Synopses & Reviews
Keeping the Nations House unsettles the assumption
that home economics training lies far from the seats of power by
revealing how elite Chinese women helped to build modern China one
family at a time. Trained between the 1920s and the early 1950s, home
economists did not believe that a clear line separated the private
(nei) from the public (wai). They believed that the
home economics courses taught in centres of higher learning would
transform the most fundamental of political spaces - the
home - by teaching women to nurture ideal families and
manage projects of social reform for a strong, modern China. Although
their discipline came undone after 1949, it created a legacy of
gendered professionalism and reinforced the idea that leaders should
shape domestic rituals of the people.
By focusing on the vision and aspirations of the women who shaped a
discipline, this book offers a gendered perspective on the past and
reveals how women intellectuals dealt with the transition from the
Nationalist to the Communist era.
Review
Schneider's book is a rigorous and compelling new interpretation of the Nationalist era in Chinese history. Although studies of the era have traditionally centred on militarism and high politics, Schneider shows how the construction of home life was crucial to the formation of a new sense of national identity. Her analysis of home economics is highly suggestive, showing how new discourses of social science and modernity intersected with the most intimate and private spaces in Chinese family life.
- Rana Mitter, author of A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World
Review
Schneider's book makes an outstanding contribution to our understanding of the Nationalist period, particularly the educational reform and social development of the era. She has mined a huge amount of material rarely used before, such as popular women's magazines and journals; unearthed archival documents in Nanjing, Beijing, Chongqing, and elsewhere; and put it all to excellent use. She skillfully pursues the stories of some of these women into the post-1949 period, showing how they contributed to the "new China."
- Ruth Hayhoe, editor of Education, Culture and Identity in 20th Century China
Synopsis
The term
home economics often conjures images of sterile
classrooms where girls learn to cook dinner and swaddle dolls, far
removed from the seats of power. Helen Schneider unsettles this
assumption by revealing how Chinese women helped to build a nation, one
family at a time. From the 1920s to the early 1950s, home economists
transformed the most fundamental of political spaces - the
home - by teaching women to nurture ideal families and
manage projects of social reform. Although their discipline came undone
after 1949, it created a legacy of gendered professionalism and
reinforced the idea that leaders should shape domestic rituals of the
people.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1 The Ideology of the Happy Family, 1915-48
2 Gendered Responsibilities: Debates over Female
Education in the Republican Period
3 Domestic Discipline: The Development of Home Economics
Curricula
4 A Discipline of Their Own: Home Economists in
Institutions of Higher Learning
5 Experimenting with the Family: Family Education
Experimental Zones in the 1940s
6 Cleaning House: The Last Decade of a Gendered
Discipline
7 The Post-1949 Politics of Home Economics: Stories of
Professional Evolution
Conclusion
Notes
Glossary of Chinese Terms, Institutions, and Names
Bibliography
Index