Women+of+China+-+Olivia+Edwards

__**The Women of China**__  The two documents, //Western views of Chinese women// and //Women in world history// were written as part of a reference book, one is a newspaper article about Confucian women and one is a missionary journal.

The newspaper article was an excerpt from an article entitled “The Natural History of a Chinese Girl,” which ran between July 4, 1890, and July 18, 1890. The paper was called //The North China Herald and Supreme Court and Consular Gazette.// This newspaper talks about the Confucian system and blames it for the bad treatment of women in Chinese history. The article outlines the seven sins that the Confucian system made against women:

1. No education was given to women 2. The treatment of daughters and wives. Daughters were often sold like cattle when unwanted. 3. Young girls were made to marry too early culminating in failed marriages all over China. 4. Female infants were killed as babies or children because they were unwanted, very often by their own mother. 5. Men were allowed to have secondary wives. 6. Because of the bad treatment, the suicide rate of women and girls was very high. 7. And lastly, overpopulation. Because there were so many people, girls were treated even worse as children.

Overpopulation is talked about a lot in this article, the idea that China has "too many villages to the square mile, too many families to the village, too many 'mouths' to the family." With China having such an immense society, the treatment of women went further and further down with each new born baby. Men and boys were considered irreplaceable where as women and girls who could be nothing more than wives and mothers were disposable. This article implies that overpopulation was the main thing that was wrong with the Confucian system as well as the main reason that girls were treated so badly through the years.

This article was written at a later time than the second; the early 1890's. This wouldn't have seemed as controversial as the second document although the Chinese public may see the total blame put on the Confucian system as a little controversial.

The second document was an article published in a Protestant missionary journal, based in Canton, that operated from 1832 until 1851. Many people read it, including a vast number of foreigners. In this article, the women of China are described as delicate women treated badly by their insensitive males yet names Confucianism as the main instigator of this ill treatment. The main points of this article are:

1. It firstly talks about the bounding of the Chinese woman's feet. They mention that it was a mark of how beautiful a woman was. It was something that men would notice about the women they liked. It mentions that the women were "not in pain" when this was done to them and they were very capable of walking despite the discomfort. 2. The main object of this article seems to be the perfect Chinese woman. She was meant to be graceful, dainty, nurturing, and respectful. 3. "Confucian philosophy has done its best to unfit a Chinese for the possession of such an heritage, by assigning to woman nothing but the privilege of drudging for her lord." This quote notes the change in tone in the article. The author clearly believes that the Confucian philosophy was wrong in creating this. Marking the man as a lord makes the woman seem even more worthless, other than looking pretty and making sure her man has everything he needs. 4. "It is hard to conceive how a man can behold the object of his best affections, and exhibit no des ire to show her any marks of regard, especially when his heart has been softened by education, and no external circumstance interferes with the display of his feelings." This quote is powerful. The writer is clearly a woman. She is complaining about men a lot. The man cannot love his wife if he treats her so badly. He cannot even like his wife if her does not respect her. 5. The author talks about the fact that a woman was considered barely human without a man yet she has to act barely human when she has one. She must be quiet and reserved and give her husband what he wants without fuss. This goes against human instincts.

Clearly the main point of this article is not only to criticize the way that the Confucian life was run, but also to criticize the way that men treated their wives that they supposedly "loved". This author must have been a female as she has the tone of a woman who knows somewhat what these women were going through. Although, in neither document are we given a name, it seems as though the first was written by a man, and the second by a woman, yet both documents back each other up.

The second document was created at an earlier time than the first. This was written in 1832. This would have been incredibly controversial to the Chinese reader although the foreign audience would no doubt have found it interesting. The obvious female influence on the piece would have made women want to read it. This piece must have opened the eyes of the foreign people about the bad treatment of the Chinese females. It is written so strongly and with a tone that wasn't used much in that time, there seemed to be a pity for the women of China and a hate for the men. Yet, between both the writers, there is a mutual dislike of the Confucian system. The east and the west would have had very different views of these two documents, the west would have seen it as informative, perhaps too blaming the Confucian system for its lack of control over the men and its poor principles, and the east would have probably seen it another way. Some may have agreed, many of the women, i'm sure will agree with the second article, yet i'm not sure the east and the west would have had the same opinion of the documents. I think there will always be a difference between the east and the west no matter how much each place adapts and changes, there will never be one way of living, the western way or the eastern way. They will always co-exist.

[|western look at women in china.pdf] [|Women in World History _ MODULE 10.pdf]
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