In this joint book talk, Zhu and Xiao survey the genealogy of Chinese feminist movement and its most recent developments after 1995 when the Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing. By juxtaposing the plural “feminisms” with “Chinese characteristics,” they both underline the importance of integrating Chinese culture, history, and tradition in the discussions of Chinese feminisms, and stress the difference between the plethora of contemporary Chinese feminisms and the singular state feminism. 

Ping Zhu is an associate professor of Chinese literature at the University of Oklahoma and serves as the acting editor in chief of Chinese Literature Today. She is the author of Gender and Subjectivities in Early Twentieth-century Chinese Literature and Culture (Palgrave, 2015) and the co-editor of Maoist Laughter (Hong Kong University Press, 2019). 

Faye Xiao is Professor and Chairperson of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Kansas. She has published two monographs Youth Economy, Crisis, and Reinvention in Twenty-First Century China (2021) and Family Revolution: Marital Strife in Contemporary Chinese Literature and Visual Culture (2014). She has also been interviewed regularly by international media to discuss issues on gender, class, globalization, and Chinese culture.