Guangdong's Writing Women in Ming-Qing China

FAIN: FB-54148-09

Ellen Widmer
Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA 02481-8203)

Between January 1 and August 31, 2009, I shall locate and read texts by female authors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911) from Guangdong Province. The goal is to expand understanding of traditional Chinese literary culture among women. The picture I and others have built up over the past twenty years is too heavily based on the Lower Yangtze Delta region, known as Jiangnan. Guangdong, to the south, has writers that sometimes behaved differently from their Jiangnan counterparts. I want to ascertain when, how and why. I am especially interested in the family contexts that allowed these women room to write. I plan to turn out a monograph based on these materials.