Chinese Society for Women’s Studies

Newsletter

Fall, 2002

Content

Reflection on the Lijang Conference

Report on Shanghai Seminar

Project from a member

Conferences

News of Intellectual Locations

Update of Some Useful Websites

Reflection on the Lijang Conference:

The Third Annual Conference on Gender and Development in China

I participated in the Third Annual Conference on Gender and Development in Lijiang from August 15^th to 18^th, 2002. I was there because my individual research site happened to be in a location near Lijang and also I planned to meet Gao Xiaoxian and Du Jun to discuss our Society’s three-year joint project there. For me, attending the Conference seemed to include multi-functions and purposes.

The conference was sponsored by Oxfam in Hong Kong more than eighty people from Mainland China, Hong Kong, India, and US attended the meeting. Dr. Govind Kellar, the UN representative (IFAD), Rose Bwtista, the coordinator of Winrock International, Wang Zuofang, Oxfam in Hong Kong all participated the conference. He Zhonghua Laoshi was the chief organizer of the conference. The highlights of the four-day conference were visiting a Naxi village and the emerging new case studies on development in China. We spent the first day at the village and it allowed us to taste a little bit of the Naxi people’s daily lives. Unexpectedly, we were warmly welcomed by a group of older Naxi men and women who were dancing on the road at the entrance to our meeting place in the village. There were many older people who were over eighty but they were still volunteering to dance for us. Later, I learned that these older dancers had to play the major role in welcoming us because most young people either had to work on the farm and or had immigrated to the cities. During the rest of the day in the village, we spent time meeting with the village leaders, visited several individual households, had meals with Naxi families, held discussions with groups of local women, and watched local dances in the evening. In the village, He Zhonghuan Laoshi also showed us the new “Photo Project” that was sponsored by the Ford Foundation in Naxi villages and has existed since last year. This Photo Project aimed to teach local people to use cameras in order to take pictures that reflect their daily lives. Organizers of the project come to the villages once a month to gather films and to document photographers’ ideas about their photos. The exhibit had over thirty photos, all taken by Naxi people.

The other highlight of the Conference was the emergence of important new case studies in China. Gao Xiaoxian’s group in Xian did the most impressive presentation. Their impressive presentation can be measured by three concepts: their critical thinking, dedicated work, and in-depth analysis. Their critical thinking reflected on their clear consciousness of positioning and repositioning themselves as outsiders/insiders of the project. This positioning and repositioning allowed them to ask key questions to define real development problems in a village. For example, they spent a great deal of time on how to understand and address the majority of peasants’ needs rather than the small group of villager’s leaders needs. This thinking, however, took a lot of time and dedication in order to do well in a project. Her group did many detailed investigations and repetitive work to obtain the first hand information. The most important contribution of the group was their analysis of the case studies. They located their studies in the framework of locality that allowed them to see their own characteristics as a Chinese/Shaanxi/village. These three case studies and analysis are published in the new book collection edited by Gao Xiaoxian, 2002.

If you are interested in participating in the next Annual Conference, please check on the Internet to contact He Zhonghua Laoshi or Gao Xiaoxian. The location for the next Conference has not yet been decided.

(Wang Lihua)

“Promoting Curriculum Development in Literary and Cultural Studies in Women’s Studies in China”

Seminar, held in Shanghai, August 3-7

The Ford project entitled “Promoting Curriculum Development in Literary and Cultural Studies in Women’s Studies in China – a Two-year Project” held its first seminar in Shanghai, August 3-7, 2002. Over 40 scholars and educators attended the seminar, including CSWS members, Bao Xiaolan, Ma Xiaodong, Wang Zheng and Zhong Xueping. CSWS members, Bai Di, Ma Yuanxi and Su Hongjun, collaborated with Chen Huifen of the Shanghai Academy of Social Science, Huang Lin of the Shoudu Normal University, and Qu Yajun of Shaanxi Normal University in organizing the seminar.

The seminar first discussed theoretical origins and inspirations of Chinese women’s literary theory in the Post-Mao era and challenges facing Western feminisms. During the pedagogy session, the participants exchanged their experiences in teaching courses related to women’s writing, and debated about key issues to promote curriculum development of literary and cultural studies in China’s centers of higher learning. Case studies were used to find various ways to integrate feminist criticism into the investigation and teaching of Chinese literary and cultural texts.

The two-year project will hold its second seminar in Xian next fall to review two textbooks and two reference books to be used in courses related to literature and culture. (Su Hongjun)

Project from a member

“Buy a PC, otherwise Get Married!

What the phenomenon of LaLa Teaches Us?”

Introduction--the Phenomenon of LaLa

Since 1978 when an “open door” policy was announced in China, it has gone through significant economic restructuring under global capitalism, a shift to an information economy, leading to social and cultural change. My dissertation research explores a theoretically significant but under-explored phenomenon in China’s transition to an information economy and analyzes its impact on society. My research focuses on the phenomenon of Lala, a Chinese female subculture affected by homosexual desire that has identified itself through internet use. The research draws from participant observation in websides, mailing lists, and among groups focused on “gay” activism both in China and U.S.

