Liang Qichao’s feminist perspectives in the context of national crisis and modern state-building: an explanation centered on the ideas of “Promoting female education”, “Virtuous wife and good mother” and “Abolishing foot-binding”

Abstract: In the context of the late Qing dynasty in China, Liang Qichao framed women’s issues through a triad of initiatives: “abolishing foot-binding”, “promoting women’s education” and idealizing the “virtuous wife and good mother”. These measures sought to emancipate the female body, enlighten women’s minds and redefine gender roles-all aligned with nationalist reform goals. Informed by Michel Foucault’s biopolitics, Nira Yuval-Davis’ gender-nation relations and Judith Butler’s gender performativity theory, this study argues that Liang’s reforms-though freeing women from traditional constraints-also placed their bodies and minds under state control. While ending foot-binding and early marriage liberated women physically, it subjected them to the modernizing state’s biopolitical interests. Women’s education, though transformative, was designed mainly to develop vocational skills rather than foster autonomy. The “virtuous wife and good mother” ideal ultimately reinforced maternal ideals within a nationalist narrative, revealing a deep adherence to traditional gender ethics. This reflects the complex social, historical and cultural contexts of the cultural transformation of late Qing and its multiple influences on Liang’s feminist perspectives that are full of contradictions, conflicts and theoretical tensions.