This study base is just for the girls

Writers and critics might well be engaged in heated debates on sensitive women's topics, but it hasn't stopped them from getting together to set up the nation's first research base for the study of female culture.

Launched last month in Beijing, the research base is run by China Research Center on Women's Culture under Capital Normal University, which has been exploring the living condition of women over the past decade with an emphasis on balance between male and female power relations.

"We hope the base will provide a platform for exchanges on studying female culture, integration of academic resources, and giving impetus to the liberation of both sexes," says university head Zhang Xue.