Table of Contents

1. CSWS Conference Call
2. Women’s Studies Curriculum Projects underway
3. New Book on CSWS Collaborative Project out
4. Call for Abstracts and Papers
5. Call for Participation in Translation Projects
6. Letter from Minority Region in China
7. CSWS Members’ Workshop Experiences
8. Awards Received by CSWS Members
9. Profile of CSWS Members
10. Job Opportunity
11. CSWS Membership Renewal

On October 1, 2000, CSWS board held a conference call in response to the request made by Gao Xiaoxian, a prominent scholar and Director of Shaanxi Research Institute of Women’s Studies, Marriage and the Family. The theme was to discuss the prosperity of collaborative projects with scholars from mainland China on women’s studies and development. The participants included Gao Xiaoxian, members of both the present CSWS board (Xiong Pingchun, Wei Yanmei, Li Zongmin, and Zuo Jiping) and the previous one (Xu Wu, Ma Yuanxi). Also included were some CSWS members who are currently involved in a collaborative project with mainland China: Bao Xiaolan, Wang Guohong, Wang Lihua, Wang Zheng, and Zhang Naihua. Bao Xiaolan also hosted Gao Xiaoxian and helped set the conference call. Wei Yanmei, Co-Chair of CSWS, presided over the meeting.

The conference focused on the role of CSWS in satisfying the growing needs to advance Chinese women’s studies and development projects both within and outside China, and in facilitating future collaborations between local and overseas scholars. There were three key-note speakers on the subject. On behalf of the CSWS board, Xiong Pinchun, Co-Chair of CSWS, made a statement on the position of the board to lend support to its best ability to all kinds of collaborative projects in the fields of women’s studies and development, and to encourage participation by CSWS members. Gao Xiaoxian first briefed on a recent seminar by the mainland scholars on women’s studies and development, held in Xian in the summer of 2000. According to Gao, the seminar was concluded with two ambitious ideas: to build a network and information center and to develop training programs. Xiaoxian said that up and till now people in the subject areas were either from women’s studies or from development field, lacking integrated knowledge and expertise. Although training programs have been offered by some international organizations, they have been all conducted in another country, such as Thiland. She was hoping to run training projects within China, a necessary step to localize "gender and development" (GAD). Li Zongming, one of the CSWS board member, reported on her experience in participating in two training programs held in Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, funded by Ford Foundation, in the summer of 2000. In each of those training programs, Li Zonmin, Wang Lihua and Wu Ga gave a presentation on how to conduct a field study, how to write a research proposal and report, evaluation of Chinese anti-poverty theory and policies, etc. All their presentations had received a very positive feedback from the audience. She said that Ford was interested in continuing on the similar type of training projects. Her experience was that scholars within China were very strong in conducting field studies, and yet, they had difficulty in some follow-up tasks which we, as overseas scholars, might be able to bring to bridge the gap.

The above brief presentations sparked warm discussions and all participants basically reached the common understanding of most issues discussed in terms of future collaborations between CSWS and scholars from mainland China. First, we consider establishing a permanent training center in China in the long run. In the near future, however, we may conduct a pilot training project. Li Zonmin and Gao Xiaoxian have volunteered to design the pilot project. Second, given the growing experience of local scholars in research and practice, joint training programs in future may utilize the expertise of both local and overseas/international scholars, in an attempt to facilitate communications and dialogues among different theoretical paradigms, and best serve the needs of the trainees. Finally, we may build into the discipline of women’s studies the valuable knowledge and experience that we have learned from all our work over the past decade.

The Ford Foundation sponsored project "Developing Women’s and Gender Studies Curriculum in Higher Education in China" has progressed smoothly and quickly in China. Leaders of the project have organized a series of activities this year. Here I am going to give a brief report on these activities.

At this first stage, the project engages in two fronts: running workshops and seminars to prepare university faculty and graduate students for creating courses on women’s studies in their respective universities; and compiling and publishing reading materials for these workshops and seminars as well as for future courses. Reading materials are either translated from feminist scholarship abroad or written by Chinese scholars at home.

The project has four programs in the first two years: 1, gender and history; 2, gender and pedagogy; 3, gender and sociology; and 4, introduction to gender studies. The first three are discipline based, aiming to engender the disciplines and network scholars from these disciplines. The fourth one is interdisciplinary, aiming to introduce interdisciplinary approach to the project as well as to produce a textbook for an introductory course. Each program plans to run a series of workshops and seminars and publish related material for teaching.

