ABSTRACT
In the United States, feminist studies developed over the past two decades have presented new challenges and new opportunities for historians of Chinese women. One such challenge is the prospect of defamiliarizing familiar materials, dislodging them from conventional frameworks and turning them to new uses as texts. Thus feminist theory has special promise for historians of China. Familiar Chinese historical materials have continued to yield new insights when gender as a category of analysis is used. One of the most striking areas of research has been female biography. Feminist theory produces not only startling new discoveries when applied to familiar sources. It also stimulates a quest for new or neglected sources. Studies of familiar works about women written by men have provoked interest in writings by women themselves.
