Women warriors and wartime spies of China
By: Louise Edwards, UNSW Australia
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9781107146037; 9781316509340
Subjects: Political culture; Military History; Popular culture; Women soldiers in mass media; Sex role; Militarism; Women soldiers; History; Biography; Women spies
Description: "In this compelling new study, Louise Edwards explores the lives of some of China's most famous women warriors and wartime spies through history. Focusing on key figures including Hua Mulan, Zheng Pingru and Liu Hulan, this book examines the ways in which these extraordinary women have been commemorated through a range of cultural mediums including film, theatre, museums and textbooks. Whether these women are perceived as heroes or anti-heroes, Edwards shows that both the popular and official presentations of them and of their accomplishments have evolved in line with China's shifting political values and military aspirations over the past 100 years. In lively and accessible style, with illustrations throughout, this book sheds new light on the relationship between gender and militarisation and the ways that women have been exploited to glamorise war both historically and in China today"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-266) and index.
Table of contents: title: 1. Soldiering, war and gender in China; title: 2. The archetypal woman warrior, Hua Mulan : militarising filial piety; title: 3. Qiu Jin : transitioning from traditional swordswoman to feminist warrior; title: 4. Xie Bingying opening public spaces to women; title: fighting patriarchy and fighting militarists; title: 5. Aisin Gioro Xianyu : "Joan of Arc of the Orient" or "Mata Hari of the East"?; title: 6. Guerrilla resistance leader, Zhao Yiman : warrior teacher and self-sacrificing CCP mother; title: 7. Negotiating sexual virtue : the glamorous, honey-trap spy, Zheng Pingru; title: 8. Ding Ling and Zhenzhen : female chastity and good communist governance; title: 9. Mobilising and militarising rural China through the girl martyr, Liu Hulan; title: 10. Women warriors and wartime spies as tools for "total militarisation" : the Red Detachment of Women.