Women of China Nos. 4-5, October 1960

Peking, China: National Federation of the of the People's Republic of China, 1960. Very good. Minor dust soiling, a couple nicks to extremities.. A scarce 1960 issue of the English-language journal, "Women of China", published bimonthly in Peking by the National Federation of the of the People's Republic of China. The aim of this publication was to promote women's equality and empowerment in the Communist Party. This issue features articles showing women as partners and pioneers in the Chinese revolution, such as one article about a Technical Pioneer named Ma Li-chen who innovated a machine that "raised the efficiency" of a factory by "1,079 times" (p.27). Smiling women from both urban and rural settings are shown proudly benefitting from the fruits of their labor throughout the issue. The sentiment of this publication can be summarized by a spoken motto on page 30: "The Party is our home, / The Commune is our mother; / We rely on the Commune. / Even if heaven should collapse and the earth cave in, / We will have no fear". Single vol. (10" by 7.5"), pp. 48, illus., stapled in original color-illustrated wrps. For a more nuanced discussion of this journal and its complicated relationship to feminism in the Mao era, see Zheng, Wang. "Creating a Socialist Feminist Cultural Front: ‘Women of China' (1949-1966)." The China Quarterly, no. 204, 2010, pp. 827-49. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27917835. Note the cover illustration, which shows two men and two women proudly carrying a bundle of wheat and basket of cotton.