Why read Women and the Family in Rural Taiwan?

Book cover of Women and the Family in Rural Taiwan

Book description

Studies of Chinese society commonly emphasizze men's roles and functions, a not unreasonable approach to a society with patrilineal kinship structure. But this emphasis has left many important gaps in our knowledge of Chinese life.

This study seeks to fill some of these gaps by examining the ways rural…

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Asian history

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Why read it?

1 author picked Women and the Family in Rural Taiwan as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Bret Hinsch

Author

Even though this is a work of anthropology, it also provides unique insights into rural history. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Margery Wolf did fieldwork in a poor village in rural Taiwan. At that time, modernization was just beginning to affect the countryside, so most aspects of village life were still traditional. Although Taiwanese society differed from the mainland in certain ways, in most aspects of life there carried on the traditions of Chinese village life. This book looks at rural society from a female perspective. Due to poverty, both women and men had few options. They did…

From Bret's list on The best books about Chinese history that will surprise you.