Friday, November 3 / 5PM / Oakes Mural Room
Madeleine Yue Dong is an Associate Professor of History and International Studies at the University of Washington, and author of Republican Beijing: The City and Its Histories, 1911-1937 (California, 2003). Professor Dong’s current research includes a monograph entitled Stories from the Wilderness: Unofficial Histories of the Qing. Her talk grows out of her work with the “Modern Girl Around the World” research group at the University of Washington, which has a forthcoming co-edited volume by that name, including an essay by Professor Dong entitled “The Chinese Modern Girl as Spectacle and Caricature.” The group’s project “analyzes the emergence of the Modern Girl, a figure who appeared around the world in cities from Tokyo to Berlin, Beijing to Bombay, Johannesburg to New York City in the early to mid-twentieth century. Modern Girls were known by a variety of names including flappers, garçonnes, moga, modeng xiaojie, schoolgirls, vamps, and neue Frauen. By wearing provocative fashions and pursuing romantic love, Modern Girls appeared to disregard the roles of dutiful daughter, wife, and mother.”
Sponsored by the Asia Pacific America Research Cluster