Introduction:

The rise of talented women in late imperial China, especially in the Jiangnan region, has long caught the attention from the academia. Scholars like Dorothy Ko, Wai-yee Li, and Grace Fong have laid the foundation for the study of talented women and their literary works. From classic literary genre of poems and essays to female dominated narrative genre of tanci fictions, late imperial Chinese women enthusiastically wrote about their intellectual achievements, expressions of identity, negotiations of familial and marital expectations, and fantasies of cross-dressing as a means of exploring alternative ways of living. Through these writings, we are allowed to see a vivid and multifaceted view of women’s lives in history, while also recognizing the ways in which literature served as a means for women to navigate and challenge the Confucian patriarchal system, curating both individual and collective voices. Their works not only deepen our traditional understanding of late imperial Chinese society, but, more importantly, underscore the creativity of women and their significant impact on shaping and transforming the cultural and social landscape of the period. Through reading and discussing both literary works authored by late imperial Chinese female authors as well as scholarly works on these works, this project seeks to ask and answer research questions concerning the following two main topics: (1) female education and (2) female body and sensitivity.

This project will kick off in February 2025 with a monthly reading group facilitated by two DKU students, Yuqing Wang and Yuting Zeng. Additionally, we will host a series of guest lectures featuring scholars from both within and beyond DKU, focusing on the depictions of late imperial Chinese women in literature, art, and film. By the conclusion of the spring semester, the project will culminate in an exhibition exploring women’s lives and female literature from late imperial to modern China, offering the DKU community a chronological overview of the experiences of Chinese women.