Qu Yajun is a professor at Shaanxi Normal University, Xian, China, and
director of both the Women’s Research Center and Women Culture Museum of the
university. Despite the fact that the Japan-China relationship was in danger of
being jeopardized by the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands dispute, with even cultural
exchanges suspended in many cases, she visited Tokyo as originally scheduled to
speak about women’s studies and her experiences in China.
Prof.Qu’s lectures were both impressive as well as timely, all the more
because they were given in the midst of the difficult time between the two
countries. What follows is a report on her presentation made at the meeting of
the Women’s Studies Association of Japan, on Saturday, November 10, 2012, at
Rissho University, entitled “Three Kinds of Women’s Discourses in Modern
China.”
Based on what I (the writer of this report) understood from Prof.Qu’s
speech, I will describe the major points of the two days of lectures in two
consecutive reports, of which this is Part 1, and will also add my personal
comments inspired by her lectures.
(1) “Half the Sky” Discourse
Back in the Cold War period, socialist countries were often depicted as
dreams come true. China was also highly regarded at the time in terms of
women’s status in society as evidenced by the quotation of Mao Zedong,“women
hold up half the sky.”
According to Prof.Qu, these words of Mao suggested that women are as
capable as men. As a result of the Chinese Revolution, the traditional idea of
“men outside, women inside” was overthrown, replaced by the ideal of
independence, liberation and equality of men and women. The major promoter of
the “half the sky” discourse was the All China Women’s Federation (hereinafter
ACWF), formed in March 1949, even before Chairman Mao’s declaration of the
People’s Republic of China.
According to Prof.Qu, however, the widely accepted notion of women being equal to men could be misinterpreted as women acting like men. Since the “half the sky” is a mainstream discourse, it carries ideological dogmatism and authoritarianism with it. As it regards self-pride, self-confidence, self-independence and self-empowerment as its standards, the discourse tends to leave women unaware of their actually weak position in a still patriarchal society.
After the 1980s, Prof. Qu points out, the above-mentioned four “self”s
were no longer so obviously praised in novels but the “half the sky” discourse
was represented by brave women soldiers, excellent women judges and successful
businesswomen instead.
(2) “Feminist” Discourse
In the same period, Prof. Qu reminded us, China started to be influenced
by Western feminism. Especially after the fourth UN Conference on Women held in
Beijing in 1995, awareness of feminism was enhanced and attention to the
socially weak, including women, increased. There began a move to deconstruct
masculine culture and to interpret sex and gender as a political discourse.
Compared to the “half the sky” discourse, this new “feminism” was
characterized more as an attempt by women for women to emancipate themselves.
Instead of being on the receiving end of social liberation, feminist women now
began to fight their way into their specialized research areas from a
gender-oriented perspective, eschewing mainstream ideology.
According to Prof. Qu, more than one hundred research institutes have been
established in China, carrying the term “gender,” “feminism” or “women,”
serving to raise the status of women’s studies in higher education. On the
other hand, her concern is that they tend to be plagued by staff shortages,
budget problems and a lack of facilities. Furthermore, Prof. Qu goes on to say,
post-modern philosophy, which represents the core of feminist theory, is too
difficult for ordinary people to understand. Therefore, in her view, feminist
oriented studies, in their efforts to counter male-centrism, could cause anew a
center-peripheral conflict between woman and woman.
Nonetheless, Prof.Qu observes that the “half the sky” and “feminist”
discourses tend to merge with each other. The facilitating factors include
deepened understanding between the chief staff of relevant departments of ACWF
and women scholars through joint efforts in various activities. As reform and
open policy accelerates, the boundary between women staff from the proletarian
class and women scholars from intellectual families have also been removed.
(3) Emergence of “Modern Ladies” and Coexistence of the 3 Confronting
DiscourseS?
Against the above-mentioned two kinds of women in modern China, quite a
new category called “modern ladies” emerged. Prof. Qu introduced them as the
kind of white collar woman one finds on the cover of fashion magazines or the
beautiful women serving as TV newscasters.
They know that they cannot expect to enjoy any more protective measures as
women in severe competition in a market economy. They disagree with the “half
the sky” discourse as it is so old-fashioned and criticize the “feminist”
discourse as it is too radical. Prof. Qu is critical of the “modern ladies”
discourse because it has internalized men’s view of masculine culture, as
women’s beauty, elegance, gentleness and weakness are being commercialized.
Prof. Qu does not see the boundary between the “modern ladies” and
“feminist” discourses as clear and fixed. She maintains that those concepts
like “personal” and “private” from Western feminism are also characteristic of
the “modern ladies". But the “modern ladies” discourse was generated and
developed along with the market, which is the mainstream ideology in present-day
China. So it contradicts with the “feminist” discourse which is characterized
by its attention to the periphery. No matter how apparently the “modern ladies”
try to come off as appearing advanced in the business world, they inevitably end
up being objectified and alienated in men’s eyes.
There was a question raised by the audience as to how the “housewives” are
positioned within those discourses, but unfortunately Prof. Qu did not have
time to elaborate on this issue.
A few weeks later, I had a chance to meet a Chinese friend, a young woman
working at a publishing company in Beijing. In response to my question, she
presented her personal view, saying that those “modern ladies” seek to meet one
of those “new rich” men who were also the product of the market economy, and
become a housewife. Unlike activists or scholars, the ordinary women seem to be
strongly affected by the “modern ladies” discourse.
At the end of this lecture, Prof. Qu summarized the relationship between
the coexisting three discourses about women as follows:
All three are double-sided in their own way, complicating their
relationship. The government authorized “half the sky” discourse certainly freed
Chinese women of some burdens western women must have tackled. It could control
the negative results of commercialism through its orthodoxy. And yet, its
orthodoxy could become conservatism, resulting in conflict with the radical
“feminism” discourse. The “feminism” discourse, which could be a powerful
weapon to fight back against masculine ideology, might come to a dead end if it
recklessly crashes with the “half the sky” discourse, ignoring cultural and
social characteristics of Chinese society and practices. The “modern ladies”
discourse is attractive because of its newness and trendiness, but might become
retrogressive as the society itself advances.
~~To be continued in Part 2~~
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