From "female bodhisattva with a she-devil face" to "female general of the anarchist party": Biographies of Louise Michel in Early 20th-Century China

This article illuminates a little-known legacy of the Paris Commune in China: Chinese biographies of Louise Michel in the late Qing and early Republican periods (1897–1917). Providing an overview of the biographies and their historical contexts, the article shows how Michel—one of the leading figures of the Paris Commune—became part of a pantheon of radical Western women exemplars in China. In this period of rapid political, social, and cultural change for China, Michel's example inspired moderate and radical intellectuals and activists, providing a vector for thinking through issues ranging from revolutionary thought and history to feminism, nationalism, and modernization.