Women in Asian History

An Annotated Bibliography by Colleen Ledley

General sources about Asia  

Asia Source. Asia Society. 20 August 2000
<http://www.asiasource.org/> 

This is a sister source to the Ask Asia site. The page is set up like a newspaper where students can find current information about various Asian countries. The links include categories such as "arts and culture", "business and economics", "policy and government", "society and history". One unique feature of this site is the ability to find "Asian views". This allows students to search for opinions by Asians (individuals and groups) about many different current topics 



Ask Asia Web Page. Asia Society. 20 August 2000
<http://askasia.org/for_educators/fe_frame.htm> 

Ask Asia is an on-line source for K-12 Asian and Asian American studies with links to information, teacher materials, and student materials. This site was created by the Asia Society's Asian Educational Resource Center (AERC).  



Association for Asian Studies Web Page. 21 August
< http://www.asianst.org/> 

The web page for the Association for Asian Studies, Inc. (in Ann Arbor, Michigan) includes a “links and resources section” on the home page. From this link one can find a vast amount of information that is carefully organized. The web site include categories such as: Asia General, East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, journals, dictionaries, libraries, and art. There is also a link for Virtual Libraries and Asian Studies Organizations. School libraries can subscribe to Journal of Asian Studies online through this site as well.  



Education About Asia. Association for Asian Studies: Ann Arbor, Michigan  

Education About Asia is published 3 times per year. It includes articles on current and historical topics, lesson plans, book and video reviews. This magazine is extremely helpful to any secondary social studies teacher and only costs $18 per year. 



Primary Source Web Page. 21 August 2000
<http://www.primarysource.org/>

The Primary Source web site is under construction as of June 2000. This non-profit Massachusetts organization works with a number of educational centers, including Harvard University, to create primary source curriculum materials for interdisciplinary social studies classrooms. According to their website, their " mission is to promote social studies education that is historically accurate, culturally inclusive and explicitly concerned with racism and other forms of discrimination." This organization also holds conferences during the school year as well as summer institutes. 

Sources for women in Asia 


Asia for Educators. Columbia University. 4 August 2000
<http://afe.easia.columbia.edu>  

This impressive site includes teaching aids, resources and a library of multi-media discussions about Asia for elementary as well as middle and high school classes. While the resource section includes references to all regions of Asia, there are only "workbooks" (specific readings and discussion questions) for China and Japan. The workbook on Japan spans Japanese history from early times to the twentieth century. All of the readings include primary source excerpts as well as bibliographies and links for other sources. One reading related to women describes the myth of Japanese origins and the importance of the Sun Goddess. Primary source excerpts are imbedded in the reading, followed by discussion questions. Also included are excerpts from the Pillow Book and The Tale of the Genji, eleventh century writings by court women in Japan.  



Ask Asia. Asian Society. 20 August 2000
< http://askasia.org/for_educators/fe_frame.htm> 

The "Instructional Resource" link from Ask Asia's home page will lead to a list of sources available, one of which is a section on lesson plans. Lessons are organized by region in Asia. The following lessons relate to women:

* Women in rural India with pictures from the 1970s. The pictures are accompanied by supplemental readings from Behind the Mud Wall.

* Devi, a Hindu goddess. Pieces of art from the Smithsonian gallery have descriptions and explanations of her role in the Hindu pantheon of gods.  



Chinese Historical Cultural Project. San Jose Historical Museum. 14 June 2000 <http://ericir.syr.edu/Projects/CHCP/foot.html#materials>

This is a lesson plan on footbinding in China. It includes a brief description of the origin of footbinding, a list of vocabulary words, a diagram of a bound foot, an essay written by a woman whose mother's feet were bound, and suggested activities. 



Disse, Dorothy. Home page. Other Women's Voices: Translations of Women's Writing before 1600. 18 June 2000
<http://www.britannica.com/bcom/original/article/0,5744,4291,00.html> 

This collection of women's writings in translations includes a number of Asian women. The site creator has included a brief biography of each woman with a number of pieces of writings in their entirety. Some of the poems are accessible to ninth grade readers.  
 
