Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"This study is not only of interest to students of traditional Chinese women’s literature. It ranges over fields as widely apart as print culture, art history, social history and medical history. In each of these fields it shows a far more assertive participation of women than is commonly assumed. . . . Equally relevant to the students of Republican history as to the students of Qing history. The book is very well written and throughout a pleasure to read."
-- Wilt L. Idema * Nan Nu: Men, Women, & Gender in China *
"Through women’s own writings, Yang greatly expands our picture of gentry women’s roles in Qing society. She shows how women used their writings, not just to seek literary immortality through publication, but to empower themselves and to reform and renew their society. . . . Binbin Yang has made a most valuable contribution to our understanding of late Qing social, literary and political history."
* Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR) - Modern *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Note to Readers
Introduction
1. Breaking the Silence: Cases of Outspoken Exemplary Women
2. Visualizing Exemplarity: Women’s Portraits and Paintings for Self-Representation
3. Staging Family Drama: Genealogical Writing as Ritual Authority
4. Enacting Guardians of Family Health: From Exemplary Wife to Reformer
Conclusion
Chinese Character Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
