Introduction. Gender from the Margins of China

National geographies and gender norms both rely upon neatly drawn boundaries, state-sanctioned behaviours, and socially constructed identities that seek to tell us who we are. They are both constructed through the creation of normative centres and peripheries, with clearly demarcated and heavily policed borders. But if the border is a line, the frontier is an area, a liminal space where people do exist on their own terms. Its inhabitants live in constant awareness of their relative marginalisation and of the expectations of the centre. It is through their relative closeness or distance, their deemed "progressiveness" or "backwardness" from the idealized normative centre that they are examined, measured, and defined. But what changes, then, when we step away from dominant narratives of the centre to focus with intention on those historically relegated to the periphery? Reflecting on her grand oeuvre centring Black history and Black women's experiences, Toni Morrison stated: "I stood on the border, stood on the edge, and claimed it as central. Claimed it as central, and let the rest of the world come over to where I was." 2 In turn, what do we see when we envision gender from the margins of China as pivotal, in the literal sense of the term, that is, worthy of letting our understanding shift over?