The Intersectionality of Feminism & Communism in Asia

The transcript discusses the intersection of feminism, communism, and film in Asia during the Cold War. It explains how communist movements in Southeast Asia emphasized anti-colonial and nationalist ideals, and how they gained traction by appealing to minority voices. The transcript also explores the feminist movements during the U.S. occupation of Japan, debunking the narrative of American liberators and highlighting the harm caused by their attempts to democratize Japanese culture. It discusses the Conference of Women of Asia in 1949, which allowed for the development of feminist solidarity and the outline of three dominant traditions of feminist activism: social reform feminism, nationalist and state feminism, and leftist feminism. The transcript further explores the intertwining of communism and feminism in post-war Asian feminist ideologies and combative strategies. It concludes by acknowledging that the Cold War continues to shape feminist movements in East Asia, highlighting the Film, Feminism, and Communism. How the Cold War Affected Asia, Cultural Reconstructions, and Modern Day Movements. I'm Em, your host for The F Word, and today we're going to walk through the intersected lines of feminism and communism in Asia, with a fun bit on what the heck film has to do with it. History of Communism in Asia. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Russian and Chinese communists expanded their developments by hiding behind what a 1954 CIA document describes as nationalism. As more than one East Asian country was found to have multiple communist parties, it became apparent the more diversity groups an area has, the more likely a party is to be constructed. Malaya, Indonesia, Burma, and the Philippines experienced a communist boom in 1948, mainly due to the influence of representative meetings between Peking, Moscow, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Communist Party in February of that year. Appealing to the protection of native soil, Asian communist movements emphasized anti-colonialist and nationalist ideals. As East Asia became a target for racism and remained at risk of colonization, it became a vulnerable target for communism as anti-European cultivation became a growing focus for minorities. As communist parties in Southeast Asia tended to minority voices more than the national government, they often assumed leadership status in terms of political politics or cultural politics. As Asian communism grew in parallel to the mainland, that's Europe, Thailand struggled to align with communist ideals as a nation that considered themselves well-fed and clothed according to the standards of their own nation. However, communism feeding off of the exploitation of the working class from greedy landowners was able to gain Thailand in traction as Chinese nationalists became the largest alien minority party in Southeast Asia. Often referencing communist party members as social misfits or profiteers, the CIA illustrates the early nationalist movements throughout the 1920s until activists became allowed to formulate small Marxist extremist groups from the mid-1920s to the 1930s. By the 1930s, communism began to take off in Burma as an indigenous movement that Indian communists adapted as a sense of extreme nationalism. From this point on, until the outbreak of World War II, communism began to spread from Indonesia, Malaya, Indochina, and the Philippines. During the war, most communist groups continued with their anti-nationalistic efforts through the formation of guerrilla armies, a constructional method of aggressive action. Yet again, Thailand remained an exception as guerrilla movements were rejected by the development of the Free Thai Movement. The FDM, a communist-inspired group, mimicked guerrilla armies in their use of allyship to conduct and sabotage missions. Finally, in 1948, the first wide-scale attempt of communist control within Southeast Asia began to be placed on the political table as the Indian Communist Party was called into meeting with Chinese and Southeast communist groups. Burma, Indochina, Indonesia, Malaya, the Philippines, and Thailand all received highlights within CIA documents on their successful development and navigation of communist efforts from the 1920s to the 1930s and progressively into the 1940s. Applying this brief contextual communist history to FDMist movements allows for a better perception of how feminism and communism have intertwined over time. Conceptual Developments of Feminism In Feminism in the Cold War, Kokori debunks the narrative of the United States as liberators who freed Japanese women from the tyranny of the patriarchy during the 1945-1952 occupation of Japan. This is post-World War II for all of you history buffs, and it comes to nobody's surprise that the U.S. liberalist narrative is often used to excuse the violence elicited in Japan during their efforts to democratize their culture. Kokori navigates how East Asian Cold War feminist movements challenged the U.S. occupation and directly responded to American racism, sexism, and imperialism. As Americans are familiar, the infamous historical excuse of being so burdened by the obligation to civilize and democratize ethnic minorities. However, as we all know, the U.S. savior ideology to save women from male dominance did more cultural harm than good and, let's be honest, often involved sexual violence. The occupation from 1945 to 1952 can be split up into a period of positive reform efforts, emphasizing the gender equality and inclusion within the cultural reconstruction as an anti-democratic and repressive period, one that emphasizes a gendered anti-communist effort. Within the feminist movement, a focus on the protection of innocent women was emphasized as poor Japanese women, many of whom were forced to work as prostitutes, were often labeled as menaces for infecting American soldiers with STDs. This made Japanese women targets of U.S. efforts as they were frequently round up and disempowered at the expense and exploitation of the advocacy for middle and working class Japanese women who were worthy both of sexuality and respect. In 1949, the Conference of Women of Asia was hosted in Beijing, China by the Women's International Democratic Federation, the WIDF. With participation from the All-China Women's Democratic Federation and the Mahila Atma Rakshi Smriti, or MARS, and the Women's Self-Defense Committee from West Bengal, India, the attendance of the conference became a pivotal moment of ideological feminism shifts. As leftist and internationalist women's movements met face to face, a communal analysis on imperialism in connection to their individual women's movements were made to allow criticisms of newly independent and still colonialized Asian and North African nations. As the conference in 1949 allowed nations to discuss female human rights and the direct yet individual responses to gendered imbalances of political and cultural power, it also aimed to uplift the previously disregarded poor female population. Allowing the communal establishment of critiques on Western feminism, the 1949 conference became a safe space for colonialized spaces and voices to develop global feminist solidarity for the Asian nations that continued to be colonial targets. Here, the three dominant traditions of feminist activism became explicitly outlined as social reform feminism, nationalist and taste