"Expressions of the Life that is within Us" Epistolary Practice of American Women in Republican China Open Access
Zhou, Haipeng (2011)
Abstract
"Expressions of the Life that is within Us"
Epistolary Practice of American Women in Republican China
By Haipeng Zhou
Reciprocal exchanges, interactions that influence a person's life
and development,
are the focus of my dissertation on a group of progressive American
women. Among
them are Ida Pruitt, Helen Snow, and Maud Russell, who stayed in
China in the 1920s
and 1930s, engaging in various progressive activities as social
worker, YWCA secretary
and independent journalist respectively. Letter writing and reading
was an indispensable
part of their life in China. It served as a vital link between
their diverse Chinese
experience and American homeland, it set up a free stage for these
letter writers to create
and perform various selves, it served as a key factor to define the
letter writers' sense of
community, and it provided a unique lens to see a transnational
history with emphasis on
gender and race.
The purpose of this project is to unravel the significance of the
discursive
epistolary practice of these women. It examines through epistolary
representations the
internal and external standards in evaluating women's new and
traditional roles in this
historical period. More specifically, my dissertation will focus on
four key themes:
progressive American women's community in China, their
self-representation of
changing personas and selves in reaction to various external
values, the influence of their
letter writing on the perception of China in the US, and the impact
of their epistolary
practice on international feminist practices and cross-cultural
understanding.
To explore these themes, I investigate the foreign community in
China and its
epistolary culture in general, as well as conduct specific case
studies. I argue that the
epistolary legacies left by these middle-class American women open
new windows to see
the past from an enlightening perspective. They demonstrate that
individuals' experience
can break through ideological barriers and influence imbalance
among big territorial
powers. Through analysis of their letters, this project asserts
these progressive women's
own voices in history, and sets new angles in assessing their work
and impacts.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter 1
The Voices Heard and Unheard: Pearl Buck and Others Who Wrote about China 27
Chapter 2
More than "White Women's Burden": Ida Pruitt's Narratives of Help in Medical Social Work 78
Chapter 3
In Pursuite of Joan of Arc: Helen Foster Snow's China Years 157
Chapter 4
Values in Creative Experience: Maud Russell's Work in the YWCA of Inland China 243
Conclusion 302
Bibliography 316
About this Dissertation
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