Some of Us: Chinese Women Growing Up in the Mao Era - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813529697 ISBN 13: 9780813529691

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2001

Synopsis

What does it mean to have grown up female in the Mao era? How can the remembered details of everyday life help shed light upon those turbulent times? Some of Us is a collection of memoirs by nine Chinese women who grew up during the Mao era. All half from urban backgrounds and all have obtained their Ph.D.s in the United States; thus, their memories are informed by intellectual training and insights that only distance can allow. Each of the chapters - arranged by the age of the author - is crafted by a writer who looks back to that time in a more nuanced manner than has been possible for Western observers. The authors attend to gender in a way that male writers have barely noticed and reflect on their lives in the United States. The issues explored here are as varied as these women's lives: The burgeoning rebellion of a young girl in northeast China, a girl's struggles to obtain for herself the education her parents inspired her to attain, an exploration of gender and identity as experienced by two sisters. Some of Us offers insight into a place and time when life was much more complex than Westemers have allowed. These eloquent writings shatter our stereotypes of persecution, repression, victims, and victimizers. Together, these multi-faceted memoirs offer the reader new perspectives as they daringly illuminate difficult - and fascinating issues.

About this title

Review:

This collection makes a fascinating read. Each of the nine memoirs is crafted with skill and honesty. - Dorothy Ko, professor of history, Bernard College

About the Author:

XUEPING ZHONG is an associate professor of literature at Tufts University. She is the author of Masculinity Besleged?: Issues of Modernity' and Male Subjectivity in Late Twentieth-Century Chinese Literature. WANG ZHENG is an affiliated scholar at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University. She is the author of Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: Oral and Textual Histories, BAI DI is an assistant professor of Chinese at Iowa State University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0813529697
• ISBN 13: 9780813529691
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248
• Editor: Xueping Zhong, Wang Zheng, Bai Di