Writing Women in Late Imperial China (review)

Abstract

Reviews 577 New Individual Income Tax Law: Implications for Foreign Business," EastAsian Executive Reports (November 1993): p. 7. 5.It is still ofinterest to note that, from the perspective ofthe foreign investor in the PRC, the last major part ofthe drive toward tax unification and harmonization focuses on ensuring that the business profits ofboth foreign-owned and domestic entities are taxed equally. Paradoxically , foreign-owned enterprises are currently granted numerous tax exemptions and other incentives that are simply not available to other taxpayers. Although government officials have indicated on numerous occasions that, sooner rather than later there will be "a level playing field," the perceived need to attract foreign investment to the PRC has ensured that this has not yet happened. Again, seemingly paradoxically, many foreign-owned enterprises would welcome a truly "level playing field" in both its taxation (consider, e.g., the current VAT controversies such as VAT refunds on exports) and general commercial (e.g., access to the PRC domestic market) aspects. 6.Such as those in chapter 3 relating to the application of the PRCs foreign tax-credit rules and the taxation ofcontracted projects, and those in chapters 4 to 6 on liability to Value Added Tax, Consumption Tax, and Business Tax. 7.For example, reasonable emphasis is placed throughout the book on taxation and accounting compliance obligations (see particularly, chapter 2 and p. 48); thin capitalization is dealt with as is the contentious issue of deductibility ofmanagement fees paid to an associate (see pp. 50-51). mm Ellen Widmer and Kang-I Sun Chang, editors. Writing Women in Late Imperial China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997. xiii, 544 pp. Hardcover $65.00, isbn 0-8047-2871-2. Paperback $24.95, ISBN 0-8047-2872-0. Writing Women in Late Imperial China is a landmark book, one that stands as a confirmation ofthe recent changes in the study of Chinese literature and culture. Its thirteen essays combine solid scholarship and useful critical methods, applying them deftly, undogmatically, and with appropriate self-awareness. What is more, they bring these to bear on important, and fascinating, material—much ofit previously neglected in English and little treated in Chinese. Every academic library should own a copy; every person interested in Chinese literature or the late imperial period should read it. ^ ___ , TT . The authors examine both women writers and representations ofwomen in© 1998 by Universityr ofHawai'iPresswriting (and a fewpaintings) from the Ming—especially after the mid-sixteenth century—and Qing, with scattered references to earlier times. In so doing, they recognize the challenging questions that must accompany their task, questions too 578 China Review International: Vol. 5, No. 2, Fall 1998 often glossed over in the past. Who did the writing—and who didn't? Which texts survived, and why? What are the effects upon our understandings ofthe linguistic and cultural lenses through which we view these inscriptions ofselves and ofothers? The authors find many issues affecting both interpretations and what there is to interpret. Among them are: Ming loyalism and centuries of anti-Manchu sentiments , ideological stances vis-à-vis modernity, feelings about qing ("emotions, passion"), various notions of feminine or masculine virtue and ofwhat it means to be a courtesan, ways of claiming or subverting authority, assorted feminisms, ideas about literary genres, and social and attitudinal changes over time. The book offers us not only fresh insights into a familiar text, the Hong lou meng, but new information about a vital era, one in which writing by women flourished and discussions of China's own "woman question" were taken quite seriously. Old myths of unbroken, victimized muteness on the part ofwomen in traditional China (including the variant, "oh yes, a woman could write poems— her name was Li Qingzhao") simply do not stand in the face of the kind of evidence that is provided here. In part 1, five essays (by Paul S. Ropp, Wai-yee Li, Dorothy Ko, Katherine Carlitz, and Yasushi Old) discuss courtesans both as writers and as the writtenabout . They investigate complex interweavings of idealization and denigration, voyeurism and sexual desire, social statuses, women's relationships widi other women (including women in literature), the construction of both male and female selves, the crossing of...