rematerialising Chinese feminism: socialist memories and new problematics

This article examines a theoretical strand that has emerged in the past decade in mainland China. The strand, tentatively called ‘critical socialist feminism’ (CSF), is characterised by its dedication to criticising mainstream liberal feminism, recuperating Marxist critiques of the political economy and revisiting the country’s socialist memories. Yet it so far has remained marginal and has yet to resonate with newer generations of feminist ideas and practices. This article seeks to reframe CSF into a flexible analytical framework that will be of critical relevance to our understanding of the situation facing women in contemporary China. Following ethnographic and historical reflections on Chinese feminism and its contestations, three problematics are offered to expand CSF’s theoretical capacity: 1) the necessity to rematerialise Chinese feminism, 2) the ambiguous relationship between Chinese feminists and the Chinese state and 3) the crucial and critical imperative to diversify Chinese feminist voices.