ABSTRACT
The War of Resistance resulted in numerous young elite women like Xia Bengying leaving their families and departing their hometowns for new destinations. The political manoeuvres of both the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the war and the formation of mass political institutions, such as the Anti-Japanese United Front and the PPC, greatly enlarged the political space for the previously marginalised socio-political groups in republican China, including women. The realignment of the United Front between the CCP and the minor political parties in opposition to the KMT in 1947, furthermore, sharpened the cleavage between the political right and the left, thereby reducing the middle ground where elite women could maintain a neutral position and mediate between the two opposing sides. Hong Kong, Singapore, Xibaipo, Shenyang, and Beijing – these non-KMT territories and communist liberated areas thus opened new spaces where elite women continued their political engagement and accommodation with the rising communist regime.
