Customer Reviews

Holding up Half the Sky: Chinese Women Past, Present, and Future

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This is a strong collection of reports on China's women, written by a number of extremely well informed Chinese women, including historians, sociologists, professors of women's studies, journalists, film critics, education consultants, secretaries of the All-China Women's Federation, etc. Some of their reports make for dry but knowledgeable reading--on changes to marriage law, or trends in television shows. And other chapters are hard-hitting investigative journalism--into the lives of girls cut off from education by budget cuts in their counties or their families, or women left to run the farms as the agricultural workforce turns mainly female, or migrant women working in the maquiladora factories of Guangdong. There's fascinating little glimpses into history, like a piece on female roles in the old Peking Opera, or on an exclusively women's writing system developed long ago in a region of Hunan.

All told, the book gives a feel for the rapidly shifting challenges and tactics of China's women's movement.

--author of A Galaxy of Immortal Women: The Yin Side of Chinese Civilization