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Daoist Ecofeminism as a New Democracy: An Analysis of Patriarchy in Contemporary China and a Tentative Solution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2022

Jing Liu
Jing Liu*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy and Social Development, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China, 250014
*
Corresponding author. jing6@hawaii.edu
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Abstract

The pain caused by the patriarchal totalitarianism of different modern political regimes is felt by everyone in our time: poverty, unemployment, high exploitation of both nature and humans, systematic oppression, persecution and domination, and pollution that threatens human existence. This article analyzes the different forms of patriarchy in contemporary China and explores a feminist way out. The first part examines how modern patriarchy unfolds itself through the land-enclosure movement that has caused serious pollution in China. I will show that the patriarchal process of development is a double exploitation of both nature and humans. The second part turns to the patriarchy in traditional Chinese philosophies and explores possible dangers in Confucian feminism. In the last part I try to posit as a solution Daoist ecofeminism as a new democracy, wherein the feminist ontology and the freedom of all beings will be explored.

Type
Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , Spring 2022 , pp. 276 - 292
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Hypatia, a Nonprofit Corporation

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