I am a PhD candidate in Chinese Literature and History. My research focuses on women warriors and autobiographical writing in Republican China. I graduated with a MA in Comparative Literature from University College London and a BA in Chinese Language and Literature from Shandong University.

Name

Zheng Li

Thesis Title (PhD)

“Being a Woman and a Warrior in Modern China: Xie Bingying’s Autobiographical Practices in the twentieth century”

As a precursory woman warrior and an important modern Chinese writer, Xie Bingying (1906-2000) and her wartime writing had attracted considerable attention during the Republican era. My research examines Xie’s encounters with national and international wars from the 1920s to the 1970s and the way she conveyed her experiences in diaries, short stories, and reportages. Xie shaped and had her perception of Chinese modernity being shaped by her journey that went from the Nationalist Revolution, the War of Resistance, the Chinese Civil War to the Cold War, as well as China, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, and the Philippines. I aim to deconstruct the seemingly nation-oriented and male-oriented area of war based on close reading and textual comparison. I will argue that the history of the Republican era is not a linear and teleological process that aims at establishing modern states but is filled with individuals’ emotional struggles. As the war generation disappears, it is important to discover how women had experienced and narrated those times beyond patriotic discourses.

Supervisory Team

Jun Qian, School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University

Joseph Lawson, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University

Gitte Marianne Hansen, School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University