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Anaemia is a global public health problem affecting women worldwide, and reproductive-age women are at increased risk. We conducted a population-based cross-sectional study analysing the prevalence of overall anaemia and anaemia according to severity in Chinese pre-pregnant women to update current knowledge on anaemia epidemiology. Based on the National Free Preconception Check-up Projects supported by the Chinese government, 5 679 782 women participating in this project in 2017 were included in the present study. The cyanmethemoglobin method was applied to assess Hb concentrations. Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were applied for associated factors. The prevalence of anaemia among Chinese pre-pregnant women was 21·64 % (mild: 14·10 %, moderate: 7·17 % and severe : 0·37 %). The prevalence of overall and severe anaemia was the highest in Tibet and the lowest in Beijing among thirty-one provinces. Women's age, region, ethnic origin, educational level, occupation and pregnancy history were all correlated with anaemia. Women with B blood type (adjusted OR (aOR) = 0·89), higher BMI (overweight: aOR = 0·84; obesity: aOR = 0·70) and alcohol consumption (aOR = 0·69) were less likely to have anaemia, while those with rhesus negative blood type (aOR = 1·10), history of anaemia (aOR = 2·60), older age at menarche (aOR = 1·19), heavy menstrual blood loss (aOR = 1·39), longer menstrual period (aOR = 1·09) and shorter menstrual cycle (aOR = 1·08) were more likely to suffer from anaemia. Meat or egg eaters were not significantly associated with severe anaemia. Anaemia is of moderate public health significance among Chinese pre-pregnant women. Interventions should be considered to prevent anaemia to the greatest extent possible to avoid potential harm in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal scholars tend to understand dignity as an intrinsic value that each individual gains at birth. This article aims to rethink dignity from a relational perspective. As dignity is highly dependent on other people's judgement and evaluations in China, I use "relational dignity" to stress the precarious and relational nature of dignity in societies in which people attach great importance to guanxi networks. I discuss how relational dignity and state law interact to shape leftover women's choices in marriage and childbearing. The precarious and relational nature of dignity motivates leftover women to follow dominant social norms in order to fit in. As a result, it reinforces state law's discrimination against unmarried women and single mothers. On the other hand, the rubber-stamp quality of state law enables leftover women to use legal recognition to win societal recognition and attain relational dignity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces South China's jiagongchang household workshops as marginal hubs of affective and industrial labour, which are produced by migrant women's yearnings for people and places far away. Temporary sites and precarious forms of low-wage production serve as fragmented and provisional resources of sociality and labour as migrant workers and urban villages gradually become incorporated within the urban fabric. The unrequited longings of migrant women who work in factories and as caretakers demonstrate how marginal hubs are created through disjunctures of emplacement and mobility, which are intensified as these women attempt to bridge the contradictions entailed in care work and industrial labour across the supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on Chinese elite women who gravitated towards national affairs in the pre-war urban sites of eastern China and who migrated to Wuhan after the outbreak of the War of Resistance (1937–1945), this article analyses the emergence, development, and integration of their sociopolitical networks for the purpose of promoting women's participation in national salvation, against a backdrop of the deepening national crisis in the 1930s. I argue that two years before the Second Kuomintang-Chinese Communist Party (KMT-CCP) United Front was officially formed, these elite women, hailing from diverse social and political backgrounds and different professions, had already established their own leadership during the national salvation movement and called for a women's united front. Therefore, rather than being simply political rhetoric enhanced under the auspices of the KMT-CCP alliance, the women's united front served as an important institution with which Chinese elite women identified and through which they empowered themselves at a local and then national level, across and beyond geopolitical boundaries. I conclude that the birth and evolution of this women's united front, which have been neglected in the historiography of China's War of Resistance, are crucial to an understanding of unsettling negotiations, communication, and cooperation between the various forces signed up to the cause of national salvation in the 1930s, and to the interpretation of popular resistance before the war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a population-based cohort study which examines the potential association between preconception hemoglobin (Hb) concentration and preterm birth risks in Chinese women between the ages of 20 and 49, and it mentions preconception anaemia and preterm deliveries.

