audiobook The Chosen Shore: Stories of Immigrants by Ellen Alexander Conley in History

Description

The history of China in the nineteenth century usually features men as the dominant figures in a chronicle of warfare; rebellion; and dynastic decline. This book challenges that model and provides a different account of the era; history as seen through the eyes of women. Basing her remarkable study on the poetry and memoirs of three generations of literary women of the Zhang family—Tang Yaoqing; her eldest daughter; and her eldest granddaughter—Susan Mann illuminates a China that has been largely invisible. Drawing on a stunning array of primary materials—published poetry; gazetteer articles; memorabilia—as well as a variety of other historical documents; Mann reconstructs these women's intimate relationships; personal aspirations; values; ideas; and political consciousness. She transforms our understanding of gender relations and what it meant to be an educated woman during China's transition from empire to nation and offers a new view of the history of late imperial women.