Abstract
The above slogan captures the mission of a nongovernmental organization (NGO) known as Nongjianü in its attempts to promote the social development of China’s rural women in the post-Mao era. Nongjianü, or the Cultural Development Center for Rural Women (Rural Women), promotes particularistic modes of recognition, representation, and identity-formation among its target group (Nongjianü, 2003: ii). This chapter explains how such promotion happens. It first examines how rural women can be understood as a “minority” in mainland China, especially in relation to hegemonic discursive formations in Chinese society today. Then it introduces Nongjianü as an NGO advocating for rural women in China since the 1990s. This study looks particularly at how Nongjianü generates recognition, representation, and identity for rural women in a way that is distinctive in its approach. It argues that Nongjianü and its subjects mutually constitute an identity for rural women finding assets in their marginality. Together they create a “pragmatic politics of the present moment” that locates in these women liberating and empowering possibilities quite distinct from any sort of utopian solution to the dilemmas they face.
If you are given a fruit, you can enjoy it only once;
If you are given a seed, you can benefit from it your whole life.
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© 2009 Siu-Keung Cheung, Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, and Lida V. Nedilsky
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Wesoky, S.R. (2009). Re-Presenting Women’s Identities: Recognition and Representation of Rural Chinese Women. In: Marginalization in China. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230622418_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230622418_8
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