Published in Hsiung Ping-Chun, Maria Jaschok, and Cecilia Milwertz (ed.), Chinese Women Organising: Cadres, Feminists, Muslims and Queers, Berg: Oxford, 2001.

Unrepresentative

Susie Jolly: This is a story of East Meets West Feminist Translation Group (Dongxi fang xiangyu xiaozi, EMW) — a women's group that meets in Beijing. Originally when Ge Youli and myself wrote this piece, we tried to write it together, and come up with one version of what went on. Ge Youli produced a draft, which I developed. However, even though I love Ge Youli and I agree with most things she says, I found that her experience of what went on in our precious little grouping was different from mine.

This lead to two results: 1) we are rewriting this piece as a conversation between the two of us with our two different voices instead of one unified 'we' ; 2) It occurred to me that if Ge Youli couldn't represent me, then how could either of us represent anyone else in the group? So I want to say loud and clear right at the beginning, that this is not the story of East Meets West Feminist Translation Group, but of two points of view on the subject. We do talk about our perceptions of what happened to others in the group. We will run this piece by a few members before we finalise it. And both Ge Youli and myself were consistently involved over several years. Ge Youli usually chaired the meetings, and for a couple of years East Meets West (EMW) met after hours in our office space (Ge Youli and I were colleagues for a while at UNDP, Beijing). However, neither of us are living in Beijing right now, and anyway, we can't represent the other members and produce an authoritative official history of EMW because it is unofficial, has no explicit structures of authority, and no elected representatives. It's a fluid, vibrant and live grouping, moving between organization and disorganization, even existence and hibernation, and with a fluctuating membership often consisting of who turns up on the night. I am here emphasising the fluid nature of the group, but I don't want to lose sight of how special it was, not just to me and its other participants, but to the context, and also in terms of wider impact. We hit a particular moment in Chinese history — a political opening coinciding with the holding of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. These created a space in which we could function as an unregistered independent women's group. This space, in combination with the enthusiasm, commitment and resources of several women, both Chinese and foreign, enabled the birth and continued existence over several years of our feminist translation group. Such an organization would be meaningful anywhere, but was specially so in China where non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and this kind of feminism are a recent phenomenon.

How we got started. The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women and us

Ge Youli: I don't claim to represent the group either, and this year I cannot participate as I am studying in the USA. However, I was there at the beginning, so I'll tell how it started. I first heard the term 'United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women' from Lisa Stearns in Autumn, 1992. I got to know Lisa through a Chinese woman friend of mine and soon we became good friends. Lisa was finishing her assignment as a Fulbright Professor of Law at Peking University and getting ready for her new position as consultant at the Ford Foundation carrying out a programme of activities assisting China in its preparation for the Women's Conference. At that time I was an administrative assistant in a foreign company in Beijing. Lisa was excited about her new job and I was basically curious about everything she had to say about the Conference. Although I was working in the private sector and my job had nothing to do with women's issues, my interest in the subject was high and I maintained close contact with feminist friends, both Chinese and foreign. We met at various social gatherings for women. When the news came that China was to host the Fourth World Women's Conference in Beijing in 1995, the discussion of its possible impact on Chinese women become a common theme at these gatherings. It seemed to me that most of my foreign feminist friends were quite well-informed about the women's issues frequently discussed at international forums. However, for many of us Chinese women, despite our interest in women's activities, terms such as 'United Nations Conference', 'Non-Governmental Organization', 'Platform for Action', 'women's NGOs' or 'NGO lobbying the government' still sounded very new. Many of us were also unfamiliar with the substantive issues such as political and economic empowerment of women, feminism, activism, gender analysis or gender mainstreaming. As an English speaking Chinese, too often when engaging in discussions with my Western sisters on feminist issues, I had to struggle to find meanings and equivalent expressions in my own language. In most instances I either failed to find the words in Chinese, or found them to cover only partial meanings of a particular term. I was shocked at the enormous differences existing in theories, concepts and approaches adopted by the Western and Chinese women's movements due to different social, cultural and political structures.

