Politics at the Local-Global Intersection: Meanings of Bentuhua and Transnational Feminism in China
Project Author
Issue Date
2016-02-08
Authors
Wesoky, Sharon R.
Loading...
Embargo
This version of the article is available for viewing to the public after August 2, 2017.
First Reader
Additional Readers
Keywords
Chinese Feminism , Feminism , China , bentuhua , transnationalism
item.page.distribution
Abstract
This article examines contemporary Chinese feminism’s processes of “connecting with the international tracks” as well as bentuhua (indigenisation), arguing that these processes are inseparable from both domestic and international power relations and thus asserting the need for a critical perspective on bentuhua. An “institutionaldiscursive” focus on both political and cultural contexts reveals that the usage of bentuhua can be literally and metaphorically spatial in quality, as well as regarded as a resource that is part of the grammar of social transformation in China. Neoliberal globalisation promotes a “project”-oriented approach to feminist activism that has benefits and costs. Transnationalism can be a source of resistance to the continued authoritarian party-state, as well as to homogenising effects of nationalist tendencies. Thus, from a theoretical standpoint it is useful to comprehend contemporary Chinese feminist thought from the understanding that the local and the global are inextricably interconnected.
Description
Chair
Major
Department
Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Recorder
License
18 Month Embargo.
Citation
Wesoky, S.R. (2016). Politics at the local-global intersection: Meanings of Bentuhua and transnational feminism in China. <i>Asian Studies Review 40</i>(1), 53-69. doi: 10.1080/10357823.2015.1123217
Version
Published article
Honors
Publisher
Asian Studies Association of Australia