Objective: To explore Chinese mothers' experiences, emotions and expectations of breast-feeding in public places.Design: Exploratory qualitative study. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants and face-to-face interviews were conducted. Themes were identified by content analysis.Setting: Two different geographical communities in Wuhan, Hubei Province, central China, March-May 2016.Subjects: A total of twenty-seven mothers aged 23-33 years, who had one child under 3 years of age and had experience of breast-feeding in public places.Results: Seven themes emerged from the interviews: struggling to balance infant's needs and personal feelings; embarrassed or natural emotion regarding breast-feeding in public places; effect of cultural and social norms; internalized concerns going beyond actual social reaction; measures to make breast-feeding in public places easier; desire for more public facilities; and expecting emotional support from society members.Conclusions: More positive social support, favourable policies and necessary facilities were desired to enable mothers to breast-feed in an appropriate public location. Women expected increased public acceptance of breast-feeding practices and support from government health officials to ensure women's success in breast-feeding in public settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A purpose-built empowerment intervention for abused immigrant Chinese women Based on the lessons learned, we designed an empowerment intervention for abused immigrant women from China. Therefore, when evaluating the effect of advocacy intervention on Chinese women's mental health, one should be sensitive to their reports of somatic problems which may be a psychosomatic response to the abuse. global mental health https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2018.5 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INTERVENTIONS COMMENTARY Improving mental health outcomes of Chinese women survivors of intimate partner violence through advocacy interventions Agnes Tiwari 1,2 *, Denise Shuk Ting Cheung 2 and Vivian Hui 3 1 School of Nursing, Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital, Hong Kong 2 School of Nursing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 3 St. Teresa Hospital, Hong Kong Global Mental Health (2018), 5, e15, page 1 of 4. doi:10.1017/gmh.2018.5 Received 18 May 2017; Revised 4 December 2017; Accepted 21 December 2017 Key words: Advocacy intervention, mental health, intimate partner violence, Chinese women. [Extracted from the article]

Since the 1990s, the number of women in Chinese courts has been increasing steadily. Many women judges have risen to mid-level leadership positions, such as division chiefs and vice-chiefs, in the judicial bureaucracy. However, it remains difficult for women to be promoted to high-level leadership positions, such as vice-presidents and presidents. What explains the stratified patterns of career mobility for women in Chinese courts? In this article, we argue that two social processes are at work in shaping the structural patterns of gender inequality: dual-track promotion and reverse attrition. Dual-track promotion is dominated by a masculine and corrupt judicial culture on the political track that prevents women from obtaining high-level promotions, but still allows them to rise to mid-level leadership positions on the professional track based on their expertise and work performance. Reverse attrition enables women to take vacant mid-level positions left by men who exit the judiciary to pursue other careers. Taken together, the vertical and horizontal mobility of judges in their career development presents a processual logic to gender inequality and shapes women's structural positions in Chinese courts, a phenomenon that we term the 'elastic ceiling.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To describe nutrient intakes, characterize dietary patterns and analyse their associations with sociodemographic characteristics among pregnant women in Shaanxi, China.Design: Population-based cross-sectional survey.Setting: Twenty counties and ten districts in Shaanxi Province of Northwest China, 2013.Subjects: Women (n 7462) were recruited using a stratified multistage random sampling method to report diets during pregnancy, at 0-12 months (median 3 months; 10th-90th percentile, 0-7 months) after delivery.Results: Pregnant women had higher intakes of fat, niacin and vitamin E than the nutrient reference values, while most micronutrients such as vitamin A, folate, Ca and Zn were reportedly low. Women in the highest education, occupation and household income groups had higher nutrient intakes than those in the lowest groups. Nutrient intake differences also existed by geographic area, residence and maternal age at delivery. Three dietary patterns were identified: balanced pattern, vegetarian pattern and snacks pattern. Participants with high balanced pattern scores tended to be better educated, wealthier, 25-29 years old at delivery, working outside and living in urban areas and central Shaanxi. Women with high scores on the vegetarian pattern and snacks