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

hundred women's periodicals of the period of 1898–1937, pored through the five volumes of Historical Sources on Chinese Women's Movements compiled by the All China Women's Federation, searched for biographical information on women journalists, and followed up the recent scholarship on Chinese feminism.

Despite the large number of surviving women's periodicals from 1898–1937, women journalists represented only a small group of well-educated women in urban centers who had the privilege of editing and writing for female periodicals. Most Chinese women remained rural and illiterate, and women's print media did not represent their views and had little impact on their lives. Even many urban women remained traditional housewives and did not necessarily share the feminist visions and the aspirations of women journalists. This research mainly studies the production of Chinese women's periodicals. It is difficult to evaluate the readership and the consumption effects of these periodicals. The correspondence columns of some periodicals provided useful, but limited information on readers’ responses. Even so, women's journals were widely read by middle- and upper-class women with a modern education. Women's periodicals demonstrated Chinese women's independence and reflected the great social change in modern China which made it possible for women to have public voices. Nothing says more about the changes in Chinese women's lives from 1898 to 1937 than the evolution of women journalists from Confucian gentry women to powerful, modern professionals.

The organizational framework of the book is the change and continuity in women's concerns and the relationship between media writings and feminism as manifested in print media. This book describes the thematic continuity of women's periodicals for the entire period of 1898–1937, rejecting using the May Fourth Movement in 1919 as a demarcation between tradition and modernity. The May Fourth paradigm distorts the nature of pre–May Fourth Chinese society and trivializes the literary and cultural accomplishments of Chinese women.⁴⁰ Despite the persistence and continuity of feminist themes and topics in the female press, the actual foci and priorities of women writers constantly shifted in the