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Showing 17 items in the collection

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  • Theme

    • Oral and Personal Accounts (161)
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    • The First Kuomintang-Communist Civil War (1927-1937) (5)
    • The Second Kuomintang-Communist Civil War (1945-1949) (5)

17 items

Film and Video

Care and Love

This film records the story of Liu Xianhong, a woman from rural Xingtai, Hebei, who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion in the hospital and decided to publicly disclose her identity and sue the hospital. After fighting in the courts, she finally received compensation. This documentary demonstrates the surging awareness of civil rights in rural China at the grassroot level through depicting the experiences of several families and the concerted efforts of patients to form “care” groups to collectively defend their civil rights. Due to public awareness, media intervention, and legal aid, the government also introduced new policies to improve the situations of patients and their families. This film is in Chinese with both English and Chinese subtitles.
Book

Gan Cui: The Soul of Peking University-From Lin Zhao to the 1989 Democracy Movement

This book was originally published in the series *Micro Traces of the Past* - Documentary Volume - No. 6, edited by Huang Heqing, founded in 2007. Gan Cui, a student at Renmin University of China, was classified as a rightist in 1957. He became lovers with Lin Zhao, a rightist student who came from Peking University to work in the data room. Gan Cui was later sent to Xinjiang. When he returned, he learned that Lin Zhao had been killed. This book, 140,000 characters in total, is a manuscript of Gan Cui's memories of Lin Zhao in the context of the 1989 pro-democracy movement.
Film and Video

Garden of Paradise

The year 2003 was known as the birth of the Weiquan—the rights defense–movement, which was marked by the Sun Zhigang incident in Guangzhou. At the same time, a campaign began to get justice for Huang Jing, a teacher from Hunan who was sexually assaulted and killed by her boyfriend. The campaign involved the victim’s family, netizens, feminist scholars and activists, and lasted for several years. This documentary records the process of Huang Jing’s case from filing to post-judgement, and analyzes the broader issue of sexual violence against women in China. The films in this series are in Chinese with Chinese subtitles.
Book

Lin Zhao: No Longer Forgotten

This book contains a number of articles in memory of Lin Zhao. It concerns the death of Lin Zhao as well as Lin Zhao's love, pursuits, and disillusionment. This book was published by Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House in 2000.
Film and Video

Mountain Songs from the Plains

Luo Xiaojia, a young Yunnan Yi girl was trafficked to the plains of Shandong at the age of 17 and forced to marry a young farmer in the area. The film documents her family life in the unfamiliar Shandong countryside and her longing for home. In her tenth year in Shandong, she finally fights for the opportunity to return home. After a 4,000-kilometer journey, she returns to her hometown of Yunnan and sees her mother, whom she misses day and night. However, she struggles with conflicting emotions, and returns to Shandong with a mountain song that her mother sings for her. This movie reflects the sad fate of trafficked women in China and the social psychology that follows these tragedies.
Book

My Mother :Gao Yaojie

Author Eva writes about her relationship with Gao Yaojie, a Chinese doctor. Dr. Gao Yaojie, who was severely repressed by the Chinese government for exposing the mass infection of Chinese farmers in Henan Province, China, by selling their blood, had no choice but to leave China at the age of 78 and go into exile in the United States. The dissemination of her story is strictly forbidden in China. In this book, author Eva describes Gao Yaojie's noble heart, her story, and her experiences.
Film and Video

My Mother Wang Peiying

On January 27, 1970, Wang Peiying, a cleaner at a kindergarten in Beijing, was sentenced for counter-revolutionary crimes at a 100,000-person public trial held at the Workers' Stadium in Beijing. She was then taken to the execution ground along with a dozen other political prisoners to be executed by firing squad. Wang Peiying was strangled to death in the torture wagon because she preferred to die rather than give in and shout slogans. Forty years later, her daughter, Kexin, began to search for her mother's story. Through her mother's coworkers, friends in distress, and the task force, she gradually discovers her mother's experience as an active counterrevolutionary. In order to protect her conscience, Wang Peiying chose to stand up for her dignity and freedom to tell the truth, and willingly endured brutal torture. The documentary reflects the brutality of the Cultural Revolution and the destruction of humanity.
Article

