Some of Us

by Zhong, Xueping; Zheng, Wang; Di, Bai; Zhang, Naihua (CON); Chen, Xiaomei (CON)

• ISBN13: 9780813529691
• ISBN10: 0813529697
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Rutgers Univ Pr

Summary

What does it mean to have grown up female in the Mao era? How can the remembered details of everyday life help shed light upon those turbulent times? Some of Usis a collection of memoirs by nine Chinese women who grew up during the Mao era. All hail from urban backgrounds and all have obtained their Ph.D.s in the United States; thus, their memories are informed by intellectual training and insights that only distance can allow. Each of the chapters-arranged by the age of the author-is crafted by a writer who reflects back to that time in a more nuanced manner than has been possible for Western observers. The authors attend to gender in a way that male writers have barely noticed and reflect on their lives in the United States. The issues explored here are as varied as these women's lives: The burgeoning rebellion of a young girl in northeast China. A girl's struggles to obtain for herself the education her parents inspired her to attain. An exploration of gender and identity as experienced by two sisters. Some of Usoffers insight into a place and time when life was much more complex than Westerners have allowed. These eloquent writings shatter our stereotypes of persecution, repression, victims, and victimizers. Together, these multi-faceted memoirs offer the reader new perspectives as they daringly explore difficult-and fascinating-issues.

Table of Contents

Chronology	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	xiii
Xueping Zhong
Wang Zheng
Bai Di
In a World Together Yet Apart: Urban and Rural Women Coming of Age in the Seventies	1	(26)
Naihua Zhang
Call Me ``Qingnian'' But Not ``Funu'': A Maoist Youth In Retrospect	27	(26)
Wang Zheng
From ``Lighthouse'' to the Northeast Wilderness: Growing Up Among the Ordinary Stars	53	(24)
Xiaomei Chen
My Wandering Years in the Cultural Revolution: The Interplay of Political Discourse and Personal Articulation	77	(23)
Bai Di
``Times Have Changed; Men and Women Are the Same''	100	(20)
Jiang Jin
Gender Consciousness in My Teen Years	120	(12)
Lihua Wang
Between ``Lixiang'' And Childhood Dreams: Back from the Future to the Nearly Forgotten Yesteryears	132	(23)
Xueping Zhong
The Production of Senses in and Out of the ``Everlasting Auspicious Lane'': Shanghai, 1966--1976	155	(24)
Zhang Zhen
Congratulations, It's a Girl!: Gender and Identity In Mao's China	179	(20)
Yanmei Wei
About the Contributors	199	(4)
Index	203