Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
Volume
17
Issue
3
Publisher
Purdue University
Publication Date
9-1-2015
Abstract
In her article "Women's Wartime Life Writing in Early Twentieth-Century China" Li Guo discusses military diaries, prison memoirs, and autobiographical reportages. These documents offer rich insights into the political endeavors and military mobility of women. Guo analyzes Bingying Xie's 1928 war diary about the Chinese nationalists' northern expedition, Langi Hu's 1937 book about anti-Japanese activism, and Lang Bai's 1939 reportage about the Sino-Japanese War and argues that these texts allow women to reconfigure the discourse of nation through experimental life writing in order to develop the genre with tales of valor, hope, struggle, and heroism. Guo argues that contrary to the perception that early twentieth-century Chinese women's military activism was facilitated through assimilation into male identities, Xie's, Hu's, and Bai's texts show that women celebrated their womanhood through mass mobilization and dedicated services at the front as soldiers, activists, and reporters.
Recommended Citation
"Women's Wartime Life Writing in Early Twentieth-Century China." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture (Purdue University) 17.3 (2015).
