Chinese Feminisms Encounter International Feminisms

Abstract

This article focuses on three key debates within China about the formation of Chinese feminisms: the origin of the Chinese women's movement; the theoretical debates on the origin of women's subordination; and what constitutes legitimate knowledge. It considers these internal debates in relation to the dialogues that Chinese feminists have pursued with western feminisms, and more specifically UN-based international feminisms. Chinese feminism is above all heterogeneous, and despite common beliefs about Chinese political discourse, meaningful debates do take place within Chinese feminism. However, the spectre of the West always lurks in the background of domestic debates. I situate the Chinese feminist debates in the political economy of knowledge production (how is knowledge produced, by whom and for whom, and who pays). My purpose is to shed light on the emergence of these debates and the stakes involved, in a society that is transitioning from an autarchic, centrally planned economy, from a Maoist politics of mass movement and from the devaluation of intellectuals and book-based knowledge. Central to the course of these debates is the emergence of a globally connected market economy, technocratic rule and a ‘knowledge economy’.

Keywords:

• Chinese feminism
• gender, indigenizing/localizing international feminisms
• international feminisms
• knowledge production
• movement-based knowledge
• UN Conference on Women
• university-based knowledge

Acknowledgement

I want to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Thanks also go to Jamie Lawson who read and edited the article at various stages.

Notes

‘UN-based international feminism’ here describes a particular brand of global feminism; Chinese women NGO activists are involved primarily in activities that fall within the UN system of the international women's movement. (cf. Keck and Sikkink 1998: 168).