Women and Politics in Wartime China by Vivienne Xiangwei Guo

Author:Vivienne Xiangwei Guo [Guo, Vivienne Xiangwei]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Asia, China, Military, World War II, Political Science, Geopolitics
ISBN: 9781351624657
Google: IAF-DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-12-07T01:33:41+00:00

Compared with the leadership of the WAC in 1938, it is apparent that while the SSCA Women’s Committee obtained firm support from women leaders of the Democratic League (the previous WNSA leaders) and non-aligned elite women, it attracted many fewer KMT women leaders. This change suggests the expedited political re-alliance among the parties and groups on the left side of the political spectrum as well as the widened political and institutional division between elite women affiliated with the KMT and those tied to the CCP in the 1940s. But it would wrong to assume that being a ‘left-wing’ meant having little connection with the KMT. The running of the SSCA Women’s Committee was, to a large degree, facilitated by the personal networks of those ‘SSCA wives’ whose husbands held high positions in the SSCA as well as in the KMT. As the remainder of the chapter will show, it was because of its close links with the KMT that the SSCA Women’s Committee could continue operating as the only legally registered left-wing women’s organisation in the wartime capital after 1941.

Cao Mengjun and her husband, Wang Kunlun, were among the SSCA leaders who had entrenched positions and networks within not only the CCP and the Democratic League, but also the KMT. In the 1930s they participated in the early rounds of negotiations for establishing the KMT-CCP United Front, which paved the way for the initiatives of the CCP to follow through the united front framework during the war.18 Having led the national salvation movement in Nanjing and then in Wuhan, Cao Mengjun remained a central figure in the growing women’s united front for national resistance. The WNSA leaders in Nanjing, namely Li Dequan, Tan Tiwu, Tan Dexian, and Wang Feng, despite their diverse political affiliations, had all been key members of Cao’s New Women Society. Now, five years later in Chongqing, the same group of elite women, as members of the Democratic League, continued to play a pivotal role in revamping women’s networks and activities through the SSCA Women’s Committee. As vice chair and secretary-general, Cao Mengjun oversaw the daily schedules and routine tasks of the SSCA Women’s Committee with help from one or two assistants. Apart from Cao, Li Dequan, Fu Xuewen, and the communist leader Zhang Xiaomei were also involved in the decision-making process, while Deng Yingchao attended important meetings only when she was in Chongqing.19

The office of the SSCA Women’s Committee was set up at No. 198 Middle First Road in Chongqing. It was a two-story house with a blend of Chinese and Western architectural features. Two rooms on the ground floor were let to the Women’s Committee, while the first floor was occupied by the SSCA. The office was a rectangle- shaped room, nice and sunny, about 30 square metres. A smaller room next door was used to host activities for children. The signs on the door bearing the words ‘cultural hub’ (文化之家) and ‘children’s home’ (儿童之家) ingeniously covered the political nature of the Committee. Under harsh

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