Critical Socialist Feminism in China: Xingbie (Gender), the State, and Community-Based Socialism

Abstract

Recent publicity of Chinese feminist activism highlights the urgency for scholarly attention to historically and contextually grounded knowledge about socialism and feminism. This essay explores current Chinese feminism as a contentious and geopolitically mediated subject, introducing critical socialist feminism within the Chinese feminist theorizing that has emerged in the last decade. Specifically, the essay discusses how several scholars reexamine gender, socialist legacy, and community-based socialism and argues that this new terrain of Chinese feminist theory should be read critically while paying attention to recent theoretical developments in East Asia. Grounded in the context of Chinese state capitalism, critical socialist feminism holds potential to challenge certain Eurocentric tendencies in the transnational flow of socialist feminism.