Learning Outcomes:
• Knowledge and understanding of key debates in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Chinese history and historiography.
• A critical understanding of role of ‘The West’ in East Asian history and how women’s bodies have been used by various political regimes in the process of resisting Imperialism and self-strengthening throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
• Understanding of how the Second World War in East Asia has been politicised and memorialised with a focus on gender.
• The ability to develop arguments about the way historians have understood East Asia.
• Developing skills in critical reading and historiographical analysis.
• Students will be introduced to primary source analysis, and will gain preliminary skills to evaluate both archival and oral historical sources.
Indicative Module Content:
1. Introduction: Gender in Chinese History
2. Women in Late Imperial China
3. Imperial Feminisms: Footbinding, Famine Relief and Female Education
4. The Woman Question
5. 1911 Revolution : Revolutionaries and Suffragettes
6. Reading Week
7. The May Fourth Movement and the ‘New Woman’ in East Asia
8. 'Hygienic Modernity': The Nanjing Decade and the New Life Movement
9. Gender, War and Propaganda: Women in Wartime China
10. Gender, War and Memory: Politicization and Memorialisation of the War in East Asia
11. 1949: Chinese women finally 'Liberated'?