Creating a Space for Women: Women's Studies in China in the 1980s

Author(s): Xiaojiang Li and Xiaodan Zhang

Source: Signs , Autumn, 1994, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 137-151
Published by: The University of Chicago Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3174930

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REVISIONS/REPORTS

Creating a Space for Women: Wom

Studies in China in the 1980s

Xiaojiang Li and Xiaodan Zhang

I N C H I N E S E M O D E R N history, the 1980s are a c

during which many important economic and political
changes occurred. The major cause of these events and c
the economic reform ushered in during the late 1970s
death and at the end of the Cultural Revolution. The economic r
a new policy issued by the Chinese government for the purpo
izing the economy. The main idea of the reform has been both
structure of economy mainly by introducing market mechani
planned economy and to change the method of managemen
more power and responsibility to local bureaus and firms.
areas, land was distributed to each household while the col
munes were disbanded. It is not an exaggeration to conclu
economic reform greatly influenced the lives of Chinese pe
tion, along with economic reform, the doors of the count
reopened to the Western world. Meanwhile, criticism of
conservative ideological control, although sporadic, has grad
possible. Under these special political and socioeconomic cir
without getting much attention at the very beginning, wome
a new academic discipline is quickly sprouting and blossom
The questions are, Why did women's studies come into existe
1980s but not earlier? What does women's studies involve and what
developments have been made? What are its characteristics compared
with those of previous Chinese women's liberation movements and those

We are especially grateful to Roslyn Bologh (Graduate Center at the City University
of New York), Yuanxi Ma (China Institute in America), Laura O'Keefe (New York Pub-
lic Library), Annette Rubinstein (Science and Society), Mary Ruggie (Columbia Univer-
sity), and Shen Tan (Chinese Social Science Academy).
[Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 1994, vol. 20, no. 1]
? 1994 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0097-9740/95/2001-0007$01.00

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 Li and Zhang WOMEN'S STUDIES IN CHINA

of Western women's movements? In order to answer such ques

us first present a brief historical retrospection.

The first tide of the women's liberation movement in China

more than one hundred years ago. In 1840 after the Opiu
Britain's invasion of China-both the Chinese government and
were forced to face a serious national crisis. Some male politicians
a movement called Constitutional Reform and Modernization,
the first time, the topic of women's liberation was raised by part
within the movement. These reformers mainly considered women
lems to be a negative result of the feudal system; they advocated
education and monogamy and were opposed to foot-binding. R
few women other than the wives, concubines, daughters, sis
other female relatives of these male reformers followed their exa
worked toward improving women's conditions. But the discu
women's issues and other activities for women's liberation receded
the Constitutional Reform and Modernization movement faile
Zhen 1990).
With the May Fourth movement of 1919, women's issues we
openly discussed, including women's autonomy in choosing m
partners, women's virginity before marriage and celibacy after th
of their husbands, women's right of inheritance, women's educ
work, prostitution, and foot-binding. Various women's groups
tablished and many women's magazines were published. In sp
increasing number of female participants, however, male inte
played the main roles as the leaders of the movement. These men
first to raise women's issues, but they continued to treat women's
culties as just another part of the general social problems caus
feudal system. In these discussions, women were only the ob
studying; the importance of inspiring women's self-consciousness
own valuable identity was not recognized. Furthermore, althou
women's problems were being discussed and some theoretical is
touched on, the movement was ultimately more political than
In other words, these male radicals and their female followers
for basic human rights for women; they had not yet pushed them
question more deeply patriarchal social structures and ideologie
time, no one seemed to consider the possibility that women'
could be an independent discipline within the academic world.
Although Chinese women legally gained equal rights in 1950
Communist party's rise to power, women's studies still did not
an independent academic discipline. In socialist China, Chinese
equality was guaranteed for the first time by the Constitution

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 WOMEN'S STUDIES IN CHINA Li and Zhang