In mid June, the program on gender and history, led by Prof. Du Fangqin, organized a workshop on gender history in China. About 15 historians attended the workshop, including several CSWS members Xiaolan Bao, Dorothy Ko, Chris Gilmartin, Linda Bell, and Wang Zheng. The participants worked out an outline for a volume on gender history in China that is going to be used in women’s history class. It will be written mainly by historians in China.

From July 4 to July 24, 10 of the key players in the project participated in the Summer Institute in the University of Maryland, College Park. The Summer Institute was organized by the Women’s Studies Department in UM to discuss graduate programs in women’s studies in different parts of the world. This year, besides the US scholars, women’s studies scholars from South Korea and China were invited. The Institute provided the first opportunity for Chinese women’s studies scholars to have a close and in-depth observation of women’s studies in the US and South Korea. The Institute explored theoretical and institutional issues in women’s studies and participants exchanged their local experiences in creating women’s studies programs in their respective countries. With carefully selected reading material and lecturers, the Institute’s organizers lucidly and systematically introduced the concepts of gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and differences, as well as the working concepts in women’s studies. Not only did the US feminist scholarship enhance Chinese scholars’ understanding of women’s studies and Korean scholars’ great achievements in establishing women’s studies in Korea, it also inspired Chinese scholars tremendously (Women’s studies program in Korea has been in existence for17 years, producing many Doctoral and Master degree holders in the field).

After the Chinese scholars returned to China, they ran two four-day seminars in Tianjin in August, one on women’s history and one on introduction to gender studies. Over 80 university professors and graduate students from more than twenty universities and academies of social sciences in China participated in these seminars. Participants in UM Summer Institute were leaders of group discussions in these seminars. Some of the reading materials from the Institute were used in the seminars. Participants in the seminars were from history, sociology, pedagogy, demography, anthropology, and literature. They found the seminars informative and stimulating. Some of the topics discussed in these seminars include: women’s and gender history: theories and methodology; teaching women’s history and text production; feminism and gender theory; research on women and women’s studies: a historical overview; women, body and sexuality; family and work; global economy and women’s development; and popular culture, class and gender.

Many ideas for future actions emerged from these seminars charged with enthusiasm and excitement. All the participants believed that it is high time to run more seminars of this kind in different disciplines. A central concern expressed was how to disseminate the knowledge and information as widely as possible in such a large country as China. Many proposed to set up a web site as a viable means to reach this goal. Participants also envisioned multimedia teaching methods in women’s studies classrooms. Realizing the number one problem they were going to confront once they went back to teach was lack of reading material, participants also expressed strong demands for translating more feminist scholarship into Chinese. Although writing reading material and textbooks that discuss Chinese women’s realities is a high priority of the project, translation would be faster and safer considering not all the topics can be discussed openly in the Chinese context.

The project leaders are also preparing for the launching of the academic journal "Gender Studies". The CSWS members are welcome to contribute to the journal. If you want to learn more about the project in detail, please feel free to contact Wang Zheng who is at the Stanford Humanities Center this year (she will be in China during the quarter breaks). Her phone number in office is (650)725-1515 and she looks forward to CSWS members’ responses. (Prepared by Wang Zheng)

III. NEW BOOK AVIALABLE ON CSWS COLABORATIVE PROJECT

New Book: Gender Analysis: Poverty and Rural Devleopment [in China]

The proceedings of the third CSWS collaborative project in China, "Gender Analysis: Poverty and Rural Devleopment," has been published in China recently. The Table of Content is listed below. Anyone is interested in purchasing the book please directly contact Ms. XU, Ping in Chengdu China via E-mail: xupp@263.net. The price of the book is RMB29; and the postage for mailing the book to the U.S. is about RMB68-70. The total cost is about US$12.5.

