Precious Records: Women in China's Long Eighteenth Century

by Susan Mann and Susan L. Mann

Book Overview

This first book-length study of gender relations in the Lower Yangzi region during the High Qing era (c. 1683-1839) challenges enduring late-nineteenth-century perspectives that emphasized the oppression and subjugation of Chinese women. Placing women at the center of the High Qing era shows how gender relations shaped the economic, political, social, and cultural changes of the age, and gives us a sense of what women felt and believed, and what...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804727449
• ISBN13: 9780804727440
• Release Date: May 1997
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 340 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Feminine View

To an even greater extent than in the West, the views of Chinese women have been seldom heard; Susan Mann's book attempts to correct that for women of the Qing Period (1644- 1911)although she comfortably moves back and forward in time to other periods. To an admirable degree, she succeeds in her task. She brings together primary sources from women themselves where possible but does not hesitate to supplement those sources with the work of male writers, often court officials, where necessary. Speaking of gender, a cover blurb (and to some extent the Introduction with its use of terms like 'male gaze' etc.) could suggest that this is a 'feminist' work. To view it as such would be a mistake;Mann is a highly respected scholar who happens to be of the female gender and she 'tells it like it was' without emphasising either sentimental or ideological aspects of the lives of Chinese women. Without wishing to downplay her obvious and genuine concern for feminine issues, she can only be described as a 'feminist historian'in the way that, say, Ursula LeGuin is a feminist writer of fantasy and science fiction or Alison Jolly a feminist writer on human evolution or biology. The work is clearly directed towards students of Chinese history but is well written and should be enjoyable to anyone with a serious interest in China (and with a little perseverence). Some chapters are dense and scholarly, like Chapter 4 on 'Writing' which explores many primary sources, whilst others read quite smoothly. This is not a criticism; just a fact of life for such a work. Mann does everything possible to ease the burden for her readers with, for example, many pertinent illustrations, references largely moved to comprehensive Endnotes and an English' Chinese character list. The book does not attempt to cover all areas of Qing history (thankfully) but covers the areas it promises to in great detail- a reader can ask for little more. Recommended.