Further, the Marriage Law of the same year gave both women
the right to choose their own marriage partners and demand
Through the party's protection and advocacy, more women pa
in the workforce under the policy of equal pay for equal work
tion, women's paid employment outside of the home gained
approval through the Communist party, which believed that
participation in social labor was a prerequisite for their ema
Compared with that of their older foot-bound sisters, the po
Chinese women in society had improved significantly both eco
and ideologically during the 1950s. Thus many people of that
monly believed that Chinese women had achieved complete l
and, therefore, had no problems at all.
Economic reform knocked down this common belief not only b
ing some potential problems more visible but also by creating
lems. Generally, we can divide these problems into two groups
includes female infanticide impelled by the birth control poli
abduction of women by illegal traders, commercial marriage b
women are sold to their husbands' family, prostitution, and th
educational opportunities for girls and young women in rur
These problems, which seemed to disappear for a period of time a
Marriage Law in 1950, reemerged under the pressures of the
nomic reforms. Clearly, the existence of such problems reinfo
common male superiority still is in China, even after women
have been liberated for more than forty years. The second g
problems can be said to occur on a subtler level. Such issues
women employees who lose their positions for discriminatory
otherwise, female college graduates who find it difficult to ge
ment, and women who are shut out of political leadership oppo
This other set of obstacles for women seems to have emerged dur
reform. These new problems even more directly challenge th
that Chinese women have obtained, because it has been co
thought that the success of Chinese women's liberation is reflecte
equal rights that Chinese women have achieved with regard to edu
employment, and political administration. Both sets of problems,
raise doubts about the state of women's liberation itself.
The visibility of these problems greatly shocked, confused, and an-
noyed those who thought that Chinese women had already been liber-
ated. Women's issues then became hot topics in newspapers and maga-
zines as well as in casual conversation. With further discussion, some
scholars, especially some women researchers, realized that certain rela-
tions, for instance, between women's liberation and women's employ-
ment, were not as simple as people had believed; previous theories about
women's liberation failed to explain these new problems. Therefore,

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 Li and Zhang WOMEN'S STUDIES IN CHINA

these scholars felt an urgency not only to study these problems i

to solve them, but also to develop theories to address the
confusions-including their own-surrounding women's liberati
Ultimately, these scholars are seeking to explore what women's lib
really means and where the movement should go. Thus, we can saf
that, unlike the development of women's studies in the West, the
women's studies in the 1980s in China was not the result of a distinct
feminist movement; on the contrary, women's studies grew out of an
attempt by a few liberal women leaders in governmental women's orga-
nizations as well as some intellectuals, both male and female, to reob-
serve, rethink, and redefine the liberation of Chinese women. In other
words, rather than theoretically claiming or appealing for equality be-
tween men and women, the discipline of women's studies in contempo-
rary China was initially designed to meditate upon the equality that
Chinese women had supposedly achieved according to law established by
the socialist revolution of 1949.

Women's studies today has been gradually shaped by two parallel

forces. One force is the Women's Federation. The Women's Federation
once was-and among certain people is still-thought of as the only
legitimate women's organization in China. Similar to two other organi-
zations-the Trade Union and the Youth League-the Women's Federa-
tion is a government agency, which itself contains a system of hierarchical
bureaucracy. The highest level is the National Women's Federation; un-
der its leadership, each province, city, county, town, village, firm, and
institute has local branches attached to the National Women's Federa-
tion. The main role of the Women's Federation at each level is to be the
bridge between the party and Chinese women in general. Unlike the
Trade Union and the Youth League, however, the Women's Federation
does not have an open membership system. Only women leaders and
representatives, selected from those who are considered to perform well
in various circumstances by the higher party superiors, can represent the
government and its ideas; as party representatives, these women work to
protect women's benefits as well as to motivate women to follow gov-
ernmental policy. For instance, the leaders of the National Women's Fed-
eration and its branches in the provinces usually go to local gatherings,
especially in rural areas, to explain new policies affecting women; in
addition, some women leaders have worked as social workers or con-
sultants to help solve conflicts between women and local supervisors,
between women and their husbands, and between mothers-in-law and
daughters-in-law. At the beginning of the economic reform, women lead-
ers in the federation had difficulty, since previously held principles and
methods did not adequately address those women's particular prob-
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 WOMEN'S STUDIES IN CHINA Li and Zhang