Gender Analysis: Poverty and Rural Devleopment [in Chinese] Edited by XU Wu, XU Ping, BAO Xiaolan, and GAO Xiaoxian Sichuan People's Press, Chengdu, China, 2000

Preface by XU Wu, XU Ping, BAO Xiaolan, and GAO Xiaoxian

*Introduction by XU Wu

*Women and Development in China: A Practice-Based Analysis and Review by GAO Xiaoxian

*Gender Planning, Asset Vulnerability Framework, and Violence Reduction Framework by Caroline O.N. MOSER

*Gender and Effective Poverty Alleviation by XU Xianmei

*Structural Changes of Poverty in Rural China and Reform of Anti-Poverty Strategies and Models: A Gender Analysis by WANG Jinling

*An Ongoing Effort: Gender Analysis of Rural Poverty by JIN Yihong

*An Inquiry Into the Models of Women and Development in Alleviating Poverty by WANG Lihua

*Exploring the Models Women and Development in Poor Areas by HAN Jialing

*Contemporary Change of Yongning Muosuo Matriarchy and Development of Ethnical Community by HE Zhonghua

*Gender and Women's Reproduction: A Case Study of Miao Women in Rural Guizhou by ZHANG Xiao

*Survival and Development of Female Children (Girls): Retrospection and Exploration by ZANG Jian

*Overview of Women and Development Teaching Program in the United States by ZHANG Naihua

*Introduction by BAO Xiaolan

*Feminism and Studing "Women's Voices": Significance, Methods, and Reflections by BAO Xiaolan

*Interactive Gender Training by LI Huiying

*Empowering Rural Women in a Gender and Development Model: A Case Study in Mancheng County by FANG Lian and DU Fangqin

*Gender, Household, and Rural Industrialization in China by LI Zongmin

*Introduction by XU Wu

*From "Women in Development" (WID) to "Gender and Development": Strategies and Practices by LI Xia

*Combining Poverty Alleviation With Women in Development: The Path to Sustainable Development by ZHANG Lihua

*Women's Autonomous Organization and Rural Development: Women's Participation in Village Development in Yilong County by GAO Xiangjun

*Gendered Participation in Social Development of Forestry: Lessons From Changing Plans of Cultivating Trees in Two Villages by XU Lin and GAN Tingyu

*Keeping Women Away From Poverty: Evaluation of the Program on Microfinance to the Poor in Town of Xunyang by MIAO Zhennan and LIU Heng

*Investigation and Recommendations for Functionally Shaking off Illiteracy and Poverty Among Yi and Zang Women in Rural Sichuan by ZANG Jian, MA, Linying, Jie Pan Wu Qie, LI Lirong, Ze Lang, Ji Ke Wu Lai, and A Gen Zang Women's Knowledge on Protection of Environment in Jiarong, Western Sichuan by YAN Zhaoli and YU Zhen

*Qiang's House-Structural Reform and Women's Health Development: A Survey on Separating Qiang's Residential for People and Livestock by FENG Min, WANG Liping, WU Xiaohong, GENG Jing, SHANG Yunchuan

*Walking Away From Poverty: Rural Yi Women's Sustainable Development in Liangshan by MA Linying, and PAN Zhengyun

Participatory Discussions

*Introduction by XU Ping

*Localization: Geographic and Ethnic Diversity in Development

*Theory and Practice: Mainstreaming Gender

*Participatory Approach: Program Implementation and The Chengdu Workshop(provided by Xu Wu)

Guizhou Academy of Social Sciences, Southwest Minority Research Group, And The CSWS Guizhou Project

China is a country with diverse Minzu/ethnicity. Each of the Minzu/ethnic groups has its own long history and cultural traditions. Due to historical reasons, there has been unbalanced development in social, economic, and cultural aspects. Therefore, minority groups are in a disadvantaged position; minority women are the disadvantaged among the disadvantaged. Now the official strategy of the Major Development of the West in China has brought new opportunities for development of the minority areas. In order to assist more people to understand Chinese diverse cultures, reduce the prestige towards minorities in China, provide opportunities of dialogue and exchange among female and male, Han and minority scholars, researchers and practitioners, scholars from different areas of China, and promote research on minority women and minority ethnic community development, we plan to hold a research conference on Gender, Minzu/Ethnicity, and Community Development in Guiyang, China for 4 to 5 days during June 1 – 15, 2001. We are inviting you to submit an abstract or a paper of your research on gender and Minzu/ethnic community development.

1. Gender, Globalization, "Southwest Major Development" ("Xi Nan Da Kai Fa"), and Minzu/Ethnic Community Development
2. Critical Research Methods on Gender and Minzu/Ethnicity
3. Community Development Projects and its Impact on Local Communities
4. Education and Development in Minority Areas
5. Family and Kinship From the Perspectives of Gender and Minzu/Ethnicity
6. Culture and Arts From the Perspectives of Gender and Minzu/Ethnicity
7. Gods and Spirit Research From the Perspectives of Gender and Minzu/Ethnicity
8. Reflex of Identity of Gender and Minzu/Ethnicity
9. Development and Flowing Population, Population Growth, and Health Care
10. Poverty and Resource Management and Control in Minority Communities

Note: These panel topics are preliminary. The submissions may not be limited by those topics.

