This course aims to examine the political, economic, and cultural forces that are shaping the gendered experience and status of people in the People’s Republic of China.  Specifically, it will investigate the cultural and structural imperatives of patriarchy in pre-socialist China and discuss how Chinese patriarchy and related gender inequalities are redefined, manipulated, transformed, and experienced at both the structural and the individual levels.  By decoding various dimensions of gender issues, this course will help students understand how social structure and individual lives are connected, and how the gendered relations and ideologies in China have changed across time.