lems. For this reason, many began to question the necessity of

nization itself. It was under this pressure that the Women's Feder
the first time realized the importance of a theoretical study
woman question."
In response, the National Women's Federation founded the fi
tute of Women's Studies in 1983. Thereafter, women's institu
research bodies have been established by local branches of the
Federation in many Chinese cities and provinces. These institu
research bodies have different focuses, although some of their tas
lap. The institutions work mainly on training women who wor
federation at various levels, while the research bodies seek way
with women's problems and study measures for protecting women
efits in order to provide reference to the policymakers in the fed
Both have held a series of special seminars on such topics as t
tion of women, women's employment, and funds for childbirth a
care. In 1984 and 1986 the Institute of Women Studies in the National
Women's Federation held two national conferences on women's studies.
The main topic of both conferences was the relation between economic
reform and women's liberation. According to statistics from the Women's
Federation, from 1985 to 1990 there were forty-five conferences on gen-
eral theories of women's liberation, eight conferences on special women's
issues, and three conferences for exchanging information, which were
held in twenty cities, districts, and provinces (Beijing Women's Federation
and Beijing Women's Studies Institute 1992, 576). These institutions and
research bodies have also organized investigations, collected data on
women in different fields, and published the information in women's
magazines and newspapers, which have increased in number to more
than forty since 1985.
The second force that has shaped women's studies is the academy
itself. Before 1985, most academic investigations into women's issues
were initiated locally and voluntarily by individual women intellectuals.
This term is used in China to describe women of higher education who
work as professionals-professors, doctors, researchers, writers, artists,
and so forth. In 1985 the first nongovernmental1 institute of women's
studies was set up by Xiaojiang Li, a young teacher in the Chinese lit-
erature and language department at Zhengzhou University in Henan
Province.2 In 1987, this institute developed into a formal women's studies
center in Zhengzhou University and became the first research organiza-

1 The term nongovernmental is used to describe any institute or organization not set
within the official network according to the will of party authorities. This kind of orga-
nization was allowed to exist legally only after the late 1970s.
2 One might expect that the first women's studies center would originate at a univer-
sity in a major city such as Beijing. In fact, however, the lack of proximity to the central
government probably allowed the discipline of women's studies to flourish with fewer
ideological restrictions imposed by the Chinese Communist party.

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 Li and Zhang WOMEN'S STUDIES IN CHINA

tion of women's studies in any Chinese college or university. I

few years, the center's tasks have been varied and numerous: to f
attract academic interest in women's studies from all over the co
give public lectures on women's issues, to arrange elective an
courses in women's studies for undergraduate and graduate s
Zhengzhou University, to compile a women's studies book seri
organize and hold conferences on women's studies. The center
for bringing together women scholars from different academic f
building women's studies as an independent discipline. For mo
scholars, the center's success indicates another way to work on
issues beyond the Women's Federation.
Since the establishment of this first center, more nongover
women's studies centers and groups have been founded at un
and institutes. Many of these formal study centers or less for
groups, such as at Beijing University, Beijing Foreign Studies Uni
and Fudan University, have created specific courses or lecture
en's studies. For example, in 1989-90, members of the women
center at Beijing University offered two elective courses in t
department and the Institute of Comparative Literature: "The His
Chinese Women" and "Feminist Literary Criticism." Other gr
also tried to connect their coursework and research to women's p
in daily life. The women's study group at Beijing Foreign Studies
sity has organized graduate students to study women in various c
nities in Chinese society; one such project involves an educational
rural areas to guarantee a certain amount of money to educat
well as boys. Another example, the women's study group at
Social Science Academy, working with the Shanghai Televisio
televised a series of special forums in 1988 titled "Women's
Public Media." Topics included the authenticity of women's
movies and television, how these images influence social life,
public views women's images on magazine covers, and what
women the media should create.
There are significant differences in emphasis and purpose between the
government-sponsored research bodies and nongovernmental women's
studies centers and groups. The research agencies officially and finan-
cially attached to the Women's Federation insist that women's studies be
based on Marxist women's liberation theory, while academic women's
studies groups try to broaden their theoretical scope to reevaluate the
women's movement of the early twentieth century and women's libera-
tion since 1949. In addition, rather than formulating policies for women
as the research bodies have done, the scholars in the nongovernmental
groups have been more concerned with how to establish women's studies
as an independent academic discipline.

