Abstract
To read Min Dongchao’s new book Translation and Travelling Theory: Feminist Theory and Praxis in China is to see through the development of feminism and gender studies in China with the help of a special illuminating light. The special light is called the ‘alternative travelling theory’, which is a significant contribution of the book.
Having critically scrutinized the ‘travelling theory’ proposed by Edward Said, James Clifford, and other social theorists, Min develops the theory by focusing on the ways Chinese scholars and NGO practitioners received, identified, applied and reconstructed feminist and gender theories that travelled to China from the West, especially from the US. In addition to accentuating the importance of the actions of key individuals and groups, Min locates those actions in the discursive and material conditions of China’s historical context from the 1980s to the first decade of the 21st century. It is also within this historical context that translation, i.e. the vehicle for theories to travel, is discussed with a stress on its cultural aspects. People in between the departing places and destinations of theories, the cultural aspects of translation process and the macro historical conjuncture constitute the three crucial dimensions of Min’s ‘alternative travelling theory’. In delineating the complex and zigzagged journeys in China of feminist and gender theories that originated from the West, Min successfully challenges the linear travelling theory established by previous western publications.
The book is composed of six chapters. The first chapter sets the methodological tone of the alternative travelling theory. The second chapter lays out the critical points of the historical turn in the 1980s, when particular feminist theories travelled to China for the first time since 1949. The third chapter closely analyses the twists and turns in the translation processes of two key concepts, ‘feminism’ and ‘gender’. The mechanisms that direct the ways in which the theories were either adopted or eschewed are identified in this chapter. It is worth noting that Chinese pioneers in feminist studies problematized specific aspects of the Reform and Opening-up era of China. Chapter 4 continues to discuss the changing discourse of such problematics. The constructive diversities that emerged from various dialogues and translations in the 1980s were soon replaced by the single practice of connecting to and following the advanced international (western) world in the 1990s. In Chinese, this phenomenon is described as Jiegui, which is elaborated in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 turns the focus from the academic world of feminist studies of China to the practices of two NGOs. This example of theory in use not only involves intensive translation work, but also creative knowledge production in daily negotiations with non-academic, community-based Chinese men and women. Chapter 6 concludes the book by summarizing the key points of ‘alternative travelling theory’ and raising some poignant questions regarding the opportunities for, and barriers to, the development of feminist theories in China in the new century.
Two aspects are particularly important in the book, enriching the argument of the ‘alternative travelling theory’. One refers to the problematics of Chinese feminism and gender studies that were shaped and reshaped throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. The feminist theories that travelled to China played different roles in the three historical periods as they were applied to formulate the changing scope of Chinese feminist and gender studies.
In the 1980s, the first generation of feminist scholars in China discovered women as individual females with different characteristics from males by reading Simone de Beauvoir’s vital book The Second Sex. At that time, the first set of foreign feminist theory books, especially The Second Sex, served as an important channel for Chinese intellectuals to clarify the problems and complexities in the process of social transition. They did not agree with the principle of ‘equality between men and women’, which is a socialist legacy of the age of Mao Zedong. Nor were they attracted by the western genealogy of feminist theories that informed the books. Individuality, with emphases on women’s self-awareness and differences between men and women, stood out as the most important theoretical concept for understanding the most important issue of the problematics of feminism in the Chinese context. The Reform and Opening-up policy provided the space to discuss the topic of ‘individuality’, which was not sufficiently deliberated in the age of Mao Zedong.
In addition, in the 1980s, the micro academic context of China was dominated by male scholars and rigid disciplinary studies. The pioneers of Chinese feminist theories were acutely aware of the power relations in the academic field. Feminism and gender studies were not only new arenas for the pioneers to advance research designed to address the challenges of China’s new epoch, but also theoretical weapons with which they could resist the male hegemony.
However, from the 1990s onwards, the fruitful discussions of feminist theories concerned with ‘individuality’ were suddenly substituted by the utilitarian discourse of catching up with the ‘developed’ regions of the world. Therefore, the problematics of feminism and gender studies in China were also altered. Min’s book wonderfully unravels this process of theoretical rupture.
The second highlight of the book refers to the journeys of feminist theories in the area of NGO practices. The case of Yunnan Reproductive Health Research Association (YRHRA) is very impressive. Inspired by the feminist theories, Chinese intellectuals established YRHRA to help minority ethnic women in Yunnan province to solve health problems in their daily life. YRHRA became a platform for different stakeholders and academic disciplines to encounter and interact with each other. Thus, translations of theories became more complex and intra-disciplinary. Translations not only occurred between disciplines such as sociology, psychology and medical science, but also in the everyday interactions between NGO practitioners, academics and local women. The travelling of feminist theories was given energetic and creative impetus.
However, the situation in relation to the production of new knowledge was ambivalent. The power relations between YRHRA and its international sponsor limited the possibilities for theorizing the discursive knowledge generated from the practices of the Association. Are theories from the East or the South able to travel to the West or the North? Min expresses her anxiety about this in the last chapter of the book. While more and more constructive academic and practical work in the fields of feminism and gender studies have abundantly emerged in China in the past decades, sufficient analyses and in-depth theorization are still to come. The case of YRHRA and other similar cases require further exploration.
In a word, the methodology of the ‘alternative travelling theory’ developed by Min involves capturing the mobility of theories in different social-political contexts. From the perspective of ‘alternative travelling theory’, ‘theory’ is a verb rather than a noun. Its moving trajectories connect, in a non-linear way, the social-historical conditions, the agencies of people and academic practices together to create something new and meaningful. ‘Alternative travelling theory’ is not limited to the fields of feminism and gender studies. It is also illustrative for other disciplines.
The pioneers of China’s feminist and gender studies deserve sincere respect from our young generation. They themselves constitute the essential landmark that guides feminist theories to locate in China. Min Dongchao is doubtlessly one such pioneer. Some of her academic and travelling experiences are also introduced in the book as part of the social-historical context. Translation and Travelling Theory is an indispensable book for students who wish to learn the history of China’s feminist and gender studies.