WOMEN IN CHINA

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22201, 18 September 1937, Page 2

WOMEN IN CHINA

-SOME NOTABLE ’LEADERS THE Hi PART IN THE PRESENT CRISIS IBy ANNE PAGE.] It is reported that a “dare and die” battalion of 500 Chinese women is engaged in fighting the Japanese at Shanghai. Whether or not this is true there is no doubt that the character of their women is a factor in favour of the Chinese. Generally speaking, the Japanese women take no part in public affairs, for the Oriental tradition of feminine seclusion dies hard in Japan. In China, however, things are very different. For centuries women have been greatly respected as the rulers of the home, and were often very well educated. It was natural, therefore, that the women as well as the men have taken advantage of the educational opportunities which contact with the West offered them. 1 have met many Chinese women “dons,” most of them with American degrees. Especially I remember Miss Lucy Wong, who at 27 was the principal of a women’s college at Foochow. Another was Mrs Zen. the professor of history in the National University at Peiping and the mother of about 14 children. When I expressed my admiration of her combination of these two roles she explained that she had always arranged to have the babies arrive in the long vacation so that they did not interrupt her lecturing. The Soong Sisters Certainly the most remarkable of the Chinese women must bo the three Soong sisters. They are the daughters of an American-trained Methodist minister and his strict Baptist wife. All three of them married important men. The eldest is the wife of Mr Kung, now Minister for Finance and one of the best known business men in the country. It is said that he relies greatly on his wife for advice and assistance in his work. The second sister, on her return from college in America, joined the Kuomintang. A little later she became the second wife of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. the leader of this movement. For many years they worked together to realise Dr. Sun's aims of national independence, efficient administration and economic equality for China. Since her husband’s death in 1925 Mmo. Sun han remained an enthusiastic leader of tho party pledged to these principles. The youngest of the Soongs was married in 1927 to General Chiang Kaishek and is now the most important woman in China. Like her sister she graduated at an American college, of which she was a distinguished scholar. Since her marriage she has introduced General Chiang Kai-shek to many western ideas and customs. She has also taught him English although he still generally prefers to have her act as interpreter for him in his interviews with foreign diplomats. The New Life Movement In 1934 General and Mrs Chiang Kaishek started the New Life Movement with Mme. Chiang ns head of the women’s section. China Is so vast that any movement of this kind would take far longer than four years to transform it. Yet the Chiangs’ appeal for a return to the ancient virtues of ser-

vice, courtesy, and honesty met with widespread response. There were also reports of sanitary brigades' armed with brooms sweeping the dirt of centuries from the city gutters, of the construction of hundreds of miles of roads and thousands of schools. Everywhere the women played an important part in this regeneration. Mine. Chiang Kai-shek Most of • this work will now be stopped and much of it probably destroyed in the war with Japan. But Mme. Chiang Kai-shek is' as indefatigable as ever. She has been made head of the Chinese air force—surely the first woman to control a defence arm in any country. Besides this work she is said to be directing the civilian support for the army and organising the Chinese Red Cross. To the women of China she has made a special appeal "to fight Japan according to their ability." Nor is there any likelihood that she will estimate this ability lightly. Rather, it seerns, she intends to enlist women for active service, nursing, relief work, and every kind of service until, as she declares, "final victory, no matter how belated, shall erase for ever the days of humiliation which for so long have crowded our calendar and remove the sorrow which for years has rent our heads and bowed our hearts." COMINGOFAGE DANCE An enjoyable dance was given by Mr and Mrs R. H. Booker at St. Stephl on's Hall. Shirley, to celebrate the roming-of-age of their only daughter, Joyce. Novelty dances were won by Miss E. Jones and partner. Miss J. Booker, and Mr D. Adcock. and a treasure hunt was won by Miss W. Scobie. Dawson Winfield's orchestra supplied the music. Messrs A. E. Doell, and C. Carleton were masters of ceremonies. Those present were Mr and Mrs R. H. Booker, Mr and Mrs A. E. Doell, Mr and Mrs A. Shaw. Mr and Mrs W. Pluck. Mr and Mrs E. Carleton, Mr and Mrs C. Carleton, Mr and Mrs F. Ball, Mr and Mrs W. Walsh, Mr and Mrs A. C. Brown, Mr and Mrs A. Small. Mr and Mrs H. Hibbard, Mr and Mrs A: B. L. Smith, Mr and Mrs Skirton, Mr and Mrs L. Philpott, Mr and Mrs D. Black. Mr and Mrs A. Hancock, the Rev. and Mrs Sell, Mesdames C. Kemp, A. Staunton, S. Cordner, M. Brown, H. Kirkwood, T. Whitmore, L. O'Brian, R. Menzies, Mr and Mrs A. Johnson, Mr and Mrs C. Johnson. Mrs H. C. Henderson. Misses Joyce Booker, Dorothy Ball, Una Doell, Ada Menzies, Laurel Oberg. Alma Shaw, Joan Parke, Elsie Jones, Nancy Scobie, Meta Free, Dorothy Guy, Vira Knowles, Lorna Knowles, Gwen Philpott, Joan O'Brian, Colene Brown, Frances Black, Evelyn Johnson, Phoebe Hill, Nola Merrie, Ethel Brown, Eileen Mahan, Gwen Whitmore, Iris Wake, Molly Hancock, Evyonne Webb, Messrs Ronald Ball, Ernest Arbuckle, Deryck Adcock, Alan Staunton, Morris, Staunton, Cliff Kemp, Alec Young, Noel Walsh, Jack Booker, Keith Barrett, Ray Elliott, Robert Menzies, Robert Booker, Ken Doell, George Gee, Duncan Shand, Stanley Henderson, Geoffrey Salt, Desmond Hancock, and Walter Scobie.'