Women Journalists and Feminism in China, 1898–1937 By Yuxin Ma

writing, criticism, publishing, translation, and correspondence. Women's public writings manifested the sexual politics of writing and representation in an age of political transition and cultural expansion.

This book explores how Chinese women employed their gendered media public to criticize state policies from a feminist perspective. It emphasizes the roles of women as producers of culture and also explores their relationship to the public gaze. Women journalists’ writings and social practices became a civil force which shaped political changes and public opinion and integrated gender issues to the building of a modern nation-state. In recent years, sociologists of China have noted that since the Fourth World Women's Conference was held in Beijing, China, in the summer of 1995, various forms of nongovernment organizations (NGOs)—independent institutions, radio hotlines, professional groups, free media, and the Internet—have mushroomed in urban China and played important roles in shaping government policies in civil disputes, environment, education, and women/gender issues. As a historian, I argue that from 1898 to 1937, women's periodicals functioned in the same way as today's NGOs in representing women's voices, developing women's democratic institutions, and claiming women's identity outside the family.

The Project

I focus on studying women's journals with feminist concerns. Although some women's journals were edited, staffed, and mostly penned by men, such as Nüzi shijie (1904–1905, Shanghai), Funü shibao (1911–1917, Shanghai), Funü zazhi, (1915–1932, Shanghai), and Xinnüxing (1926–1929, Shanghai), I include them in this study because of their feminist content. I exclude from this study women's magazines that specialized in romance, domesticity, and adornment. These include Meiyu (1914–1916, Shanghai), which carried long romance novels in series and paintings of beauties by famous artists, and Linglong (1931–1937, Shanghai), which promoted the exquisite life of women and encouraged lofty entertainment in society. Over the years, I have examined more than one