Oral Interviews with Global Feminists

As one of China's foremost feminist activists and thinkers, Ai was interviewed by the Global Feminisms Project at the University of Michigan. In this interview, Ai talks about her upbringing as well as about the current state of feminism in China and its outlook.
Film and Video

Postcard

After retiring from her job as a cadre, Wang Lihong fulfilled what she saw as her civic responsibility to become more active in women’s rights in China, especially the protection of their legal rights. In 2009-2010, she became involved in the “Fujian Netizen Case,” which resulted in the arrest of three human rights activists, who all sought to investigate the death of a 25-year-old women believed to have been murdered in a gang rape by men associated with the local police. Wang Lihong wrote letters to the General Secretary of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China every day for nine consecutive days, calling on the authorities to let them go home for the New Year. For this reason, she was criminally detained by the authorities in March 2011 on suspicion of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." The case was heard by the Beijing, Chaoyang District People's Court on August 12; nearly a month later, on September 9, the court issued a guilty verdict and sentenced Wang Lihong to nine months in prison. The film documents her case, and raises questions about the accountability of the local government and police. Another one of Ai Xiaoming’s films, “Let the Sunshine Reach the Earth,” documents Wang Lihong’s trial process in more detail. This film is in Chinese with Chinese subtitles.
Film and Video

Remembering Lin Zhao

Independent director Tiger Temple began shooting this film in 2010 and completed it in 2012, with subsequent revisions. The film features interviews with Lin Zhao's former lover Gan Cui as well as interviews with several independent scholars such as Qian Liqun and Cui Weiping. It is a powerful addition to Lin Zhao's memory. This film was selected as one of the top 20 finalists in the 2012 Sunshine Chinese Documentary Awards.
Film and Video

The Central Plains

Due to poverty in rural areas in Henan Province—part of China’s Central Plains—many farmers contracted AIDS by selling their blood. This documentary dives into the lives of these AIDS patients, depicting the manner in which they cope with life, officials’ responses, and the stories of volunteers who helped the infected villagers. The filmmaker visited several villages with high incidence of AIDS, interviewing and recording people’s accounts of how the “plasma economy” arose. This documentary presents the living condition of families and individuals, especially women and children, who contracted AIDS due to blood donation and blood transfusions, and demonstrates the formation of grassroots organizations. This film is in Chinese with both Chinese and English subtitles.
Book

The Goddess of Freedom of the Chinese Nation -- An Anthology of Essays in Honor of Lin Zhao 40 Years After Her Death

Lin Zhao, formerly known as Peng Lingzhao, a native of Suzhou, was admitted to the journalism department of Peking University in 1954, but was classified as a Rightist in 1957. She was arrested and imprisoned in October 1960 because of her involvement with the underground magazine <i>Spark</i>. In 1965, Lin Zhao was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment for "counter-revolutionary crimes." On April 29, 1968, she was sentenced to death and executed on the same day at the age of 36. This book is a collection of more than sixty articles written in memory of Lin Zhao.
Film and Video

The Vagina Monologues -- Stories Behind the Scenes

<i>The Vagina Monologues</i> is a pioneering feminist drama created by the American playwright Eva Ensler. In 2003, teachers and students at the Gender Education Forum of Sun Yat-sen University in China adapted the play and added artistic interpretations of Chinese women's gender experience. The adapted play had its first performance at the Guangdong Provincial Art Museum. This documentary records the attitudes of governments across China towards the play as well as women's perceptions of the play and its connection with their personal experiences. It also highlights the current political and cultural ecology of China.
Periodicals

