KATRINA GULLIVER SOPHIA CHEN ZEN AND WESTERNIZED CHINESE FEMINISM 258 Sophia Chen Zen and Westernized Chinese Feminism KATRINA GULLIVER Introduction Sophia Chen Zen was an influential Chinese intellectual of the interwar period and one of the few Chinese women at the time to have received an education overseas. Her writing shows a concern for the development of Chinese feminism brought about by her experience of American society. Recognizing that Chinese society faced a turning point in the treatment of women, she explored different approaches in her work. She demonstrated a bicultural self in her writing and saw her role as an intermediary between China and the West. Zen was a member of the first generation of Chinese women intellectuals to be educated abroad, and one of its most outspoken representatives on feminism and the changing role of women in China. Chen Hengzhe (Ch’en Heng-che) 陈衡哲 adopted the name Sophia H. Chen — Sophia Chen Zen after marriage — and published under this byline in English. (She married H. C. Zen, a chemist with a BA and MA from Cornell, and the first president of the Science Society of China.) As the recipient of a scholarship from the Boxer Indemnity Fund Grants, she studied at Vassar and in 1920 became China’s first female professor (Boorman 1967: 183), teaching history and English literature at Peking University (Li 1992: 59). Education in United States Sophia Chen Zen’s unusual educational opportunities were the result of a family who were supportive of female education, and the scholarship funding that gave her the chance to travel to the USA. In 1908, the United States government had ratified an agreement to give up part of the Boxer Indemnity from China amounting to about $12 million, the money to be used instead for Chinese students to study in the West. The plan had three elements: First, the founding of Tsing Hua School, a preparatory school for Chinese students aiming to study abroad; Katrina Gulliver is Leverhulme Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Metropolitan History, Institute of Historical Research, London. Her email address is hello@katrinagulliver.com © JOURNAL OF CHINESE OVERSEAS 4, 2 NOV. 2008: 258274 KatGulliver (258-274).indd 258 KatGulliver (258-274).indd 258 9/24/08 9:20:49 AM 9/24/08 9:20:49 AM