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GENDER, WOMEN'S AGENCY AND DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA
AT THE THRESHOLD OF THE NEW CENTURY
Abstract
The Chinese Society for Women's Studies in the U.S. ("CSWS") proposes to hold a
two-day conference on the theme of "Gender, Women's Agency and Development in China
at the Threshold of the New Century" in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. on March 10-11,
1999, prior to the annual meetings of the Association of Asian Studies.
We have already secured two co-sponsors for the conference: the Gender Studies Workshop of
the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University and the Women's Studies
Program at Tufts University. We have also ascertained that significant interest
exists among scholars in both China and the U.S. for such a conference.
Based on our extensive experience working with Chinese women's groups and leaders in
China during the last five years, we believe that bringing together scholars from China
and the West at this time at a site outside of China will be greatly beneficial to
developing the skills and knowledge base of a new generation of women scholars, activists
and leaders. It is the purpose of this conference to create a lively dialogue and develop
new understandings and strategies for dealing with pressing issues for Chinese women in
the economic reform era, particularly in the realms of education, identity, family
formation and dissolution, sexuality, reproductive health and employment.
Rationale for Conference
Two decades have passed since China opened its door to the outside world. The Chinese
women's movement and women's studies programs have been growing and thriving despite
repeated obstruction and setbacks. Women's studies programs have been set up in a number
of universities and are now in the process of developing academic curriculums; women
scholars and activists, both at home and abroad, have exerted much effort to identify the
major gender dynamics of the market economy and their specific representations in China
through theoretical exploration and various kinds of activities and research projects; and
a number of women and institutions in China have established contacts and collaboration
with their counterparts in other parts of the world, especially after the Fourth Women's
Conference held in Beijing in 1995, which had a major impact on many aspects of women's
lives. Furthermore, inner changes have occurred as well which are of no less significance,
changes that have been taking place in the hearts and minds of Chinese women.
Since its founding in 1989, CSWS has played an important role in developing contacts
and information channels between Western and Chinese women's scholars and activists. Since
the convening of the "Engendering China: Women, Culture and the State"
conference six years ago at Harvard University and Wellesley College, CSWS members have
conducted, with their collaborators in China, two seminars on women and development in
China held respectively in Tianjin (1993) and Nanjing (1997); published two books, one is
a collection of essays in Chinese written by CSWS members introducing Western feminist
scholarship in various disciplines and the other is a book of translations of major essays
of feminist scholarship translated by CSWS members; and compiled an English-Chinese
Lexicon of Women and Law. All these achievements demonstrate the development of critical
inquiry of gender studies and its related issues both in the scholarship and activism
concerning Chinese women and development.
Our extensive first-hand experiences have led us to conclude that it would be
extremely valuable at this time to hold a conference outside of China to rethink and
reevaluate the approaches and practices that women activists and scholars have developed
during the past 20 years relating to women's status. While we are generally committed to
the notion that it is very important to work within China, recent experiences have shown
that a lively and open-ended dialogue about major issues of women and development needs at
times a different environment outside of China. The annual meetings of the Association of
Asian Studies present a good opportunity for Chinese activists and scholars to come into
direct contact and engage in discussion with a large number of scholars from all over the
world.
Such a conference will also facilitate our efforts to develop the agenda of our Society
(1999 being the tenth anniversary of the founding of CSWS) in this overall scheme for the
early part of the next century. This conference is another endeavor to carry on the
discussion that began a decade ago and continues to this day.
Issues to Be Addressed
The topics listed below are general. During the coming months, we will
engage in extensive discussions with scholars around the world in an effort to develop
more specific questions and issues. The following is merely a draft that can provide some
indication of what we would like to have discussed at the conference.
1. Chinese women's/gender studies in global and local contexts:
Towards a feminist/gender studies theory(ies) with Chinese characteristics
Tension and negotiation between Western feminism and Chinese "indigenous"
feminism/gender studies
Globalization and/vs. nativization of Chinese women's studies from western/Chinese
feminist/gender perspectives
2. Women in development:
Examination, expansion and complexity of women's agency role and empowerment issues
Feminization of poverty/poverty alleviation
Women's health and development/reproductive issues
Women-centered research on demography
Action research in women and development
3. The twenty years of economic reforms in Mainland China and their impact on women in
education, family formation and
dissolution and employment
4. Shifting identities and experiences in different environments:
Purposes of exploration of personal experience and encounters with recognition of
differences based on gender, age, ethnicity
The individual women and/vs. the collective (women's community and society at large)
5. Positionality, point of departure and course of action:
Theoretical framework and activist strategies: role of scholarship influencing activist
undertakings and activism agenda informing the scholarship
Strategies and methodologies in the re-examination and repositioning process
6. Dissemination of gender/feminist studies in the immediate and personal environment
7. Women's/gender studies in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan:
Development of women's studies programs
Similarities and differences
Collaboration and contention
8. Areas/disciplines that have not been or have been less visited
Participants and Coordinating Committee
Participants will include CSWS members, women's studies scholars and activists from
Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the U.S. and other parts of the world. It is
anticipated that many Western scholars who focus their research and teaching on gender
issues will find it convenient to attend this conference because of its timing and
location. We have already publicized this conference widely within China. It is our aim to
include in this conference a good number of Chinese participants who have not been abroad
previously and who would greatly benefit from the experience.
A Coordinating Committee has been formed to run this conference. It consists of:
Ma Yuanxi Co-Chair of CSWS, Associate Professor, Director of Translation,
Baker & McKenzie International Law Firm
Bai Di Member of CSWS Board, Assistant Professor, Wellesley College
Chris Gilmartin Gender Studies Workshop of the Fairbank Center for
East Asian Research at Harvard University, Associate Professor, Northeastern University
Zhong Xueping Assistant Professor, Tufts University
Du Fangqin Associate Professor, Director of the Women's Studies Center,
Tianjin Normal University
Ho Chi-kuan Associate Professor, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Lin Hsiu-ling Associate Professor, Tunghai University, Taiwan
Please send your suggestions and concerns to:
MA yuanxi
405 N. Wabash Ave. #4005
Chicago, IL 60611
Tel: 312-832-1934 (H) 312-861-7972 (W)
Fax: 312-832-1935
E-mail: yuanxi.ma@bakernet.com
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