women journalists in the chinese enlightenment, 1915–1923

Yuxin Ma

Women Journalists in the Chinese Enlightenment, 1915-1923

May Fourth women journalists appropriated the discourse of women's emancipation advocated by New Culturalists to shape their discussions of women's suffrage, labor movement, and legal rights. The rhetoric of emancipation enabled women writers to redefine gender norms and legitimized women's presence in coeducational schools, modern professions, and public spaces. The interplay between the discourse and practices associated with new women enabled women activists to embrace the subject positions opened by the ideal of the "new woman" and to appropriate the rhetoric of human rights to advocate the sharing of male power and privilege, while seriously exploring how to be women in the political and social landscape of an emerging modem China.

In the last decade o f the nineteenth century, imperialist powers scrambled for spheres of influence in China, slicing China up like a ripe melon. In 1915, Yuan

Shikai accepted Japan's Twenty-One Demands, giving Japan extensive economic power in northeast China. In 1919, the sovereignty of China was further violated when the Treaty of Versailles granted Japan the territory of Shandong that had been

formerly controlled by Germany. On May 4, 1919, students in Beijing protested against imperialist aggression, opposing the warlord government's signing the treaty. Soon the protest spread to other major cities, drawing in the participation of mer-

chants, workers and other urban classes. This anti-imperialist, anti-warlord mass urban movement was later called the May Fourth Movement. Scholars generally referred to the period of 1915-1923 in China as the May Fourth era, which was

characterized by a positive reception to Western ideas and an iconoclastic attack on aspects of traditional Chinese culture such as Confucianism, veneration of the past,

Yuxin Ma is an assistant professor of Asian History at Armstrong Atlantic State University. She has authored"Cross Dressing in Modem Japan" (Japan Studies Review, 2002), "Male Feminism and Women's Subjectivities: Zhang Xichen, Chen Xuezhao, and The New Woman" (Twentieth-Century China, 2003), and "Constructing Manchukuo Womanhood to Serve Japanese Imperialism" (The Journal of Georgia Association of Historian, 2005).

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authoritarianism, social hierarchy, the patriarchal family, and classical literature. May Fourth young radicals looked to the West for new models and political institutions, and elevated science and democracy as the founding principles o f a modern Chinese state and society.

From early Republican years to the May Fourth era, the dramatic political and social changes in China reshaped the relation between the individual and the nation. The early 1910s witnessed state-led institution building and industrial investment-- the new Republic intended to utilize all social energies and wealth to fully modernize the infrastructure of China, at the cost of delaying women's suffrage and sacrificing individual aspirations. But the May Fourth Movement encouraged individuals to assert their individuality. May Fourth intellectuals genuinely believed that the state could be strengthened by the cumulative effects of individual freedom and produc- tivity, I and "demanded a new ethical code that would make self-fulfillment a natural and widespread prerogative. ''2 Against such a background, May Fourth women's media writings and sociopolitical activism demonstrated their aspirations for emancipation. May Fourth women journalists used experiences central to Chinese women's lives such as marriage, education, familial relations, and women's legal rights as a means of framing discussions about society, patriarchy, and power then current within Chinese society. They took the initiative to cooperate with men in student movements, co-education, and the suffrage movement. Their media writings and social practices challenged habitual assumptions about women, cultivated new gender relations and social norms, and constructed modern Chinese womanhood and May Fourth feminism. Women journalists employed the Provisional Codes to protect women's rights, and steered women's discourse from a bourgeois women's suffrage movement toward a working class women's movement.

Scholarship on May Fourth women either focuses on their life experiences, 3 or on the discursive representations of "new woman." The former school argues that May Fourth women embraced their identity as individuals independent of men, and championed women's rights for their own sake. 4 They turned to both Chinese female tradition and Western ideals for inspiration in constructing their new subject positions. 5 Embracing feminism as a new way of life, they created their own space and culture by asserting a female perspective on a number of issues and criticizing patriarchal expressions. 6 The latter school finds that discussing women's issues in the May Fourth era became a vehicle through which male intellectuals articulated their frustration with their own position in the traditional family and hierarchy. The "new woman" discourse provided an alternative way for male intellectuals to redefine their male identity in relation to the female other. 7 The problem with the former school is that scholars often emphasize women's social activism and individual choices

58 Gender Issues / Winter 2005

but downplay the importance of ideology in shaping their feminist consciousness, identities, and practices. The problem with the latter school is that scholars often detach the discursive "new woman" from historical new women, treating "new woman" as an ideological configuration while neglecting the interplay between ideas and practices associated with the construction of modern womanhood.

