Interview with Wang Cuiyu

Abstract

Wang Cuiyu is a retired Women’s Federation cadre who has been involved in many organized activities locally and nationally to promote women’s social advancement. In the 1990s and early 2000s she was the executive secretary of the Shanghai Association of Women’s Studies, an organization affiliated with the Shanghai Women’s Federation. While promoting research on women in Shanghai, she also played a leading role in a national organization for women’s career development. When women’s unemployment became an increasingly acute issue in the economic reform, she set up a women’s school in Shanghai to provide vocational training for laid-off women. Her activism illustrates how women in the official women’s federation have been able to initiate projects that address the needs of various women’s groups and to work closely with women activists outside the official organization. Her narrative also demonstrates how the Fourth UN Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 provided new frameworks for women activists in China.