Disobedience in disguise : discourse analysis on "Wise wives and good mothers" under the collaborationist regime in Guangzhou (1940-1945)

In East Asia, social expectations on women being “wise wives and good mothers” are still gaining currency, as reflected in movies and TV dramas like “A Home on the Slope” (Japanese, 2019), “Kim Ji-young: Born 1982” (South Korean, 2019) and “The First Half of My Life” (Chinese, 2017). These stories reflect the unresolved tensions between women’s traditional gender roles and self-aspirations in East Asia nowadays. Discussions on women’s “proper” roles ushered in the wake of nationalism and modernization in China during the early 20th century and continued throughout the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945). Existing wartime literature focuses on the women’s movements led by the Nationalist government and the Chinese Communist Party. Women’s issues in the co-existing collaborationist regime remain a relatively underexplored area. This study fills this gap by examining Wang Jingwei’s official rhetoric on women’s liberation in Guangzhou, which urged women to emulate the Japanese “wise wives and good mothers.” However, many educated women questioned and subtly reinterpreted this norm with their personal experiences to resist such an encompassing and singular “ideal womanhood.” Their voices lend us insights on exploring diversity and plurality of gender norms within the East Asian context in the age of globalization.