Engendering the Chinese Revolution: Radical Women, Communist Politics, and Mass Movements in the 1920s

by Christina Gilmartin

Christina Kelley Gilmartin rewrites the history of gender politics in the 1920s with this compelling assessment of the impact of feminist ideals on the Chinese Communist Party during its formative years. For the first time, Gilmartin reveals the extent to which revolutionaries in the 1920s were committed to women's emancipation and the radical political efforts that were made to overcome women's subordination and to transform gender relations.

Women activists whose experiences and achievements have been previously ignored are brought to life in this study, which illustrates how the Party functioned not only as a political organization but as a subculture for women as well. We learn about the intersection of the personal and political lives of male communists and how this affected their beliefs about women's emancipation. Gilmartin depicts with thorough and incisive scholarship how the Party formulated an ideological challenge to traditional gender relations while it also preserved aspects of those relationships in its organization.

Genres: History, China, Feminism, Nonfiction

328 pages, Paperback

First published October 2, 1995

Reviews

[Naked Fish]

里程碑式作品，描写国民革命时期两党充满矛盾与讽刺的“女权”运动。女性党员往往需要依靠婚姻关系来维持自己的地位，一旦婚变则立马失势。男性党员一方面写文章抨击传统观念为女性发声，另一方面又坚持feminism和共产主义格格不入，反感激进的女性运动并保持传统的男女关系。读后发现Wang2016年的一些论点并不新鲜，Gilmartin甚至对女性运动挂靠现代化agenda抱有理解。

[Brittany]

This book provides a nice overview of women during the Chinese revolution & what their goals were. History books can sometimes be hard to read (especially older ones) but this one was written well enough to not be overwhelming & I really enjoyed the way it was set up in sections!

[Ona]

妇女解放话语是马克思主义、五四女权主义、民族主义和社会革命实践的交汇。一个扭转的视角：讨论性别是如何参与革命，而非革命是如何将性别纳入其中。性别是革命政治的组成部分，是想象新社会、塑造革命主体和发动群众的政治场域，并非被纳入革命议程的附属问题。
父权在组织结构内的再生产塑造了ccp的权力形态，革命一方面要求女性成为新政治秩序中的主体，另一方面又在政治斗争中不断通过对女性身体和性别秩序的控制来表达权力，比如女性组织内地位依赖于其伴侣；向警予牺牲后的媒体叙事；两党关系破裂，以女性身体作为场域展示暴力和进行宣传战。（详细地提供了五卅运动、广东湖北群众运动的性别视角）

[Dana]

i did a presentation on this so im counting it.

[John]

Very dry and historical. Can get most of the thrust from reading the 20 page conclusion.

[Jialin Mao]

A great book! Really helped me write a term paper on a similar topic. The way the author writes is relatively readable and the amount of research gone into their writing is admirable.

[Adam]

Still reading. Great topic.