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 WOMEN'S STUDIES IN CHINA Li and Zhang

Women leaders of the Women's Federation and academy-bas

ists did not always work well together. Formerly, the Women's Fe
often did not include these professional women in its network of
This is not because the women leaders in the federation inte
ignored professional women, but because they always consider
selves women's helpers and protectors and thus thought only
working-class women needed their assistance. There were also
nication barriers, stemming from the federation's own structure:
sities, institutes, and other professional firms housed no active br
of the Women's Federation. In some places, in fact, the only remi
the Women's Federation even existed were the free movie tickets d
uted each year on International Women's Day. On their part, prof
women were not satisfied with the ideas and attitudes of the Women's
Federation, which they thought were not representative of their own
interests.
Despite their initially awkward relationship, these two forces in the
women's studies movement began to help each other in the 1980s and
have continued to improve one another. The establishment of these re-
search bodies within the Women's Federation is one of the ways that the
organization has tried to shatter its own closed structure; through the
research bodies, therefore, the federation started to connect itself with
women scholars and other intellectual women. The researchers in these
federation-sponsored research bodies have actively introduced academic
members and their research results to the public through conferences,
lectures, and publications. (In China the major newspapers, magazines,
and publishing houses are usually controlled by the government and its
organizations, such as the Women's Federation, which controls the major
women's magazines and newspapers.) In turn, these scholars' opinions
are becoming important sources for policymakers. Women academics
also readily consult federation surveys and data, since the funding and
organizational authority needed for these kinds of nationwide studies are
often unavailable to university-based scholars. Both groups of women
strive very hard to avoid working too narrowly in their own fields of
expertise. Thus the enterprise of women's studies represents a kind of
sisterhood that is entirely new in China.

Many female scholars began research in their respective fields and then
moved to women's issues. In the development of women's studies as a
separate discipline, the study of women's history has played an important
role, with particular progress in the collection of data on the women's
liberation movement. Scholars are now able to analyze more clearly the
historical progress of the Chinese women's movement under the leader-

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 Li and Zhang WOMEN'S STUDIES IN CHINA

ship of the Communist party. Some scholars also try to fill in the
existing in the traditional study of history; special subjects co
women include the history of Chinese women's education and
torical change in the value of women in Confucian ideology. T
influential publications in this field include The History of th
Women's Movement, by the National Women's Federation (19
nese Women's Movement, 1840-1921, by Meiyi Lu and Yongf
(1990); Evolvement of Women's Value in Ideology, by Fangqin D
and Chinese Women's Past and Present, by Chunfang Tao (198
The study of women's literature is becoming one of the mo
forces in women's studies. In the middle of 1980s, there was a
debate about the definition of women's literature, revolving aroun
differing opinions. One opinion defined women's literature a
about women and written by women authors. Another school of t
proposed that all literary works written by women can be called w
literature, whether they are about women or not. The third op
that all literature written about women written by male or femal
should be considered women's literature. The first opinion now is
accepted as the idea of women's literature (Beijing Women's Fe
and Beijing Women's Studies Institute 1992, 128). Some scholar
field have borrowed methods and ideas from Western feminis
critics. For example, Yue Meng and Jinhua Dai in their Emergi
the Horizon of History have tried to analyze how literary w
conceal a patriarchal system and what cultural value can be gai
women are treated as the subject of novels, short stories, an
(Meng and Dai 1989). Other significant books published in th
include Ballad, Poetry and Amorousness, by Zhengguo Kang (1
Contemporary Women Writers, by Ziyun Li (1985); Delay
Contemporary Women's Literature, by Shuo Yue (1989); and
Literature, by Shaoxian Sun (1987).
Another active field in women's studies is sociology. In recen
sociologists have presented many papers on women's employme
lation mobility, social welfare, and prostitution.3 The study of
and family is especially booming. According to data collected
Index of National Newspapers and Magazines, from 1979 to 19
were 350 papers published on marriage and family-13.7 perc
sociology papers published in those years. Admittedly, some p
still at the level of collecting data or presenting preliminary repo
others cover more specific issues, such as women's role in tran
family structures and the impact of women's employment on
and family.

