Her detailed examination of Chinese nationalism from the perspectives of gender and globalization shows her sharp awareness of the changing geopolitical mapping of Chineseness, an awareness many serious critics of Chinese literature and culture would benefit from in this era of social and political change.
Feminism and Chineseness represents solid scholarship; its main strength lies in the convincing feminist treatment of some of the debates that continue to plague the field of Asian studies. It successfully demonstrates that the special role of women writers in the transmission of power can be multivocal, and the production and reproduction of those women writers’ controversies not only point to the question of women’s place, but also reveal the complexity of national identities. This book brings a fresh approach to the developing field of Chinese feminist studies and to the field of Chinese literary criticism.
Professor Jianmei Liu
University of Maryland