Wasana Wongsurawat
Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University
Among the most contentious subjects of modernity in 20th century China is the ideal of the modern Chinese woman. In a society that was so ferociously striving for novel/Westernized ideals – modernization, industrialization, equality, democracy, socialism, etc. – who could half the population look to as the feminine role model and which virtues and qualities should she represent? The development and transformation in the image, representation and influence of Chinese first ladies from Mme. Sun Yat-sen to Mme. Chiang Kai-shek and Mme. Mao Zedong (no.4) provides a spectacular reflection of the development and transformation of the feminine ideal and expectations towards the role and contributions of Chinese women in every aspect of the modern life in 20th century China. The ideal Chinese woman journeyed from the illiterate, but virtuous wife and mother at the turn of the century, to the childless cosmopolitan nationalist of Republican China, and finally, to the fervent revolutionary and political extremist of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
(Presented in the 2013 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum: The Emergence and Heritage of Asian Women Intellectuals, 10-11 September 2013, Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Institute of Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts and Indian Studies Center, Chulalongkorn University)