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The "New Social History" in China: The Development of Women's History
Shuo Wang
California State University, Stanislaus
| THE MOST REMARKABLE CHANGE in historical studies in China during the last two decades has been the rise of new social history.1 It challenges the traditional historiography in three ways: in the objects studied, in the sources used, and in methodology. Social historians have shifted the focus of their research from the so-called "elite history" to "mass history." In addition to studying the lives of rulers and social elites, they are concerned with subjects preciously neglected—which include but are not limited to women, ethnic minorities, and working class people. Social historians contend that Chinese history should not be based only on the examination of a series of significant political events, dynasty changes, ruling ideologies, governmental policies, and institutional systems, but also on the understanding of human behavior, peoples' daily lives, and their feelings and experiences. New social history is also characterized by using new materials for research. Unlike traditional Chinese historiography whose primary sources are mainly from officially compiled historical books and documents, social historians also use oral history, folk literature, and materials from field investigation as primary sources for their research. Their new theory and methodology encourages an inter-disciplinary framework and the borrowing of conceptions and methodologies from anthropology, sociology, psychology, and related academic fields.2 Social historians also emphasize the significance of studying history from the perspective of the people being studied. For example, to study women, one should examine their behavior from the point of view of women not of men. |
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Consequently the rise of new social history has profoundly impacted women's history in China. For thousands of years, Chinese history has been basically men's history. The main reason women were ignored related to their political, economic, and social position in the society. Being dominated by Confucian ideology that promoted the ideas of female inferiority and separation of sexes, women were generally excluded from formal education and participation in policy-making, the military, and other activities in public spheres. Their place was mostly inside the household, acting as mothers, wives, and daughters.3 Therefore, women's lives and contributions to society were considered insignificant by most traditional historians. After 1949, when mainland China was ruled by the Communists, historians applied Marxist theory in their studies. Marxism emphasizes the significance of economic structure and class struggle but is blind to gender differences and ethnic distinctions. As a result, the mainstream of historiography in Communist China was studies on peasant uprising and political and economic systems. This approach unfortunately ignored family, marriage, women, and minorities. |
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Women's history has become an important new field of social history in China since the mid-1980s. In 1983, Li Xiaojiang, one of the pioneers of Chinese gender studies, published her article "Renlei jinbu yu funu jiefang" (Progress of mankind and women's liberation), which is the first scholarly publication in women studies. Two years later, the first non-official women's professional organization, Association of Women's Studies, was founded and in the same year the first academic conference concerned with women's studies was held in Zhengzhou. Since then women studies in China has developed rapidly. |
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The primary sources used by traditional historians were officially compiled historical books.4 The main references to women in these multi-volume collections of dynastic history are the chapters about empresses and imperial concubines or a few chosen exemplary women.5 When discussing the problem of using these sources, Susan Mann points out that "valuable as they are to historians of women...these biographies written by men grow opaque when we try to understand what women themselves thought or believed."6 The rise of social history has opened new channels of sources. Some valuable materials available in China are to be found in literature (poems, novels, diaries, personal jottings, and folk songs), in archives (court records, land leases, marriage contracts, etc.), in visual arts and materials, and in personal interviews.7 These previously ignored sources provide historians opportunities to get information about common women's lives, which is crucial to the development of women's history in China. |
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In recent years, Chinese historians have made great efforts to collect primary sources of various kinds and to use these sources to study women's history. Ding Yizhuang's book, Zuihou de jiyi: shiliu wei qiren funu de koushu lishi (The last memories: the oral history of 16 Manchu women) and Li Xiaojiang's series Rang nuren ziji shuohua (Let women's voices be heard) are good examples of collecting primary sources from personal interviews.8 Their books are based on interviews with women from diverse social backgrounds, and provide valuable information about women's experiences and feelings in the male dominated society. Guo Songyi's book, Lunli yu shenghuo: Qingdai de hunyin guanxi (Ethics and life: marital relations in the Qing dynasty) and Wang Yuesheng's, Shiba shiji Zhongguo hunyin jiating yanjiu (Marriage and family in China in the eighteenth century) use a great quantity of archives, personal jottings, and literary sources to examine women's lives and the marriage system in the Qing dynasty.9 Deng Xiaonan's research on Tang and Song women is a representative work that uses archaeological sources and field research findings in historical studies.10 It is seen that, as a new field of social history, recent scholarship on women use a great deal of materials from archives, literature, and personal interviews as the primary sources to make up what is missing in the official data. |
