Little Lotus-Flower Comes Out of the Garden

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6614, 19 May 1928, Page 12

Little Lotus-Flower Comes Out of the Garden

Chinese Women Are Finding Their Feet & Losing Their Hair

HAT ancient Chinese proverb, ‘‘Women have plenty of hair but very few brains,” went un challenged by Chinese women for centuries

Then feminism came to China and the proverb was changed by the women leaders to read: ‘‘Short hair is the symbol of an awakened intel lect.”

, The year of 1927 will go down m Chinese history as the liveliest year of the women’s movement there. With the northward stveep of the Nationalist armies women took a recognised place in politics, propaganda, and even in the army’s ranks. In Hankow bob-haired girls in men’s trim uniforms bustled about the streets much as Western women in the uniform of auxiliary services went about during the World War. There is a striking contrast between these new Chinese women and the bound footed women in tiny slippers who hobbled beside them. In old China, the two outward symbols of respectability in the feminine world were bound feet and long hair pulled back from the forehead and tied in a knot behind. Usually the stylish Chinese woman of the old school also had her forehead shaved to make a neat square at tho top of her brow. She made a quaint picture as she hobbled down the street in her pyjama-like cotton trousers, smoking a cigarette. The Nationalist movement has directly attacked the ancient customs and fashions of Chinese women. It preaches physical culture in place of early corseting of the feet to keep them tiny. Through posters and pamphlets it officially condemns bound feet; and it advocates the edu cation of women side by side with men. The women leaders of the Nationalist movement are almost all the product of co-educational schools; many of them have learned their feminism from American teachers. The new woman of China Is anxious to throw off every shackle

of dress and custom that held her mother in subjection to men. She releases her feet from bondage even if it means constant pain for several years in learning to walk normally on feet that were restricted in babyhood There are girl factory workers in the Women’s Union of Hankow who were scarcely able to work from the torment of unbound feet; but they persisted in the new custom as a matter of principle. If this new woman of China is very advanced in her modern ideas she bobs her hair —this is her last sign of modernity. In many places in China it is disgraceful and dangerous for a woman to bob her hair, and even among the women of the Women’s Union of Hankow, the feminist organisation of the most revolutionary centre of China, only 2 per cent, of the members have shorn their locks.

Feet of natural size and short hair are only two symbols of a fenjinist uprising that is affecting profoundly the bases of Chinese social life. From time immemorial Chinese women have been subject to the rule of husband and mother-in-law; unable to choose their own mates in marriage and ignored completely in the civic affairs of their country. Then came the mission schools and the motion pictures, and the gospel of free womanhood and personal choice in marriage was widely spread. Girl students from Chinese colleges were educated in Europe and America and came back to tell of the status of women in the West. Finally the Russian revolution with its emphasis upon feminism won some Chinese disciples.

The organised expression ot this new woman’s movement is the Women’s Union of the Kuomi.atang, the political party that controls the Chinese Nationalist movement. The Women’s Union was organised in 1925, before the death of the great Nationalist leader, Sun Yat-sen. It began as a series of progressive women’s clubs in Pekin and other cities ot Northern China. Because it had n political as well as a social programme, it was necessary tor the women leaders to work secretly, sometimes from prison cells, in the territory of the Northern war lords. The leaders were for the most part women of the educated classes, gradu ates of American colleges and those who had come in contact with Western countries.

The first battlo for women’s freedom is taking place inside the Chinese family. Perhaps it will also be the last battle, because the present organisation of Chinese family life imposes more limitations upon women’s freedom than any other institution. And family life in China is relatively more important to the Chinese girls than to the Western girl because the country Chinese girl has no offices, department stores or cinemas as avenues of escape. The new women have attacked first the Chinese attitude toward marriage

and divorce. The slogan of the Women's Union is: "Free marriage and divorce.” The exact meaning of that slogan can be learned at the headquarters of various women’s groups in Hankow and Wuchang. At the headquarters of the Women’s Union of Hupeh in Hankow one encounters great activity. Members stroll in—some in silk trousers, some in cotton, all in the tight-fitting high jackets with elbow sleeves that are characteristic of China. A few wear their hair bobbed, and, as a revolt against trousers, knee-length skirts. Nearly all of them are blowing smoke rings from cigarettes. As a further expression of the new freedom they would need to stop smoking, for smoking in public has been as much a woman’s right as a man’s, both in

China and Japan. The room echoes with chatter and laughter as girl volunteers address envelopes and send nut posters. “What do you mean by free mar.•iage and divorce?” was asked Miss Chiao Gun-tao, head of the propaganda department. Miss Chiao is of the bob-haired, Western gowned college degreed type of the new woman of China. “We mean in regard to marriage," she replied, “that men and women shall have the right to choose their own husbands and wives, even if their parents do not sanction the choice. Of course, we believe that the parents should be consulted, but they should not dictate the choice as they have done ip the past.” “Do' you believe In a marriage ceremony?” “Yes, if the young people want a ceremony. You know that in China it is the family approval, and not the legal ceremony, that is considered important. If two young people can not obtain the consent of their par ents for a family ceremony, we see no reason why they should not simply announce their marriage in the papers. That is the nearest thing to a ’ family announcement that is possible in the circumstances.”

In a large part of China the traditional form requires that the bride shall be carried to the house of the groom in a flowered sddan chair, publicly sobbing with the grief of leaving her parents. In her new home she bows down before the bridegroom’s parents, drinks a cup of wine three times with the bridegroom, and so passes into matrimony. The new women of China do not object to this ceremony, but they prefer motor-cars to sedan chairs in approaching the home of t£e future husband. Also they advocate marriage at more mature years than has been customary in China. A recent investigation of marriage ages in a village in Chihli Province showed that two-thirds of the womtfti had married at 1G or younger, and that only 15 per cent, had waited until they were past 20. Borne are married at 11 and 12.