Some scholars maintain that in the May Fourth discourse, the subject position of "new woman" was an essential and abstract human being with masculine features of Western humanism. 8 Although the masculine subject position of the "new woman" enabled new women to deny female inferiority and claim a share in the power and privileges that had been exclusively men's, May Fourth women's media writings clearly demonstrate that they were equally interested in being human and women. May Fourth men and women intellectuals intensely discussed women's issues. Male champions of feminism inevitably created gaps between male constructions of female subject positions and women's relation to those positions, or tension between male discourse and female discourse. 9 Women writers substantially disagreed with male intellectuals at places where women's interests were undermined, and proposed that women's gender-specific needs be taken care of so that women could have greater opportunities in society. Their discussions of women's careers and motherhood, public child-raising and collective kitchens, birth control and female labor protection all testified to a genuine feminine consciousness. Jacqueline Nivard argues that the female press reflected public opinion concerning women's issues and contributed to molding that opinion. ~~ Lii Meiyi points out that the Chinese women's movement improved women's social status and influenced popular understandings of gender norms. 1~ How did the women's print media reflect public concerns about women's issues? How did the women's press contribute to molding new gender relations, social norms, and the ideal of modem womanhood?

The article explores the construction of "'new women," "women's rights" and "women's movements" in May Fourth women's print media, taking into account the communication, circulation, and production of a discourse about women, and where they fit in relation to the political and social landscape of an emerging modern China. It studies the tension and dynamics between May Fourth women's writings and their social activism, and demonstrates the process in which modem Chinese womanhood was debated, contested, and revised. It first examines the political changes sought by May Fourth women activists; then analyzes the cultural issues they addressed in their media writings--consensual marriage, coeducation, and new women as full human beings. "Woman" and "women" are used as Chandra Mohanty de- fines--"woman" as a "cultural and ideological composite Other constructed through diverse representational discourses" and "women" as the "real material subject of their collective histories." ~2

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Women's Emancipation, Suffrage, Labor Movement, and Legal Rights

The end of the imperial system in 1911 tore away the cornerstone of Confucian ethics--the most important "emperor-courtiers" relation among the five relations was gone, but the fundamental principles of familism and patriarchy still oppressed individuals. The new Republic founded in 1911 failed to produce the political stabil- ity that China needed. When Sun Yat-sen stepped down from the presidency in April 1912, his successor Yuan Shikai squelched nascent democratic institutions, and re- vived the imperial system by installing himself as emperor in late 1915. After Yuan died in the spring of 1916, military overlords established strongholds throughout China. By 1917, China had fragmented into warlord territories. Out of the shadow ofYuan Shikai's rule and the ensuing political chaos, the New Culture Movement (1915-1919) launched an intense attack on Chinese tradition and promoted rational scientific thoughts and democratic sociopolitical organizations.

"Women's issues" became a major concern of the new intelligentsias. Created by Chen Duxiu in 1915, the journal New Youth (xingingnian) took the lead in introducing major topics on women's issues, such as women's emancipation, autonomous love and marriage, coeducation and public relations between the sexes, women's self-reliance and the suffrage, birth control, and the abolition of prostitution. Reject- ing all things "servile, conservative, retiring, isolationist, formalistic, and imagi- nary," Chen Duxiu called on Chinese youth to embrace things that were "independent, progressive, assertive, cosmopolitan, utilitarian, and scientific. ''j3 New Cultural figures argued that women's emancipation was one facet of the total mechanism of emancipation, and attacked Confucian notions of chastity (zhencao) as women's oppressor. In June 1918, the special issue of New Youth introduced Norwegian dra- matist Henrik Ibsen, and carried the translations of his play A Doll's House. Power- ful phrases from the play such as "Don't be a man's plaything," "recognize one's individuality," and "women are human" inspired many women readers to liberal feminist ideas. The Marxist class analysis of women's issues also appeared in New Youth. In 1919, Li Dazhao argued that "middle class women want the same power as men do, but working class women only want to improve their living conditions," and proposed that Chinese women unite together to destroy the male-dominated society. All proletarian women in the world should unite together to overthrow the capitalist system. 14