1. Detailed Abstract is due by October 20, 2000. The planning committee will review the abstract and notify the initial acceptance by November 30, 2000.
2. Full paper is due by January 31, 2001. The final acceptance and funding approval will be announced by February 28, 2001.

Please submit abstracts/papers to Wu Xu, wuxuutah@aol.com; 801-942-8209 (home); 801-942-5918 (fax); 801-538-7072 (work). Mailing address: 1446 East 6710 South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84121-2754

The language for the final version of the paper and presentation at the conference must be Chinese. The detailed abstract can be written in English.

The grant will provide travel and lodge funds for eight CSWS members to make presentations and participate in discussion in the Conference. The project planning committee and a CSWS designated board member will jointly select the funded CSWS Participants for the 2001 Guizhou Conference.

The presentations at the conference will be included into a conference proceeding and published in Chinese.

As you all have read my report on the curriculum project development in Women’s and Gender Studies in China, there is a strong need to introduce more international feminist scholarship into the curriculum. I, therefore, encourage CSWS members to participate in translation projects. At this stage, project leaders are actively seeking for more funding for translation so that they can compensate, even if modestly, for CSWS members’ involvement in the future. If you are interested in helping with translation or proofreading, please contact me at wangzh4@leland.stanford.edu. In your message, please indicate when you will be available for doing some translation, and how much work you think you will be able to do. (Wang Zheng)

Dear CSWS members:

I am writing to you for the purpose of keeping you informed of what is happening in the field of women’s/gender studies in Mainland China and of facilitating our scholarly exchange and communication.

As an ethnic minority member of CSWS, I have been fortunate to be with CSWS who has cared about me and enhanced my scholarly capability! Since 1998 I have made a relentless effort calling on, in academia in Sichuan Province and even at the national level, to introduce gender studies and anthropology into each other’s field. My effort has paid off. Sichuan Province founded The Center for Ethnic Minority Women’s Studies (CEMWS) in 1999, with the strong support of Sichuan provincial government, Sichuan Provincial Committee on Nationalities (min wei), and Sichuan Research Institute on Ethnic Studies. Series of activities have been carried out since the founding of our center. From July 12 to 18, 2000, the CEMWS cosponsored with CSWS the first training program for social researchers, funded by Ford Foundation. This was part of the CSWS project on Gender and Development of Ethnic Communities. Over 20 researchers in Sichuan participated in the project. From July 24 to 28, I attended the year 2000 mid-term conference cosponsored by International Anthropological Association and International Association on Ethnic Studies. The mission of this meeting was to incorporate the concept of gender in anthropological and ethnic studies. From August 2 to 7, I attended the conference on Gender and Development in China: Looking back and Looking ahead. The conference focused on how to introduce anthropology and ethnic studies to gender studies. From September 3 to 7, I participated in the Third Conference on Li Nationality Studies with the focus on studying Li society with the gender lens. On August 11, Ford Foundation approved a project proposed by me and Zang Jian, Professor from Center for Women’s Studies at Bejing University, —a pilot study of functional poverty-relief by 10 poor Yi women in Mount Liang in Sichuan Province. We held a preparatory meeting in September, and we expect to conduct an initial gender and PRA method training to the project staff during November 4-14. Finally, I want tell you that I am also involved in the Year 200-2005 China-British STD/AIDS Collaborative Project. The project is designed primarily for studying sexual behaviors; it also includes the assessment of the prevalence of STD/AIDS in some areas in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, and research on social factors that affect the growth of these diseases. Some other Chinese social scientists who participate in this project are Luo Hongguang, Weng Naiqun, Zhuang Kongshao, Zhang Xiaojun, Yang Hui, Pan Suiming, Li Yinhe, Wang Mingming, and Wang Gan. I wish you all good luck!