In late 1992 and early 1993, I had no idea that I would have anything to do with a UN Conference. In my mind it was only attended by government officials. I was too ordinary a person in China to have any connection with it. However my association with people like Lisa kept putting it in front of me. One day, eating in a small restaurant in Beijing, Lisa and I were once again talking about how Chinese women could get the most out of this major event, given the differences in discourse, issues and approaches associated with the Chinese and Western women's movement. 'How about setting up a translation group?' Lisa suggested. Great idea, Lisa! Since we knew a group of bilingual women (both Chinese and foreign) in Beijing who cared about women's issues and who were keen to contribute to the preparation process for the Conference, why not get together to start by translating English articles on the Western or international women's movement into Chinese? By introducing the history and issues of the movement to Chinese women, bit by bit, we hoped we would help to bridge the cultural and terminological gaps created by the different social and political structures in China and the West.

Thus the group was formed in 1993. We started with about ten Chinese and Western women. We were young professionals in our mid-20's or early 30's, including journalists, researchers, lawyers, businesswomen and graduate students. We hoped that by the time the Conference arrived, our work would have softened the barriers to communication arising from different terminologies and concepts. With increasing exchange envisaged in the two to three years to come, culminating in the Conference, we believed that our translation work would facilitate the creation of a common language and common conceptual framework between Chinese women and women internationally, so that substantive learning, sharing and networking would be possible.

Finding a language to express ourselves

Ge Youli: Although EMW was to be a translation group, we did not start our translation work immediately. In the first few sessions, we mainly reflected upon who we were, what in our lives had made us realise we were women, and why we were attracted to feminist issues. These sessions were mainly conducted in English. They were important for me because they helped me begin to see a pattern in women's lives. Regardless of who we were and where we originated, East or West, almost all of our awareness of being female was associated with some degree of discrimination and humiliation. When I shared my childhood story of my grandmother letting my brother go and play outside, while shutting me in to sew or help cooking, I remembered how unfair it felt, and realised that I was still unhappy about it. I vaguely felt that my experience of being treated differently from my brother in my childhood was still making an impact on my life, but I did not have the words or expressions to say clearly what it was and how it worked on me. I also remember a Chinese woman in the group telling the story of the pressure she felt at the dinner table in her parents' home that she should start out eating the leftovers, while her father started on the freshly made dishes. She could not tell where this pressure came from because nobody in the family had ever told her to do so.

It was through the discussion sessions that I came to acquire words and concepts such as gender discrimination, gender stereotype, gender roles and gendered structure. I began to put things in perspective, a gender perspective. I was amazed at the effectiveness and forcefulness of these English words in describing and deconstructing women's secondary position in families and societies. These discussion sessions also guided our selection of literature for translation. Through the process of seeking self-expression of our life experience as women, we began to see which were the more critical concepts and terminologies that did not exist in Chinese but would greatly help women in China (including myself) to better express and position ourselves once translated into Chinese. They should become a part of a common language for women seeking liberation across the boundaries.

Who came to the group and how I got there

Susie Jolly: When I arrived in Beijing in 1994, Ge Youli, Lisa Stearns and others had already launched EMW, and it was well underway. I was thrilled to meet this group of fifteen to twenty women who talked a language of feminism I could relate to. I had studied in Wuhan for a couple of years in the 1980s, and was now returning to China after seven years away. During this time, I ended up in Brussels, working for a politician. When she lost an election in 1994, I lost my job. So I decided to go back to Beijing and look for work. I was also hoping to join in the preparations for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. A few months after my arrival in Beijing, I met Lisa Stearns and she introduced me to EMW, which by then had been meeting for over a year.

I immediately felt at home with this group of mainly Chinese women about my age. Some were as committed feminists as myself, and took on the label 'feminist'. Others adopted a more 'Girl Power' style, as young flashly dressed professionals with a self-confidence and consciousness of their status, wanting to be strong successful women and have a lively intellectual discussion about the issues. These were women who were quite like me, young, professional, articulate, bilingual, definitely at the empowered/elite end of society. However, we nevertheless faced very definite constraints from the patriarchy. These ranged from the very concrete to the intangible but no less discouraging. Many had achieved some career success in spite of put-downs by family and at school. Recent university graduates in the group 'had been surprised to see the boys in their class offered better jobs even when they had lower grades. One girl working in a multinational company had to contest with sexual harassment from her Nordic male boss.

