Modern Girls / Edited by Modern Girl Around the World Research Group

In the early 20th century, a "modern girl" phenomenon swept across the globe simultaneously. From advertisements to reality, who were these modern girls? What did they pursue? And whom did they offend? A study of gender modernity spanning five continents and nearly a decade. An epic journey of women transcending race, borders, and social strata. **She wanted to be seen** **And to reshape the world's perception of her.** "The modern girl was a marketing strategy of global capitalism, a lightning rod for nationalists, and a troublemaker for traditionalists. Yet, women still saw something novel, secular, and attainable in the modern girl. Her courage to leap into modern life, full of opportunities and pitfalls, is a legacy that women today still inherit." In the 1920s and 1930s, an image of a woman—with short hair, red lips, a slender figure, and a seductive style—emerged simultaneously worldwide. Initially endorsing women's products in newspaper advertisements, she provocatively challenged traditional norms with her fashionable and rebellious demeanor. From Tokyo to Shanghai, Delhi to Cape Town, Berlin to Moscow, this "modern girl," born from capitalist consumer culture, moved seamlessly across different regions, cultures, and races, transforming into various names and images. She influenced a generation of women's outward appearance, self-expression, and life choices, and also changed how the world viewed women. This book offers a comprehensive exploration of the "modern girl" by twelve scholars from diverse academic backgrounds worldwide. It situates gender history within the framework of world history, analyzing the distinctive modern girls across five continents and nine countries, encompassing historical figures and their visual representations in media. The authors examine how the global flow of goods, ideas, and cultures between the World Wars shaped women's characteristics and circumstances, and through women's perspectives, they observe the collision of ideologies such as nationalism and colonial sentiments with global capitalism. Full Title: Modern Girls: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization (1920s-1930s) Edited by: Modern Girl Around the World Research Group Chief Editor: Madeleine Yue Dong Translator: Jian Ge ISBN: 978-988-237-339-6 Binding: Paperback Language: Traditional Chinese Pages: 556 Dimensions: 229 x 152 mm **About the Editors** **Modern Girl Around the World Research Group** Established at the University of Washington, the group includes Tani E. Barlow, Madeleine Yue Dong, Uta G. Poiger, Priti Ramamurthy, Lynn M. Thomas, and Alys Eve Weinbaum. Their research spans literary criticism, history, cultural studies, and women's studies. **About the Chief Editor** **Madeleine Yue Dong** Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Chinese Studies Program at the University of Washington. Her research primarily focuses on modern Chinese history, particularly social and cultural history and urban history. Her publications include "Republican Beijing: History and Nostalgia" and the co-edited volume "Everyday Modernity in China." **About the Translator** **Jian Ge** Holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) and teaches at the School of Civil and Commercial Law, Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai Campus. Her research areas include the history of English education development, discourse analysis, linguistic anthropology, and sociolinguistics. **Endorsements** Before this book's publication, no academic work had been able to address the culture of the modern girl across five continents and her intricate interactions with political situations, racial conflicts, regional developments, colonial struggles, and global capitalism. —**Hui-Ching Hsu** (Associate Professor, Department of History, National Chengchi University) This book focuses on the study of commodities in advertisements, observing through the female body how Western capitalism interacted and negotiated with modernity, nationalism, and colonial sentiments, revealing the radiant glow of globalization. While the authors may not have intended to construct a paradigm, this book has become a seminal work, offering readers numerous insights. —**Chien-Ming Yu** (Research Fellow, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica) What does "modern" mean? What does "girl" mean? This book demonstrates how women in various countries, while passively accepting globalization, simultaneously realized and shaped numerous facets of modernization through personal choices. "Modern" and "girl," two commonly stereotyped terms, are examined through comparative research. This study not only focuses on the imagination and control of women by culture and society but also highlights the importance of understanding daily life from multiple dimensions. —**Siu-Wai Tam** (Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)