The Subject of Gender: Daughters and Mothers in Urban China PDF
Preview The Subject of Gender: Daughters and Mothers in Urban China
The Subject of Gender Asian Voices A Sub series of Asian/pacific/perspectives Series Editor: Mark Selden Identity and Resistance in Okinawa By Matthew Alden Tales of Tibet: Sky Burials, Prayer Wheels, and Wind Horses edited and translated by Herbert Batt, foreword by Tsering Shakya Voicing Concerns: Contemporary Chinese Critical Inquiry edited by Gloria Davies, conclusion by Geremie Barme Peasants, Rebels, Women, and Outcastes: The Underside of Modern Japan by Mikiso Hane Comfort Woman: A Filipina's Story of Prostitution and Slavery under the Japanese Military by Maria Rosa Henson, introduction by Yuki Tanaka Japan's Past, Japan's Future: One Historian's Odyssey by Ienaga Saburo, translated and introduced by Richard H. 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Dower A Thousand Miles of Dreams: The Journeys of Two Chinese Sisters By Sasha Su-Ling Welland Unbroken Spirits: Nineteen Years in South Korea's Gulag by Suh Sung, translated by Jean Inglis, foreword by James Palais The Subject of Gender Daughters and Mothers in Urban China Harriet Evans ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK ROWMAN & LIlTLEFlELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowmanlittlefield.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom Copyright © 200S by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any fonn or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Infonnation Available Library of Congress Cata1oging-in-Publication Data Evans, Harriet. The subject of gender: daughters and mothers in urban China / Harriet Evans. p. cm. -- (Asian voices) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 97S-0-7425-5477-1 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-7425-5477-5 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN-13: 97S-0-7425-547S-S (pbk.: alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-7425-547S-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Women--China.2. Mothers and daughters--China. 3. Sex role--China. 1. Title. HQ1767.ES3 2007 306.S74'30951--dc22 2007017639 Printed in the United States of America r,::;::;..TM ~ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Pennanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.4S-1992. To my daughters, Rebecca and Gabriel, and my mother, Rachael Contents Acknowledgments ix 1 Encounters with Mothers and Daughters 1 2 Lives Apart 41 3 Communicative Bonds 69 4 Negotiating Gender Boundaries between "Inner" and "Outer" 101 5 Difference and Discrimination 125 6 The Gender of the Sexed Body 145 7 Reproducing Filiality 169 8 The Changing Subject of Gender 199 Character List 205 Bibliography 211 Index 225 About the Author 235 vii Acknowledgments This book has been a long time in the making. Disruptions and interruptions of many kinds have complicated its completion, and on many occasions, I have been tempted to shelve it altogether. But there have been many more when the pleasure of being able to share ideas about mothering and daughter ing has been enough to keep me going. From passing acquaintances-women I have bumped into leaving their children at the school gates on weekday mornings, women I found myself sitting next to on trains and planes-to the women who shared with me the stories that make this book possible, there are many, many people who, knowingly and unknowingly, have contributed to the ideas I explore in the following pages. In the first instance, lowe an enormous debt of gratitude to Guo Yuhua for her advice and help ever since I first began to think about doing a book on mothers and daughters. Without her good humor, endless patience, and encouragement, this book would not have come about. I am also indebted to the Beijing-based women whose nar ratives form the main substance of this book and who gave me the privilege of being able to glimpse often intimate aspects of their lives as daughters and mothers. I also thank Zhang Hui for giving me many rich insights into the lives of young women in Beijing and for helping make my fieldwork a truly pleasurable experience. Many people, friends and colleagues, have offered invaluable critical advice through the different stages of this project. Felicity Edholm has read endless versions of each chapter and has been as wonderful and inspirational a critic as she has been a friend. I thank Gail Hershatter for her wise sup- ix
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