Hearing her: Comparing feminist oral history in the UK and China

Abstract

This article compares the China Women's Oral History Project, directed by librarians at the China Women's University in Beijing, and Sisterhood and After: The Women's Liberation Oral History Project, directed by scholars at the University of Sussex in the UK. While the projects share aspects of method, our practices wrestle with distinct historiographical structures which are entwined with a history of state feminism in China and with dissenting, nongovernmental networks in the UK, as well as differing institutional contexts. As we have sought to develop a relationship as feminist oral historians, we have had to decenter our own frameworks to understand the local conditions under which we each work. The article concludes by analyzing what we share: the wish to find progressive spaces within universities and national funding structures, particularly as oral history work connects with community activists.