situation of Chinese women by arguing that women's low status would inevitably cause a nation's demise. Their criticisms and suggestions not only established a new paradigm in the discussion of Chinese women but were later adopted by Chinese male intellectuals in their reform proposals. However, the 1910s saw increasing concern over a "proper" womanhood, which was clearly shown in magazines intended for women's readership. Society was not comfortable with the newly subverted gender relations, and a latent anxiety manifested itself in the often conflicting demands for Chinese women in these magazines.;This anxiety became more conspicuous in literary works in the 1920s and 1930s by male writers such as Mao Dun, Lu Xun, Zhang Tianyi and Yu Dafu, who dealt with issues of economic independence, male-centered creation of a new woman, and women's role in the proletarian revolution. Many women writers also explored their new identities and their futures in literary works, dealing with such issues as a liberated woman's options in a society unprepared for changes, the impact of romantic love, middle-class women's awkward position between traditional and modern womanhoods, and social inequalities affecting a working-class girl. Taken together, these works depict a complex situation that placed women in an odd predicament; that is, whether they could fulfill their wish for emancipation without hindering the survival of the nation and the completion of socialist reforms.