The New Woman and the Modern Girl dominate our historical imaginations, but few have traced the preconditions that gave rise to their emergence in the early twentieth century.1 The prior generation, as their figurative mothers, has often been maligned by historical revolutionaries in China and, as a result, has been overlooked in historical narratives of twentieth-century China. Traditionally educated, older women enjoyed the leisure and means for charity. Often dismissed as “social irritants” (p. 5) or as overly superstitious and “bourgeois tai tai,” older women engaged in seemingly outmoded crafts or adhered to conservative ideologies. But in At Home in the World, Xia Shi shows that these ladies could effectively nag and shame men to donate funds; they had connections to the old Qing dynasty establishment that helped to bring resources and attention to welfare relief and modern literacy training. Through her appreciation of overlooked older women's...
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Book Review|
February 01 2020
At Home in the World: Women and Charity in Late Qing and Early Republican China
At Home in the World: Women and Charity in Late Qing and Early Republican China
. By Xia Shi. New York
: Columbia University Press
, 2018
. ix, 274 pp. ISBN: 9780231546232 (cloth).
Margaret Mih Tillman
Margaret Mih Tillman
Purdue University
Search for other works by this author on:
Journal of Asian Studies (2020) 79 (1): 176–177.
Citation
Margaret Mih Tillman; At Home in the World: Women and Charity in Late Qing and Early Republican China. Journal of Asian Studies 1 February 2020; 79 (1): 176–177. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S002191181900202X
Download citation file:
Advertisement
60
Views