Soft archives: Motherhood and daughterhood in post-socialist China

The mother–daughter relationship is important to an understanding of the changing configurations of gender politics from Mao to post-Mao era. This article explores female artists’ articulations of their gendered self in relation to their mothers in post-socialist urban China. Focusing on Ma Qiusha, Qin Jin and Huang Jing Yuan’s practices, I see the intersubjective experiences of mothers and daughters as ‘soft’ archives that illuminate how younger generations of Chinese artists face up to the reality of their mothers’ socialist histories and their own post-socialist situation, and how in this process, a non-official and non-dissident feminist space achieves visual and verbal forms.