About the project

The Chinese revolutionary ideology which emerged during the final years of the the last Chinese dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911), was mainly developed in Chinese student circles in Japan. In addition to nationalism, anarchism grew out as one rather distinct current of thought.
In 1906 anarchists in Tokyo established the Shehui zhuyi jiangxi hui (Society for the Study of Socialism), which published the two journals Tianyi (Natural Justice) and Hengbao (Balance). This group was influenced by leading European anarchist thinkers in the latter part of the 19th century, like Peter Kropotkin. At approximately the same time as the Chinese Tokyo anarchist society was founded, a group of Chinese anarchists in Paris established the Xin shijie she (New World Society), which started the publication of the journal Xin Shiji (New Era) in 1907. The Paris anarchists were under heavy influence of Peter Kropotkin and Michail Bakunin, and serialised translations of them and other European anarchists like Errico Malatesta and Elisèe Reclus. The main figures of the Tokyo group were Liu Shipei and his wife He Zhen. They considered premodern Chinese thought to be close to anarchist social ideals. At the same time they preached equality of the sexes and a society free from classes. While the Tokyo group was rather anti-modernist, the Paris anarchists took a clear stand against Chinese tradition. They considered the family to be the basis of inequality in society, and called for a women's revolution.
Chinese feminism developed as part of the reform movement in China during the last decade of the 19th century, and the question of women was treated in numerous journals between 1902 to 1911, both in feminist journals like the Zhongguo xin nü jie zazhi (New Chinese Women's World) and in revolutionary journals like the Minbao (People’s Journal). However, female liberation was generally seen as an integral part of the greater goal of a liberation of the Chinese nation, and did not include the destruction of traditional social institutions like the family.
The Chinese anarchist discourse on feminism, especially that of the Tokyo group, represents something new. The anarchists wanted to destroy the state and all social institutions, beginning with the family. Thus their concept of female liberation was that of liberation of women from the family and not only within the family, which other feminists seemed to be content with. Through their focus on women the Chinese anarchists' feminism provided a new, radical view of the individual in relation to the family, society and the state.

This project aims to analyse how a Chinese anarchist discourse of feminism emerged in the first decade of the twentieth century, a discourse where the relationship between the individual, society and state was seen with new eyes. The main focus will be on the Chinese anarchists in Tokyo and their journal Tianyi, which was published for about one year from July 1907. This feminist discourse will be examined in the larger picture of Chinese anarchism in particular and anarchism in general. Another important focus will be on the negotiation between the Tokyo group's discourse on feminism in Tianyi and the Paris anarchists' discourse on feminism developed mainly in the Xin Shiji. Finally, the project will analyse the Chinese anarchist discourse on feminism in the context of late Qing feminism and the role of women in society.