On China’s biggest social media platform, Weibo, feminists are staying one step ahead of the censors. Weibo Feminism is the first book to explore in-depth the connections and forms of resistance that feminist activists in China are making in online spaces despite increasing crackdowns on free speech and public expression. Aviva Wei Xue and Kate Rose explore the many forms of contemporary feminism in China, from activist campaigns against sexual harassment and domestic violence, through to Weibo Reading groups of feminist texts and subversive online novels published on the platform. The book includes an in-depth case study of feminist support networks for overwhelmingly female frontline medical staff that have sprung up on social media in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Weibo Feminism goes on to asks what lessons are being learned in contemporary China for the cause of social justice for women around the world.

Through specific and rigorous analysis of contemporary literary texts, this book shows how writers from inside affected communities portray indigeneity, displacement, and trauma. In a world of increasing global inequality, this study aims to demonstrate how literature, and the study of it, can effect positive social change, notably in the face of global environmental, economic, and social injustice. This collection brings together a diverse and compelling array of voices from academics leading their fields around the world, to pioneer a new approach to literary analysis anchored in engagement with our changing world.

Through specific and rigorous analysis of contemporary literary texts, this book shows how writers from inside affected communities portray indigeneity, displacement, and trauma. In a world of increasing global inequality, this study aims to demonstrate how literature, and the study of it, can effect positive social change, notably in the face of global environmental, economic, and social injustice. This collection brings together a diverse and compelling array of voices from academics leading their fields around the world, to pioneer a new approach to literary analysis anchored in engagement with our changing world.

On China’s biggest social media platform, Weibo, feminists are staying one step ahead of the censors. Weibo Feminism is the first book to explore in-depth the connections and forms of resistance that feminist activists in China are making in online spaces despite increasing crackdowns on free speech and public expression. Aviva Wei Xue and Kate Rose explore the many forms of contemporary feminism in China, from activist campaigns against sexual harassment and domestic violence, through to Weibo Reading groups of feminist texts and subversive online novels published on the platform. The book includes an in-depth case study of feminist support networks for overwhelmingly female frontline medical staff that have sprung up on social media in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Weibo Feminism goes on to asks what lessons are being learned in contemporary China for the cause of social justice for women around the world.

Kate Rose's poetry is influenced by rural south-west France, where she has lived for the past 10 years. She finds the countryside a place of contrasts: of loneliness, death and destruction but also of kindness and hope. The desperate protagonists in 'Golden Cow', who fail to provide comfort to the mother of the dead calf. The cabbage whites and ryegrass in 'Disappearance' are discordant with the despair of the tractor driver. Yet the neighbour in 'Below the mountains', despite hardships, provides hope in her gift of cheese; the walker in 'Voice' rekindles a precious friendship she thought long gone. Kate uses seascapes, cities, the countryside as the settings for her poems. Her descriptions use few words, yet enable the clear visualisation of the woods, seasons, light, the colour of the sea. It is in these places that she explores her key themes. In the ghostly 'Transient', shadows play tricks on the mind. Trauma is personified in 'Shadow' as it stalks the narrator. Kate explores estranged families in 'Bloods ties' and 'Being Fred', contrasting the cruelty of one boy with the new consciousness of the other, both poems filmic in their images. In 'When its time to go', she uses a walk in the woods to explore loneliness and loss. In 'Fortified' she distinguishes between the damp of Leeds and an amber bay, to reveal the longing of a lonely traveller. Images and sensory details permeate her work. In 'Garlic and Roast Tomatoes', the football thumping against the ancient walls of Santa Croce in Florence provides a sense of normality and light to the lovers in the cold church. Yet in the darkest of places, we find hope. The snowberries revitalising a love affair in 'Propagating'. Her tender poem 'Study' showing us a young daughter's observations of her father's anxiety. The children's singing in 'Aftermath'. Reading Kate's poems forces readers to confront the very nature of their being. Memories, broken dreams, abandoned plans which they might choose to forget in their busy lives. Yet here she gently and persuasively helps her readers to reconnect the positives of their past to shape their futures.