Gender and Generation in China Today

Book excerpt: This book examines how gender and generational relations have been influenced by the vast changes in the Chinese society since the start of the Reform era in 1978. It offers a short introduction to China's recent development and the relationship between Chinese and Nordic gender research. Three articles in the book focus on how the developments in the Reform era have produced generational changes in feminist politics, in the labour market, and between young people and their parents – and what impacts these changes have for gender relations. Two articles investigate changes in middle-class motherhoods and fatherhoods towards more emphasis on intimacy and love between parents and child, but often in asynchronicity with traditional gender roles among the parents. In addition, the book comprises a review of a recent volume about transforming Chinese patriarchy, and an essay reflecting on what the implications for Nordic/Western gender studies of China’s increasing presence and influence globally as well as in the Nordic region could or should be. This book is a significant new contribution to gender studies and politics, and will be a great resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of Literature, History, Sociology, Politics, and Gender. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of NORA—Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research.