Gender in Modern East Asia

Barbara Molony, Janet Theiss, Hyaeweol Choi

Avalon Publishing, Mar 29, 2016 - History - 534 pages

Gender in Modern East Asia explores the history of women and gender in China, Korea, and Japan from the seventeenth century to the present. This unique volume treats the three countries separately within each time period while also placing them in global and regional contexts. Its transnational and integrated approach connects the cultural, economic, and social developments in East Asia to what is happening across the wider world.

The text focuses specifically on the dynamic histories of sexuality; gender ideology, discourse, and legal construction; marriage and the family; and the gendering of work, society, culture, and power. Important themes and topics woven through the text include Confucianism, writing and language, the role of the state in gender construction, nationalism, sexuality and prostitution, New Women and Modern Girls, feminisms, "comfort" women, and imperialism. Accessibly written and comprehensive, Gender in Modern East Asia is a much-needed contribution to the study of the region.

Contents

• Gender in Ancient and Medieval East Asia Before 1600: 1
• Gender and Sexuality in Early Modern East Asia: 47
• Urban and Rural Lives in the Early Modern Era: 88
• Gender and Modernity 18601912: 134
• Nationalism and Feminism in the Interwar Period: 179
• New Women in the Interwar Period: 224
• Gender Labor Markets and the Economy in the Interwar Era: 269
• Gender and World War II: 314
• Reconstructing Gender in the Early Cold War Era 19451953: 365
• Revolutionary Social and Gender Transformations 1953 to the 1980s: 410
• Gender and Domestic and Transnational Feminisms After the Cold War: 458
• Index: 505
• Backcover: 535

About the author

Barbara Molony is professor of history at Santa Clara University and author of numerous books and articles on gender in Japan. In addition to co-authoring Modern East Asia (Pearson, 2012), Molony has co-edited two scholarly works on gender in Japan and Asia, written a monograph on technology and investment in prewar Japan, and is currently working on a biography of Ichikawa Fusae.

Janet Theiss is associate professor of history and director of the Asia Center at the University of Utah, and co-editor of the journal Late Imperial China. She is the author of Disgraceful Matters: The Politics of Chastity in 18th Century China (U California Press) and a number of articles on 18th century Chinese gender history.

Hyaeweol Choi is professor of Korean studies and director of the Korea Institute at the Australian National University. She is the author of Gender and Mission Encounters in Korea: New Women, Old Ways (U California Press) and New Women in Colonial Korea: A Sourcebook (Routledge). She has also co-edited Divine Domesticities: Christian Paradoxes in Asia and the Pacific (ANU Press).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Gender in Modern East Asia
• Author: Barbara Molony, Janet Theiss, Hyaeweol Choi
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Avalon Publishing, 2016
• ISBN: 0813348757, 9780813348759
• Length: 534 pages
• Subjects: HISTORY / Asia / Japan; HISTORY / Asia / Korea; HISTORY / Modern / General; History / Asia / China; History / Asia / General; History / General