I want to argue that this subculture because of its constitution through use of the internet is distinct from lesbianism or gayness while closer to queerness and therefore to understand lala requires rethinking bodies and technology, especially surveillance technology deployed in what is referred to as a shift from discipline society to control society. (Hardt and Negri, 2000; Harvey, 1990)

The following are examples of the questions which motivate me in the course of my dissertation:

· What is the historical context that rises the phenomenon of lala? That is, what is the time and space questions that situates the queer identity formation in China? Why this time? Why China? How do it link to global economic transformation, the affect economy, and world capitalism?

· What is the ontological implication that the body of lala raises? How does the body of lala link to the development of science and technology, and the capitalist investment in it? Also, how does the body of lala theoretically challenge the notion of subjectivity, that is, organism closed, identity based socialization in humanity?

· What is the phenomenon of lala in relationship to homosexuality? How the process of identity formation is different between lala and homosexuality? What is the bio-power that produces lala different from the bio-power that produces homosexuals? How does the theoretical concept of discipline society and control society fit in it?

· How does the development of surveillance technology in supranational cooperation have impact on the formation of lesbian identity in China? What is the theoretical implication from the new cooperation of development of surveillance technology between Chinese government and western technology corporations? How does it link to the emerging sovereignty that is beyond nation-state and its closed link to transnational capitalism? And how does the new form of surveillance and control go beyond individual level and into sub-individual level, and the practice of it intersect with postcoloniallism? And the last but not least, what is the new form of politics of resistance emerging from it?

Conclusion:

My principle argument is that to study of the phenomenon of lala, that is, the formation of queer identity in third world countries and the queer activism, is to understand the open system, matter as dynamic, and nonlinear development of subject formation, as well as political sovereignty, affect economy, and world capitalism in late 20^th/early 21th century society.

This interdisciplinary project is expected to contribute to queer theory, developmental theory, postcolonial theory, political economy theory, science studies, as well as add understanding to sociological, anthropological and women studies concerning transformations of capitalism, state power, community organizing, and study of body. (Ching-ning Wang)

(For the full article see the Forum of the CSWS Web page. If you are interested in this project, please contact with Ching-ning Wang, Department of Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center)

Conferences:

Fifth European Feminist Research Conference

The Fifth European Feminist Research Conference will be held on August 19-24 2003 in Lund, Sweden. The theme will be "Gender and Power in the New Europe: intersections of ethnicity, class, disability, sexualities and generations." For preregistration and other information, visit www.5thfeminist.lu.se

Conference Announcement

The International Symposium on Female Anthropology and Matriarchal Culture in the Women-Dominated Kingdom Around the Lugu Lake is to be held on March 8th to 12th, 2003 in the ancient city, Lijiang, which has been named a UN Cultural Heritage Site. For more information, contact Ahai Lujin at AHL@xc-public.sc.cninfo.net or visit the website at http://www.Lugu-Lake.com

The News of the Intellectual Locations:

Critical Asian Studies: Forum on Trauma, History, and “Asia”

Simpson Center for the Humanities,

University of Washington

How can traumatic injustices of the 20^th century across “Asia” and its diasporas be narrated? What happens to the arts and humanities when mass injustice is deeply felt but seemingly inexpressible? Should scholars in the United States join the urgent intellectual project of inter-Asian efforts to rethink “Asia” in relation to trauma and just histories?

Each year the Forum on Trauma, History, and “Asia” will host two intellectuals located in Asia broadly defined, whose projects engage these questions. Holding appointments as visiting scholars, the fellows will lead an investigation into the matter of how scholarship treats trauma, defined as unread or unspoken injustice. Together with the Faculty of Critical Asian Studies, the scholars selected will experiment with analytic and scholarly language capable of turning injustice into legible history. Each year the Project will also sponsor an international workshop that examines how the objects of our study are being reconfigured in early 21^st century economic and cultural transformation and what role the humanities ought to play in shaping our thinking about regional agendas and scholarly lexicons.

Critical Asian Studies: Forum on Trauma, History, and “Asia” http://depts.washington.edu/critas/ in partnership with the Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington, http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/ invites applications to fill the two fellowship positions for the 2003-04 academic year.

Deadline for application is December 10, 2002. Fellows will be in residence for one academic year. Each fellow will receive a stipend of approximately $37,500, an office equipped with computer and Internet access, secretarial support and supplies, and a small stipend to offset travel expenses. Additionally, each fellow will be compensated for teaching one quarter-long graduate seminar offered through the Simpson Center.

Applicants to the fellowship should send a five-page narrative proposal outlining a project that widens our understanding of the relation of trauma, history, and “Asia.” Also include two letters of recommendation, a current curriculum vitae and a brief description of the seminar that you propose to teach. Electronic applications are welcome.

Contact: Jenna Brostrom, Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington, Communications Building 206, Box 353710, Seattle, WA 98195-3710, (206) 616-2759, email: critasia@u.washington.edu

The Update of Some Useful Websites:

妇女传媒检测网络