feminism, and leftist feminism. Social reform feminism sparked from colonialized nations as a method of uplifting women through access to quality education, health care, social welfare, and the freedom of cultural and religious practice. As social reform and feminism included challenging social gender prescriptions, nationalist and state feminism included the necessity for equal gender rights, specifically equal women's rights, to be achieved and maintained with independent nations. A big part of this nationalist and state feminist movement was the advocacy for women to be able to participate in public life in a holistic way, meaning without exploitation and systematic injustice. Leftist or mass-based feminism was outlined as a method of reconstructing the economy in favor of social and cultural relations. This movement focused on the use of politics to liberate women pre-existing from capitalistic exploitations, mainly within the workplace. As a leftist feminist movement, they often used both violent and nonviolent strategies to draw attention to the visibility of women and their demand for changes within their rights, specifically regarding reproduction and their placements in the workforce. The ability of conferences to allow the associations of community within and between feminist movements allows for common experiences to be broadcasted in a way that highlights the emergent anti-imperialist movements, especially in Asia following World War II. As post-war feminist efforts aimed to combat both old and new forms of imperialism, conferences allowed the political room necessary for them to breathe and rethink their confrontational efforts, both collectively and individually. During this time, leaders and delegates within the feminist organizations in attendance often shared communist affiliations as active members of both communist and feminist organizations. This often meant that communist and anti-imperialist movements were often intertwined and embedded within post-war Asian feminist ideologies and combative strategies. This is specifically relevant considering the timing of the 1949 Feminist Conference, preceding the 1948 Communist Party Youth Conference in India. As a notable conference, the 1948 Communist Party Youth Conference marked a new anti-imperialist movement, as poor and working class communities now held leadership positions within revolutionary efforts. Both conferences ultimately ended up in mass solidarity, violent uproar, and organized protests. As the movements grew both in popularity and interconnectedness, the International Democratic Federation, the WIDF, ultimately earned recognition as a Soviet-backed organization, allowing for the fictional Iron Curtain to offer a sense of protection over an organization that was vulnerable to Western efforts. As Kim reconceptualizes Cold War feminism and East Asia in contemporary ways by approaching them as both intersectional and global. As of 2020, she claims the Cold War remains prominent in East Asia, where communism and feminism frequently intertwine. Acknowledging that the Cold War shaped the trajectory of feminist movements is essential especially when looking at Soviet propaganda and how gendered portrayals of the feminized appeasers and masculinized freedom fighters impacted the perception of feminine political power. International Women's Day became popularized due to feminist socialists that aided in the establishment as an official communist holiday in 1922 and was then celebrated both global and internationally by feminists who associated with communist and socialist ideals. Feminism and Communism in Film While feminism and communism have intertwined and interacted with both social and political climates, they are most powerfully presented to the public through film due to its ability to be a method of escape and entertainment. Before and after Japan's surrender, film became a tool for information, presentation, and storytelling ultimately allowing the creation of a new feminist paradigm within socialist film. As the Soviet army assisted Chinese communists in their efforts to occupy the film industry, the Northeast Film Studio, the NFS, was established in 1945 with Shen Boer as the head of the art department and secretary. The NFS was later directed by Jan Muxi, an actor who had studied film in the Soviet Union who later married Boer in 1947. Boer also worked with Yan Yin, a director who held the view that the workers slash peasants slash soldiers who were the subject of revolutionary cultural representation were genderless. Yin noticed that gender unmarked individuals were often masculinized inspired her to work to deny the patriarchal notion that women were deficient. Boer's productions allowed Yin's work to shine as they collaborated on the prioritization of feminist visions in filmmaking through films with revolutionary heroines. By 1946, the workforce of filmmakers within the NFS were mostly young communists dedicated to supporting this new feminist heroine regime until the first revolutionary heroine film debuted in 1949 titled The Daughters of China. This film was based on the real stories of eight girls who sacrificed themselves in favor of the survival of soldiers fighting alongside them in the war. Aside from the debut of the heroine, this film was also unique in the use of its technique coined by Boer as a xia xing hua, or entering life. This hands-on approach consisted of a lengthy film study implemented as an acknowledgment of the responsibility they had as filmmakers to provide scripts and performances that respected the real lives and stories of the people presented. With what is contemporarily coined as a biopic, xia xing hua allowed for the development of scripts that were based on real lives and stories and rejected the fictional symbolic narrative style. However, Boer didn't see this as restrictive and instead saw it as a blissment Ordinary people could do in an extraordinary time went far beyond anything artists could imagine. Allowing a new film genre, the classical revolutionary film genre was born as Chinese communist film efforts rejected Hollywood's delicate feminization with a portrayal of women who stood tall, full of anatomy and courage, absence of sexual desires in the male gaze. Boer, in dedication to the cause over her recognition, stayed passively credited as she insisted on letting other names appear in credits in replacement of her own. Ultimately allowing Yin to be accredited as the sole script writer for Daughters of China alongside Ling Xing, a first-time director who studied Soviet film under the NFS curriculum. In July 1949, Boer became the director of the art department for the Central Film Bureau, CFB, in Beijing alongside her husband who became the director. She used her high position to push feminist film allowing female filmmakers to take control of their own narratives through the non-fictional stories of women who denied being rescued. Her position also allowed for the international recognition and interest of the heroine making the field study method a new prescription within non-fiction filmmaking. Xin Boer ultimately died of heart failure in 1951 after leaving a CFB event that she attended and low energy and high interest of filmmakers and their stories. With Boer's story and her amazing work with film concluding this episode that's all I have for you today on the F word and I hope to see you all next time. This is Em and I'll see you later.