There were usually one or two women who didn't seem to notice it was a feminist group and would naively reiterate gender norms. Some of these changed their views enormously over time, for example, the health official who initially failed to see any relevance of gender issues to health care reform. 'It's just health care, nothing to do with gender' she declared in bewilderment as other EMW members clamoured to enlighten her. Now that same woman is doing a Masters degree in the UK in Gender and Development, and the subject of her first term paper is... 'A gender analysis of health care reform in China'! Some continued to participate, perhaps out of affection rather than any common values, but remained stoically resistant to the zeal of their more feminist sisters. One girl declared her intention of earning the money in odd jobs to support her artist boyfriend, so that when he becomes famous they will both rise together. Although never remotely convinced by the attempts of some of us to warn her of the dangers of her ways, she still came along to the group for several months.

There were always a couple of foreigners in the group, sometimes up to half a dozen, mostly Western Chinese-speaking feminists, both students and professionals, living in Beijing. Some participated consistently for several months or years, often the same time span of participation as the Chinese members. I took part from 1994 to1998, throughout my four years living in Beijing.

What we did before the Fourth World Conference on Women

Ge Youli: In the first year we translated into Chinese short feminist articles selected from English language journals and magazines. They were then published in the Chinese women's media, primarily in Women's World Vision (Shijie funü bolan). This new magazine had an impressive circulation of over 100,000, and a readership made up of largely urban professional and working class women. As its title suggests, the mandate of this magazine was to reflect a broader view of women from different parts of the world. In some ways it was presented as a fairly mainstream women's magazine, for example the cover invariably features a photo of a glamourous blond white woman. However, it also ran a special column on the international women's movement and its impact on the world conferences. We found the magazine appropriate for our pieces and its Editor-in-Chief found our translations interesting. We also put our translations into Chinese Women's Movement (Zhongguo fuyun) and China Women's News (Zhongguo funübao), the newspaper associated with the All China Women's Federation. The connections with these publications were made through EMW members, including Lisa Stearns and journalist members of the group.

What was unique about our translation was that with the translated articles, we also put up a 'Translators' Note' which explained our cultural and social interpretation of particular feminist terminology. For instance, the word 'feminism' can be translated into both 'nüquan zhuyi' (woman-rights-ism) or 'nüxing zhuyi' (woman-ism). In cases like this, in our 'Translator's Note', we would explain why we chose a particular expression and the nuances of the words chosen. In this period, our translation covered subjects of women's reproductive rights, sexuality, violence against women, balancing work and childcare for women and men, and so on.

One day I was talking to a friend from Yunnan province travelling in Beijing. We were talking about her daughter and she suddenly said to me : 'I have decided not to raise my daughter to be a traditional obedient woman. I just read an article talking about how an American mother taught her daughter to fight back when the boys in her kindergarten tried to beat her. I thought this is the right thing to do. I don't want my daughter to be beaten by anybody in her life.' Hearing this, my heart was filled with a secret joy. Do you know who translated this article? It was translated by EMW and published in World Women's Vision. I never asked her or told her who translated the article. I knew this was not important. What was important for her and women like her was that they were exposed to a different perspective.

In early 1995, the group undertook two new major translation projects. We translated into English both a series of seven booklets on the 1992 Chinese Law on Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, and Reflections and Resonance (Wong 1995), a book of articles by Chinese women activists who had taken part in the preparations for the 1995 UN Women's Conference, reflecting on their participation and what it meant for them personally. This latter, we translated in cooperation with members of the China-Canada Young Women's project, an initiative aiming at empowering young women in China and Canada through cultural exchanges. Until that time, we had focussed on introducing Western feminist ideas to China. Now we were redressing the balance by translating Chinese women's voices into English for an international audience at the conference.

When I look back today, I realise we were not in any simple way translating language. Rather, through our translation, we searched for, in our own language, words and expressions that can be expanded and redefined so that they lend themselves more readily to women's self-expression and empowerment.