 

Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, Ed. Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook. The Free Press: New York, NY. 1993. 

This text includes primary source readings from the Classical Period to present day China. The readings are organized chronologically in the text but Ebrey includes a cross-index by topic (ie. religion; government; family, kinship and gender; economics; class, etc.). Although the text was designed for introductory college classes, high school World History courses could certainly use it as well.



"Gender and Development". Oxfam International. 18 June 2000 <http://www.caa.org.au/world/gender/index.html>

Oxfam has organized information by topic such as "gender and development" and by region, such as Southeast Asia or Africa. But one cannot search a region by a specific category. Therefore, stick to the gender section. The position papers, graphs, charts and fact sheets are useful for understanding the impact of economic and political policies on women in the third world.  



Gernet, Jacques. Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion 1250-1276. Stanford University Press: Stanford, California. 1962 

This text provides an in-depth look at daily life in China at a particular time in history. The information is based mostly on primary sources. The author documents all aspects of life from housing and clothing to class and family life. His study primarily looks at life in Hangchow, the capital of the southern empire, but he also includes commentary on the countryside. For those interested in the life of women during this time, the chapter on family life gives detailed information on birth, lineage and marriage. However, there are numerous other insights about women in the chapters on class and households. Gernet makes interesting comparisons between China and Europe during this time period. He uses many excerpts from Marco Polo's writings to support his descriptions of the time period. 



"Historical Leaders". Explore Vietnam. 10 August 2000 <http://www.explorevietnam.com/Vietnamese_Great/index.html> 

Explore Vietnam is a vast network of sources about Vietnamese history and culture. One article highlights famous Vietnamese rulers including some women. There is information on the Trung Sisters and Lady Trieu. The biographies are short and appropriate for middle and high school use.  

Honig, Emily and Gail Hershatter. Personal Voices: Chinese Women in the 1980s. Stanford University Press: Stanford, CA. 1988 

The end of the Cultural Revolution in China led to many changes in Chinese society. Emily Honig and Gail Hershatter use personal interviews and popular literature from the 1980s to discuss the drastic changes in women's lives. The introduction provides historical background about women in the Chinese Revolution followed by a series of chapters devoted to different aspects of women's lives such as girlhood, adornment, marriage, courtship, family relations, gender inequality, etc. Each chapter also includes translations of articles from Chinese publications. Many of these translations are accessible to high school students.  



Indiatime Women. 14 June 2000
<http://www.indiatime.com/women/women.htm> 

This site includes biographies of historic and contemporary women in a variety of categories. Women are listed according to categories such as: religion, politics, warriors, athletes, etc. There are also links for women's organizations, women's magazines, women's issues, women's status and more. However, there is no clear information about the organization that created this site.  



International Women's Health Organization. 20 August 2000
<http://www.iwhc.org/> 

This non-profit organization based in New York City works with groups in Africa, Asia and Latin America to promote women's reproductive and sexual health rights. One can find information on the Cairo and Beijing international conferences on women as well as contemporary issues and programs in Asia addressing population and sexual rights. 



Kumar, Radha. The History of Doing. Kali for Women: New Delhi, India. 1993 

Kali for Women is part of the Indian feminist press. They have published many books related to women's issues in India. This particular book focuses on women's movements in India from the nineteenth century to the present day. The text includes a series of essays and primary sources about individual women and major organizations.  



Khue, Le Minh. The Stars, the Earth, the River. Curbstone Press: Willimantic, CT. 1997 

The short stories in this collection describe the impact of the war on women and families. Author and veteran, Le Minh Khue, writes about the idealism of unification, the realities of war and the hardships of postwar society. The stories span the course of her life from the time she was a volunteer along the Ho Chi Minh Trail to current day.  



Madrigal, Wendy. "The Hanoi Women's Museum". Destination Vietnam. July/August 1996. 4 August 2000
<http://destinationvietnam.com/dv/dv12/dv12h.htm> 

This short piece generally describes the exhibits at the Hanoi Women's Museum. One exhibit is dedicated to women veterans of the wars against the French and Americans. 



