International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2024

Nonfiction and Gender: Seventy Years of Transformation in a Central China’s Village

(Abstract)

Du Fangqin

Zhoushan Village, a little-known village in Central China’s Henan Province, has undergone great changes in the past 70 years. From 1950 to the beginning of the 21st century, Zhoushan villagers pushed for village reform with women as pioneers. The village has achieved equality between women and men, and all the villagers has been working together to build a new village. This article is a life history of the people of Zhoushan Village, as well as a story and biography of the transformation of the village that involves shared actions of both villagers and people from outside of the village. Through individual and collective interviews, oral records, and observations, and using gender theories and methods, the article studies the effectiveness of building new villages with both internal and external resources.