“Warphans” and “Quiet” Heroines: Depictions of Chinese Women and Children in the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme's Campaigns during the Second Sino-Japanese War

Jasmine Calver

doi:10.1017/s0020859021000675

Abstract

AbstractThe Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme (CMF) was an international organization formed under the direction of the Communist International in 1934 in response to the threat of Nazi fascism. However, it did not restrict its activities to tackling issues in Germany; it expanded its remit to confront many of the crises that marked the mid- to late-1930s across the globe. This article analyses the CMF's work to aid civilians and refugees during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It discusses how the predominantly European committee perpetuated some essentialist and imperialist assumptions in its work and how they utilized violent and emotive language in the “Warphans” child sponsorship fundraising scheme. However, the committee also provided spaces for Chinese women to vocalize their experiences to women in the West, creating an effective humanitarian aid strategy.

Highlights

The Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme (CMF) was an international organization formed under the direction of the Communist International in in response to the threat of Nazi fascism
This article will be the first study on how the CMF conducted its campaigns; there has not been much examination of the CMF in the historical literature, and what has been written has tended to give a surface level overview of the committee without examining its processes or its campaigns on issues faced by women across the globe. This article rectifies this gap in the literature, as it offers new opportunities through which to study the practice of women’s socialist activism on a global scale in the s
Formed in, in Paris, the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme was an international communist front organization that provided communists with new opportunities to reach working-class women who were heavily underrepresented in their parties

Summary

INTRODUCTION

In March , the British section of the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme (CMF) used its journal, Woman To-day, to appeal to members to contribute to its most recent campaign: a child sponsorship. This article will be the first study on how the CMF conducted its campaigns; there has not been much examination of the CMF in the historical literature, and what has been written has tended to give a surface level overview of the committee without examining its processes or its campaigns on issues faced by women across the globe This article rectifies this gap in the literature, as it offers new opportunities through which to study the practice of women’s socialist activism on a global scale in the s. It will highlight processes of information exchange and the contradictions inherent in them to demonstrate that, while Chinese women gained an international voice by publicizing their struggle in CMF spaces, colonialist tropes, maternalist language, and a certain infantilization of the Chinese people were invoked to stimulate sympathy despite the committee’s ideological and political positions. For further information on the CMF, see Jasmine Calver, “The Comitémondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme: Anti-Fascist, Feminist, and Communist Activism in the s” (Ph.D., Northumbria University, ) [hereafter, “The Comitémondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme”]

FEMMES CONTRE LA GUERRE ET LE FASCISME

CHINESE WOMEN IN CMF DISCOURSE

MOTHERHOOD AS A MARKER OF SOLIDARITY

CONCLUSION