Sincerely

Ma Linying (Yi Nationality) email: malinyin@sina.com (translated by Jiping Zuo)

VII. CSWS MEMBERS’ EXPERIENCES WITH MINORITY PROJECTS

By Lihua Wang

Coordinator of Women's Studies Program at

Northeastern University

I participated in the six-day workshop in Chendu from July 12th to 17th, 2000 with Li Zongmin and Wuga. About twenty participants from Southwest Minority University, Sichuan Minority Institutes, and members from local Women’s Federation agencies were enrolled in the workshop. Most of them were men who had no prior knowledge of gender issues before. The workshop consisted of three sessions including gender and development theories, research methodology, proposal writing, and ethnicity. The focus of my presentation in the workshop was on development theories and gender, while Zongmin was on methodology and Wuga on ethnicity. Although it was the first collaborated work for three of us, the workshop went well.

It took me a while to understand how to apply the "participatory" approach to conducting the workshop especially when development theories were involved. To make a personal connection between Chinese experiences and Western theories, I began with a discussion of individual perceptions and experiences of poverty. Since most participants had experiences or knowledge about the topic, it was not difficult to make a lively discussion on the issue. Participants articulated their experiences and ideas well and reached a comprehensive level of understanding of the concept. In the process of conceptualizing multiple dimensions of poverty, our discussion moved beyond a simple definition that rested on economic aspect. This collective knowledge on poverty made a smooth transition for me to introduce the problems existing in the debates on development theory in the West. The theme of multiple aspects of poverty embodied in economic, political, cultural, and historical definition was emphasized through out my training.

This experience, however, has made me realized that we (CSWS) should expand our gender training to Chinese men, especially among educated people. We should also articulate about race and ethnicity in our future planning for promoting our gender equality in China. Our gender and development strategies should be designed in the new millennium context.

Wang Zheng, an affiliated scholar at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University, has been awarded a fellowship from Stanford Humanities Center for the academic year 2000-2001. This fellowship is funded for her new project "Gender and Maoist Urban Reorganization." She has been conducting research in the city of Shanghai in the past year. Wang is also a fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford University this year.

Dr. Zongmin Li is a new board member of CSWS for the term of 2000-2002, as our treasurer in charge of CSWS’s finance. She is also a researcher, policy analyst, and teacher, with more than fifteen years of experience in economic development issues. She has currently been working as a consultant on World Bank the third review of environment assessment for more than eighteen countries’ profiles and advised on World Bank Institute’s exploring potentials for a program of rural and agricultural sustainable development. She has her Ph.D. in Development Economics from University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was a Ford Foundation grantee and an AAUW Fellow. Her dissertation research in Hebei Province concerned household labor allocation in the contexts of liberalization of agricultural policy and rural industrialization, and in particular the gender dimensions of these changes. She taught microeconomics, public economics, and institutional economics at Guilford College as an assistant professor. Her professional career began in the Research Center for Rural Development of the State Council, then China’s premier policy research institute. Her research covered a broad range of rural, social and economic development issues, and with gender-related analysis. She was a trainer on program management technique and project cycle for the Research Center of Sichuan Ethnic Women. She had worked as a socio-economics specialist on World Food Programme/IFAD poverty eradication in Western China. Zongmin’s research interest has been focused on linking the economic analysis with a gender-related methodology, including building a set of indicators on how understanding and accounting for the relations among gender, policy, and development outcomes can improve research and policy formulation and development effectiveness.

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO AT SCARBOROUGH. SOCIOLOGY

The University of Toronto at Scarborough, Division of Social Sciences, invites applications for a budget-approved, full-time tenure-stream

The closing date for applications is 31 October 2000. Send applications with curriculum vitae, samples of publications or writing, plus evidence of teaching ability, and provide names, addresses (including e-mail) of three referees to:

The Chair,
Division of Social Sciences,
University of Toronto at Scarborough
1265 Military Trail
Toronto, Ontario
M1C1A4 (forwarded by Ping-Chun Xiong)

Those who have not paid your membership dues for the year 2000, please fill out below the Membership Renewal Form and send it to the designated address on the form. Thank you. Your financial contributions are very much appreciated!

Name (English and Chinese): _______________________Dues for: 2000

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Please make checks payable to CSWS. Members residing outside of the continental U.S. are assessed $25.00 dues irrespective of income. Women's groups with limited resources may apply for a waiver. Dues for members residing in mainland China are waived.

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Please complete the form and mail with your dues of membership and/or renewal to: Zongmin Li, 2907 Strathaven Place, Vienna, VA 22181 E-Mail: Libruce1060@aol.com Tel: (703) 938-9663

Editor: Jiping Zuo, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, St. Cloud State University, 720 4th Ave. S., St. Cloud, MN 56301-4498. Email: soczuo@stcloudstate.edu