3 On the possible change in the structure of employment for women, see Zhu 1988;
and Xing 1989. For discussions of the trend of peasant women moving to cities and ur-
ban centers under economic reform, see Gao 1990; and Jing 1990.

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 WOMEN'S STUDIES IN CHINA Li and Zhang

The development of demography as another specialty within

studies is also significant. For instance, some scholars have st
relation between the birthrate and women's employment. Othe
have examined such variables as childbirth, death, education l
employment. The Population of Chinese Women, edited by Ch
(1991), is the first book published in this field. There are als
important papers on the female population, such as "The Analy
Average Age of Women's Childbirth" (Li 1988), "The Quality o
Population and Social Development" (Zheng 1987), and "The S
Chinese Elder Women Population" (Yang and Wang 1989).
In the field of law, many scholars have begun to concentrate on
about the principle of equality between men and women, legal pro
of women's employment and suffrage, the rationalization of
law, women's legal rights in divorce cases, women's equal right
erty within the family, and the legal aspect of artificial insemina
In the area of political science, women's suffrage became a h
especially in the mid-1980s. Some scholars are studying the d
number of female leaders in the government at various levels.
study the decline of women's participation in politics. These st
only continue to explore the general significance of women's suff
women's political consciousness but also discuss concrete
women to join the political leadership.
The discovery of a "women's script" by women scholars ha
driving force to connect women's studies with philology. Exa
women's script, a written language that was used solely by women
Song dynasty (960-1279), have been found in Jiang Yong,
China. In addition to the study of women's script, some philologis
begun analyzing gender elements in characters of the Chinese
Scholars from other academic fields have also contributed to the de-
velopment of women's studies as an independent discipline. After win-
ning the debate over the very necessity of this discipline, many scholars
have further discussed the object, methods, and relation between wom-
en's studies theory and women's problems in society. Several textbooks
about women's studies theory have been published, such as The Basic
Concepts of Women's Studies, edited by the Hunan Women Cadre Insti-
tution (1987), and The Rationale of Women's Studies by Huomei Duan
(1989). Other important publications include Eve's Search (1988) and
Gender Gap (1989) by Xiaojiang Li.

Women's studies programs from the 1980s to the present are obvi-
ously different from women's groups and their efforts one hundred years
ago. On the one hand, these younger female scholars no longer have to
struggle for basic legal rights for women; their studies are based on the
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 Li and Zhang WOMEN'S STUDIES IN CHINA

equality already achieved. On the other hand, in challenging

archal ideology that is far more invisible and intangible, m
women's studies scholars are facing a tougher task that requir
gender consciousness. At this juncture, this newer generation of
realizes that the purpose of women's studies is not only to stu
and extend research into each traditional discipline but also to
the methodology of a new independent discipline. Compared
vious studies about women, the women's studies movement in
started an attempt to value women's experience and women's
perspective, then to review ideas about women's equality and
from this new viewpoint.
Especially in contemplating both the ideas first raised during t
en's liberation movement one hundred years ago and those rai
women's legal emancipation since the 1950s, women scholars
several theoretical gains. First, women's studies scholars now
the concept of equality that is based on simply ignoring the d
between men and women. These scholars now recognize that t
principle of "whatever men can do, women can do also," whil
tional, in fact helped to conceal a male standard for women's e
other words, women's equality meant that women were equ
men. A male standard, however, only creates an illusion of equali
women ultimately have no distinct gender identity within the co
so-called liberation. Thus these scholars now conclude that the fir
of women's liberation is to allow women themselves to discover w
are, where they come from, and how much they have been influ
distorted, patriarchal images of their gender. This is the fir
breaking through the patriarchal line of dominant ideology.
Second, these women's studies leaders now recognize that
alone are responsible for their own liberation. They have indi
one large stumbling block in Chinese women's progress toward th
emancipation, in fact, has been that many Chinese women h
wholly passive in the liberation process. This passive characte
dent not only within the context of Chinese women's liberation i
by male politicians within a male-run political system but al
when even so-called liberated women were habitually treated
to be protected; to complicate matters, women themselves often
expect this protection as a given. That is the main reason th
Chinese society suddenly withdrew its protection-such as the
of women's employment-and sacrificed women's concerns to
greater economic demands of China, women began to panic an
they had fewer alternatives. Through their own efforts, women'
scholars now anticipate that women's studies as a discipline
transform this mind-set-moving women from passive object

