City of Working Women
Douban
Life, Space, and Social Control in Early Twentieth-Century Beijing
Weikun Cheng
Overview
Situating laboring-class women in the larger context of the political liberalization and the profound social and economic transformations in late Qing and early Republican Beijing, this book presents a nuanced picture of women's potentials and possibilities, and their dangers and anxieties, in a rapidly changing city. The work is a major contribution to feminist scholarship, balancing two approaches: treating women as agents and using gender as an analytical category. Also, its focus on lower-class women's use of urban public space opens a new dimension in the study of modern Chinese cities. The work contains solid research based on a variety of original sources, including local archives, newspapers and magazines, memoirs, social surveys, and interviews.
contents
Preface—vii
Introduction—1
1. Women in the City—21
2. Livelihood—48
3. Neighborhood—73
4. Leisure—98
5. Actresses—134
6. Prostitutes—165
7. Policing Women—197
Conclusion—231
Bibliography—238
Index—259
