THE WOMEN OF CHINA.

Otago Witness, Volume 14, Issue 2648, 14 December 1904, Page 71

THE WOMEN OF CHINA.

To the foreigner, the semi-civilisation of China is a mass of contradictions. With

their excessively formal etiquette, the Chinese can be brutally rude ; with their classic exhortations to honeslj', the bribe is a potent force with the coolie and the mandarin alike. While the mother of sons rules the empire, while she is reverenced and: obeyed as long as she lives, yet -for woman in the abstract the Chinese have little respect.

On the other hand, while crimes against their sex are usually followed by suicide, the real wife — for the fundamental law of China recognises but one valid marriage — frequently induces her husband to receive into the family as his secondary wife the dissolute woman upon whom she knows he is squandering his means. This arrangement effected, the new arrival becomes the servant of the number one wife, and any children that may be born are entirely under her control. - (Female children are not desired in any Oriental country, and, as in India, Chinese wives offer sacrifices to the Goddess of Mercy that sons may be vouchsafed them. The destruction of female children is rather encouraged than punished, and among the hundreds of girls in the orphan asylum of the Franciscan nuns in Pekin the greater number whe were rescued had been exposed in the streets and fields to perish. There is one exception to the general disfavour with which girls are regarded), and this is where male children only have previously been born. When this is the case a daughter is desired,- and she is, apt to be very much indulged and spoiled. A girl's education is very meagre, ending at her marriage, which occurs at the age of 14 or 15, after which the cares of her household are supposed to be sufficient occupation. There have been examples, however, where ambitious and clever girls continued their studiies in after years, and it is said that, in the mission schools, there are prodigies of intelligence — many of the girl students showing remarkable aptitude, strangely enough, in mathematics and the natural sciences.

When a child is born the friends and relatives are notified and gifts are presented. Xhe sex of the chud determines the value of the presents, which are of much less value should it be a daughter.

Girls are taught to sew and embroider, and, among the poor, to cook, to wad the garments with cotton for winter, to remove the wadding in the spring and wash the clothing for summer. Millions of the poorer classes have but one, or at most two suits of clothes, so that the problem of personal cleanliness is one with which they do .not concern themselves. Girls also work in the fields, help gather the crops, collect grass and weeds for fuel, rear ducks and fowls, and, of evenings, by, the feeble light of a smoky oil lamp, make the cloth-soled shoes which are worn summer and winter.

The women of the richer classes pay much attention to their toilet, painting tha face with a thick, opaque coat of bismuth, tinting the cheeks and lips a vivid red with carmine. They also pay much attention to their eyebrows, which, delicately arched and pointed and shaped like the willow leaf, the Chinese consider a mark of especial beauty. They also play upon"" musical instruments, and, as in the days of the Arabian- Nights, are entertained by professional story-tellers, readers of romance, and by theatrical performances in their private theatres. - They visit only on State occasions, especially at the New Year, and then set out in cart or sedan chair, loaded down with rich garments of silk, brocade, m and fur, which they must be urged to remove, one after the other, until the proper underdress is revealed.^ In addition to this, the woman attendant brings other garments of great richness, which are bestowed about upon chairs and stools for inspection, to be carried away again when the visitor returns' home. At these ceremonious visits large quantities of tea are drunk and sweetmeats consumed.

The two dreaded ordeals to which Chinese girls look forward with more or less apprehension are- foot-binding and! marriage. Foot-binding is not so universal as is generally supposed ; nor is it confined to the daughters of the higher classes. The Manchus, to .which race the Empress Dowager and the Court officials and the military classes belong, have never observed the senseless custom.

Poets and novelists have praised the stunted feet, comparing them to "golden lilies," and the hobbling gait which follows the crippling to "the swaying of lilies upon their stems " It is extremely difficult for Chinese of the higher classes to find husbands for their daughters whose fee- 1 have attained! the natural size. It is thought that women who desire unmanned, feet are actuated by no honourable motive, the crippling making it difficult for them to go about and keeping them more closely at home than would be the case if theji had full use of the stunted members.

At the . same time, bound-foot women may be seen toiling in the fields, carrying heavy burdens — poor, oppressed drudges, who frequently end their lives by opium, or leaping into the wells.

Marriage is wholly problematical," being arranged by the omnipresent go-between. The husband andi wife do not see each other until the veil is raised, when the bride alights from her closed sedan chair andi is conducted to her chamber in the* bridegroom's house. From childhood she is confronted with the possibility of lifelong unhappiness as a wife, should she fail to have a son. The life is essentially patriarchal. Daughters are expected tOi leave their parents' house, to return only, for rare and brief visits. They cease, aftermarriage, to belong to their "parents' family, not even returning to take part in th» funeral ceremonies.

Sons bring their wives home, but are assigned to separate apartments within the common court. Over the households of daughters-in-law the mother-in-law rules \ritb a rod of iron; the daughters-in-law, are practically her servants ; they are noli permitted to sit or talk in her presence? and must perform whatever tasks $he aa-

— The armies and navies of the nine West European Powers cost altogether just lffi§£ £2QP«OQO tWfi *

—He (smilingly): "You remind me of an old friend of mine. .She (haughtily) ;„ ,lndeedj old),. fiteas&U

signs them. Love between husband and wife is unknown in China, and it is a subject thst it is not considered decorous to discuss.

A Chinese lady once asked an American "why she married her husband." She replied simply : "Because I loved him," and) the explanation was followed by dead silence and profound embarrassment among the Chinese matrons present. There have been occasional examples of real attachment between husband and wife. Thus a story is told of a young man whose wife had incurred the dislike of her mother-in-law. She had been an embroiderer, and her mother-in-law condemned) her to make the family shoes, the soles of which are studded with heavy nails. Learning this, the husband waited regularly until the mother had fallen to sleep after the final opium pipe, and made shoes 'all night, relieving the wife of the disagreeable labour.

There are no grounds upon which a woman may divorce her husband, but there are many — too much talking, gadding, illtemper, indolence andi countless others — for which he may send her back to her parents. If, however, they- refuse to receive her, he must take her back again. If a woman is driven to suicide by the cruelty of her husband or mother-in-law her family can come in a body to the husband's house and literally demolish it, and it is the unwritten law that no one must interfere with this summary act of vengeance. Suicide is common among women of all classes, and aside from grief after bereavement, unhappiness in marriage is the most common cause of such tragedies. Hundreds of wives, it is estimated, end) their lives every year in Pekin alone.