This study examines rural women's self-narrations about their sufferings in post-socialist China both in the official media and in the documentary films. The central question this study asks is whether it is possible for the post-socialist subaltern, such as rural women, to speak. The thesis first demonstrates how the official media efface the voices of rural women by constructing a unified discourse on suzhi or quality development in the post-socialist era. This is followed by an analysis of rural women's writings on their struggles with the official rhetoric channeled through TV documentary programs in the official media. This works concludes with a discussion of the possibility for rural women to speak via the medium of new documentary films. Known as "alternative archives," new documentary films examined rural women's articulations, which in turn can be seen as forms of talking back to the suzhi development discourse.
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