Women in Maoist China

[Bolshevik Feminist]

One of the greatest achievements of Maoism was the end of feudal practices of foot binding and the commodification of women through sex trafficking and arranged marriages. Women gained control over their bodies and their reproduction. But in Maoist China, women were regarded as the same as men. This is not women's liberation and certainly not gender equality. What are the key distinctions between gender equality and gender sameness?

[Hiero]

There is a book, which I will try to find for you, that is a collection of memoirs from the cultural revolution written by woman. It would be best to read that first before developing a position.

[Hiero]

Some of Us: Chinese Women Growing up in the Mao Era (http://www.amazon.com/Some-Us-Chinese-Women-Growing/dp/0813529697)


One of the authors mentions that American friends act almost disappointed when she tells them she has no personal horror story to share. The editors mention a revealing anecdote from an American academic conference in 1999 titled "Memory and Cultural Revolution". During the Q&A session, someone said that their memory of the period did not coincide with the panel's wholly gloomy and tragic view, rather they recalled a high and youthful spirit, and that they were neither victim nor victimizer. The chair of the panel condescendingly dismissed this by saying that some Holocaust survivors are nostalgic for their camp days too. Thus, no more time needed to be wasted on such invalid memories, and the panel moved on with their discussion of politically correct memory. These authors simply want to add their experiences, and their astute and balanced analysis into the mix.

All nine memoirs are high quality and raise our understanding of what it was like for an average girl/young woman in urban China in the 1960s-70s, and they raise important philosophical and sociological questions about gender. Many are moving while always avoiding pretentiousness. Moments of humor are common. Horror story memoirs are sadly true, but the other reality is people laughed, children played, parents and children argued and bonded, adults gossiped, youth aspired, friendships formed, people worked, students studied (usually), performers performed, farmers farmed, and ordinary people lived their lives. These memoirs, being full of rich, colorful details of family and neighborhood life, increase our knowledge of Chinese culture as well as the Cultural Revolution.


Even if at the state level the goal was to make woman as the same as men it does not mean they lost their femininity. I have heard some sociologist talk about how women lost their femininity in the cultural revolution. Which is placing all Chinese woman as victim in the dialectic of victim/victimiser. The cultural revolution much like any large and long scale event aimed at changing structures and subjects, opens up new possibilities. Gender would not be destroyed in this case, but be opened up to new possibilities and change.


I would check that book first. Than look deeper into some of the cultural representations of women, and compare it to memoirs. Maoist China attracts all sorts of political opinions that seek to display certain political agendas. There is a lot of anti-Mao history that portrays Mao, the government, the army and the party as one body bent on moulding Chinese society into a slave for Mao. Even people on revleft have a hard time distinguishing between the various factions in Maoist China, Mobo Gao in his book The Battle for China's Past (2008) describes this as a form of Orientalism.
Take note in the quote how when one of the authors approached a Q&A sessions on Maoist China, she was dismissed as her story did not with collaborate with the grand narrative that the West and right wing Chinese academics’ have created of the Cultural revolution. They do not incorporate such memories, rather attack people’s psychologically well being, that they must have Stockholm syndrome.



All I would say is that the gender question in Maoist China is not easily answered.

[Bostana]

To Quote Mao himself:

Women hold up half the sky.

[Blanquist]

Yeah, Mao loved women, he loved dozens of them at a time. Of course they weren't forced, they wanted to please the great leader.

There wasn't anything special done, then any other bougeois 'revolution,' it was a step up from foot-binding but nothing more.

[Althusser]

To Quote Mao himself:

Mao has the greatest quotes. I don't think the gender sameness was a forced thing. It was just a reaction to the gender roles of the past. Look at Madame Mao..... I don't think anyone ever forced her to do jack shit.

[Tim Finnegan]

One of the greatest achievements of Maoism was the end of feudal practices of foot binding and the commodification of women through sex trafficking and arranged marriages. Women gained control over their bodies and their reproduction. But in Maoist China, women were regarded as the same as men. This is not women's liberation and certainly not gender equality. What are the key distinctions between gender equality and gender sameness?
"Gender sameness" is a contradiction in terms. If all genders are undestood to be identical, then there isn't any gender to begin with. Yet gender clearly exists in China. So it seems that you've jumped a few pretty crucial steps somewhere along the way.

[The Hong Se Sun]

I think the group "half of China" was a great show of feminism and equality durring the boarder region era and women were very equal under maoist china...whoever Mao kind of stopped being a Maoist before he died and in Dengist China women are back to not equal members of society except where the very few communes and collectives still exist. A sad back slide indeed:thumbdown:

[Bostana]

Yeah, Mao loved women, he loved dozens of them at a time. Of course they weren't forced, they wanted to please the great leader.

There wasn't anything special done, then any other bougeois 'revolution,' it was a step up from foot-binding but nothing more.

He was never a polygamist.

He had 4 wives in his lifetime, and he married each after the other tragically died. And they all started before he came to power in China

[The Hong Se Sun]

Blanquist is referring to the book written by a doctor that was only written in English and the first edition of the book didn't sell anything but when he re-wrote the book and put rape and mountains of sex on trains into the book it became a hit in the US. Since then many have challenged him to prove he ever said more than a sentence to the chairman but he has been unable to do so and even publicly appologized to Mao's family for witting the book. aka tldr; His source is a bs capitalist dr