AND EVEN CHINA!

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1304, 6 December 1911, Page 11

AND EVEN CHINA!

THE MARCH 01' FEMINISM. Modern literature ;\nd journalism are largely responsible for the awakening of Chinese women (says a writer in 'The Queen"). Two books published within the lns-t few years on the "Germs of Feminism" <inil "The Right of the Chinese Woman in the Choice of a Husband" voice the modern ideas which are taking root in the country, and Ihoir popularity shows the advance the cause is making. Chinese journalism is still in its infancy, but in time it will bo a power in tho land, and its influence will also reach the women who are now learning in their thousands to read and write. Several papers, edited by Chinese women, with women as contributors have lately been started. Mrs. Chang, the widow of a Chinese official, has edited the "Poking Women's Paper," devoted entirely to women's interest-', the Suffrage movement in England being a favourilo topic. This gifted lady was trained and educated by her father as if she had been a boy, and she thus obtained a power of observing the conditions of women's life which would have been impossible for any. ordinary Chinese lady. •• It has tech stated that in Peking there ore nine journals edited, composed, § rinted, and sold by women; Canton prouces four, Shanghai six, and Foochow three. The Government, has recently laid, down i'ules regarding the management of native papers. Publishers, printers, and editors must bo over twenty-one years of age, "sound of brain," and have never been in prison. They must also deposit security to the amount of £15 per paper, unless it is devoted to education, art, or statistics, and a copy of each issuo must be sent to the total magistrate nnd to the Board of Civil Affairs in Peking. Tho legal position of the Chinese woman is deplorable, and is oho of the reasons why the movement for her greater freedom is making such rapid growth. She is subject to tho "three obediences" —to her father in her childhood, to her husband after marriage, and to her son in her widowhood,. and this position naturally cripples her powers, and has' a" disastrous effect upon her - character, when a Chinaman has only daughters ho says he has no children; in fact, a girl ought to consider herself lucky to bo alive at all, for in many parts of tho country it is tho custom to drown female babies. Her parents dispose of her in marriage as they please—it is tho only career open to her—and she then becomes tho property of her husband. A. woman of the upper and middle classes never earns her own living, so she is ■ not brought face to face with tho economic conditions which are tho mam causo of the present struggle cf Western women for freedom and the vote. Though the women of tho better classes rarely meet men outside their own immediate circle, they still exercise a great influence, and in one of tho Chinese encyclopedias 376 books out of 1628 are devoted to f anions women, and oloven chapters deal with their knowledge and literary works. When we consider how restricted are their lives, and' how few opportunities they have for enlarging their minds, we can but admiro the uso they have made of their opportunities.