ABSTRACT
For many Chinese compatriots of mine, including well-educated and professional women, nüquan zhuyi (the Chinese translation of feminism; literally, the doctrine of women’s power) has negative connotations. Chinese feminists who have invoked this term have been viewed as advocating too aggressively for the improvement of Chinese women’s conditions, and as importing Western views about gender justice to China without recognizing that just because a certain type of feminism works in the West does not mean that it will work equally well in China. For this reason and others, Chinesefeminists and non-feminists-are increasingly using the phrase, nüxing zhuyi, the doctrine of the female gender, to refer to feminism. This phrase, which de-emphasizes the political dimensions of feminism, has the advantage of drawing attention to feminism’s potential for re-conceiving and/or introducing new conceptual schemes through which to interpret male-female relationships and other relationships characterized by an inequitable distribution of power, opportunities, and resources.
