From women’s learning (Fuxue) to gender studies: Feminist challenges to Modern Confucianism

• Main Author: TAN, Sor-hoon
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: Confucianism; Feminism; Education; women; gender inequality; Arts and Humanities
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3333; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4596/viewcontent/From_Women_learning_to_gender_studies_uncorrected_manuscript.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The promotion of Confucianism to offer solutions to contemporary problems, better alternatives to the patently unsatisfactory status quo of our world and the tired ideals that have dominated academic and global discourses, should not be mistaken for naïve traditionalism advocating the revival of Confucianism as it was understood and practiced in its historical milieu. This is especially pertinent in the area of gender relations. Chenyang Li pointed out nearly two decades ago: as “the philosophical-religious tradition that originated in Confucius and was further developed by scholars and supporters of later times … there is little doubt that the answer to our first question of whether Confucianism has oppressed women has to be affirmative.”1 Reviewing late twentieth century studies of Chinese women in traditional society that challenge earlier literature depicting them only as oppressed victims, Li concluded that “While Confucianism’s oppression of women was quite severe – indeed undeniably severe – it must have left some room for women’s moral cultivation and even social participation