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Half the Sky, but Not Yet Equal: China's Feminist Movement Author(S): ALICE HU Source: Harvard International Review, Vol Harvard International Review Half the Sky, But Not Yet Equal: China's Feminist Movement Author(s): ALICE HU Source: Harvard International Review, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Spring 2016), pp. 15-18 Published by: Harvard International Review Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26445831 Accessed: 22-10-2019 01:29 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Harvard International Review is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Harvard International Review This content downloaded from 206.253.207.235 on Tue, 22 Oct 2019 01:29:33 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms GLOBAL NOTEBOOK China raised by another family to become a designated bride). Besides protecting women and girls from feudal prac Half thethe Sky,Sky, ButBut Not Not Yet Yet Equal Equal tices, the law also extended the repre China'sChina s FeministFeminist Movement sentation of women by guaranteeing women equal rights in the ownership staff writer and management of family property, ALICE HU as well as the equal right to petition for divorce. The law even went as far Indeed, Chinese feminism has its as guaranteeing women the right to has been one of the most pub own historic context different from keep their own family names — an The Chinese licized phenomena economic on the miracle that of the West, but an outdated vi act that would have been considered international stage. But what is often sion on the issue will not only harm not only progressive, but radical by neglected in the news and in scholar the citizens — it may destabilize the Western standards at the time. ship are China's domestic and social very balance the CCP has tried so However, it would be misleading changes that are inseparable from hard to maintain. to discuss progressive policies such the country's exponential economic as the Marriage Reform Law without growth. In particular, the Chinese Feminism and the Communist taking into account the government's women's rights movement, begin Revolution economic agenda. For one, the Mar ning in the mid-twentieth century, While the Chinese Communist riage Reform Law was designated to has played a crucial role in China's Revolution is known for its over create a "new democratic marriage," rapid development. haul of the country's economic and relieve patriarchal oppression, and Unlike the Western feminism initi political structures, it also initiated construct a new image of women ated by grassroots activists, modern the modern Chinese women's rights — so that women can more easily Chinese feminism began as a state movement. In fact, the first official actenter the workforce and that fami policy. Since the Communist Revo passed by the new government after lies would become more productive. lution of 1949, women's rights have the CCP won the revolution was the Other reforms, including laws that been driven by the party ideology Marriage Reform Law. The govern guaranteed equal pay and equal that women's equal participation in ment of the new People's Republic education opportunities for women, the economy and society was neces of China (PRC) believed family to be also functioned to help women inte sary to advance the nation. Despite the key institution in society, and to grate into the labor economy. Mao numerous revolutions and China's strengthen the family meant eman Zedong, who had long envisioned ensuing transition to a capitalist mar cipating women. Though the role of the female liberation, believed that ket economy, this ideology remained women evolved continuously with women had been a wasted reservoir the underpinning of women's rights thousands of years of history and is of labor. Until China could obtain in China. a product of many traditions, women mechanical means of production, he In the past two decades, however, had generally been viewed as infe believed that the shortage of labor in contemporary Chinese feminists have rior to men in the traditional gender cooperatives and communes would begun vocally challenging Marxist dichotomy. Women were socially be alleviated by women. In essence, state feminism. The 2015 detainment and physically bounded by norms the post-Revolution women's rights of five Chinese feminist protesters of femininity — they were restricted movement was not rooted in ideal before International Women's Day to a domestic role in the home and ist beliefs of human rights but the — and their subsequent release upon suffered from foot-binding, a muti realist considerations of economic popular outcry — is emblematic of latory practice that made movement development. deeply seated public discontent to difficult. Nevertheless, the new state poli ward state policy on women's rights The Marriage Reform Law was cies elevated the economic and social and the influence such discontent can symbolic of the CCP's prioritizing status of women in a scale previously have on the ever watchful Chinese of women's rights. Officially pro unseen within and outside China. regime. Given both the domestic mulgated on May 1, 1950, the na This translated into women having and international pressure at stake, tional law sought to address the most a greater voice in decision-making the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) prominent issues faced by women in in both the private and the public cannot afford to silence the country's regard to marriage and family life. It spheres. Women exercised political feminist protest movement. It must abolished forced marriage, brideprice authority in local governments and treat women's rights as a priority (moneyin given by the groom's family served in high-ranking offices. Many itself and not simply a prerequisite for a bride), concubinage, and child organizations championing women's for its own economic advancement. betrothal (in which a young girl is representation also formed, such as SPRING 2016 15 This content downloaded from 206.253.207.235 on Tue, 22 Oct 2019 01:29:33 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms GLOBAL NOTEBOOK ever, this Marxist state feminism seemed obsolete and insufficient to Chinese feminists. Culmination of Contemporary Feminist Movement The underlying feminist discontent that had simmered since the 1970s peaked at the 1995 Fourth United Nations Conference on Women, held in Beijing. The conference proved to be a crucial opportunity for feminist activists to access transnational net works as well as build "conceptual frameworks [...] to break away from or transform a Marxist theory of 'equality between men and women.'" Chinese feminists had been in contact with feminist activists from other While the the Communist Communist Revolution Revolution intitated intitated the women's the rightswomen's movement rights in movement China, in China, there are are still still limitations limitations to women's to women's progress. progress. countries since the 1980s and had been working on developing indepen the National Women's Federation. authority with its own authority. dent It nongovernmental organizations Most importantly, the women's rights sought to transform family life so that (NGOs) for women's rights. The UN Conference on Women came at an movement permanently altered commitmentthe to the party exceeded all national psyche in regard to the roleother ties. Between the breakdown of opportune time in which Chinese of women, and its legacy remains the old commitments and the con feminists were able to gather outside entrenched in society to this day. solidation of new loyalty, however, support for their causes as well as Women, Mao was famously quoted, there was an "intermediate stage ofgain understanding of new concepts such as "women-centered sustainable began to hold up "half the sky." hedonism." During this stage, the government made clear its intention development" and "mainstreaming Conflicts with State-Sponsored was to solidify collective adherence gender." These concepts helped ex Feminism to the party ideology rather than plain the discontent that the Chinese While emancipatory in many promote re any individual thinking feminists had lacked the language spects, state feminism functioned or decision. Women's equality and to describe and further encouraged as a form of social control. Women's full participation was promoted sothem to imagine gender equality be organizations such as National Wom long as it benefited the party and yondit the Marxist framework. en's Federation were dependent upon strengthened its coercive apparatus. Despite the agreements made dur the government and exercised little The introduction of the market re ing the UN Conference in Beijing, actual authority. Additionally, any forms by Deng Xiaoping, China's de in which Hillary Clinton famously trend that in any way jeopardized the facto paramount leader from 1972 to declared "women's rights are hu central government's power was im 1992, complicated the role of women man rights," feminist activists in mediately quashed. For example, the in Chinese society. Once guaranteed a the country have continued to face women's rights movement had led to job in the state-controlled economy, police crackdowns and government increased sexual freedom, as "among women now had to compete with threats. Yet the new Chinese feminist the poor peasantry, triangular and their male counterparts and faced movement has not only remained multilateral relationships are almost severe discrimination in the market. alive, but has gained traction among universal." The liberalization of fe They were more likely to get laid off, much of the younger generation.
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