Language

Susie Jolly: I agree that our translation of Western articles into Chinese was no simple process. Translation rarely remains a purely technical process anyway, and choice of words and transition between one linguistic culture and another usually carry some political implications. In EMW, the politics were explicit. We were aiming to formulate a feminist language in Chinese ; however we did not mean to slap on clumsy Western labels and concepts. That is why the discussions and 'Translators' Note' were so important. They provided a means to appropriate the Western texts, and understand, select and adapt the parts relevant to a Chinese context. As a voluntary group working without deadlines, we could spend several pressure-free meetings translating just one short article and pleasurably discussing the merits of this or that word. Initially, we were process rather than output oriented.

Discussion started in English and changed into Chinese sometime around early 1995. I don't know quite how the transition was made, but it seemed fairly natural, as most participants were Chinese, and after the translation stage, some non-English speakers joined. Personally, I encouraged the change as I wanted to practise my Chinese. I already spoke a fairly fluent, but still limited Chinese, having studied it for years and years. In EMW, with deliberations over the nuances of different words in translation, and discussions in Chinese of issues and feelings, I learnt how to express my political views and personal beliefs (which are inseparable anyway) in the primary language of my personal, social and professional environment. Like Ge Youli, EMW was tremendously empowering for me in a linguistic sense.

Coinciding with the shift in language, and as Ge Youli describes above, the important changeover from translating Western to translating Chinese texts, we underwent another major change: We had a deadline. Suddenly, instead of translating a few pages over several weeks at our leisure, we were committed to completing a whole book in a few months. While many of us felt pride and joy at the book launch of Reflections and Resonance in both Chinese and English versions, the group also suffered total burnout and collapsed into non-activity after the frenzied efforts to finish this project.

What we did after the Conference

Ge Youli: As Susie said, many of us were totally exhausted after translating Reflections and Resonance, but also after the hectic activity of the Women's Conference. Because we never registered as an NGO, we were not able as a group to participate in the Women's Conference. We remain an informal group with no official status or recognition. There are pros and cons to this position. We are able to remain low profile and avoid unnecesary attention and interference from government. We also enjoy relative freedom and flexibility in the form of our group and work agenda. However, EMW does suffer a high turnover rate and occasional low membership, and we were unable to organize any activity at the Women's Conference. Nevertheless, several of both Chinese and Western members did manage to participate in other capacities, particularly in the NGO Forum.

When the group reconvened again in late 1995, it grew into a women's discussion forum on feminism and contemporary political issues. The focus shifted from translation to gender awareness raising among a larger group of women. Instead of a core of ten to twelve people as in the past, the new forum sometimes attracted as many as thirty women from different professional backgrounds. Topics discussed included women and art, violence against women, women's labour and employment rights, women and the state, sexuality, lesbianism and feminism. We ran workshops for each other on safer sex, self-defence, and how to flirt. Speakers came from other local organizations such as the Centre for Women's Law Studies and Legal Service and the Media Monitor Network for Women. It became a regular stop for Western, and some Third World, feminists visiting Beijing and for Chinese feminist scholars and activists who had returned from abroad. The group also gave some attention to the women's movements in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Since mid 1997, EMW discussions also have attracted more local journalists. Some came with other members and others just heard about our group through word of mouth, and came by themselves. Some members thought it would be a wonderful idea to exert feminist influence on media people who play a significant role in shaping the discourses, values and perceptions of the general public. How women are portrayed and positioned in the media has a tremendous influence on hundreds of millions of women and men, girls and boys in China. EMW members began to invite media people into the group discussions and to expose them to feminist thinking. So far journalists have attended from Half the Sky (Banbiantian) (a programme on China Central TV), Life Hotline (Shenghuo rexian) on Beijing Radio, and a number of newspapers and magazines such as Rural Women Knowing All and Cosmopolitan and China Women's News. Impressed by the viewpoints aired in the group, some journalists started to write related stories.

