Transnational feminisms in translation: The making of a women's anti-domestic violence movement in China

My dissertation examines the construction of the contemporary Chinese women's movement against domestic violence. It explores the anti-DV campaign in China within the global context of women's transnational human rights campaigns against gender violence and historical factors (local and global) associated with the origin and work of the Network/Research Center for Combating Domestic Violence (the DVN), a new women's non-governmental organization in Beijing with an unprecedented and exclusive commitment to the fight against domestic violence in China. Specifically, my analysis interrogates the DVN as a global-local interface for women's rights that usually emphasizes initiatives at the global level and their "impact" on women's organizing at the local level. My case study finds that transnational feminist advocacy activism, which has made violence against women an international policy issue through application of a human rights framework, provides crucial political opportunities and economic resources for women's local political organizing. For anti-DV activism in the civil society sector of China, the processes of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 and the international donors who fund Chinese women's NGOs are particularly important. However, Chinese woman have not bee passive followers of their Western sisters, nor is violence against women an imposed agenda or imported ideology. In fact, for DVN activists, mobilizing against domestic violence and establishing a specialized NGO to address this issue went beyond the goal of combating domestic violence. To raise social awareness and promote institutional action, the DVN focuses on inculcating gender and human rights perspectives in local agencies and adopts an "engaging" approach to the state through the official women's organization, a strategic process shaped by local relations of power. In sum, my dissertation argues that local women's activism forms a critical---though under-studied and under-recognized---site through which a global feminist cause (in this case VAW as a human rights violation) is advanced in locally appropriate ways that feed back into the cause's increasing importance on the global agenda. Evidence comes primarily from archival research, observations and interviews with DVN activists.