Women and Their Warlords

Explores the complex history and legacy of elite wives, concubines, and daughters of warlords in twentieth-century China. In Women and Their Warlords, historian Kate Merkel-Hess examines the lives and personalities of the female relatives of the militarists who governed regions of China from 1916 to 1949. Posing for candid photographs and sitting for interviews, these women did not just advance their male relatives' agendas. They advocated for social and political changes, gave voice to feminist ideas, and shaped how the public perceived them. As the first publicly political wives in modern China, the wives and concubines of the Republican era warlords changed how people viewed elite women's engagement in politics. Drawing on popular media sources, including magazine profiles and gossip column items, Merkel-Hess makes unexpected connections between militarism, domestic life, and state power as she provides an insightful new account of gender and authority in twentieth-century China.