In February 1998, Ding Ning, an EMW member, learned from her TV producer friend that Beijing TV was to produce a special Spring Festival edition for its women's feature programme Today's Women (Jinri nüxing). She suggested to her friend to invite members of EMW to speak in the programme. Feng Yuan, another EMW member, and I were invited to the TV Station. There was a panel discussion among five women on the roles and status of contemporary Chinese women (basically of urban women). We adopted a strong gender perspective in our analysis. The producer of the programme became so impressed by our discussion that she decided to double the programme time for this issue. Because the programme was aired during the Spring Festival Season, it reached an exceptionally large audience. A few days later I received a phone call from a woman viewer. She said she was very angry when she heard the other panelists on the show say that a woman's primary role should be mother and a wife. 'Look at what happened to me. I was made to believe that a woman should be a mother and a wife and I tried so hard to be one. But now my husband has abandoned me, and has taken my daughter away. Because he is much more resourceful than me, he won all the court cases. Now I have nothing left. I was really happy to see you debate. Your participation made the programme more balanced.'

How EMW changed me

Ge Youli: It is not possible to exaggerate how much my involvement with EMW has changed me. For a start, my career path was changed. In September 1994 when a Programme Officer position was opened up at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Beijing, I learnt that a good part of its job description included assisting the Office in Women's Conference preparation and promotion of gender integration into its development programmes in China, I applied immediately and got the job. By that time I felt I had learnt so much from EMW group discussions and from our translation work and hoped to apply it in my work. With my new role in the field of development, I called myself a professional feminist.

I became more confident. I did not know why I was never confident in myself before. Maybe because I was not a favoured child at home in comparison with my brother in the eyes of my grandparents. Neither was I a favoured student at school in the eyes of my teachers. I still remember my school days checking homework against that of my classmates. If my answer was different, I always thought I was wrong. I am a different person now. I am more assertive.

As Susie explained, the composition of the group varies. As the group is open to new members and has remained relatively informal, level of exposure and commitment to feminism differs : a cause of tension at some moments. We often disagree and argue. However, none of this stops us from feeling a sense of community. On the contrary, through our discussion and debate our views as women were greatly enriched. It is in EMW that we can talk and be heard, support and feel supported. To me, it was a home outside the home. I enjoyed every gathering of EMW no matter how exhausted I was after a long day's work. I did not have to hide in the group, because I sensed it was the only place in my world I could feel free from the label of 'a bad woman'. EMW was the place where I could be myself.

Being a Foreigner/Being myself

Susie Jolly: Like Ge Youli, I derived immense support from the EMW 'community'. For me, starting out a new life in Beijing, the group was an emotional life-support system. It was for me both social life and my own special space. I did not at first encourage either my new girlfriend, nor my closest friend to come along because I wanted it for myself (not very sisterly I know).

My position was both easier and more difficult than that of some of the Chinese participants. I was a privileged white westerner, with a great deal of freedom and possibilities economically, politically, and geographically. But, for the first 8 months, I was also a job-seeker, scrounging short term contracts and visa deals. I was insecure economically, visa-wise, housing-wise, yet willing to put up with the situation because I was young, in the mood, wanted to make a go of it in Beijing, and didn't have any ready alternative options set up back 'home' or elsewhere. In mid-1995, I found a longish term job as United Nations Volunteer Programme Officer at UNDP Beijing, and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

However, job or no job, as a white girl in Beijing, I remained constantly conspicuous, and culturally misunderstood. Of course I was — many people I engaged with had never known a foreigner before. I say foreigner because that's clearly what I was, as I was reminded by the looks and comment of many a passer by 'laowai' (foreigner, or literally 'old outsider'). I don't mean to complain. It was my choice to go to China, and I was lucky to be able to do so, but life was stressful in certain ways that I avoided admitting at the time, even to myself.

EMW was a haven, a respite from being challenged for holding feminist views, and a place where foreigners belonged — East Meets West, a site of political activism where Chinese and foreigners came together to seek social change. The question always came up for me as an activist (and development worker) in China — What right do I, as a Westerner, have to interfere with local norms? What right do I have to challenge ideas which some people see as their traditions? Here, in East Meets West, I was working with people who did not claim the patriarchy as their tradition, and who wanted me to work with them. Neither did they uncritically swallow Western influence, but instead selected and translated some bits of Western knowledge into something meaningful to them.

