Abstract
The transformation of literary language from classical Chinese to the vernacular from the late Qing to early Republican period in China had a profound impact on the Chinese women’s literary expressions. This lecture will analyze the vernacular writing on vernacular newspapers in the late Qing Dynasty, the evolution of women’s textbooks, and the generation of gender concepts. Tracing the historical development of women’s education and social customs at different periods, this lecture will examine how the changes in vocabulary, grammar and composition concepts influenced women’s own gendered expressions and the popular ideas of gendered identities in modern China.
Speaker:
Cao Xiaohua, graduated from East China Normal University with a doctorate in literature. She was funded by China Scholarship Council for overseas joint project at Duke University. She is currently an assistant researcher at the Institute of Literature, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS), and the head of the City and Gender Writing Project at the Urban Culture Innovation Research Institute, SASS. She recently published the book The Vernacular Newspaper of the Late Qing Dynasty and the Arising of Modern Women's Consciousness (1898-1911). Her papers and translations could be found in Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, Modern Chinese Literature Journal and other journals. She’s also the principal investigator of the projects supported by National Social Science Foundation of China and Shanghai Social Science foundation.