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 WOMEN'S STUDIES IN CHINA Li and Zhang

subjects in order to achieve their own complete liberation. Ac

role these very scholars have played in developing women's st
grams is an excellent example of how women can and should t
of their own self-awareness and independence. Especially comp
the women's movement of a hundred years ago, women have
major leaders in the development of women's studies in the 1
scholars have voluntarily participated and continue to help w
most are still invested in traditional male-centered ways of t
only unconsciously, these men still approach women's issues
triarchal attitude and thus fail to understand the critical and creative
significance of women's liberation as distinct from human liberation.
Therefore, male academics still have a distance to travel before they can
comprehend what women's studies scholars aim to accomplish: to dis-
mantle the patriarchal tradition and provide a new, gender-balanced
point of view to the world.
Third, this group of women scholars has begun to rethink the relation
between women's liberation and women's employment; specifically, they
realize that women's employment and ultimately women's economic in-
dependence are prerequisites of but not the only conditions for women's
liberation. In other words, the employment of a woman cannot guarantee
her complete freedom and independence. This conclusion is based on the
debate that has flared up over the loss of jobs for women, especially those
in the cities, since the mid-1980s. There are two general sides of the
debate: those who believe that women should stay home as housewives
and those who insist that women should keep working in the public
sphere in order to maintain their independence. Neither side has ad-
equately explained this unemployment trend affecting women. Looking
for possible answers, some women scholars are trying to connect the
trend with China's relatively low economic performance; in a country
with inadequate national income and work opportunities, the employ-
ment of women can bring benefits as well as burdens. For instance, since
society cannot provide adequate conditions and equipment to make
housework easier-the availability of washing machines, for instance-
most women have to shoulder a double burden when working both in
and outside the home. Women's studies scholars, on the whole, do not
argue that women should go back to being only housewives. They do
maintain, however, that under certain social conditions, overemphasizing
the significance of women's employment to women's liberation may bring
the opposite result and create misunderstanding of liberation. This opin-
ion sounds different from the Marxist belief in the causal relation be-
tween employment and women's liberation propagandized by the Com-
munist party for over forty years. But the scholars who explore the idea
do not claim that they are opposing Marxist thought; instead, they em-

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 Li and Zhang WOMEN'S STUDIES IN CHINA

phasize the undeveloped economy in China, which limit

of practicing Marxist ideas. We can conclude, furthermore
these scholars have no intention of challenging Marxism at
also that they did not really challenge Marxism in the
encouraging further theoretical elaboration.

Women's studies in China undoubtedly has been influ

raised by Western feminists. Feminist essays and books
been introduced in China, including Simone de Beauvo
Sex and Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. And yet it
to note that the term feminist is seldom used to describe w
ties in China, whether governmental or nongovernmen
general. Few women are willing to call themselves feminist
found such a word anywhere except in translations or a
ing Western feminism. Instead, in Chinese women's stu
feminology is used, and it rarely implies Western feminist
Women's Federation, the term feminism is obviously s
bourgeois ideology and thus against the principles of
scholars in unofficial women's studies groups, howeve
term feminism or not identifying their work as "feminist
and voluntary choice rather than a political consideratio
respect Western-based feminist theory, and yet they still
nese women's studies has its own background and circu
to Chinese history and social reality. Western feminist the
valuable as a rich source of reference, but a Western fe
can hardly provide standardized answers to all Chinese
tions. Ultimately, Chinese women's studies scholars belie
their own ways of seeking truth, they may be able to c
Western tradition of women's studies.

