“Complicating images of the modern Chinese woman, from only child to ‘leftover woman’”

ABSTRACTTwo recent documentaries, Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s One Child Nation (2019) and Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia’s Leftover Women (2019), investigate the legacy of China’s one-child policy and its social impacts on marriage, career and motherhood in the present day. In the films, seemingly progressive young women subjects are depicted against a backdrop of culturally backward and brainwashed individual community members, representing Chinese culture at large, which results in a confusing narrative replete with logical gaps and unanswered questions. This article brings together qualitative data collected from interviews with “leftover women” with film analysis and scholarship on transnational feminism to argue for the importance of critical modes of representation and cautions against the tendency to blame culture.KEYWORDS: leftover womenone-child policymarriagefeminismdocumentary film Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. From the perspective of postcolonial feminist theory, the term “enlightened” is highly problematic when it comes to discussions of women in the global south. Using “enlightened” to describe so-called modern Chinese women is inappropriate and disrespectful to say the least. In this article, our purpose of using the term is to question the two films’ explicit and implicit message that modern Chinese women need to be “enlightened” by the West. For more information, see, for example, Meyda Yegenoglu (Citation2002/2015/2015 and Pui-lan Kwok (Citation2002/2015.2. Focus group, Yunjia, October 2016.3. Interviews with Wangjun and Yangjie, October 2016.4. Interviews with Lilan and Mingna, September 2016.5. Focus group, Huangqi, October 2016.6. Focus group, Peiying, October 2016.7. Interview with Kang Baba, September 2016.Additional informationFundingFieldwork research was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada.Notes on contributorsAngie ChauAngie Chau is assistant professor of Chinese studies at the University of Victoria. She has published articles on modern Chinese literature, art, film and internet culture, and her research interests include contemporary Chinese literature, popular culture, visual art, and translation. Her work has appeared in journals such as Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Concentric, and Chinese Literature Today, and various edited volumes.Qian LiuQian Liu is assistant professor of law and society in the department of sociology at the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on leftover women, legal consciousness, gender and China, and family relations in China. Her work has been published in Asian Law and Society Review, International Journal of Law in Context, China Law and Society Review, and Asian Journal of Women’s Studies. Dr. Liu is on the Asian Law and Society Board of Trustees (2022 – 2023) is assistant professor of law and society in the department of sociology at the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on leftover women, legal consciousness, gender and China, and family relations in China. Her work has been published in Asian Law and Society Review, International Journal of Law in Context, China Law and Society Review, and Asian Journal of Women’s Studies. Dr. Liu is on the Asian Law and Society Board of Trustees (2022 – 2023).