Let women speak for themselves: The Milestone of Independence

Author: Li Xiaojiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-06-01
Features: This "series" is not strictly a "history of women" in the conventional sense. It merely uses the "voice of women" to express women's historical memories and feelings, offering "female interpretations" of historical events and cultural phenomena we are already familiar with. It attempts to prove women's existence through female perspectives, providing history with a new lens and multiple avenues for reflection.
This "series" records women's experiences but is not entirely "feminist historiography." Oral history methods are not exclusive to women's studies, nor did the use of oral history begin with women's history, but it has been particularly favored by female scholars and widely adopted 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.), thereby enabling history to more fully record the lives of ordinary people. Women were once "unrecorded in history," and the historical "silence of women" in academia necessitated the study of women's history beginning with "breaking the silence" and "giving women a voice." These two movements advanced simultaneously in the mid-20th century, becoming comrades-in-arms in the modern historiographical revolution.
"Letting women speak for themselves" means narrating women's historical feelings and recording their historical memories through female voices, examining historical footprints from a female perspective. Through women's names, we can reclaim their history, enriching our understanding of it.
From a macro perspective, the experiences of Chinese women in the 20th century can be divided by 1949 as a dividing line: (before 1949) the relationship between women and (ethnic) war, and (after 1949) the relationship between women and (national) politics, which together constitute the two major themes of Chinese women's history in the 20th century. In other words, the relationship between women and the "nation-state" is reflected in the individual experiences of every woman with unprecedented depth and breadth. In this relationship, women's roles remain largely passive; although they also progress with the times, they still cannot become the true masters of their own lives and destinies.
From another angle, from the perspective of women themselves, the two things that women identify with, consciously pursue, and have long-lastingly transformed their fate are education and careers. Compared to careers, education may be a more significant factor in women's agency.