2016 Kanava Book Prize Winner
Congratulations to our valued colleague, Tiina Airaksinen for co-winning the 2016 Kanava Book Prize. Kanava Book Prize is awarded to the best nonfiction book on society, politics, history, culture or economics. This year there was 142 books in the competition. Tiina is University Lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Helsinki. She is one of the three editors (with Elina Sinkkonen and Minna Valjakka) of the new book More Than Half the Sky: Chinese Women on History, Society and Culture (in Finnish: Enemmän kuin puoli taivasta: Kiinalainen nainen historiassa, yhteiskunnassa ja kulttuurissa).
The book analyses Chinese female activities and agency concentrating on their change in the Chinese socio-political and cultural context. It is important to recognize that female agency is dependent on women’s societal status: what kind of roles are accepted for women, what kind of moral principles apply on women and how women themselves question and modify these societal ramifications. In China, the influence of factors such as traditional Chinese ideologies, views of the Communist Party, Western role models and women’s own personal views and intentions, make the question of changes in contemporary Chinese female agency intriguing.
More Than Half the Sky was published by Art House this March and has since then received positive reviews (some pictures of the book launched can be found here). The winning of the Kanava Book Prize is once again a recognition of the quality of the editors and authors’ research on such an interesting and important topic.
Winners of Kanava Book Prize 2016!
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