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These efforts of social historians contrast with traditional Chinese historiography, which shows women as passive objects as revealed by men's writing brushes where they often appear in footnotes because the main text treats social norms in a male-dominated society. For example, the records of "exemplary women" in the collections of dynastic history primarily reflect men's expectation of women and the narrative was designed to promote Confucian doctrines in the society. After the Revolution of 1911 buried the Qing dynasty, followed by the New Cultural Movement, many new ideas were introduced into China from the West that challenged traditional culture and the old social order. Among other changes, efforts were made to redefine women's social status and roles in response to the feminist movement in the West. However, since the feminist movement in China was led by elite male intellectuals, women were still in the position of "passive object," being represented and criticized by men.11 Male feminist activists wrote about women primarily from men's perspectives, using women's problem as their weapon to condemn Confucianism and the feudal system, ideas and institutions, which were the main targets of the New Cultural Movement. Still, they did call for women's liberation, including the abolition of footbinding and encouragement of women's education and employment, and they advocate "a new woman" who would be "educated, employed, independent, concerned with public life, and attentive to the plight of women more oppressed than she." 12 Books and articles in this period emphasized the suppression of women and the fact they were victims of the feudal system. However, women's subjective perceptions and the roles they played in constructing the society were overlooked. |
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Recent research on women has showed a tendency to approach women's problems from women's points of view and demonstrates a strong sense of needing to reveal women's actual life experiences. Ding Yizhuang's Manzu de funu shenghuo yu hunyin zhidu yanjiu (Research on lives and marriage patterns of Manchu women) is a good example.13 Based on solid historical sources collected from Manchu archives, this book attempts to explain the changes in women's lives and marital behavior from a woman's perspective and challenges some mechanistic grand theories. The way in which some social historians apply a multidisciplinary approach in their studies is illustrated by Guo Songyi's book on ethics and marriage relations in Qing China which uses new methodologies borrowed from sociology, statistics, ethics, and psychology. A multidisciplinary approach such as this is especially significant for women's studies and gender relations because it enables an author to explain marital and family history from a comprehensive point of view. |
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In addition to the books mentioned above, two other books require our attention. They are Funu xue he funu shi de bentu tansuo: shehui xingbie shijiao he kua xueke shiye (The native exploration to the women studies and women's history: gendered perspectives and interdisciplinary views) by Du Fangqin and Lishi, shixue yu xingbie (History, historiography, and gender), edited by Li Xiaojiang.14 Both are concerned about methodology, framework, and the direction of development of women's history in China. Li's book, Lishi, shixue yu xingbie zuotanhui (Forum on history, Historiography, and gender), is a proceeding of a conference that was held in Dalian, China in the summer of 2002. This conference invited the most popular Chinese scholars of social history to reflect on the current trends in the development of women's history and gender studies in China. The conference illustrated the two issues which are the main concerns of Chinese scholars in the field. |
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One is the definition of women's history and its position in traditional historiography. What is women's history? How should we understand its significance in the field of historical studies? Some scholars believe that women's history is just a new research area in the field which makes women an object of research. In other words, women's history simply studies women in the past. They admit that women have been ignored by historians for thousands of years and argue that now it is the historians' mission to study women's experiences in the past and their contributions to society. To these scholars the rise of women's history is not in conflict with traditional historiography, but just adds a new subject to it. Other scholars argue that the rise of women's history and gender studies is a revolution in the methodology of historical studies because it not only introduces a new subject but demands a review or re-thinking of the whole history of China from the perspective of women. Since this new perspective places women at the center of historical analysis, it forces a critical re-examination