The Women's Voice

The Women's Voice (Nüsheng), first issued in Shanghai in October 1932, was a bimonthly magazine published by the Women's Voice Society. It was co-founded by then journalist Wang Yiwei and Liu-Wang Liming, then president of the China Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, with part of the funding coming from the Union, and part being raised by Wang through advertisements and sales. In the first issue of the journal, the magazine’s mission was described as “to seek liberation for the nation and happiness for all women.” The publication included short commentaries on political affairs, essays, literary works, and readers’ letters. Its content was wide-ranging, including many theoretical articles on the women's movement, discussions on women's participation in politics, marriage freedom, and professional development, reports on the situation of female workers, as well as women's lives in other parts of the world. Although <i>The Women's Voice</i> did not have any political affiliations, it identified with socialism and supported the Chinese Communist Party, believing that national liberation was a prerequisite for women's liberation. Due to differences of opinion between editor-in-chief Wang Yiwei and president Liu-Wang Liming, the magazine declared its independence and was no longer funded by the China Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in 1934. Due to its left-leaning stance and its sharp criticism of Kuomintang policies, the magazine was subjected to severe censorship and suppression by the KMT authorities and was forced to cease publication in 1935. After the victory over Japan in August 1945, <i>The Women's Voice</i> resumed publication in November and turned into a monthly magazine. In addition to issuing magazines, the editorial board also held several symposiums, such as “Women's Participation in Politics”, “Women's Education”, and “The Way Forward for Female Intellectuals” The magazine started to collaborate with Liu-Wang Liming again and changed its editorial policy to publish only works by women authors. According to Wang Yiwei, in order to maintain the magazine’s independence, they did not receive any political funding, and that most of its funding came from fundraising events and charity sales. Due to continued harassment by the Kuomintang, Liu-Wang Liming was forced to flee to Hong Kong. Eventually, under both political and financial pressure, <i>The Women's Voice</i> ceased publication in 1947. <i>The Women's Voice</i> magazine is hosted by the <b><a href="https://mhdb.mh.sinica.edu.tw/magazine/web/index.php"> Modern Women Journal Database</a></b>, operated by the Institute of Modern History of Academia Sinica in Taiwan, and is free for users to register and access. The site contains all of the 1932-1935 issues, but most issues after 1945 were lost, thus only three issues are included. Thanks to the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, for authorizing the CUA to repost. For more information about the magazine, please see: <a href="http://sites.lsa.umich.edu/wangzheng/wp-content/uploads/sites/948/2024/11/%E7%8E%8B%E4%BC%8A%E8%94%9A-%E6%88%91%E4%B8%8E%E3%80%8A%E5%A5%B3%E5%A3%B0%E3%80%8B-1987.pdf"> Wang Yiwei, “Me and the ‘Women's Voice’: A Tribute to March 8 Women's Day”</a> on the website of Wang Zheng, Professor Emeritus of Women's and Gender Studies and History at the University of Michigan. Note: In 1942, during the war against Japan, with the financial support of the Japanese and the Wang Jingwei regime , another magazine with the name of <i>The Women's Voice</i> was published in Shanghai, imitating the style and design of the original magazine. The magazine, edited by Japanese left-wing writer and feminist Toshiko Sato (also known as Toshiko Tamura, or Zuo Junzhi in Chinese), was the only women's magazine published in the fallen area of Shanghai under Japanese control. The magazine ceased publication in 1948. According to research by Tu Xiaohua, an associate professor at the School of Journalism at the Communication University of China, although the magazine had long been regarded as a “traitorous” magazine and a tool of Japanese political propaganda, it also served as a platform for the dissemination of left-wing ideology to a certain extent, due to Toshiko's internationalist stance and the involvement of members of underground CCP members. The magazine is also included in the Modern Women Journals Database.
Periodicals

