Precious Raft of History

Joan Judge is Associate Professor of Humanities and Women's Studies at York University in Toronto. She is the author of Print and Politics: 'Shibao' and the Culture of Reform in Late Qing China (Stanford, 1996) and of numerous articles on China at the turn of the twentieth century.

"In this broadly researched, ambitiously structured book, Judge presents a cross-section of the writings appearing at the turn of the 20th century that addressed the so-called 'women's question' in China. Rather than using such jaded terms as "tradition" and "modern," she ingeniously divides these writings into what she calls 'four chronotypes'...These chronotypes, which bridge history with literary theory, have enable Judge to demonstrate a complex and multifarious scene of sociocultural change at a critical juncture in Chinese history." - CHOICE "Judge's study of the 'woman question' does justice to its dynamism, complexity and transitional character. She has established a new benchmark in historical studies of the very late Qing." - Antonia Finnane (China Quarterly) "Joan Judge's The Precious Raft of History does exactly what a raft is supposed to do. It rescues history, in this case the history of Chinese women in the late Qing dynasty, from the dismissive condescension of revolutionaries and scholars alike. With impressive erudition, Judge gives us genuinely new material and themes to think about. This is original, careful, exciting work." - Gail Hershatter (University of California, Santa Cruz) "This fascinating new book strips away scholarly illusions about ruptures in China's nineteenth and early-twentieth century history, and reveals how new roles for women have deep roots in a dense textual and cultural past. The illustrations are nothing short of fabulous." - Susan Mann, University of California (Davis)

• Contents List of Illustrationsxxx Acknowledgmentsxxx Introduction: Women and Temporality1 Part OneThe Regime of Feminine Virtue000 1.Chaste Women: Sacred, Praiseworthy, or Misguided000 2.Public Women: Licentious or Evolved000 Part TwoHistory, Nation, and Female Talent000 3.Women of Talent: Valorized and Repudiated000 4.Wise Mothers and Mothers of Citizens000 Part ThreeNew Global Hierarchies of Female Heroism000 5.The Chinese Woman Warrior and the Western Heroine000 6.The New-Style Heroine and the Paradoxes of Feminine Time000 Conclusion: From the Turn of the Twentieth Century to the Turn of the Twenty-First000 Glossary and Character List000 Abbreviations000 Notes000 Bibliography000