of all the assumptions and conclusions historians had made before they integrated women into their scholarly works.15 For example, Qing studies in the past have focused on political, economic, and military systems, areas men were mostly involved in. Studying the changes of these areas after the Manchu conquest might lead historians to conclude that sinicization (Hanhua) was the key to Manchu success in China. However, if we reexamine Qing history and the Manchu conquest by placing women at the center of the analysis, an approach which would examine the Manchu society from a more personal level, we can see that many old Manchu traditions continued. Therefore, we may have a different conclusion about Manchu-Chinese acculturation and the reason for their success in China. This example illustrates the second, more revolutionary definition of women's studies and Chinese scholars are not agreed upon which to choose. |
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Another issue of concern to Chinese scholars of women's history is how to evaluate and accept the tendency of academic globalization. Compared with the accomplishment of women's studies in the United States and Europe, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, women's history in China is still a developing field. China's opening to the West since the 1980s has provided scholars a great opportunity to learn new methodologies and to broaden their theoretical views in women's studies. As a result, many new terms and theoretical frameworks used by Western historians in their research, such as "feminism," "postmodernism," "post structuralism," etc, have been directly introduced into the field of women's studies in China. In this respect, Chinese historians who received their degrees overseas and went back to China for conferences or other academic reasons have played a crucial role in shaping some frameworks of social history in China, including women's history.16 Their research is well-recognized by Chinese scholars who realize that a combination of Chinese tradition in historiography and the new theories and approaches can be significant to the development of women's history in China in the twenty-first century. |
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However, with more and more Western theories introduced, Chinese historians have started to worry about so-called "lilun zhiminhua" (theoretical colonization).17 They argue that the significance of indigenization (ben tu hua) should be emphasized in the field of Chinese history and that it is especially important in a new field like women's history. Since the situation of Chinese women is different from that of women in the West, some terms, frameworks, and perspectives that are used by Western scholars in women's history may not work perfectly for China. For example, the term "gender," which is widely used in Western works in women's studies, does not have a fixed Chinese equivalent.18 In one article, Li Xiaojiang points out that Chinese scholars "respect Western-based feminist theory, and yet they still believe that Chinese women's studies has its own background and circumstances unique to Chinese history and social reality. Western feminist theory is certainly valuable as a rich source of reference, but Western feminist tradition can hardly provide a standardized answer to all Chinese women's questions."19 The unique circumstances and background of women's studies in China refer to the reality that the feminist movements in Chinese history were "male oriented" movements because they were mostly led by men and saw women as a passive objects being liberated by men.20 Therefore, Chinese women lacked the sense of self-representation and self-consciousness of their situation as victims. Other Chinese scholars also have questions using women's writing as a primary source in women's studies, which is emphasized by Western scholars in the recent years. Using women's writings, including diaries, novels, poems as primary sources helps historians to know what women themselves felt and thought about the world, and indeed, some scholars have made significant achievements in this field.21 But Chinese scholars claim that these sources are very limited, especially in pre-modern Chinese history, due to the unique situation of China.22 |
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The issue of "theoretical colonization" was one of the main themes discussed at the conference of 2002 and has been a contentious topic in China's academic field since then. According to critics, when some Chinese scholars return from overseas, they ignore the differences of women's situation in China and in the West and make a fetish of "foreign things." This makes scholars in China worry about the future of Chinese women's history because it is facing the danger of "colonization," which will "ruin the foundation of women's history in China."23 Another Chinese scholar observed:
The greatest sorrow is that our history is being interpreted by other people (referring to foreigners) as they please. If our history is defined by other people within their framework, then the whole story of our nation and people is in doubt. Of course, other people do not change the order of dynasties in our history. What they do is to take away the firewood from under the cooking pot (fu di chou xin)—study our men and women and then rewrite the contents of our history.... When other people's voice is recognized as a standard language and when we use this language to study our history without hesitation, we easily become 'outsiders' in our own land—this is how the process of post-colonization is accomplished.
