Tianyi and International Feminism in the Age of Early Globalization

Abstract

This paper analyzes a case of international feminism in the age of early globalization by focusing on Tianyi 天義 (Natural Justice), a journal edited and published from 1907 to 1908 by Chinese feminist and anarchist He-Yin Zhen 何殷震 in Tokyo. I firstly illustrate the ways in which the translation of texts and images, the interaction between Chinese and Japanese revolutionary groups, and the movements of printed matter contributed to the global circulation of intellectual resources from which Tianyi emerged. I then delve into Tianyi’s visions of the world, world order, and women’s space and how they were shaped by the anarchist framework of equality as well as by the history and politics of internationalism at the time. Ultimately, these visions led to the imagination of international women’s space (wanguo nüjie 萬國女界). In this space, different countries were allied, yet each one remained independent and equal. Finally, I argue that the entanglement of anarchist, feminist, and socialist internationalist discourses in Tianyi can be theorized as an international feminism that enables us to understand this journal’s unique historical significance in the era of early globalization and to reflect on the politics and possibilities of feminist knowledge production and representation.