The Birth of Chinese Feminism: Essential Texts in Transnational Theory ed. by Lydia H. Liu, Rebecca E. Karl, And Dorothy Ko (review)

At the turn of the twentieth century, who spoke for the emerging Chinese feminism? Which texts systematically laid out its main theories and ideals? What constituted the intellectual origins of Chinese feminism? For many, the conventional answers—that Chinese feminism emerged as a byproduct of introduction of Western liberalism by Chinese male intellectuals such as Liang Qichao (1873–1929) and Jin Tianhe (1874–1947)—are intellectually unsatisfactory. In recent years, scholars have looked more closely into the literature of the late Qing and early Republican period to understand how Chinese men and women approached the so-called "woman question" by creatively engaging Western, Japanese, and Chinese intellectual resources. The Birth of Chinese Feminism, a volume that combines theorizing, historical study, and translation, contributes to such endeavors in a unique way.

This book consists of three main parts. It begins with an introduction that reassesses the birth of Chinese feminism in global intellectual developments by foregrounding the work of a fascinating Chinese feminist, He-Yin Zhen (1886-1920?). A chapter on the historical context follows, situating He-Yin Zhen in the multiple "Chinese feminist worlds" created by the complex political, social, and intellectual conditions at the turn of the twentieth century. The second part of this book presents the first English translation of six articles by He-Yin Zhen, all originally published in an anarcho-feminist journal Tianyi (Natural Justice) in 1907–1908: "On the Question of Women's Liberation," "On the Question of Women's Labor," "Economic Revolution and Women's Revolution," "On the Revenge of Women," "On Feminist Antimilitarism," and "The Feminist Manifesto." These pieces represent her thorough, multi-dimensional, and radical feminist examination of the interlocking systems of oppression and exploitation, such as patriarchy, capitalism, and imperialism, experienced by women in the global past and present. The third part is comprised of the English translation of two influential treatises by two prominent male intellectuals, "On Women's Education" by Liang Qichao (1897) and "The Women's Bell" by Jin Tianhe (1903). They exemplified progressive thinkers' approach to the "woman question" that mixed liberalism, nationalism, paternalism, and enlightenment discourse.

The fact that this volume has grown out of the collaboration of a historian of pre-modern China, a historian of modern China, and a scholar of literary studies speaks volumes about the richness and complexity of this book as well as its values for researchers, teachers, and students in Chinese history and feminist studies. A few other scholars also joined the editors' translation efforts and contributed their scholarly and linguistic expertise. He-Yin Zhen's writing draws upon Confucian classics as well as Chinese, Japanese, and Western sources such as histories, news reports, and literature. Annotations to these carefully translated texts provide the reader with not only background and bibliographical information but also critical comments on the texts, making these sources extremely accessible. One minor issue is that Chinese and Japanese originals are provided in only some places. The reader would have appreciated a glossary.

The juxtaposition of He-Yin Zhen, Liang Qichao, and Jin Tianhe's writings in this volume allows for multiple pedagogical and analytical options. However, this book does not present the two male authors as "male voice" vis-à-vis He-Yin Zhen's "authentic female voice." Rather, the editors suggest, rightly, that these authors exhibited the "the plurality of and contradictions within Chinese feminisms" (p. 7), and that He-Yin Zhen's difference derived from her particularly radical perspective and analytical methods.

He-Yin Zhen is a provocative theorist. For instance, her criticisms of "the equality between men and women" as "sham freedom" (p. 59), of contemporary Western women's suffrage movement as an "oppressive force" (p. 67), and of marriage in Euro-America as a system of men and women's "mutual prostitution" (p. 97) will strike many...