She also believes that no matter how much the world is integrated as a whole in the future, the study of history must be local.24 |
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As a new field of social history, women's history in China is still in its infancy. There are at least two areas that need to be further developed. First, current works on women's history, especially in the pre-modern period, primarily focus on family life, marriage, childbearing, and sexuality. Needless to say, these are indeed the important areas women make their dramas, but the study of women's lives and their contribution to society should go beyond the inner-quarter. Women's roles in society at large, such as women's labor, education, and religious practices, should also be studied. |
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Another problem in the field is that some historians are still using a sinocentric approach to conduct their research and overlook ethnic distinctions among the people of China. It is not uncommon that a book bearing the title of "Chinese" women or women in some specific dynasty actually discusses only the experience of Han women.25 Like all other social groups, women in China are not monolithic. When studying Chinese women in history, one should understand and view them as diverse ethnically. Women's identities and behaviors can be very different according to the diversities of ethnicity and social status. For example, a stereotypical impression of Chinese women is that they had their feet bound after the Song dynasty (960–1279). But when we view the women of China in all their diversity, we learn that actually only some Han women practiced footbinding. Manchus, Mongols, Tibetans, Hmongs, and other ethnic minorities did not bind their women's feet. Moreover, even within the Han community not every woman had small feet—those from poor families did not do it because they needed a pair of "normal feet" to work in the field. In addition to the practice of footbinding, Han women's lives differ from those of their counterparts of other ethnic minorities in many other respects, including the position within the family, the roles in social production, in marriage, in gender relations, and so on. In recent years, scholars in the United States have argued for a construction of gender that is attentive to both class and ethnic identity.26 It is an important approach for women's studies in China because neither men nor women lived in a vacuum; instead, the historians should indicate the class and the ethnic group they belonged to. In conclusion, while I believe that as a new field of social history, Chinese women's history has a very bright future, its development must be based on a deep understanding of Chinese history and culture, solid primary sources, and an open-minded attitude to new theories and methodology. |
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Notes
1. The most representative publications include Kongjian yu jiyi (Space and memory); Xin shixue: duo xueke duo duihua de tujing (New history: the channel for the dialogue of multi-disciplines); and a series publication Xin Shixue (New social history).
2. Nankai University, Nanjing University, and Zhongshan University are the pioneers of new social history in China that encourage inter-disciplinary research in history and other fields of social science.
3. Patricia Ebrey's The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990) provides a wonderful overview about Chinese women's lives and position in the family.
4. There are twenty-four multi-volume collections recording each dynasty's history from Xia to Qing. Traditionally, when a new dynasty was established, the ruler would call on historians and high officials to write the history of the previous dynasty. These projects were government-sponsored. Officially compiled historical sources also include gazetteers, veritable records, and biographies of famous historical figures.
5. Every book of dynasty's history includes several chapters of imperial consorts and exemplary women. The latter usually had four categories: filial daughters; unmarried women who died as martyrs for their country or to protect their sexual purity; married women who died as martyrs for their country or to protect her sexual purity; and chaste widows.
6. Susan Mann, Precious Records: Women in China's Long Eighteenth Century (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997), 3.
7. Since the mid-1980s, scholars in the United States have begun to use these sources in their research on Chinese women. The representative works include Emily Honig, Sisters and Strangers: Women in the Shanghai Cotton Mills, 1919–1949 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986); Gail Hershatter, The Workers of Tianjin, 1900–1949 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986); Honig and Hershatter's Personal Voices: Chinese Women in the 1980s (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988); Dorothy Ko, Teachers of Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in China, 1573–1722 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994); Susan Mann, Precious Records: Women in China's Long Eighteenth Century (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997).
