Bloomsbury Chinese Women Organizing: Cadres, Feminists, Muslims, Queers: 19 (Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Women)

In the process of helping women to help themselves, female activists have assumed a decisive role in negotiating social and political transformations in Chinese society. This is the first book that describes and analyzes the new phase of women's organizing in China, which started in the 1980s, and remains a vital force to the present day. The political and social changes taking place in contemporary Chinese society have, surprisingly, received scant attention. This volume enriches our understanding of the working of grassroots democracy in China by exploring women's popular organizing activities and their interaction with party-state institutions. By subjecting these activities to both empirical enquiry and theoretical scrutiny, a rigorous analysis of the exchange, dialogue, negotiation and transformation among and within three groups of political actors - popular women's groups, religious groups and the All China Women's Federation - is concisely presented to the reader. This book will be of tremendous interest to students of Chinese Studies, Political Science and Gender Studies alike. Review 'This book ... gives voice both to academics engaged in Chinese women's studies from both China and the West, and to activists working in Chinese NGOs.' -- Delia Davin, University of Leeds About the Author Ping-Chun Hsiung Associate Professor,University of Toronto Maria Jaschok Research Associate, Centre for Cross-Cultural Research on Women, University of Oxford Cecilia Milwertz Research Fellow, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies