China and Women
About Empress Dowager Cixi (or Tz'u-hsi or Hsiao-ch'in)
She was the power behind the throne in China for over fifty years, spanning the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. Find out more about one of Asia's most interesting rulers. Includes a biography, Net links and other resources.
Chinese Empress Discovers Silk Secret
Description of the legend of the discovery of silk in ancient China by the Empress Lei-tzu.
Lady Li
A Chinese artist credited with inventing a method of bamboo painting.
Two Years in the Forbidden City by Princess Der Ling
In 1911, a lady-in-waiting at her court published Two Years in the Forbidden City, a memoir of life in Tz'u-hsi's (Cixi's) court. Read the entire work here.
Books on Chinese American Women
Jun Shan, About.com's Guide to China Online, suggests some excellent books about Chinese American women and their experience and history.
Ban Zhao: Lessons for a Woman
Written about 80 C.E. by a woman Confucian, this document was to be a guide for a young woman's everyday life.
Ban Zhao
This Chinese historian and teacher lived before about 120 C.E. Includes biography, bibliography and some writings.
Chinese Women and the Logic of American Feminism
Juliette Guilbert regrets that Americans fail to notice advances Chinese women have made, thereby misapplying feminist principles to support racist perspectives.
Empress Wu Zetian (625-705 AD)
Biography, part of a larger set of curriculum resources on women in world history.
Greatest Leap
NY Times Magazine feature outlines the massive changes in the status, roles and lives of Chinese women, in just four generations.
(Inter)disciplining Chinese Women
A bibliography on English language articles, books and other writing on women's studies within China. Includes a good introduction on the history of women's studies in China and a timeline on the history of women's studies there.
Legend of Miao-shan
The legend where the once-male deity Kuan-yin first appears as a female deity.
Mulan, the Maiden Chief
A story from the sixth century, of a virgin warrior woman who successfully held the fort against invaders.
Women in Chinese History - Supplemental Bibliography
Patricia Ebrey's bibliography of print resources for studying women in Chinese history.
Xue Tao
Woman poet of the Tang Dynasty, concubine of a military governor. Translations, background and bibliography.
Yu Xuanji
Taoist priestess who was also a writer and poet. Translations, background, bibliography.