Tale of Solidarity? Exploring Sino-Nordic Gender Studies Network

This article provides an account of the Sino-Nordic Gender Studies Network, which was founded in 2002, and had since then played a significant role in shaping feminist research and activist exchange between China and Nordic countries. However, the history and practices of this network has received scant attention in studies on transnational feminist solidarities. The aim of the article is twofold. First, we analyze the network using historical and autoethnographic approaches and map out a genealogy of feminist knowledge production that is located at the intersection of China and Nordic contexts. Second, we read the network through the lens of solidarity, all the while critically engaging with its defining parameters. As we will show, although solidarity has been increasingly associated with transnational feminism’s political and ethical orientations, the case of Sino-Nordic Gender Studies Network compels rethinking how and why the term is used and criticized. The complex relation between interpersonal relationships and the power imbalance between the various institutions and funding schemes calls into question the strict division between collective and individual that informs much discussion of feminist solidarity. Rather than simply being a good practice of feminist solidarity, this article argues that the Sino-Nordic Gender Studies Network offers important insights into the doing of solidarity even in its seeming absence.