pattern tended to be in low balanced pattern score groups, and had lower nutrient intakes than those in the high balanced pattern score groups.Conclusions: The study suggested that pregnant women in Shaanxi, China had low intakes of most nutrients such as vitamin A, folate and Ca. Dietary patterns and most nutrient intakes varied by sociodemographic characteristics. Targeted programmes are needed to improve dietary intakes and dietary patterns among sociodemographically disadvantaged groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ObjectiveThe present study aimed to identify dietary patterns and explore their associations with blood lipid profiles among Chinese women.DesignIn a cross-sectional study, we identified dietary patterns using principal component analysis of data from three consecutive 24 h dietary recalls. The China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) collected blood samples in the morning after an overnight fast and measured total cholesterol (TC), HDL cholesterol (HDL-C), LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) and TAG.SettingData were from the 2009 wave of the CHNS.SubjectsWe studied 2468 women aged 18–80 years from the CHNS.ResultsWe identified three dietary patterns: traditional southern (high intakes of rice, pork and vegetables), snack (high intakes of fruits, eggs and cakes) and Western (high intakes of poultry, fast foods and milk). The traditional southern pattern was inversely associated with HDL-C (β=−0·68; 95 % CI −1·22, −0·14; P<0·05). The snack pattern was significantly associated with higher TAG (β=4·14; 95 % CI 0·44, 7·84; P<0·05). The Western pattern was positively associated with TC (β=2·52; 95 % CI 1·03, 4·02; P<0·01) and LDL-C (β=2·26; 95 % CI 0·86, 3·66; P<0·01).ConclusionsWe identified three dietary patterns that are significantly associated with blood lipid profiles. This information is important for developing interventions and policies addressing dyslipidaemia prevention among Chinese women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous epidemiological studies have revealed the anti-cancer effect of dietary circulating carotenoids. However, the protective role of specific individual circulating carotenoids has not been elucidated. The purpose of this study was to examine whether serum carotenoids, including α-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, lycopene and lutein/zeaxanthin, could lower the risk for breast cancer among Chinese women. A total of 521 women with breast cancer and age-matched controls (5-year interval) were selected from three teaching hospitals in Guangzhou, China. Concentrations of α-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, lycopene and lutein/zeaxanthin were measured using HPLC. Unconditional logistic regression models were used to calculate OR and 95 % CI using quartiles defined in the control subjects. Significant inverse associations were observed between serum α-carotene, β-carotene, lycopene, lutein/zeaxanthin and the risk for breast cancer. The multivariate OR for the highest quartile of serum concentration compared with the lowest quartile were 0·44 (95 % CI 0·30, 0·65) for α-carotene, 0·27 (95 % CI 0·18, 0·40) for β-carotene, 0·41 (95 % CI 0·28, 0·61) for lycopene and 0·26 (95 % CI 0·17, 0·38) for lutein/zeaxanthin. However, no significant association was found between serum β-cryptoxanthin and the risk for breast cancer. Stratified analysis by menopausal status and oestrogen receptor (ER)/progesterone receptor (PR) showed that serum α-carotene, β-carotene, lycopene and lutein/zeaxanthin were inversely associated with breast cancer risk among premenopausal women and among all subtypes of ER or PR status. The results suggest a protective role of α-carotene, β-carotene, lycopene and lutein/zeaxanthin, but not β-cryptoxanthin, in breast cancer risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background.Despite substantial research, uncertainty remains about the clinical and etiological heterogeneity of major depression (MD). Can meaningful and valid subtypes be identified and would they be stable cross-culturally?Method.Symptoms at their lifetime worst depressive episode were assessed at structured psychiatric interview in 6008 women of Han Chinese descent, age ⩾30 years, with recurrent DSM-IV MD. Latent class analysis (LCA) was performed in Mplus.Results.Using the nine DSM-IV MD symptomatic A criteria, the 14 disaggregated DSM-IV criteria and all independently assessed depressive symptoms (n = 27), the best LCA model identified respectively three, four and six classes. A severe and non-suicidal class was seen in all solutions, as was a mild/moderate subtype. An atypical class emerged once bidirectional neurovegetative symptoms were included. The non-suicidal class demonstrated low levels of worthlessness/guilt and hopelessness. Patterns of co-morbidity, family history, personality, environmental precipitants, recurrence and body mass index (BMI) differed meaningfully across subtypes, with the atypical class standing out as particularly distinct.Conclusions.MD is a clinically complex syndrome with several detectable subtypes with distinct clinical and demographic correlates. Three subtypes were most consistently identified in our analyses: severe, atypical and