Ten Chinese Books That Changed Our View of Women’s History

Abstract

Scholars of Chinese women’s history in the West have often ignored the scholarship of their colleagues in China. For much of the twentieth century, Chinese academia was in chaos. With so little good research coming out of China, Western scholars became accustomed to ignoring the works of Chinese academics. Since the 1980s, however, Chinese scholarship has steadily improved, reaching international standards of quality. Chinese scholars remain highly influenced by their rich intellectual legacy. A post-Marxist mindset makes them extremely sensitive to the importance of social class. And the study of imperial philology has taught them the importance of textual criticism and close reading. This article discusses ten representative Chinese books covering different eras of women’s history, which exemplify the contributions that Chinese scholars are currently making to the field.