Looking for Chengdu: A Woman's Adventures in China

by Hill Gates

For decades, anthropologist Hill Gates had waited for an opportunity to get to know the citizens of China as she had done in Taiwan―face to face, over an extended period of time. At last in the late 1980s she set out on an excursion to Sichuan Province. That visit was the first of many she would make there on a remarkable double to gain a deeper understanding of Chinese women and to complete a difficult passage in her own life. Looking for Chengdu is her memoir of these trips. By turns analytic, witty, and bittersweet, Gates's observations on contemporary China are enlivened by a keen eye for the oddities of human behavior, including her own. The vast, inland province of Sichuan was the birthplace of the Chinese economic reforms of the 1970s, and is now speeding from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. Was its economic boom transforming women's lives, Gates wondered? After a generation of socialist rule, would women risk the challenge of entrepreneurship? A feminist, she was especially curious to learn what Chinese of both sexes defined as women's rights. Gates traveled―by boat, train, bus, car, bicycle, and foot (her preference)―across the spectacular countryside, gleaning insight into China's massive bureaucracies from her experiences on an obligatory vacation, in a Tibetan dance-hall, and at a shouting match in her Chengdu home. She met dozens of hard-working, stylish women running family firms, and crossed paths with scholars and sailors. Her book is rich in anecdotes and compelling moments, from her journey through mountain villages in search of five thousand women with bound feet to low-voiced conversations about the Chengdu equivalent of the events at Tiananmen Square. A fascinating glimpse into the deeply personal vocation of anthropology, Gates's memoir will change the way readers think about the Chinese people.

Genres: China

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is set in the late 80's, and it gives a wonderful peek into the lives of women living in the Chengdu area during that time. It also helps with understanding the history behind the conditions of the 80's. It is written by an anthropologist in a diary type format, so we learn about her research as well as her own life during that time.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting memoir of an anthropologist's travels in China and research projects there in the late 80s and early 90s.

[Tracie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book randomly at the library - I'm surprisingly caught up in a female anthropologist's account of traveling and researching in China.