non-suicidal. Severe and atypical MD have been identified in multiple prior studies in samples of European ethnicity. Our non-suicidal subtype, with low levels of guilt and hopelessness, may represent a pathoplastic variant reflecting Chinese cultural influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ObjectiveTo investigate the association of regional fat depots with metabolic risk factors in Chinese women.DesignTotal and regional fat depots including android fat and gynoid fat were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Central fat distribution was defined as android:gynoid fat ratio. Metabolic risk factors were defined as elevated TAG, reduced HDL-cholesterol, elevated blood pressure and elevated fasting plasma glucose. Logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the associations of regional fat depots with metabolic risk factors. The odds ratios of metabolic risks were further calculated according to tertiles of android fat and gynoid fat.SettingParticipants were recruited from a community-based cross-sectional study. Face-to-face questionnaires, anthropometric and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry measures were conducted.SubjectsChinese women (n 609) aged 18–79 years.ResultsAndroid fat and android:gynoid fat ratio were associated with significantly increased odds (OR = 1·4–3·7; P < 0·01) for almost all risk factors, whereas gynoid fat was independently associated with significantly decreased odds (OR = 0·3–0·6; P < 0·01). The inverse associations of gynoid fat with metabolic risk factors remained after adjusting for android fat. Even if their android fat level was in high, women in the highest tertile of gynoid fat had lower odds of having at least two metabolic risk factors compared with women in the lowest gynoid fat tertile (P for trend < 0·01).ConclusionsThere were opposite associations of android and gynoid fat with metabolic risks in Chinese women. Gynoid fat rather than android fat might be a more important inclusion in metabolic disease risk evaluation in female Asians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, marriage is a near universality in China. However, in the coming decades, owing to the growing sex imbalance, millions of men will be unable to marry. As a consequence, bachelorhood is becoming a new demographic concern, particularly affecting men from the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups. In China's cultural context today, heterosexual marriage remains a prerequisite for family formation and, in rural society particularly, the legitimate setting for sexual activity. Under such circumstances, bachelorhood is likely to produce privations on various fronts, the consequences of which for both the individual and the community are still largely unknown. This article focuses on the opinions and sexual behaviour of bachelors, and highlights significant variations from those of married men. It is based on the findings of an exploratory survey conducted in 2008 in selected villages in a rural county in Anhui province, referred to here as JC county. The survey provides insights into the more general situation of rural men unable to marry in a context of female shortage, and indicates the conditions a growing number of Chinese men will face in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is well established that returns on education are higher for women than for men in urban China. We argue that this finding, while accurate, is misleading owing to its individualist perspective. The income to which most working-age women and men have access includes not only their own income, but also spouse income. Furthermore, decisions about participation and investment in the labour force, both consequential for income trajectories, are likely to be made with partner income and potential income in mind. To our knowledge, no research in China has explored the returns to education enjoyed via spouse income, or the implications of pooling couple income, for illuminating the returns to schooling difference for women and men. In this article, using data from the China Urban Labour Survey (2001), we argue that the returns for women, conventionally defined, are higher than for men because many women trade their own income for spouse income, and this is particularly true among less educated women. We demonstrate, first, that women who are more educated are less likely to get married, while the reverse is true for men. Second, we show that among couples there is evidence of a trade-off in investments in careers. Moreover, among couples, the less educated the woman and the more educated the man, the less likely the couple is to depend heavily on her income. Finally, we show that among couples there is a compensating reverse pattern of returns differences by sex when income is conceptualized as spouse income. Thus, in terms of total couple income, there are no returns differences by sex. