Book Talk: From Back-Alley Clinics to State-Sponsored Surgeries: Tracing the History of Abortion in Modern China

Date:  March 2, 2023 (Thu)

Time: 10:30 am -12:00 pm Hong Kong Time

Venue: Room 408, Wu Ho Man Yuen Building (WMY) | on ZOOM

 

Hybrid event

1: Join us in-person: 70 seats (first-come, first-served basis, please register in advance)

2: Join us online (ZOOM link will be sent upon registration)

 

Speaker: Prof. Sarah Mellors RODRIGUEZ (Missouri State University)

Moderator: Prof. Shoan Yin CHEUNG (Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong)

 

Registration: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13661064

Conducted in English. All are welcome.

Please register by February 28, 2023

Facebook: https://fb.me/e/42TBOReKC

Website: www.cuhk.edu.hk/crs/ccs

Enquiry: cuccs@cuhk.edu.hk

 

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Abstract

At an annual rate of 49 abortions per 1,000 reproductive-aged women, China has one of the highest abortion rates in the world. This phenomenon is often attributed to the One Child Policy (1979-2015), yet even when abortion was illegal in the early twentieth century, it was already commonplace. This talk—based on my forthcoming book, Reproductive Realities—traces the history of contraception and abortion in China from the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 to the present. I demonstrate how inconsistent state policies and patriarchal norms have historically worked in concert to normalize abortion as birth control.

 

Biography

Sarah Mellors RODRIGUEZ is Assistant Professor of East Asian History at Missouri State University. Her forthcoming book, Reproductive Realities in China: Birth Control and Abortion, 1911-2021 (Cambridge University Press, 2023), uses interviews and archival research to analyze how ordinary women and men navigated China’s shifting fertility policies both before and during the One Child Policy era.

 

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This event is organized by the Centre for Cultural Studies, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, CUHK