Chinese Women.

Otago Witness, Issue 2429, 3 October 1900, Page 60

Chinese Women.

The days when women were satisfied with the discussion of dre&s and social events are apparently gone, and everywhere avb hear the sex 'thoughtfully, and often with insight and iut'elligence, discuss the more

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■serious questions which aie aglruiinji the country just "ov , <tud tli>> uniominate events in (he ii i^, towards which the attention ot trie world is drawn. The way our countrywomen have behaved during the South African war, when all classes were at one in interest and suspense, i& acknowledged by all to 'be admirable ; and, in organising ard collecting for the wives and children of those who have died at the front, women could hardly have done more. Now, China absorbs attention, the stories and rumours which Tiave reached us raise JiorTor of the most intense description, and an interest in the country and the people who are responsible for the barbarous deeds which have been perpetrated in China. We women have always been interested in the habits and customs of o\tr Oriental sisters, and have professed pity for the restrictions and seclusion and general unenviable lot of the women of some of the less civilised nations. The lot of the Chinese 'woman is a particularly monotonous and unhappy one. From her birth she is regarded as in every way an inferior being — the prevalence ■ of infanticide or murder- of infant girls is only too common — and it is a question . whether the life of the 'Chinese girl-child or ■woman be a better fate. There are, indeed, no girls in China — from childhood they leap into womanhood, and "before they liave ceased to play with their dolls they are the mothers of queer little Chinese . babies, with all the anxieties and cares of j motherhood. No athletics, no university j training, no freedom or pleasure of any sort i for a Chinese woman. Love stories are ' ■unknown, and there is no romance po^s.-blc for the poor child-wife, who is married as a matter of business arrangement, and Avho has to enter \ipon a life where disobeying a mother-in-law is looked upon as a crime for which divorce may be obtained. The j cramped feet cf the Chinese women everybody knows about ; and, perhaps, we regard it with a horror which the Chinese would not understand, in spite of the pain the custom necessitates. "The English- * women cramp their waists," one Chinese girl informed a friend of mine, "while we only cramp oua 1 feet." This, delivered^ in ■ the best Chinese English, wes most effee-. tivs in silencing adverse crifcicisio. The only members of the feminine sex who .are Iheld in much esteem are widows. Chinamen have an intense objection to widows marrying agaii^ and the woman who does fo is regarded with little favour. A widow who 'remains a widow, on Hie other hand, occupies an honourable position, and is iield in greal favour. Sue has the some- ' what questionable satisfaction, in addition of knowing that her tomb will excel in ) magnificence less fortunate beiusr.s and ! some of the finest memorial buildings in China are those of widows who have been Tionoured in death by those who knew ] them. There are a number of Iboolcs, written by women, on the lives and customs of Chinese women which the majority of [Englishwomen would Had very interesting these days, and which tell quaint stories ' of the daughters of a people whose barbarity is only too apparent in these times of trouble and anxiety. — Exchange.