Chinese Women Through Chinese Eyes

Back before I read this book, I used to think that women's power was a Western idea, which China's women never thought of till Christian missionaries informed them in the 1800s. But Li Yu-ning and colleagues give us Chinese women explaining their own history and their sources of inspiration. The various essays explore traditions starting in the age before warlords, made by village matrons, wise women, and rebel leaders. They present a women's counterculture that has always been there, and is growing stronger. I was especially fascinated to read the account of Chang Mo-chün, a leader in the anti-footbinding movement. She was inspired as a girl by a local statue of the goddess Guanyin (Kuan Yin), who had unbound feet, and was the female savior of the universe.--author of A Galaxy of Immortal Women: The Yin Side of Chinese Civilization