Ai Xiaoming

Jinyan Zeng (曾金燕) is an affiliated researcher and a former Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Department of History, Lund University, Sweden. She was born and raised as an ethnic Hakka in China, and is also a creative writer and documentary filmmaker.

This affectionate and provocative biography of Ai Xiaoming, the pathbreaking feminist scholar and documentary filmmaker, is embedded in a broad historical landscape of truth-seeking intellectuals in modern China. Importantly, Zeng’s contribution to intellectual history is deeply informed by her practice and reflexivity as a fellow feminist. Zhen Zhang, author of Women Filmmakers in Sinophone World CinemaThis timely book focuses on Ai Xiaoming, a professor and feminist activist who has had a great impact on a generation of Chinese feminists, including the author Zeng Jinyan herself. The book explores the life and work of Professor Ai that bridge scholarship, activism and film-making. The book provides new perspectives on gender issues as well China’s complex history and suppressed memories and will be of interest to readers not only in China studies but those who focuses on the role of scholars who maintain a critical voice globally. Marina Svensson, author of Debating Human Rights in China: A Conceptual and Political HistoryZeng Jinyan’s study of feminist scholar Ai Xiaoming’s practice of activism, scholarship and documentary investigation incorporates broader reflections on women intellectuals in 20th century China and globally. The unique positionality of the author as both insider and outsider provides her with poignant insights into the gendered logic of knowledge production.Sebastian Veg, author of Minjian: The Rise of China’s Grassroots IntellectualsZeng Jinyan’s monograph offers a rich account of historical and conceptual perspectives on women intellectuals in China. By analysing Ai Xiaoming’s work, experiences and contributions against the backdrop of China’s socio-political transformation, the reader gets to rediscover an intellectual whose thoughts and contributions are as relevant and needed as ever.Lisa Eklund, Associate Professor in Sociology, Lund University, Sweden.

• Introduction 1. Stigma and Intellectual Identity: A Short Biography of Ai Xiaoming 2. Authenticity and Intellectual Integrity: Ai Xiaoming’s History of the Intellectual 3. Documentary and Rights Defense: Ai Xiaoming’s Visualization of Truth-Telling 4. Body and Digital Feminism: Ai Xiaoming’s Nude Breasts Photography 5. Space and Public Life: Ai Xiaoming’s Everyday Practice 6. Conclusion: A Feminist Study of the Chinese Intellectual Filmography Reference Index