Nanxiu Qian on female reformers in China in the late XIX century

The article analyzes the research of Nanxiu Qian, professor of Chinese Literature at Rice University, on women’s participation in the Chinese Reform Movement of the 1890s. The research addresses the activity of female reformers during the 1897-98 Shanghai Campaign for Women’s Education and the role of a talented writer and translator Xue Shaohui in the 1898 Reform Period in China. The professor’s works show that during the Shanghai Campaign the first Chinese women’s association, school for young elite women and women’s journal Chinese Girl’s Progress were created by the joint efforts of male and female reformers, and the issue of women’s rights in China was raised. Nanxiu Qian concludes that attention to Xue Shaohui’s work broadens and reperiodizes how we understand non-state reform activity in the last years of the Qing. It began in the 1860s, extended beyond the capital, encompassed many facets of social and cultural life, was shaped by the writings of women as well as men, and continued in other forms after the best-known reformers were executed or forced into exile.