It was no cliched compliment when I wrote in “The Warlords” entry for the Oxford Bibliographies in Chinese Studies that Kate Merkel-Hess broke new ground with her article on the “politics of intimacy” between Feng Yuxiang and his wife Li Dequan.Footnote ¹ Rather, it was my appreciation for how Merkel-Hess truly opened a new path of inquiry that had been largely neglected by Western scholars of Chinese warlordism. It was hardly a surprise, then, to find Merkel-Hess again leading the way to expand this field with her new book Women and Their Warlords.

Besides Li Dequan, the subjects of Merkel-Hess’s study include Zhang Peilan (concubine and later sole companion of Wu Peifu), Xu Zhuqing and Xu Lansen (wife and concubine, respectively, of the Shanxi warlord Yan Xishan), Guo Dejie (concubine of the Guangxi warlord Li Zongren), Fu Dong (daughter of General Fu Zuoyi, known for his surrender of Beijing to the communists in 1948), and Zhao Yidi (concubine and then second wife of the Manchurian warlord Zhang Xueliang). Somewhat oddly, perhaps, Song Meiling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek) also appears prominently throughout the book even though Merkel-Hess pointedly argues that Chiang was not a warlord (because the loyalty of his troops was to the nation rather than to Chiang personally). But this attention to Song Meiling is necessary not only because she interacted in significant ways with many of the other subjects of the book but to show that the celebrity of Song Meiling, who has received more attention from historians, was not an exception but part of the broader phenomenon of women appearing in the public realm in this era of Chinese history. Despite the neglect by historians, Merkel-Hess notes that the activities of these women were commonly followed in the press of the time, if for nothing else than hints about shifting warlord relationships and alliances. This alone represented a striking shift in popular recognition and acceptance of women in the public realm. For Merkel-Hess, though, bringing these women back into the picture also illuminates specific and important features of the warlord period of Chinese history.

First, Merkel-Hess takes note of the ways in which the support and public roles of these women served the practical purpose of enhancing the reputations of “their” warlords. If nothing else, overt displays of domesticity helped the warlords soften their images as more palatable political figures. In this regard, Zhang Peilan probably provided an early model in public representations of her devotion to Wu Peifu, while also using comforting visits to Wu’s frontline troops to shore up their loyalty. Many of the other women featured in this book went even further to break free of traditional conceptions of how women should appear and behave in Chinese society. Many of them were educated and talented in their own right, reflecting the new ideals of gender equality that grew out of the May Fourth Movement. By appearing in public and taking on a range of societal and professional responsibilities, these women challenged assumptions (often shared by historians) that the warlords were simply conservative or backward defenders of tradition who were out of touch with the changes sweeping through Chinese society at this time.

Second, the public activities of these women served as models for other women of the time. In particular, they became advocates, in word and action, for gender equality and the inclusion of women in the political process. These women could simply not be reduced to the late Qing ideals of “good wives and wise mothers.” At the same time, Merkel-Hess also uses her cases to show the diversity of approaches represented by these women, even in their ideas on feminism and women’s liberation. Thus, while arguing for the equal importance of female labor, Xu Lansen paid less attention to political equality and stressed different social and economic spheres for men and women. Self-educated Li Dequan took a stronger stand on women’s rights, but promoted the position that women should prove their equality with men by successfully taking on more public and professional roles. A more radical position was taken by Guo Dejie, who not only stressed the value of women’s labor (pointing to how lower-class women had always engaged openly in productive work in society) but also argued that because of this women’s political rights did not need to be justified. She also went further than the fund-raising philanthropy of other elite women during the war against Japan to call for women’s actual service on military frontlines. Such views contrasted with the ideological position of Song Meiling that, despite her own active political role, stressed domesticity and motherhood as a woman’s central contributions. Fu Dong, despite her elite background, offered a more quotidian example of a “new” woman in this period by pursuing both a career (in journalism) and a political life (as an underground communist activist).

Drawing on these first two points, Merkel-Hess argues that the activities of these women expand our understanding of the warlord (and Republican) period as a time of cultural diversity and experimentation—in which the warlords (and their families) were active participants. The tradition-breaking cross-gender personal friendship between Song Meiling and Zhang Xueliang was but one minor example of the cultural changes that began to appear in this period. On a more political level, the very public roles taken on by these women challenged the centralizing discourse of the time by promoting broader political participation. Merkel-Hess suggests that the lives of her subjects justify changing conventional views of the warlord period as a time of disintegration to see it as an era of political and social creativity.

Finally, as a historian, Merkel-Hess is keenly alert to how the images of these women were often constructed and reinterpreted by political forces beyond their own control (though not always without their assent). Thus, Merkel-Hess questions later attempts to credit Fu Dong as the main influence in convincing her father to accept the communist takeover of Beijing. Rather, her pro-communist activism might better reflect the May Fourth ideal of women breaking through family constraints (in this case her father’s original strong anti-communist commitments) to assert their own independent political stands. Merkel-Hess argues, however, that as the Communist Party itself shifted its focus from gender equality to the importance of family stability as a key to social order, Fu’s story was not just expanded but reworked to show how, by convincing her father to change sides, she offered a new ideal that harmoniously combined service to her family (filial piety) with service to the nation (patriotism). Likewise, changing public perceptions of Zhang Xueliang from a traitor who betrayed Chiang Kai-shek in the Xi’an Incident to a patriot who only sought to serve the nation are mirrored, and enhanced, by a focus on his personal transformation from a playboy to a responsible husband through the constancy of his relationship with Zhao Yidi. Merkel-Hess argues that the myths constructed around the relationships she presents served the politically useful purpose of “domesticating” the threat of militarism in this period. Investigations such as Merkel-Hess’s are thus essential to the extent that they reveal how gender became embedded in, and even transformed, historical interpretations.

The lack of detailed sources on many of the women Merkel-Hess examines makes the success of this book even more remarkable. At the same time, we see the challenge faced by these women precisely because the traditional public invisibly of women carried over into their time despite their prominence. As Merkel-Hess notes, many press accounts identified these women only by their relationship to “their” warlords instead of by their own names. Thus, the wife and the concubine of Yan Xishan, both of whom played active public roles, were often referred to in the press by the same term (Madame Yan) without distinguishing between them. In the end, like politically powerful women in CCP leadership roles, these women, no matter their own skills or abilities, initially rose to prominence because of their relationships to men. Meanwhile, warlord marriages were usually dictated by elite connections, thus relegating love matches, in most cases, to concubinage (except, it seems, in the rare case of Li Dequan and Feng Yuxiang). In the cases of Guo Dejie and Zhao Yidi, Merkel-Hess shows how the emergence of concubines in public roles was in itself a strikingly new feature of period, even though discrimination over status differences remained. Thus, Song Meiling’s friendship with Zhang Xueliang certainly originated in close family ties with his first wife, but, even after they essentially separated, Merkel-Hess suggests that it took some time for Song to warm up to Zhao Yidi because of the original stigma of her concubinage.

It is hard to find anything critical to say about this book. Some might question how, in the last chapter, the role of Zhao Yidi seems to fade into the background against the broader discussion of changing public perceptions of Zhang Xueliang. Yet this was somewhat unavoidable since this chapter focuses on issues of historical interpretation. Clearly, Merkel-Hess faced some challenges in conducting research into so many different subjects. Nonetheless, the resulting richness and diversity of Merkel-Hess’s accounts and the themes she has pursued show the value of her multi-character approach over individual biographies.