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is a study of socialist feminist cultural practices in the early PRC. It investigates stories behind the scenes and treats the All-China Women's Federation's official journal Women of China as a site of feminist contention to reveal gender conflicts within the Party, diverse visions of socialist transformation, and state feminist strategies in the pursuit of women's liberation. A close examination of discrepancies between the covers and contents of the magazine explicates multiple meanings in establishing a socialist feminist visual culture that attempted to disrupt gender and class hierarchies. Special attention to state feminists' identification with and divergence from the Party's agenda illuminates a unique historical process in which a gendered democracy was enacted in the creation of a feminist cultural front when the Party was consolidating its centralizing power. The article demonstrates a prominent "gender line" in the socialist state that has been neglected in much of the scholarship on the Mao era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the fifth village elections in 2003 in Shaanxi province only 184 women were elected as village heads, a mere 0.6 per cent of the total. By the sixth elections in 2006 the number had almost doubled, and by the seventh elections in 2009 it had increased to 544. Together with the women on village Party committees, there were now 1,193 women village officials throughout the province, 4.5 per cent of the total. In contrast to leading women cadres within the formal structures of the political system, these village heads owed their positions not to nomination by upper levels of Party and government leadership but to success in fiercely competitive elections. Their success was the result of a grass-roots movement launched by a civil organization, the Shaanxi Research Association for Women and Family, to mobilize women's political participation. Their activities and trajectories had an impact on the local gender division of labour and entrenched gender attitudes that far surpassed the numbers alone. This article examines the collaboration between the Shaanxi Research Association for Women and Family and the All-China Women's Federation to mobilize women's political participation in Heyang county, Shaanxi province. It particularly focuses on the role of the Research Association in drawing on international feminist practices of women's empowerment to provide participatory based gender training courses as the key to persuading women to confront local and institutional resistance. Collaboration between the Research Association and the Women's Federation opened up access to significant resources both within and outside the system, creating new spaces for the articulation and protection of women's rights. Originating in a grass-roots movement, this collaboration can be seen as an instance of China's contemporary movement for gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I re-think the complex legacies of the Maoist era and their relationship to the contemporary decline in rural women's leadership. By focusing on some of the gendered dimensions of rural development policy, it becomes evident that many "traditional" beliefs about the leadership abilities of rural women were given new life during the Maoist era. Prior to the Cultural Revolution rural women had two dominant paths of "liberation" or jiefang available to them: one that involved a liberation through the female body and household, the path of dangjia, and one that involved a liberation from the constraints of the female body and household, the path of fanshen. In this article I show how the simultaneous implementation of these two paths of liberation on a unique women-led Mu Guiying Brigade during the Great Leap Forward reproduced the problem of the political unacceptability of rural women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the flow of the material, cultural and moral influences shaping contemporary Chinese society, individual desires for emotional communication are reconstituting the meaning of the subject, self and responsibility. This article draws on fieldwork conducted in Beijing between 2000 and 2004 to discuss the gendered dimensions of this process through an analysis of the implications of the "communicative intimacy" sought by mothers and daughters in their mutual relationship. What could be termed a "feminization of intimacy" is the effect of two distinct but linked processes: on the one hand, a market-supported naturalization of women's roles, and on the other, the changing subjective articulation of women's needs, desires and expectations of family and personal relationships. I argue that across these two processes, the celebration of a communicative intimacy does not signify the emergence of more equal family or gender relationships, as recent theories about the individualization and cultural democratization of daily life in Western societies have argued. As families and kin groups, communities and neighbourhoods are physically, spatially and socially broken up, and as gender differences in employment and income increase, media and "expert" encouragement to mothers to become the all-round confidantes, educators and moral guides of their children affirms women's responsibilities in the domestic sphere. Expectations of mother—daughter communication reshape the meaning — and experience — of the individual subject in the changing character of the urban family at the same time as they reinforce ideas about women's gendered attributes and the responsibilities