Let women speak for themselves: Narrative of the nation

Author: Li Xiaojiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: "Let women speak for themselves" is the fundamental principle of constructing women's history; giving voice to "women's voices" carries both political and academic missions in today's society. Recovering and reconstructing women's history is not only a need for historiography but also a necessary cornerstone for women to reclaim themselves and establish autonomous, confident lives. In this regard, overseas feminist scholars have already produced a substantial body of research. These studies advocate starting from women's perspectives and analyzing materials from a female viewpoint, "placing women at the center of historical research by reconstructing the voices and perspectives of women who have been historically ignored, challenging traditional historiography dominated by patriarchal culture."
Preface Women's history and oral history share a natural alliance. The oral history method is not a unique innovation of women's studies, nor did it originate with women's history, but it has been particularly favored by female scholars and widely used by feminist historians. This is because oral history complements and corrects traditional historiography, uncovering the silenced groups (such as women, ethnic minorities, and the lower classes) and their unheard voices (about private emotions, life experiences, etc.), allowing history to more fully record the lives of ordinary people. Women have been "unrecorded in history," and the historical "silence of women" in academia has necessitated that women's history research begin with "breaking the silence" and "letting women speak." Almost simultaneously (in the mid-20th century), the two movements advanced side by side, becoming comrades-in-arms in the modern historiographical reform movement.
"Let women speak for themselves" is the fundamental principle of constructing women's history; giving voice to "women's voices" carries both political and academic missions in today's society. Recovering and reconstructing women's history is not only a need for historiography but also a necessary cornerstone for women to reclaim themselves and establish autonomous, confident lives. In this regard, overseas feminist scholars have already produced a substantial body of research. These studies advocate starting from women's perspectives and analyzing materials from a female viewpoint, "placing women at the center of historical research by reconstructing the voices and perspectives of women who have been historically ignored, challenging traditional historiography dominated by patriarchal culture."
Conducting women's oral history on this land is because our society and our historiography face similar issues. For a long time, women have been perceived as a marginalized group, their discourse rights and abilities have been ignored, and their voices have rarely been attended to by academia, particularly historiography. Therefore, in our context, uncovering and recording women's historical experiences and their voices have become an important part of constructing women's history. However, it must be noted: this "series" is not strictly a "women's history" in the formal sense; it merely expresses women's historical memories and feelings through "women's voices," offering "women's interpretations" of familiar historical events and cultural phenomena, and attempting to prove women's existence through female narratives, providing history with a new perspective and multiple avenues for reflection.
This series records women's experiences but is not entirely "feminist historiography." It does not seek to uncover women's special contributions or excessively highlight women's rights but rather attempts to extract women's experiences from the grand historical narrative, examining how women responded to issues such as nationality, class, politics, economy, and culture during profound historical transformations. It cannot be denied that feminist historiography has posed a powerful challenge to the traditionally male-centric historiography, clearing the path for the construction of women's history and the rebuilding of historiography—but feminist historiography alone is insufficient. It is not enough to form the entire foundation of "history" and cannot even be the sole cornerstone of women's historiography. Recognizing this truth is crucial for our "women's oral history" project.
Participants in the "20th Century (China) Women's Oral History" project largely share the consensus that the academic concerns of female scholars should be both female and historical. For women who have been "unrecorded in history," reclaiming women's history is both a responsibility and an obligation, but women have never existed in isolation. Women's suffering and women's liberation are merely parts of the "grand history," and women's voices are echoes of "history"—they cannot transcend their time or stand out on their own.
Especially for Chinese women, in this land over a century, beyond their suffering, there have been heavy national and familial hardships; above "women's rights," there have been class oppression issues concerning national survival; within "gender equality," there are indeed critical political democracy and economic poverty issues that affect the entire society. In this regard, Chinese women have made their own historical responses: they are grand and expansive, far beyond feminist perspectives, no matter how you inspire or guide them. They are indeed more "national" and "social" than purely "female"—were it confined solely within a feminist interpretive framework, their voices would be misunderstood or misrepresented.