EVENTS

At some point or the other, a linguist becomes gravely aware and conscious of the overwhelming presence of gender in language and literature. The persistence of gender in the daily lives of human beings results in their desire to be recognized as a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’, urging each one of us to 'perform' our gender. Language enabled people to create clear-cut demarcation of gender binaries of men and women, matching it with social expectations. The pictographic script of Chinese language awakens one to the subtle yet pervasive presence of gender in everyday language and expression. The essential link between language and gender is at best depicted in a pictographic script like Chinese, which is filled with examples of words and phrases with female radical indicating several biased views on women, traditional and superstitious beliefs, folk culture, abuses, proverbs and idioms. This presentation establishes the innate connection between language and gender, and discusses the importance of research on gender in language for gender and women's studies as well as for language studies. With the dynamic social constructionist approach, which views gender as more performative and as constantly "in formation", it critically analyses gender in Chinese language to discuss its presence in ‘women’s speech’ and ‘how they are spoken about’.

Speaker

Usha Chandran is an Assistant Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University and Honorary Fellow, at the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi. She holds a PhD in Chinese on Gender issues in China from JNU. Her major research interests include gender issues in China and comparison with India, interface between gender and language as well as popular culture, women’s subjectivity in literature, and exploring Sociological methodologies to study the Chinese society. Her major publications include book chapters and journal articles. Her book, Gender Discrimination at Work in Urban China, is due to be out in August and she is also editing a volume titled, Gender in Language and Expression.

Chair

Patricia Uberoi is an Emeritus Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), New Delhi. She has held teaching and research posts at the Australian National University (Canberra), the University of Hong Kong, the Institute of Advanced Studies (Shimla), the University of Delhi, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi), and the Institute of Economic Growth (Delhi), where she also for many years edited the journal, Contributions to Indian Sociology. She was the Director, and later, also Chairperson of the ICS (2015-21). Her research interests centre on aspects of family, kinship, gender, popular culture, and social policy, with regard to both India and China. At the ICS, she was closely associated with the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Forum for Regional Cooperation, a Track II dialogue focusing on development issues in the region stretching from Northeast India to Southwest China, and had co-authored, with K.S. Rana, The BCIM Forum and Regional Integration (Institute of Chinese Studies, 2012).

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