What are their own ways of seeking truth? Women's studies scholars
are speculating about the further development of the discipline. Under
the double pressure of social reform and traditional culture, these schol-
ars believe that those working in women's studies in China must address
the following topics in order to make rapid progress.
A. They must face women's problems resulting from economic reform
for two reasons. First, Chinese women do need help-not help through

4 The English word feminology is the translation for Chinese terms fu-nii-xue or nii-
xing-xue. Xue is roughly equivalent to the English suffix "-logy," used for naming disci-
plines of research. Fu-nii and nii-xing both mean "woman" or "female gender." Two
Chinese terms, fu-nii-xue and nii-xing-xue, can be translated into "women's studies." But
the reason we use feminology is that feminology sounds closer to Chinese women schol-
ars' ideas that women's studies can be founded as an independent discipline.

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 WOMEN'S STUDIES IN CHINA Li and Zhang

receiving something but through self-knowledge, one im

women's liberation. Second, the development of a theo
liberation needs to be grounded in reality.
B. They must work diligently to continue various prog
ing women's studies, thus bringing feminology into the no
teaching and research. They must make theoretical gene
women's problems in order to raise their study to a ph
and thus enrich the science of humanity.
In order to reach these goals, women's studies scholars
it is important to notice the unique circumstances of
China. Some of them are using a method called the "the
cation." The main idea of this method is to study wom
them into various groups according to their occup
women, working women in the cities or towns, and inte
fessional women.5 The scholars suggest that women in thes
are very different from each other: they have different lev
different attitudes toward liberation, and different forms
although they all face somewhat similar problems. The
significant to such scholars for two reasons: one is tha
Chinese women's liberation without noticing such differ
easily draw the wrong conclusions or fail to reach adequ
for some ambiguities; the other is that the differences sho
complexity of reality, which challenges theories and met
providing the possibility of their development as well.
Women's studies groups also plan to further women-ce
studies. The center for women's studies at Zhengzhou
instance, is preparing to found the first women's museum
interim, the affiliated scholars are compiling a series of bo
History of Women's Oral Narration. The center for wom
Beijing University is building a women's library in Beijin
with the Ford Foundation, several women scholars and l
the Women's Federation are involved in a project called
birth and Health in some selected provinces. The Women
also organizing a wide-reaching study, "The Investigat
Women's Social Status," which is the largest survey on wom
The United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Wom
will be held in Beijing in 1995; clearly, this is a very impor
Chinese women's studies programs. Women's studies scho

5 The term peasant women refers to women who are engaged in agri
areas. Because of the Communist party's dichotomous idea about class
geois and proletariat) in terms of political respect more than just econo
ation, peasant women in contemporary China are always categorized
together with women who work in the factories; however, for the pur
according to the nature of their work and their actual economic situati
women and female factory workers are often treated as separate group

Autumn 1994 SIGNS 149

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 Li and Zhang WOMEN'S STUDIES IN CHINA

inspired by this event; their research is prospering in many

the activities they have already begun in making the world
women better-including their attitudes and opinions on
concerns of women, such as the environment, educatio
health, and violence-many women's studies scholars are
papers and speeches for the nongovernmental forum of
The National Women's Federation has also organized a s
tee for the preparation of the conference; one plan is
exhibitions on the history, culture, and progress of Chin
If you go to China today, you may not recognize any sign
en's movement. There are no demonstrations on the streets or in the
schools; no women are loudly declaring their resistance to men and
society; no such words as women's movement even appear in the media.
Women's study groups and activities, however, are quietly permeating
people's lives. Without statements, slogans, and other radical actions, the
women's movement in contemporary China is emerging, and its influence
is felt not less but more than any women's movement yet in Chinese
history.
The discipline of women's studies, generated in response to women's
problems in society, is a pioneering force at the heart of this invisible
women's movement. The social significance of this newfound discipline
can be seen in many ways: female scholars have created a space for
women beyond the mainstream male-centered ideology; women's studies
has enlarged public space beyond the control of political power; women's
studies is changing the structure of the traditional humanities by chal-
lenging masculine values and standards; and, finally, women's studies is
changing Chinese women, especially their psychological dependence on
men and society.

International Women's College

Zhengzhou University, China (Li)
Department of Sociology
Columbia University (Zhang)

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