In one of the last discussions I attended in 1998, we read an extract from Post-Colonial Queer, a book by Zhou Huashan (1997), a Hongkong male writer, deconstructing nation in relation to Hongkong and the mainland. I had suggested this text, as it expounded ideas I had never heard expressed in Chinese before. Zhou challenged the very idea of nation as a solid, real, unchallengable construct on which the sacred religion of patriotism was rooted.

I had never stopped being amazed at the level of patriotism in China. I felt this patriotism was connected to my new identity of FOREIGNER, an identity partly imposed, partly even embraced by me to show that I was fitting in, playing my part, being as 'Chinese' as I could be by recognising that white people were alien, foreign, laowai. Perhaps perversely, perhaps in a 'queering' of the label, I used to refer to myself as 'laowai'. I remember a holiday visit to the Fragrant Hills in the Beijing suburbs. A few white faces could be spotted among the crowds. I started to call out 'haa-low laowai!' (hullo old outsider) to the non-Chinese. They turned their heads away in annoyance, refusing to look at me, not realising that in fact I was a foreigner too. With this silly game, I was pretending to adopt a local perspective by treating those with my own skin colour as foreign to me.

So I was over-excited to read Post-Colonial Queer deconstructing the Chinese nation. I photocopied the chapter, handed it out ahead of time for people to read, then presented it at the meeting where we had agreed to discuss it. I suggested that Ge Youli read out certain bits of the text, as I feared my accented Chinese might sound clumsy, especially reading out original characters which I was not so used to. She said to me (as I remember) 'I'll read it if you want, but I think you should go ahead and read it yourself, I think it's important for you'. I was moved. She was thinking about my empowerment. I was being recognised in my dual position in the group, not just the foreigner privileged with information, NGO organizing experience, economic resources etc., but also as the foreigner linguistically and culturally disempowered in a Chinese environment. Maybe it's the imperialist in my head which made me think I had the upper hand, and had to worry so much about imposing, taking space from other people, talking too much. Different dynamics were going in opposite directions simultaneously. And that is why I loved EMW so much. Not only did I see other women become stronger over the years, I myself also gained power and ease.

Reflection on Patriotism

Ge Youli: I did not realise how strong Chinese people's sentiment about the nation/state (guojia) was until I met western feminist colleagues like you, Susie, in the EMW group. Your constant criticism of your government and their policies as being gender biased or blind always shocked me. I was brought up to believe that I should never, ever, doubt the ability of my country to represent my best interests in every sense until I encountered feminist theories challenging the existing political and economic institutions as representing the interests of male members of the society. I became convinced that there has been no single country so far in human history that was made by and for women, so I began to admire the courage and echo the insights of Western feminists on the relationship between the state and women that: 'women have no country, women belong to the world'.

I appreciated Susie suggesting this subject for discussion in EMW. I still remember vividly the strong opinions expressed by the participants, especially those given by my Chinese sisters. It was one of the most forceful and educational sessions that I have ever attended at EMW meetings. It shook something held so deeply inside me and helped me review the relationship between me and my state from a totally new perspective. It was really powerful.

Heterosexism and 'tongzhi' possibilities

Susie Jolly: Although I felt EMW was a space where I could be so much myself as a foreign feminist, I was not so sure about coming out as queer. My first time in the group, when I introduced myself, I wondered, shall I say I've a long history in queer activism? But then I thought, No, I'll wait and check out the climate.

EMW was mostly straight to start with, however, most members were not particularly happy about the heterosexual norms on offer. The unmarried majority felt under pressure from the marital hegemony (hunyin baquan) still pervasive even in Beijing. Some people were married, but not all of them liked it very much. One participant had exceptionally managed to marry a man she loved, but her parents judged him inappropriate and she did not dare tell them for two years. One member was reduced to tears thinking about the migrant women from the countryside who come to the city, earn a bit of money, learn new ways, then return to their village to find there is no one to marry as the boys back home just don't understand them anymore.

