Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2023. US$37.00, paper; $24.00, ebook. ISBN 9781501771415.
In The Party Family, Kimberley Ens Manning offers a nuanced examination of the intersection between gender, family, and state formation during revolutionary China (1900–1960, 3–4). Drawing on interviews with 163 participants, state archives, memoirs, and biographies, Manning reframes traditional understandings of women’s political activism in revolutionary China by highlighting the critical role of family ties—both kinship and revolutionary attachment—in shaping state capacity and governance. She argues that “party families,” comprising both blood relatives (parent-child ties; sibling ties; and couple ties) and revolutionary attachment through family ties were essential to state formation and management before and after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to power in 1949. Manning’s work challenges readers to rethink prevailing narratives about women’s passive roles during this period, demonstrating how their activism profoundly shaped, and was shaped by, the formation of state power.
Manning’s analysis is firmly situated in the historical context of the CCP’s rise and its mobilization of women as integral participants in the revolutionary project from the early 1900s to the late 1950s. She explores the different yet overlapping “states of activism” that defined women’s roles during this transformative period, including the New Woman, the Social Reformer, the Woman Warrior, and the Loyal Soldier (10–14). These “states of activism” are constituted by the relations, discourses, and practices that framed the field of struggle (7), and Manning argues that “relationality” was the key to the social capital of women cadres. These states reflect different approaches women officials took to advance their social agendas within the party and society, offering insights into the complexities of gendered politics in a rapidly changing political landscape.
One of the book’s strengths lies in its engagement with the concept of “state feminism.” Manning argues that women leaders within the CCP utilized their positions to promote gender equality while simultaneously negotiating the entrenched patriarchal structures of both the family and the state. She illustrates how “Marxist maternalist” (4) ideologies provided a framework through which women leaders could assert agency and influence social policies that favoured mothers and children. By positioning them as active agents, Manning challenges the perception of women as passive subjects of the revolution.
A key theme in the book is the examination of maternalism as a form of activism. The book reveals how women leaders were both empowered and constrained by the state’s expectations, highlighting the dual nature of maternalist ideologies. These ideologies celebrated women’s roles but also compelled them to conform to specific societal functions, such as women-work (funü gongzuo). Manning underscores how maternalist social policies were implemented at the local level through ideological instruction, community enforcement, and even the threat of violence. Women leaders like Hou Qiuyi, for example, sought to preserve family stability by discouraging divorce, framing it as “shameful,” even in cases of domestic violence (157). This nuanced portrayal invites readers to consider the complexities of women’s activism as both a source of empowerment and a mechanism of state control.
Manning’s exploration of the “party family” as “a site of conflict” is particularly insightful. She argues that family ties intertwined with political structures through clientelism and factional struggles, providing a fresh perspective on loyalty, obligation, and radicalism within the party. The CCP’s approach to gender and family, however, is with inherent contradictions. The challenges of recruiting and retaining competent, loyal cadres during the Land Reform movement illustrate the difficulties women faced in balancing political commitments with societal expectations regarding gender and family roles, particularly among local women leaders (chapter 4). Conversely, the states of activism established in the earlier years of the PRC, especially Woman Warriors and Loyal Soldiers, became the radical and loyal forces of Mao Zedong, and “the GLF could not have taken place, much less been conceived, without the labor of rural women” (205).
Manning’s meticulous use of interviewee narratives raises important methodological and analytical questions. Given that most of the interviewees worked as local cadres, how did their revolutionary training and work experiences shape their present perspectives and memories of the past? Were there any inconsistencies identified in these narratives? If so, what were the underlying reasons? For example, do the interviewees revise their recollections, consciously or unconsciously, to justify their past actions, as in the case following the execution of a landlord (109).
Furthermore, the book prompts questions regarding the distinction between family ties and broader social relationships (shehui guanxi). Do these different types of relationships serve the same function, or do they operate in distinct ways within the revolutionary context? What impact do material resources have on the states of activism examined in the book? How did access to, or lack of, such resources contribute to the nostalgic recollections expressed by many grassroots women leaders about their revolutionary past (209–10)?
Another intriguing aspect of the interviewees’ narratives is how sexual violence and illicit relationships are framed peripherally. Interviewees merely recounted these issues as “the story of a comrade” (117), raising the question of whether societal taboos or a desire to distance themselves from such experiences influenced their accounts. Finally, how did family ties and attached emotions manifest in class struggles and violence (including killings) during the later period, such as the Cultural Revolution?
The Party Family is a compelling and thought-provoking contribution to the study of women, family, and gender in Chinese history. Manning’s interdisciplinary approach provides a nuanced understanding of how family and gendered women-work shaped the revolutionary project in China. This book will appeal to scholars and readers seeking to understand the intricate interplay of gender, politics, and state formation, as well as those interested in the enduring legacies of this interplay.
Man Zhang
University of Munich, Munich