The turn of the twentieth century, Joan Judge argues, should be viewed as a key moment in the unfolding of Chinese modernity. Whereas May Fourth thinkers tended to look at China's past in a categorically antagonistic manner, Chinese in the late Qing engaged in divergent reappraisals of its historical roots and varied appropriations of foreign models. They produced a more intricate blend of cultural formations than the “tradition–modernity” dichotomy of May Fourth. As in the May Fourth era, ideas of woman, history, and nation were intertwined, and the “woman question” and the question of history acquired a central place in understanding its politics.
Judge's study focuses on women's biographies. Her sources include official documents, didactic materials, new-style textbooks, polemical essays, women's journals, and collections of Chinese and Western women's life stories. The book is organized around three themes in women's lives: virtue, talent, and heroism. Rather than adopting the familiar...