8. Ding Yizhuang, Zuihou de jiyi (Beijing: Zhongguo guangbo danshi chubanshe, 1999); Li Xiaojiang, Rang nuren ziji shuohua (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2003).
9. Guo Songyi, Lunli yu shenghuo: Qingdai de hunyin guanxi (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2000); Wang Yuesheng, Shiba shiji Zhongguo hunyin jiating yanjiu (Beijing: Falu chubanshe, 2000).
10. Deng Xiaonan, "Cong Kaogu fajue ziliao kan Tang Song shiqi nuxing zai menwai de huodong" (Use materials from archaeological excavation to examine women's outdoor activities during the Tang and Song dynasties). In Li Xiaojiang, ed. Lishi, shixue yu xingbie (History, historiography, and gender). Nanjing: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 2002, 113–127.
11. Hu Shi (1891–1962), Li Dazhao (1888–1927), Chen Duxiu (1879–1942) were considered pioneers of China's feminist movement in the early twentieth century. Chen Dongyuan's Zhongguo funu shenghuo shi (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1928) is one of the earliest books that discuss women's lives and social position. See Hon-ming Yip, Shehui shi yu Zhongguo funu yanjiu (Social History and studies of Chinese women), 24.
12. See Gail Hershatter, "State of the Filed: Women in China's Long Twentieth Century," The Journal of Asia Studies 63. 4 (November 2004):1031.
13. Ding Yizhuang, Manzu de funu shenghuo yu hunyin zhidu yanjiu (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1999).
14. Du Fangqin, Funu xue he funu shi de bentu tansuo (Tianjin: Tianjin renmin chubanshe, 2002); Li Xiaojiang, ed. Lishi, shixue yu xingbie (Nanjing: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 2002).
15. In the introduction of her book, Susan Mann reinforces this point. See Precious Records, 7.
16. Bao Xiaolan was one of the pioneers who introduced Western theories of women's studies to China. See her book Xifang nuxingzhuyi yanjiu pingjia (An introduction to Western feminist scholarship), Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 1995. For more information about contributions on Chinese women's studies by Chinese historians in the United States, see the bibliography of Gail Hershatter's article in The Journal of Asian Studies, 63. 4 (November 2004): 1040–1065.
17. Li Xiaojiang, Lishi, shixue yu xingbie, 248.
18. Wang Zheng, "Research on Women in Contemporary China," 36, in Guide to Women's Studies in China ed. by Gail Hershatter, Emily Honig, Susan Mann, and Lisa Rofel (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 1–43.
19. Li Xiaojiang and Zhang Xiaodan, "Creating a Space for Women: Women's Studies in China in the 1980s," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 20.1:148.
20. Zheng Yongfu and Lu Meiyi, "Wushinian lai de Zhongguo jindai funushi yanjiu shuping" (Studies on modern Chinese women's history in the last fifty years) in Li Xiaojiang, Lishi, shixue yu xingbie, 396.
21. Books by Dorothy Ko and Susan Mann are good examples of using women's writings to reveal women's lives in pre-modern China.
22. Li Xiaojiang, Lishi, shixue yu xingbie, 28, 31.
23. Li Xiaojiang, Lishi, shixue yu xingbie, 248–249.
24. Li Xiaojiang, Lishi, shixue yu xingbie, 44–45.
25. In this aspect, Ding Yizhuang's book on Manchu women's life and marriage has made a remarkable contribution to the studies of non-Han women. Ding's book sets the discussion of Qing women in a multi-ethnic social context.
26. See Evelyn Higginbotham, "African-American Women's History and the Metalanguage of Race"; Ann Laura Stoler, "Carnal knowledge and Imperial Power: Gender, Race, and Morality in Colonial Asia; and Dolores Janiewski, "Southern Honour, Southern Dishonour: Managerial Ideology and the Construction of Gender, Race, and Class Relations in Southern Industry" in Feminism and History. ed. by Joan Wallach Scott, Oxford University Press, 1996.
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