The Chinese University of Hong Kong Department of History Department of History
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UGEC2041 History of Women in Modern China

Semester 2 (2023-2024)

Lecture TimeMonday, 14:30 - 16:15

VenueLT3, Lee Shau Kee Building(LSK LT3)

LanguageCantonese

Lecturer CHEUNG Ching Man Emily (emilycheung@cuhk.edu.hk)

# This webpage will not be updated after Course Registration. Enrolled students please go to the Blackboard of this course for latest information and announcement.

Course Description

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).

Syllabus

(1) Introduction (8 January 2024)
(2) Chinese Cultural Traditions and Women in History (15 January 2024)
(3) Women’s Emancipation: Anti-footbinding (22 January 2024)
(4) Women’s Emancipation: Women Education (29 January 2024)
(5) Modern Girls in Shanghai (5 February 2024)
Holiday – Chinese New Year Holiday (12 February 2024)
(6) Love and Sexuality of Republican Women (19 February 2024)
(7) Women and Revolution (26 February 2024)
Holiday – Reading Week (4 March 2024)
(8) Women in Mao’s China (11 March 2024)
(9) Women in China’s Economic Reform (18 March 2024)
(10) Sworn Spinster in Southern China (25 March 2024)
Holiday – Easter Holiday (1 April 2024)
(11) Quiz and Final Paper Writing Workshop (8 April 2024)
(12) Hong Kong Women: Mui Tsai (15 April 2024)

Assessment & Assignments

Quiz 30%
Final Paper 70%

References

A detailed reference list will be available in the first lecture.

Honesty in Academic Work

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 http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/.

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 contents.
  • 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.

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.

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