Women and Their Warlords

"In this book, historian Kate Merkel-Hess examines the lives and personalities of the wives of the warlords who held control over regional factions in China from 1916 to 1928. Posing for candid photographs and sitting for interviews, these women did not just advance their husbands' agendas. They advocated for social and political changes, gave voice to feminist ideas, and shaped how the public perceived them. As the first publicly political wives in modern China, the women close to Republican warlords changed how people viewed elite women's engagement in politics. Drawing on popular media sources including magazine profiles and gossip column items, Merkel-Hess draws unexpected connections between militarism and domestic life, and she provides an insightful new account of gender and authority in early twentieth-century China"--