This project investigates women’s magazines published by Guomindang during the War of Resistance against Japan (1937-1945). In analyzing those magazines’ editorship and the social network of the contributors, it aims to account for how women elites used media to make connections among larger groups of people and mobilize social forces. This project has three goals: (1) Analyzing the modus operandi of the Kuomintang women’s magazine by looking into its structure, editorial strategies and topic presentation. (2) Surveying the authors who contributed to the magazines and locating materials to further the research into individual studies. (3) Analyzing the social network of these authors among different organizations.

This project will allow us to reassess the relationships between Guomindang and Chinese Communist Party during the war. Despite the united front of the two parties in the wartime, their animosity had been persisting and the alliance of their members was often considered superficial if not totally impossible. This project, however, will examine how women of both GMD and CCP employed media to pursue their political agenda while articulating their common interest of gender equality and analyze how (in)effectively social networks served their goals.