ABSTRACT
The growing influence of the Soviet Union in the worldwide anti-Fascist war in the 1940s made the Sino-Soviet Cultural Association (SSCA) women’s committee, after the women’s advisory council (WAC), a new platform where elite women from different political backgrounds could engage in domestic and international affairs. The Chinese communist party's artful application of the united front framework was important for the Party in enhancing its political influence and legitimacy among the sophisticated urban populations, including elite women in Chongqing. To develop the Women’s Committee and to engage a wider audience, Cao Mengjun decided to publish a new women’s magazine in Chongqing. Chinese elite women’s enthusiasm for Sino-Soviet cultural exchange, to a large extent, was first aroused by Deng Yingchao’s trip to Moscow. Gradually, those left-wing women leaders who had withdrawn from the National Association for Refugee Children, the WAC, and the people’s political council refreshed their networks in the SSCA Women’s Committee and then the China women’s association.
