From Boudoir to Newsroom / by Yu-hsin Ma

**"I say this newspaper is the starting point for us 200 million people to gain equal rights."** In 1898, China's first women's periodical emerged. From then on, women stepped into the public sphere, gradually transforming from talented ladies in the inner chambers to professional journalists. Until the eve of the War of Resistance, women's periodicals flourished, not only gathering vibrant women's voices and fostering female cultural communities but also becoming crucial platforms for promoting women's liberation and social change. From national issues to personal matters, women journalists consistently centered their focus on women themselves, carving out a discursive space for women in a male-dominated society. This book examines over a hundred women's periodicals from Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Tokyo between 1898 and 1937, sketching a historical portrait of women journalists and illustrating the development of modern feminism through the press. Beyond the women's movements led by the Nationalist and Communist parties, the author also uncovers diverse groups such as Christian women, liberal feminists, and social reformists. Despite their differing stances, classes, and beliefs, they consistently protected the space for women's public expression. Amidst historical turmoil, they adapted their survival strategies in line with national changes, allowing women's voices to be preserved, amplified, and to resonate to this day. Full Title: From Boudoir to Newsroom: Women's Public Discourse in Early Chinese Women's Periodicals (1898–1937) Author: Yu-hsin Ma ISBN: 978-988-237-366-2 Binding: Paperback Language: Traditional Chinese Pages: 424 Dimensions: 229 x 152 mm **About the Author** **Yu-hsin Ma** Professor of East Asian History at the University of Louisville, specializing in modern Chinese history. She is currently the editor-in-chief of the American Review of China Studies. Her publications include Women Journalists and Feminism in China, 1898–1937 (2010) and Colonial Tactics and Everyday Life: Workers of the Manchuria Film Association (2023), along with over a dozen academic articles and book chapters in the fields of women's history and film history. Her current research focuses on sports culture and female athletes in contemporary China. **Endorsements** Continuing the tradition of scholarly ladies and talented women who demonstrated their sense of social and familial responsibility through poetry collections, early women's newspapers constructed a public space for literature and politics, providing a platform for literary talents to transform into modern professional journalists. This book fully showcases the diversity of Chinese feminism in the first half of the 20th century, and how women journalists utilized gendered public media to comment on national policies and social life from a feminist perspective, forming a grassroots force capable of influencing the political environment and public opinion. —**Guo-tung Li**, Professor of History, California State University, Long Beach This book systematically organizes the vast literature of women's periodicals during the Republican era and effectively integrates scattered historical materials in related fields as a reference work. It fills a significant gap in relevant research, and it is unlikely that similar works will surpass it in the near future. —**Pacific Affairs** Unlike the history of women's movements dominated by mainstream male perspectives, national agendas, and party politics, we can more clearly observe from women journalists that they were agents of social change. Women journalists skillfully used media writing to bravely articulate the values pursued by New Women at critical historical junctures and established women's alliances that transcended party and class consciousness. —**Modern Chinese Women's History Research**