The Ladies Journal

The Ladies Journal was founded in January 1915 by the Commercial Press Shanghai. It was a monthly magazine primarily targeting upper-class women. It ceased publication in 1932 when the Commercial Press was destroyed by Japanese bombing. The magazine was distributed in major cities in China and overseas, such as Singapore. The magazine was considered an influential forum for the dissemination of feminist discourse in modern China, given its long operation and large readership. The magazine spanned important historical periods such as the May Fourth Movement and the National Revolutionary period, and readers can see how the political environment and social trends influenced the political stance and style of the publication. Although it was a women's magazine, the chief editors and the authors of most of the articles were men. According to Wang Zheng, Professor Emeritus of Women's and Gender Studies and History at the University of Michigan, the early articles of The Ladies Journal were more conservative. Although it advocated for women’s education, the goal was to train women to be good wives and mothers. Later, under the influence of New Culture Movement and the May Fourth Student Movement, the magazine was forced to reform itself and began to publish debates on women's emancipation as well as to call for more women's contributions, spread liberal feminist ideas, and support women's movements across the country. 1923 saw the beginning of the National Revolutionary period, and the Chinese Communist Party’s nationalist-Marxist discourse on women’s emancipation started to challenge liberal feminism, and the magazine's influence waned. In September 1925, the magazine ceased to be a cutting edge feminist publication after it changed its chief editor again and shifted its focus to ideas more easily accepted by conservative-minded readers,such as women's artistic tastes. Although the <i>The Ladies Journal</i> was run by men, and some articles displayed contempt for and discrimination against women, it pointed out and discussed many issues that hindered women's social progress, such as lack of education, employment, economic independence, marriage freedom, sexual freedom, family reform, emancipation of slave girls, abolition of the child bride system, abolition of prostitution, and contraceptive birth control. It was also open to many different ideas and views, all of which were published. It is a valuable historical source for the study of women's studies and modern Chinese history. Yujiro Murata, a professor at the University of Tokyo, founded the The Ladies Journal Research Society in 2000, along with a number of other colleagues interested in women's history from Japan, Taiwan, China, and Korea. The two main goals of the Society are to produce a general catalog of all seventeen volumes of the Magazine and to bring together scholars from all over the world to conduct studies based on the magazine. With the assistance of the Institute of Modern History of Academia Sinica in Taiwan, the magazine was made into an online repository, which is stored on the Institute’s “Modern History Databases” website, and can be accessed by the public. Link to the database: https://mhdb.mh.sinica.edu.tw/fnzz/index.php. Thanks to the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, for authorizing the CUA to repost.
Database

Modern Women’s Biographies Database

The Modern Women’s Biographies Database is part of the Modern History Digital Database of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. The goal of the database is to create biographical information on women in modern China, in order to counter the dominance of biographies of male figures in modern China history. The database includes biographies of 1,848 women in modern China, a few of whom were not Chinese but were included because they taught at universities in China or Taiwan. In addition to browsing and searching for biographies, the database provides two additional functions: 1. “Biography Connections”: users can select multiple biographies to generate a map displaying social connections among selected figures; 2. “Place of Origin Map”: a map presenting the places of origin and eras of the figures, and users can click the markers on the map to read the biographies of the figures. By visualizing the biographical information, users can have an overview of the organizational networks of modern women's groups, as well as the development of women's discourse. Link to the database: https://mhdb.mh.sinica.edu.tw/women_bio/index.php. Thanks to the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, for authorizing the CUA to repost.
Database

Modern Women Journals Database

This database is part of the “Modern History Databases,” operated by the Institute of Modern History of Academia Sinica in Taiwan. The "Women and Gender History Research Group" of the Institute endeavors to collect, digitize and categorize related books and journals from libraries worldwide, and established the Modern Women Journals Database, which consists of 214 journals and 110,000 individual items. The database has been made available for public use since 2015. In 1919 and the years that followed, women’s movement in China was on the rise, and as a result, many women's magazines appeared, a lot of which were run by women. Most of the journals collected in this repository were published between 1907-1949, with some published after 1949; there are comprehensive publications, as well as those focusing particularly on women's movements, family, health, employment, etc.; nearly a quarter of the publications were published in Shanghai, followed by Beijing, Guangzhou, and Nanjing. As can be seen from the Database, most of these journals have a relatively short duration, ranging from one to five years. Through this database, readers can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the history of women and women’s movements in modern China. In addition to browsing journals and searching the database, users can also conduct author research and journal analysis. Under the author research section, users can read author biographies, as well as see the number of articles written by a particular author, and a map displaying their family and social relations. Under the journal research section, users can generate maps by keywords, eras, and article categories, which can provide more multi-dimensional information about a specific era or topic. Link to the database:https://mhdb.mh.sinica.edu.tw/magazine/web/acwp_index.php. Thanks to the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, for authorizing the CUA to repost.
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