Gender History in China

Gender History in China presents for the first time in English the work of leading Japanese scholars in the fields of archaeology, history, literature, sociology, and law who examine the gender dynamics that have shaped and changed Chinese society over several thousand years. The eighteen chapters and six columns look at the ways gender norms and customary legal practices shaped the family, kinship, and the social order, and how those norms were reflected in work patterns, inheritance, daily life, and literary works. Attention is given to the fundamental principle of qi (material essence) as a building block in cosmology, as well as in legal understandings of family relations. The second part of the volume turns to the dramatic changes in gender patterns from the late nineteenth century, looking at the inflow of new ideas, the struggle for political rights and economic equality, and the institution of new gender norms in socialist and reform-era China. The authors take up such topics as the view of the body in relation to Chinese cosmology, the incorporation of the military man into China’s model of hegemonic masculinity, the household registration system as a means of control, the appraisal of ‘talented women’, and the intersection of gender norms and nationalism. Figures Contributors Acknowledgement Preface: Gender Order in Chinese History – KOHAMA Masako PART I Phase I: Pre-Qin to Sui-Tang: Classical China – The Formation of Patrilineal Society Introduction – SHIMOKURA Wataru 1. Gender Structure in Pre-Qin China from an Archaeological Perspective – UCHIDA Junko 2. The Patrilinealization of Society – SHIMOKURA Wataru 3. Literature and Women in China – SATAKE Yasuko 4. The Family in the Tang Period – WONG Yu-Hsuan Column 1: Introduction of Historical Materials: Wives’ Divorce and Daughters’ Inheritance of Property, Seen in Dunhuang Documents – ARAKAWA Masaharu Column 2: Empress Wu Zetian and Thereafter – KANEKO Shūichi Phase II: Song to Ming-Qing: Traditional China – The Strengthening of Gender Norms Introduction – SASAKI Megumi 5. Livelihood and Gender in the Tang and Song Dynasties – ŌSAWA Masaaki Focal Point: An Overview of Shiga Shūzō’s Principles of Chinese Family Law – SASAKI Megumi 6. Traditional Family Ideology and the Chen-Zhu School – SASAKI Megumi 7. Marriage and ‘Chastity’: Structure and Change – GOMI Tomoko 8. The Sense of Social Status and Gender – KISHIMOTO Mio Column 3: Court Ladies and Gender – OGAWA Yoshiyuki Phase III: Modern and Contemporary China – Changing Gender Order Introduction – TAKASHIMA Kō 9. Nationalism and Gender – SAKAMOTO Hiroko 10. Masculinity in Modern China – TAKASHIMA Kō 11. Discourses on the Family, Love and Sex in Modern China – EGAMI Sachiko 12. Women’s Labor in Modern and Contemporary China – Linda GROVE 13. The Founding of the People’s Republic of China and the Transformation of Gender Order – KOHAMA Masako 14. Rearrangement of Gender Order in Post-Mao China: Changing Networks of Women’s Federations – OHASHI Fumie Column 4: Two Histories of Women in Modern China – SUDŌ Mizuyo PART II 15. The Household Register and the Family in Ancient China – WASHIO Yūko 16. Perceptions of ‘Talented Women’ – ITAHASHI Akiko 17. Healthcare, the Body and Gender in Chinese Medicine – YAO Yi 18. The History of Women’s/Gender Studies and Feminism in China – AKIYAMA Yōko Column 5: Sexual Minorities – TŌYAMA Hideya Column 6: Theatre and Gender – NAKAYAMA Fumi Bibliography Index