Mann, Susan. Women's and Gender History in Global Perspective: East Asia. American Historical Association: Washington, D.C. 1999 

Professor Mann looks at China, Korea and Japan from China's early Imperial Period to the twentieth century. She makes a point to draw parallels and distinctions between women's experiences in these three regions. The first part of the text includes a topical approach to the study of gender in East Asia (ie. family systems, economies and ethnicities, racial and ethnic groups). The second part is a chronological survey. The last section of the book is an examination of current college level textbooks with examples of gender-friendly texts to use.  



"Mulan as a Unit Study". Heroines in History. 14 June 2000
<http://www.heroinesinhistory.com/lesson.html>

This three page document is filled with web sites on all aspects of the Mulan story: from historical information on Mulan to sites on Disney to sites on historical China. There are also helpful suggestions on what to do with the links and related activities. According to their homepage, " Heroines in History is a series of picture books and toys on famous women throughout the world. Heroines in History is a division of Victory Press, a publisher of culturally and historically accurate metaphysical and multicultural books and gifts". 



Mulhern, Chieko Irie, ed. Heroic With Grace: Legendary Women of Japan. An East Gate Book: Armonk, New York. 1991 

This text highlights eight prominent Japanese women from antiquity to the twentieth century. The editor states that these women were chosen because they are well documented in historical records, they each made a significant impact on her time and they had typically "female" roles in society. Each chapter includes a lengthy biography and a primary source reading that describes her life. The readings are too long to use in a whole class experience but would work nicely for student research or extra credit assignments. Average to upper level ninth grade students should be able to read the text.  



Neft, Naomi and Ann D. Levine. Where Women Stand. Random House: New York, NY. 1997  

All school libraries should have a copy of this reference book in their collection. These authors compiled information from a vast amount of sources to create an "International Report on the Status of Women in 140 Countries". The first half of the text is organized by topic, such as women's education, employment, marriage and divorce, health, etc. Within each topic, there is general information about world trends in addition to graphs and charts that compare specific countries and regions. The second half of the text is devoted to country profiles again using many charts and graphs.  



One Hundred Celebrated Chinese Women. Asia Pac. 14 June 2000
< http://www.span.com.au/100women/> 

This homepage consists of a list of 100 important Chinese women throughout history. It is a bit difficult to use unless one knows the exact name of the woman in question. The biographies are brief with no source citations. In addition, there is no information about Asia Pac provided.  



Ramusack, Barbara N. and Sharon Sievers. Women in Asia: Restoring Women to History. Indiana University Press: Bloomington, IN. 1999. 

This book is part of a four volume series called "Restoring Women to History". The other volumes examine Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, Women in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Women in Middle East and North Africa. In this volume, Ramusack and Sievers summarize the history of women in South and Southeast Asia and East Asia from the earliest times to the twentieth century. It is a wonderful resource for teachers as an overview as well as a reference book for certain time periods. The bibliographic information for each of the regions is impressive. The authors use an asterisk in the bibliographies to indicate the readings that are particularly suitable for students. As a result students can use the text as a research tool.  



Sievers, Sharon. Flowers in Salt. Stanford University Press: Stanford, California. 1983. 

Professor Sievers describes the beginnings of the feminist movement during Meiji times. The introductory chapter provides a brief overview of women's' status from the eighteenth century through the turn of the twentieth century. The first four chapters are very helpful for understanding the debate about women in the early Meiji years, the connection to the popular rights movement, and the lives of women in textile mills. Also included is a chapter on Kanno Suga, an activist and anarchist executed in 1911for her political ideas; and a chapter on the Bluestockings, the first women's literary and political magazine. The last chapter describes the changes in Japanese society from the 1920s to the time of publishing. The book is only 190 pages and would be a great resource for any high school library.  



