From Bound Feet to 'Half the Sky': Women and Modern China

Module title	From Bound Feet to 'Half the Sky': Women and Modern China
Module code	HIH1024
Academic year	2019/0
Credits	15
Module staff	(Convenor)

Duration: Term	1	2	3
Duration: Weeks		11

Number students taking module (anticipated)	30

Module description

From women with bound feet in the late 19^th century to Shanghai’s “modern girls” with bobbed hair in the 1930s, and from the “iron girls” in the Maoist era to today’s Miss China representing new beauty standards and individual values in a global context, this module focuses on the shifting images and roles of women in the fragmented nation-building processes of modern China. Through exploring themes and topics such as “women and revolution”, “prostitution and modernity” and “women’s body and the state”, this module introduces China’s social, political and cultural development from the late Qing to the present day.

Module aims - intentions of the module

Through finding gender’s engagement in building a modern nation in different social and political contexts, this module aims to introduce you to a broad range of sources such as archival documents, oral history interviews, diaries and memoirs, newspaper reports, magazine articles, novels, photographs, posters, films, operas and songs. You will be encouraged to compare these sources and think about their utility and limitations in researching modern Chinese history. We will discuss how the “woman question” and the available sources help us to analyse the social, political and cultural transformation of China in the twentieth century and to understand the shifting relationship between the state and society.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

1. Understand and assess the main developments in the processes of Chinese nation building from a gender perspective
2. Work critically with a range of written and visual sources relating to the topic

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

3. Identify the problems of using historical sources, e.g. utility, limitations, etc, and compare the validity of different types of sources
4. Present work orally, respond to questions orally, and think quickly of questions to ask other students

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

5. Conduct independent study and group work, including the presentation of material for group discussion, developed through the mode of learning
6. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment
7. Work with others in a team and to interact effectively with the tutor and the wider group
8. Write to a very tight word-length

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics::

“The bound feet” and women’s emancipation
“New women” and the newborn Chinese Republic
Feminism and China’s Pankhursts
Women and the Second World War in Asia
The iron girls and Maoist China
Prostitution
Fashion
China’s birthing stories
Oral history of women

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
22	128	0

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	2	2 hour lecture: Introduction to module
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	20	10 x 2 hour seminars. At a meeting of the whole class generally a different group of 3-4 students will give a presentation to the whole class, followed by class discussion and working through the sources for that week carefully. Additional sources may be issued in the class and the lecturer will also use the time to set up issues for the following week
Guided Independent Study	128	Students prepare for the session through reading and research; writing five source commentaries and an essay and preparing one group presentation in the course of the term

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Group presentation (3-4 students)	10-15 minutes	1-7	Oral
Lowest mark from portfolio of 4 source commentaries	750 words	1-3,5-6,8	Mark and written comments

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
100	0	0

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
3 highest marks from portfolio of 4 source commentaries	100	2250 words (750 per commentary)	1-3,5-6,8	Mark and written comments.

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
3 highest marks of portfolio of 4 source commentaries	3 highest marks of portfolio of 4 source commentaries	1-3,5-6,8	Referral/Deferral period

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Basic reading:

Barlow, Tani E. The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004.
Brownell, Susan and Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N. eds., Chinese Femininities, Chinese Masculinities: A Reader, University of California Press, 2002.
Croll, Elisabeth J. Feminism and Socialism in China, London: Routledge, 2013.
Edwards, Louise. Gender, Politics, and Democracy: Women's Suffrage in China, Stanford University Press, 2008.
Gilmartin, Christina K. ed. Engendering China: Women, Culture, and the State, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994.
Hershatter, Gail. Women in China's Long Twentieth Century, University of California Press, 2007.
Li, Danke. Echoes of Chongqing: Women in Wartime China, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2010.
Strand, David. An Unfinished Republic: Leading by Word and Deed in Modern China, University of California Press, 2011.
Wang, Zheng. Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: Oral & Textual Histories, University of California Press, 1999.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

ELE - https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=6469

Key words search

Modern China, Women, Gender, Feminism, Nation Building

Credit value	15
Module ECTS	7.5
Module pre-requisites	None
Module co-requisites	None
NQF level (module)	4
Available as distance learning?	No
Origin date	01/06/2016
Last revision date	09/07/2019