EUROPEAN WOMEN IN CHINA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3624, 28 August 1923, Page 41

EUROPEAN WOMEN IN CHINA.

ADDRESS BY MISS MOORE. At a meeting of the University Women’s Association, held on 'Thursday evening, Miss Moore, who is at present on furlough in Dunedin, gave a most interesting address on the varied life and work of European women in China. Scattered throughout the 24 treaty ports of China there are, Miss Moore said, several thousand “foreign” women. They have come from almost every nation under heaven, hut the majority are Englishspeaking Britons or Americans. Most of these women are to be found in Hongkong. Shanghai, Hankow, and Tientsin, the four largest and most important parts in the Far East. Among these foreigners wo class Eurasians —the daughters of mixed marriages. As a class they are much to be pitied, as “society” Chinese and European alike look more or less askance at their mixed blood. It ought to be made widely known, especially among the classes of European women whose walk in life brings them into social contact with Chinese abroad, that to marry a Chinese, an Indian, or a Japanese and go back to his country with him is one of the most deplorable things a white woman can do. Volumes could be written on the misery and sorrow such women have endured. Some have even become idolators. That “East is. East and West is West and never the twain shall meet” is probably more true of the marriage bond than it is of any other. Many Eurasian women find their life’s work in matrimony, sometimes with Europeans, sometimes with Chinese, and others become stenographers, clerks, and saleswomen in the offices in Shanghai and elsewhere. The majority of European women in the East are married. They are the wives of bankers, agents, seafaring men, doctors, lawyers, merchants, Customs, Consular, and Army officials. Their life, though different in detail, is much the same as that of women at Home. Domestic cares, lightened by the abundance of labour every ready to give assistance, social entertainment, meetings of their club, golf, tennis, race meetings, church meetings. theatres, dances as season taste and fanev direct, keeps them well occupied. Parting with their children when they go Home for education or leaving their husbands at work while they take the children Home is a grief that comes to them sooner or later. There are not a few openings for single women. Some nurse in hospitals where Europeans are received as patients, some find employment as managers of hotels, boarding-houses, or shops, others are employed as stenographers and saleswomen. Increase of foreign business will increase the number of these positions, hut Eurasians and trained Chinese women will compete with them. They are vci. paid, but the cost of living is very high—about £ls per month. Besides these com-fortably-settled classes of women there are many poor, hard-worked foreign women whose outlook oil life is very drab. Among these are the absolutely destitute Russian refugees, many women of culture and refinement. who have somehow drifted into Shanghai, where they offer their services free in return for food. Shiploads of these refugees were refused a landing in Shanghai. Food and clothes were collected for them, and they were sent on to South America, I believe In the out-parts where there are only one or two foreign women life is quiet, but where the community numbers perhaps six or eight there are no places of public amusement; but they entertain each other, and many a winter evening is spent m fox-trotting and one-stepping to the strain of the gramophone, while ma jong and bridge while away the hours in the warmer weather. On summer afternoons tennis is the order of fine days; on winter days golf gives exercise. The Treaty of Tientsin, while confining merchants to the treaty parts, gave missionaries permission to buy land and settle anywhere, so that all over the country you will find these active workers. The married women, in addition to domestic duties, often as well do much mission work. Some devote hours every day to the education of their children, others do medical work, either as doctors or nurses in the hospitals under the care of their husbands. Some conduct boarding schools for boys and girls some act, as treasurer lo their mission, some teach in theological colleges. Some do evangelistic work in the villages round the main station. One enterprising woman bought a donkey, slung baskets over its back, placed a child in each and so visited and taught the women in their husband’s parish. Some of these married women have become excellent Chinese scholars and done noble work translating. Then there are the single missionary women scattered up and down the length and breadth of the land, some in every part, many in lonely places far removed from European socieiy ITsually there are at least two sharing a house and working together, blit where there are large institutions, as boarding schools, hospitals, or colleges, there may be six or more in the game compound, dividing the work among them. These women conduct large schools and colleges and have every variety of preparations for the work. Kindergarten, training music, calisthenics, scholarship from primary to college grades, and so on. Some manage large hospitals which they make self-supporting by charging the well to-do fees, aud so having

money not only to keep up the supplies but also to run free dispensaries for the poor. Some are given to the work undertaken by deaconesses in this land. Except during the summer when the heat is unbearable, they often go on long itinerating tours. Accompanied bv one of more Bible women they travel from village to village holding Gospel meetings, teaching inquirers, dispensing quinine salts, sulphur, ointment, and other simple remedies. If living in. parts, they often enjoy a game of tennis or of golf, but many find that thronging du'Vs uroc-mi- re-r nation to teat form.

Lastly, there is the delightful, interesting. .... uiiiertiunmg tourist. Although a land where many have been killed in riots, China, when peaceful, gives a feeling of security and restfulness not enjoyed in the same degree even here at home. Hence it is that ladies can and do travel alone in peace and safety. Just, as an example of this I may mention Miss M‘Douga.l and a friend travelled alone from Shanghai to Burmah. a distance of about 3090 miles, most of which was by native boat and sedan chair, their attendant being an Englishspeaking Chinese. W hen tire journey was over Miss M‘Donga!■ published an interesting book recounting her experiences. Life in the East has disadvantages. The climate is trying to the European, and fevers, dysentry. even cholera, and small pox (for the conscientious objector to vaccination) abound. The winter is bitterly cold, the summer oppressively hot, but though severe the weather is settled, wot or dry. hot or cold. Furlough is therefore necessary for those who live there if health and strength are to be maintained. Many women, especially those who do not learn the language, never get over nervousness among the Chinese—some indeed cannot live in the country at all. but many enjoy living among the almond-eyed Celestials and have no fear of them. On the other hand the longer they live there the more thev like and even love them. On the whole women find life in the East pleasant, but they have no thought of settling there a d they settle in New Zealand or Canada. They nearly all look forward to the day when they are to go home, though not a few are glad to think they will end their early pilgrimage in Far Cathay.