Acting Out Reform: Theater and Village in the Republican Rural Reconstruction Movement

Merkel-Hess, Kate

doi:10.1179/1521538512z.0000000004

Cited by 1 publication

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“…While the Nationalist government preserved some ideals of the extended family to strengthen the link between state and individual after consolidating power in 1927 (Glosser, 2003: 99), the 1930s were a time when local leadership of village communities was, as identified by Huang (1985: 275–91), at odds with the increasing importance of the state. The growing tension between localities and the state, according to Merkel-Hess (2012: 179), caught the attention of the MEM reformers. As part of their response, they launched theater reform projects aiming to preserve the cultural and social cohesion of rural society by presenting it as a “necessary building block for national salvation.” Unlike the MEM’s attempts, Nü xing created a gendered idea of rural citizenship through domesticity and Christianity.…”

Section: Christian Women Nü Xing and Home Reform In China’s Countrysi...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Rural Reform in Republican China: Christian Women, Print Media, and a Global Vision of Domesticity

Zhou

2022

Modern China

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This article explores the Christian efforts to modernize rural women, who were placed at the center of rural reform in Republican China in the 1920s. Rural women represented an important, untapped force for change in rural communities. The Christian magazine Nü xing 女星 (Woman’s Star), launched in 1932, reached out to this group. Through a new model of rural womanhood, a figure called Mrs. Wang, the magazine demonstrated how rural women could transform local communities through domesticity and Christian faith. The modern model of rural womanhood promoted by Nü xing emerged as a part of a global Christian movement in which creating Christian households was the primary goal. The magazine thus represents the integration of a marginalized group of women into a global community founded on shared domestic concerns and spiritual practices. Nü xing reveals how rural women, as historical agents of change, were connected to rural reform and nation-building in China and to a global collective of Christian domestic womanhood.

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Section: Christian Women Nü Xing and Home Reform In China’s Countrysi...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Rural Reform in Republican China: Christian Women, Print Media, and a Global Vision of Domesticity

Zhou

2022

Modern China

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Acting Out Reform: Theater and Village in the Republican Rural Reconstruction Movement

Cited by 1 publication

References 35 publications

Rural Reform in Republican China: Christian Women, Print Media, and a Global Vision of Domesticity

Rural Reform in Republican China: Christian Women, Print Media, and a Global Vision of Domesticity

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