When "I" Was Born ─ Women's Autobiography in Modern China

When "I" Was Born: Women's Autobiography in Modern China reclaims the voices of particular writers, voices that have been misinterpreted and overlooked for decades. Tracing women writers' move from autobiographical fiction, often self-revelatory and personal, to explicit autobiographies that focused on women's roles in public life, Jing M. Wang reveals the factors that propelled this literary movement, the roles that liberal translators and their renditions of Western life stories played, and the way in which these women writers redefined writing and gender in the stories they told. But Wang reveals another story as well: the evolving history and identity of women in modern Chinese society. When "I" Was Born adds to a growing body of important work in Chinese history and culture, women's studies, and autobiography in a global context.

Jing M. Wang is assistant professor of Chinese literature and language at Colgate University.