In 1997 we held a discussion on 'Lesbianism and Feminism'. I invited a several Beijing women tongzhi ('comrades', rough equivalent to queer) to come and join in. To my surprise they were all totally open and told stories about how it's great to be gay, lovely to be a lesbian, brilliant to be bisexual. EMW members were receptive. It was a propaganda success. The woman so concerned about migrants suggested bisexuality could be a solution for them. She declared that she used to think homosexuality was problematic, and failure to find a husband left you miserable, but now after meeting these tongzhi who were all so 'young, positive, pretty and well-adjusted' she'd changed her mind. The next weekend one of the married women kissed a girl at a party! Some of the tongzhi continued to attend the group. EMW had become a space where I could be both foreign, feminist and tongzhi.

Where we are now

Ge Youli: Susie, do you remember that when you were in Beijing you always advocated for more equal distribution of responsibility among the members? You said EMW would be more sustainable if people took turns organizing and chairing the meetings. You were right. Now both of us have left Beijing to study abroad, I am happy to let you know that other members of the group are still committed and continuing to hold discussions. I hope when I rejoin EMW in six months time, we will hear new stories about the group, and new inspirations on Chinese feminist activism.

Bibliography

Books

Wong Y. (ed) (1995), Nüxing de fanxiang, Beijing: Ford Foundation. Also published in an English version: Wong Y. (ed) (1995), Reflections and Resonance, Beijing: Ford Foundation.

Zhou H. (1997). Hou Zhimin Tongzhi, (Post-Colonial Tonzhi), Hongkong: Tongzhi Publishing House.

Journals

China Women's News (zhongguo funübao), published by All China Women's Federation, Editor-in-chief Ms. Lu Xiaofei, website: https://china-woman.com. [Accessed January 2003].

Chinese Women's Movement (Zhongguo fuyun) published by All-China Women's Federation, Editor-in-chief Lu Jin, website: https://www.women.org.cn/womenorg/fulianzhenxian/meiti/zhongguofuyun/zhongguofuyun.htm. [Accessed January 2003].

Cosmopolitan, published by "Trends Communication CO. Ltd.", Editor-in-chief Ms. Xu Wei, website: https://www.trendsmag.com.cn/trendsmag/client/magazine/cosmopolitan.jsp. [Accessed January 2003].

Rural Women Knowing All (nongjianü baishitong), published by "China Women's News", editor-in-chief Ms. Xie Lihua, website: https://www.china-woman.com/njn/njn2001/200108/njn-index.htm. [Accessed January 2003].

Women's World Vision (Shijie funü bolan) published by "Chinese Women Magazine" in Chinese, editor-in-chief Ms. Shang Shaohua, website: https://www.zjonline.com.cn/node2/node149/node340/node2924/index.html. [Accessed January 2003].

Ge Youli, China Country Director, Global Alliance for Workers and Communities (GA). Before GA, she worked as a national program officer in UNDP China on issues of gender equity, poverty alleviation, microfinance and community development. She was an participant and observer of women's NGO movement in Beijing prior to focusing on migrant workers issues in Southern China about 3 years ago. Her publication included "Women: the Longest Revolution by Juliet Michell, Co-translator with Chen Xiaolan, "Women: the Longest Revolution — A Selection of Western Classical Feminist Literature ", Sanlian Publishing House, May 1997, Beijing, "When Girls Grow Up, They Have to Get Married . ? ", Feminist Studies 22, No. 3 (Fall 1996), Copyright 1996 by Feminist Studies, "Violence against Women, a Global Issue", Life Monthly, November, 1998, Vol. 68. Susie Jolly is Gender Communications Officer at BRIDGE, Gender Information unit at the Institute of Development Studies, UK. She previously worked in China for six years, on poverty alleviation and gender, with the United Nations Development Programme and with international and Chinese non-governmental organisations. Her research work has focused on relations of poverty, gender and sexuality in China and Southern Africa. Recent publications include: Gender, Development and Cultural Change, Cutting Edge Series, BRIDGE, July 2002 (available free online at https://www.ids.ac.uk/bridge/) Gender and Poverty in Urban China, IDS Research Report #50, Sarah Cook and Susan Jolly, August 2000 'Queering Development: Exploring the links between same-sex sexualities, gender and development', in Gender and Development, Oxfam Journal, Volume 8, Number 1, March 2000.