Turner, Karen Gottschang with Phan Thanh Hao. Even the Women Must Fight:Memories of War from North Vietnam. John Wiley and Sons, Inc.: New York, NY. 1998 

The focus of this text is on North Vietnamese women and their participation in the war against the U.S. Turner explores the many roles women played including doctors, road builders, demolition experts, guides and antiaircraft gunners. Excerpts from interviews with these women give first hand accounts of why they went to war and the hardships they endured. Turner also analyzes the depiction of women's experiences in Vietnamese film and literature both during and after the war.  



Wollam, Jean. "Women in Meiji, Taisho and Imperial Japan: Tradition and Transition (1868-1945)". Jordan School District, Salt Lake City, UT. 15 August 2000 <http://www.smith.edu/fcceas/curriculum/wollam.htm>  

Ms. Wollam has included a syllabus for her course on the changing status of women in Japanese history. She has included an impressive annotated bibliography of both primary and secondary sources, helpful timeline of events, and suggested lessons for a high school audience. Some of the materials she suggests may be difficult for an average ninth or tenth grade student but others are quite appropriate.  



Women in World History Curriculum Web Page. 20 August 2000
<http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/index.html>  

The Women in World History Project was created in 1985 with funds from the U.S. Department of Education to create materials for secondary school classrooms about women in world history. Listed below are readings and lesson plans available on the web but there are many other materials that can be purchased through the online catalog for very reasonable prices.  




Videos 



Makiko's New World. 57 minutes
(Available through Cornell's East Asia Outreach Office) 

This film is based on Kazuko Smith's book entitled Makiko's Diary. Makiko Nakano lived in Japan during the Meiji Period (1868-1912), a time of rapid industrialization and cultural changes. Through her diary entries, one learns about the impact of these changes first hand. The narration of the film provides the historical context for understanding the diary excerpts. This film gives students a first hand look at what it was like to be a middle class woman in Japan during a particular time. Makiko talks about what it means to have children, managing the household, and family relations. Because the film moves slowly I recommend using it in short pieces with a particular focus. The teacher guide provides some good ideas for the high school classroom. 
 

Bangladesh: Microcredit. World Neighbors and Family Planning: Oklahoma City, OK. 1994 (Available through Cornell's South Asia Outreach Office) 

This 30 minute video focuses on Rokeya Begaum, a mother and wife in Bangladesh. She lives in poverty and fear of the annual monsoons destroying her home. With no collateral she is able to borrow money from the Grameen Bank to build a tin roof for her family. A women's group from her village joined the Grameen Bank in order to improve their lives. Loans are given to individuals but all participants of the women's group are responsible for seeing that the loan is paid in full. The repayment rate on loans is 98%. Women in the documentary discuss how their lives have been changed since they've had access to money. This would be excellent for a high school audience.  



Nepal: The Power of Women's Groups. World Neighbors and Family Planning: Oklahoma City: OK. 1994 (Available through Cornell's South Asia Outreach Office) 

This 30 minute video focuses on Madhesini Kanchi a Nepali women who cannot provide enough food for her family. It describes her daily life and the hardships of living in poverty. Madhesini joins a local women's group that has created a bank. Each woman contributes 25 rupees to join and 5 rupees every month. Her village group visits women from a nearby town where women have been involved in all kinds of public works improvements. This visits gives Madhesini the courage to borrow money from her village bank to purchase a pig for breeding. The sale of her pigs allowed her to feed her family. This would be excellent for a high school audience. 



Sonneborn, Barbara. Regret to Inform. Medium Inc.: New York, NY. 2000
(Available at Cornell's Southeast Asia Outreach Office) 

Twenty years after her husband was killed in the Vietnam War, American filmmaker Barbara Sonneborn returned to Vietnam to try to understand how her husband died. The documentary and Academy Award Nominee, Regret to Inform, tells the story of American and Vietnamese widows. She weaves together images of modern day Vietnam with archival footage from the war with interviews of women who lost their husbands. She includes African American women, Native American women, Caucasian women and Vietnamese women. The film gives voice to the Vietnamese and the human cost of the war. This 72-minute documentary would complement any unit on the U.S. - Vietnamese War for American history classes as well as Global History classes. Use the PBS web site for more information about the film and supplementary materials: http://www.pbs.org/pov/regret/program.html.