Abstract:

How do feminist movements intersect with formal and informal diplomatic channels? And to what extent do they become transnational in the process? Zooming in on the lives of three Chinese women active in French diplomatic circles in the interwar period (Li Zezhen, Zhang Yalang and Zheng Yuxiu), this paper examines the overlaps and tensions between their feminist activism and their diplomatic roles. At a time when the defense of women’s rights could be construed both as a progressive charm offensive and as a threat in male-dominated diplomatic circles, this paper explores how these women’s multilingual work (including co-authorship with French feminists, translational, journalistic and academic writing) leverages multiple amical and professional circles and the ways in which their writing practices are reshaped in the process. Drawing on personal correspondence, published works and a wide array of French and Chinese archival sources, this paper sheds light onto the multiple translations that local feminisms go through as they become part of transnational dialogues, and the wider francophone and sinophone resonances of interwar Sino-French Chinese women’s diplomatic circles.

Speaker: Coraline Jortay is a Research Fellow at the French Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).

Coraline Jortay is a Research Fellow at the French Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and a historian of modern China focusing on gender, translation, and language politics. Prior to joining CNRS in 2023, she was a Laming Junior Research Fellow at the Queen’s College, University of Oxford. She is currently finishing a monograph provisionally entitled “Beyond Her: Language and Gender Politics in Modern China.” A co-founder of the China Academic Network on Gender (CHANGE), she is also a published translator of contemporary Sinophone literature into French.

This seminar will be held in English.
Corrado Neri, Director of the CEFC Taipei, will chair the session.