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A review by fedes_library
Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China by Leta Hong Fincher
4.0
In this book, Leta Hong Fincher argues that the patriarchal nature of China's authoritarian model is a structural condition for the increasing resistance of Feminist and LGBTQ+ networks within the country. She argues that Feminist activists are the main threat to the power of the CCP and have the potential to extend to other resistance movements, and eventually reform the current system.
The author looks at the rise of Feminism in China from a historical perspective. Feminist activists played a role in the foundation of the first Chinese Repulic in 1911 and the subsequent popular anti-feudal movements (e.g. 1925), but since the foundation of the PRC, the communist party has required all major women's rights movements to be affiliated with the party's "All-China women federation". In other words, Feminism is tolerated as long as it is apolitical, as long as it does not question the patriarchal authority of the party and its "eugenic" policies that have historically aimed at controlling the population's growth and stability by controlling Chinese women's bodies.
One of the most interesting sections is the one in which the author describes, from an economic point of view, the structural reasons behind gender inequality in China. According to her analysis, "Chinese women have missed out on what is arguably the biggest accumulation of residential real-estate wealth in history" because "urban homes that were appreciating exponentially in value tended to be registered solely in the man's name". The detachment of Chinese women from material wealth is connected to the propaganda campaign to shame "educated women into getting married, which would theoretically promote social stability"
The author looks at the rise of Feminism in China from a historical perspective. Feminist activists played a role in the foundation of the first Chinese Repulic in 1911 and the subsequent popular anti-feudal movements (e.g. 1925), but since the foundation of the PRC, the communist party has required all major women's rights movements to be affiliated with the party's "All-China women federation". In other words, Feminism is tolerated as long as it is apolitical, as long as it does not question the patriarchal authority of the party and its "eugenic" policies that have historically aimed at controlling the population's growth and stability by controlling Chinese women's bodies.
One of the most interesting sections is the one in which the author describes, from an economic point of view, the structural reasons behind gender inequality in China. According to her analysis, "Chinese women have missed out on what is arguably the biggest accumulation of residential real-estate wealth in history" because "urban homes that were appreciating exponentially in value tended to be registered solely in the man's name". The detachment of Chinese women from material wealth is connected to the propaganda campaign to shame "educated women into getting married, which would theoretically promote social stability"