Happy Lunar New Year from the USC US-China Institute!
Jacob Eyferth, "Cotton, Cloth, and Women’s Work in the Chinese Revolution,1949-76"
In this talk, Jacob Eyferth will focus on cotton and cotton cloth to better understand the changing relations of production and exchange that shaped the life and work of rural women
Where
Historians of late imperial China have long been aware of the central importance of women’s work, in particular women’s textile work. Women’s work at the spindle and the loom not only clothed the nation but also helped to reproduce a gendered moral order. Historians of twentieth-century China, in contrast, often seem to assume that manual textile work came to an end in 1949, and that the social and material ties that had developed around it no longer mattered after the revolution. This was not so: for the length of a generation, most rural Chinese continued to wear homespun and millions of rural women continued to spin and weave at home. However, female textile work was no longer recognized as the natural counterpart to male farming; in fact, it was no longer recognized as work at all.
Jacob Eyferth is a social historian of twentieth-century China interested in the everyday lives of non-elite people, mostly in rural China. His first book, Eating Rice from Bamboo Roots, is an ethnographic history of a community of paper makers in Sichuan. He is currently working on a second book, tentatively titled “Cotton, Gender, and Revolution in Twentieth-Century China.” Eyferth teaches modern Chinese history at the University of Chicago.
Featured Articles
We note the passing of many prominent individuals who played some role in U.S.-China affairs, whether in politics, economics or in helping people in one place understand the other.
Events
Ying Zhu looks at new developments for Chinese and global streaming services.
David Zweig examines China's talent recruitment efforts, particularly towards those scientists and engineers who left China for further study. U.S. universities, labs and companies have long brought in talent from China. Are such people still welcome?