Staff profile

I am a PhD candidate in Chinese History. My research examines how menstruation and menstruating bodies have been governed in the People's Republic of China from 1949 to the 1990s. I argue that menstrual governance took on different political and medical significance as priorities in labour, public health, and reproductive policy shifted, while women continued to manage their periods within and beyond institutional arrangements.

My research draws on archival records, oral history interviews, and periodicals. It traces menstrual hygiene and labour protection in the 1950s, the 1961 nationwide investigation of menstrual disorders, and women's everyday experiences of menstruation during the Mao era. Turning to the reform era, I examine how menstrual cycles became relevant to family planning and athletic performance, and how sanitary pads transformed the material conditions of menstrual governance in China.

I was a visiting student at the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica in July-August 2026, where I conducted research on the transformation of menstrual hygiene in modern China.

Presentations:

“Managing Bleeding: Menstruation and Women’s Regulated Bodies in 20th Century China,” at British Association for Chinese Studies 2025 Annual Conference, University of Leicester, 3 September 2025.

“For Him or For Me?: Contraceptive Diaphragms, Menstrual Discs, and the Politics of Vaginal Technologies in Twentieth-Century China and Beyond,” at Oxford International History of East Asia Seminar, University of Oxford, 26 November 2025.

“Absorption vs Outflow: Technopolitics and Medical Logics of Four Menstrual Products in Contemporary China,” at Centre of the History of Science Technology and Medicine Seminar, University of Manchester, 3 March 2026.

“Beyond the Iron Girls: An Oral History of Menstrual Experiences and Embodied Femininity in Cultural Revolution China,” at Global China Studies Early Career Researcher Network 2026 Annual Conference, University of York, 17 July 2026.

“Governing the Female Body in Everyday Work: Menstrual Labour Protection in Socialist China (1949-1961),” at British Association for Chinese Studies 2026 Annual Conference, University of Lancaster, 3 September 2026.

“Gendering Thermoregulation in Contemporary China,” at ‘Carbon Bodies’: Investigating the Intersections between Energy and Health Histories Workshop, Northumbria University, 11 September 2026 (co-presented with Christopher Courtney).

Teaching:

I am the postgraduate tutor for the module Doing History: Evidence, Methods, and Challenges in the 2026/27 academic year.

For further information or collaboration, please contact me at ruoyu.jia@durham.ac.uk

• Menstruation
• Women's Studies
• Feminine Technology
• China under Mao