associated with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the relationship between gender and income inequality within and across households in an urban Chinese sample by looking at survey data from 381 married couples with infants born in a Nanjing hospital between 2006 and 2007 and in-depth interviews with a sub-sample of 80 of these couples. We explore the relationship between family income and differences between husbands' and wives' work preferences. A couple-level quantitative analysis shows that in lower-income families, husbands were more likely than their wives to prefer career advancement and low stress at work, and wives were more likely than their husbands to prefer state jobs. Our analyses of the qualitative subsample show that, even though high-income husbands and wives are more likely to share similar work preferences, the household division of roles within their marriages is still gendered along traditional lines, as it is in the marriages of low-income couples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article highlights the case of a rural north-east Chinese village where youth labour mobility is a marriage strategy deployed by parents and engaged in by young people given constraints on education and income in the countryside. While some rural mothers and their daughters do make the fairytale of "marrying-up" into an urban household come true, for most rural young women migrants the self-oriented consumption that they are encouraged to pursue free of rural domestic responsibilities sets them up for heartbreak when they are brought back for a rural marriage. As long as rural households are left to rely on the "insurance" of land and a younger generation to work it and provide labour of domestic subsistence, they will pull sons (and wives for them) back to the countryside, and try to marry daughters to urban households to expand their network of security. This new twist on an old managerial strategy sets up a tragic conflict: young men are encouraged to return to the countryside, while young women are pushed to provide a "uniting bridge" into the city and, when they fail, are brought back to the countryside for marriage. If the experiences of families in Huangbaiyu village are not an anomaly but signal a broader trend, a generation of returnee young women who are frustrated and angry in rural marriages and abandon their husbands and parents-in-law will dramatically influence the future of China's development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing China's population has formerly been considered a good thing because of the perceived environmental and social risks of overpopulation, but it has recently become apparent that the resulting population decline may create problems that will become increasingly serious in the future. The results of a survey of 4600 women in nineteen Chinese provinces in 2005 indicated that young age, high income, high education level, urban location and good employment all decreased a woman's willingness to bear children. The risks created by declining fertility in these groups have been intensified by China's 'one child' family planning policy. However, as a result of current trends and China's policies, the country's population will continue to age, leading to social problems and difficulties for sustainable development both in China and around the world. Therefore, China's policy-makers must begin planning to adjust their policy by encouraging women to give birth to more than one child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been considerable interest in the role of carotenoids in the chemoprevention of cancer. However, few studies have examined the association between intake of specific carotenoids and the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer and the results for carotenoids have been inconclusive. To investigate whether the intake of ??-carotene, ??-carotene, ??-cryptoxanthin, lutein and zeaxanthin, and lycopene is inversely associated with ovarian cancer risk, a case???control study was conducted in China during 1999???2000. The cases were 254 patients with histologically confirmed epithelial ovarian cancer and 652 age-matched controls were randomly recruited during the same period. Habitual dietary intake and lifestyle were collected by face-to-face interview using a validated and reliable FFQ. The US Department of Agriculture nutrient composition database was used to calculate the intake of specific carotenoids. Unconditional logistic regression analyses were used to estimate OR and 95??% CI, accounting for age, locality, education, BMI, smoking, tea drinking, parity, oral contraceptive use, hormone replacement therapy, menopausal status, family history of ovarian cancer, physical activity and energy intake. Compared with the highest v. the lowest quartile of intake, the adjusted OR were 0??39 (95??% CI 0??23, 0??66) for ??-carotene, 0??51 (95??% CI 0??31, 0??84) for ??-carotene, 0??51 (95??% CI 0??31, 0??83) for ??-cryptoxanthin, 0??45 (0??27, 0??76) for lutein and zeaxanthin, and 0??33 (95??% CI 0??20, 0??56) for total carotenoids, with statistically significant tests for trend. It is concluded that a higher intake of carotenoids can reduce the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]