No doubt the modern Feminist
movement owes its origin and inspiration to Mary Wollstonecraft, whose “Vindication
of the Rights of Woman” is certainly worthy of what Mr. Brailsfort called “one
of the most remarkable books that have come down to us from that opulent age.” Her
originality lies in the first exploration of the problems of the society and
morals from a standpoint which recognized humanity without ignoring sex. She it
was who first raised a protest against the exaggeration of sex, which instilled
into women the “desire of always being women.” She flouts that external
morality of reputation, which would have a woman always “seem to be this and
that,” because her whole status in the world depends on the opinion which men
hold of her. She demands that a woman shall be herself and lead her own life. As the French Revolution
succeeded in stirring up a democratizing tendency, this great message succeeded
in awakening the consciousness of the fair sex, and in giving rise to a
formidable movement, which aimed at the complete emancipation of the half of
mankind. With the ever-increasing strength and dimensions of the Feminist
teachings, it was not long, in Professor Wards’ words, that “all the forces of
the society were brought into action, and those vast complement forces which
women alone can wield be given free rein, and the whole machinery of society be
se in full and harmonious operation.” Herbert Spencer, an advocate of woman’s
rights himself, some fifty years ago, was even suspicious of the legitimacy of
women’s claims being pushed beyond the normal limits. The Western women having attained
the ideal of equitable standing between men and women, it is now high time that
their Eastern sisters, in their turn, reflect and reverberate what has long
been envied and aspired. Professor and Mrs. Dewey, in their recent tour of
Japan and China, assured us of “an undeniable fact that nowadays the woman
question is most interesting and significant, not in the West but in the East.”
Likewise, Dr. Arthur H. Smith, with profound insight and deep interest, writes
of the great change in women’s position now taking place in China: “The most
comprehensive and far-reaching change of all, greatly transcending in
importance the spectacular alterations in the form of government, is the
potential, and in part the actual, liberation of women in China—one of the
great events in the social history of mankind.” The problem of women in China
today is a well-nigh all-inclusive and all important one. It is a problem not
only social, cultural and intellectual, but economic and moral as well. For when
considering the question of women, we are considering that of one half of the
entire population, in close touch with and exerting constant and unlimited
influence on the other half. To understand the Chinese civilization, its
strength and weakness, its backwardness and progressive features, to know its
present need of reform and improvement in order to meet the new conditions, and
gauge its probable course of modification and development, the status of women
is a problem that merits unbiased study and careful consideration in its
various phases; all the more so because family system is the foundation of
Chinese social structure, and embodies the moral code of China and principles
of government. Accounts have not infrequently been given and pictures drawn by Europeans and Americans depicting the unhappy lot and the ill-fated position in which the Chinese women are cast. To the Western travelers who have no leisure to make an inquiry into the true nature of things and to the missionaries who are ever ready to make a never-too-strong appeal for the “oppressed,” the wretchedness of the Chinese women has formed a suitable and constant theme for charcoal painting on black paper. She has always been portrayed as a hopelessly wretched thing with a pair of crippled feet, scarcely able to walk, serving as a toy and slave to her master, the husband, having no recognition in society and being constantly confined in her home. This reminds us of one celebrated dictionary which defines lobster as “a little red fish that walks backward.” The truth, however, is that the average Chinese woman is no more a hopelessly wretched thing than the lobster is “a little red fish that walks backward.” While admitting that some of the accounts given by the veracious travelers and fanatical missionaries may be true, we maintain that if those instances were true at all, they would be only exceptions to the rule rather than the rule itself. |
