Page 14 - Chinese Woman Living and Working

Introduction

Anne E.McLaren

In twenty-first century China, women take on managerial roles in the private sector,
acquire technological skills in the professions, attempt to enter the innermost sanctums of
political power, work as maids in the homes of the affluent and ply their trade as
prostitutes in the tent cities of the migrant workers. It is a complex picture of
opportunity, challenge, disadvantage and abuse. The focus of this book is on the ‘new’
domains in which women are finding employment in the reform era (post-1978), on the
reinvention of ‘old’ domains and on the intersection between notions of ‘women’s work’
and the market economy. In brief, it deals with ‘Chinese women—living and working’.
The chapters in this volume, commissioned from scholars in such fields as
anthropology, gender studies, media studies, politics and social history, offer fresh
insights into the ‘new’ areas of employment for women. Most of the ‘new’ areas are in
fact ‘old’ ones revamped in the contemporary era, such as domestic service and
prostitution. Another ‘new’ domain is the emergence of wives as the financial managers
of household businesses run, at least nominally, by their husbands (see David
S.G.Goodman, this volume). This too has parallels with the situation of late imperial
China, when women traditionally took on the role of ‘domestic bursar’ in affluent
households (McDermott 1990). More genuinely ‘new’ domains for women (at least
compared with imperial China) would include leadership positions in foreign joint
ventures or in major companies (Clodagh Wylie) or in positions of authority within the
Chinese Communist Party or China’s political structure (Louise Edwards).
The reappearance of a form of ‘concubinage’ for women represents another ‘new’
domain that springs organically from China’s traditional marriage system (Elaine Jeffreys).
In the educational sphere, woman teachers are gaining skills in information technology and
in the process transforming notions of the politically ‘virtuous’ teacher (Stephanie
Donald). Women’s continuing interest in, or even dominance of, domestic space is the
subject of studies by Sally Sargeson (the building of mansions in Zhejiang) and Anne
McLaren (women’s ritual work and domestic space).
Other significant themes explored by authors in this volume include the integration of
China into the globalised economy (Sargeson, Wylie), the increasing influence of United
Nations definitions of labour within China (Jeffreys), and the rhetorical use of women’s
emancipation to assert the superiority of ‘socialism’ and enhance national legitimacy
(Edwards). To what extent are women disadvantaged by the reform years? This is an
important subject in Goodman’s study of women’s agency in household businesses in