Gender inequalities often stem from distinctions either empirically grounded or socially constructed. “History” is of essential importance in understanding how these inequalities are constructed in different periods and different contexts. This course traces and examines the history of women in China from the late Qing period to the present. Discover and analyze the sex roles, sexual politics and sexual symbolism in the course of modernization and nation building, how they are related to economic development, ideological shifts and colonialism, and to find out how they functioned to reduce gender distinctions (SDG#10 Reduced Inequalities), how they affected the formulation and changes of women policy (SDG#16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions), and how they promoted woman’s rights and social changes (SDG#5 Gender Equality).

(1) Introduction (9 January 2023)
(2) Chinese Cultural Traditions and Women in History (16 January 2023)
Holiday – Chinese New Year Holiday (23 January 2023)
(3) Women’s Emancipation: Anti-footbinding (30 January 2023)
(4) Women’s Emancipation: Women Education (6 February 2023)
(5) Modern Girls in Shanghai (13 February 2023)
(6) Love and Sexuality of Republican Women (20 February 2023)
(7) Women and Revolution (27 February 2023)
No Lecture – Reading Week (6 March 2023)
(8) Quiz and Writing Workshop on Final Paper (13 March 2023)
(9) Women in Mao’s China (20March 2023)
(10) Women in China’s Economic Reform (27 March 2023)
(11)  Sworn Spinsters in Southern China(3 April 2023)
Holiday – Easter Holiday (10 April 2023)
(12) Hong Kong Women: Mui Tsai (17 April 2023)

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# The class and course materials are limited to registered students only. Sit in is not allowed.

Reading list will be distributed in class.

Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at here.

With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed declaration that they are aware of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures.

• In the case of group projects, all members of the group should be asked to sign the declaration, each of whom is responsible and liable to disciplinary actions, irrespective of whether he/she has signed the declaration and whether he/she has contributed, directly or indirectly, to the problematic
• For assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally text-based and submitted via VeriGuide, the statement, in the form of a receipt, will be issued by the system upon students’ uploading of the soft copy of the assignment. 
• Students are fully aware that their work may be investigated by AI content detection software to determine originality.
• Students are fully aware of the AI approach(es) adopted in the course. In the case where some AI tools are allowed, students have made proper acknowledgment and citations as instructed by the course teacher.

Assignments without the properly signed declaration will not be graded by teachers.

Only the final version of the assignment should be submitted via VeriGuide.

The submission of a piece of work, or a part of a piece of work, for more than one purpose (e.g. to satisfy the requirements in two different courses) without declaration to this effect shall be regarded as having committed undeclared multiple submissions. It is common and acceptable to reuse a turn of phrase or a sentence or two from one’s own work; but wholesale reuse is problematic. In any case, agreement from the course teacher(s) concerned should be obtained prior to the submission of the piece of work.

The copyright of the teaching materials, including lecture notes, assignments and examination questions etc., produced by staff members/ teachers of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) belongs to CUHK. Students may download the teaching materials produced by the staff members/ teachers from the Learning Management Systems, e.g. Blackboard adopted by CUHK for their own educational use, but shall not distribute/ share/ copy the materials to a third-party without seeking prior permission from the staff members/ teachers concerned.