The New Culturalists' critique of Confucian gender hierarchy and their pro- motion of women's emancipation generated a feminist upsurge. Since its creation in February 1917, the column "Women's Issues" in New Youth had attracted women contributors) 5 Li-Zhang Shaonan criticized the evils of foot-binding, concubineage, and selling daughters as maids, and proposed Christianity, vernacular language, and


technical training for Chinese women) 6 Chen-Qian Aichen proposed that a wise mother (xianmu) should be a moral, educated and independent woman) 7 Liang Hualan argued that women should receive the same education as men. Gao Susu criticized the gender hierarchy and social evils against women in China) 8 Chert Huazhen criticized women's mistakes in marriage and child-raising. Wu Zenglan attacked Confucian ethics and bonds for oppressing women, and proposed women's rights. 19 Sun Mingqin explored the relation between family reform and the nation. Minghui expressed her disappointment with the Republic--"women still had no right to vote. "2~ Shaped by the themes of the New Culture Movement, asserting subjectivity and individuality, early May Fourth feminism had a strong imprint of liberal humanism. Women writers struggled to be human beings with unalienable rights, and rejected their relational position constituted by Confucian hierarchy and obligations. "New women"--educated women who acted from their newly acquired subject position of"being a human"---emerged as a rapidly growing social category. 2~

An important facet of liberal feminists' demand for human rights was their political request of suffrage. In the early 1910s, women suffragists did not achieve their goals of constitutional recognition of women's suffrage, women's voting rights, and membership in the Nationalist party, mainly because they lacked popular support. Some suffragists mistook the franchise as the ultimate goal of the women's movement; others treated men as their enemy and failed to win allies from both men and the majority of women. The New Culture Movement had created a generation of individualistic youth who turned to the West for political and institutional models. The May Fourth Movement had lent support to the principle of gender equality and initiated women's emancipation. The sociopolitical changes in the May Fourth era nurtured women's suffrage movements in the early 1920s.

Unlike the early Republican suffrage movement that mainly clustered in Nanjing, Beijing, and cities in the Lower Yangtze region, the suffrage movement in the 1920s was more widespread. In 1921, Wang Changguo in Hunan, and Wang Bihua in Zhejiang became provincial congresswomen. The Sichuan provincial constitution recognized gender equality in written forlTl. 22 In contrast to the revolutionary-turned suffragists in the early 1910s, who were mostly educated in Japan, May Fourth suffragists were educated in Westernized modern schools and influenced by Euro- American humanist and liberal ideals. In Beijing, there were two camps of women suffragists in the early 1920s. Students at the Chinese University (Zhongguo Daxue) and the National Law and Politics Institute (Guoli Fazhen Zhuanmen Xuexiao) organized "Niizi Canzheng Xiejinghui" (The Cooperation Society for Women's Suf- frage) chaired by Wang Xiaoying, with the goal of achieving women's franchise. They argued that political power was central to women's issues. Students at the Women's Higher Normal School organized "Ntiquan Yundong Tongmenghui" (The

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Alliance of Women's Rights Movement), with Zhou Min and Zhang Renrui as their leaders. Besides suffrage, they advocated women's property rights, education, and careers, and proposed constitutional recognition of gender equality. The division among suffragists was mainly caused by disagreements between their leaders rather than differences in their political agendas. 23 Both camps of suffragists in Beijing had branches in other provinces? 4 In Shanghai, Liu Shaobi organized Nfizi Jiuguohui (Women's National Salvation Society), arguing that women's suffrage could contribute to women's emancipationY Pushing the National Congress to allow women to participate in the National Conference, Huang Xuzhi, Zhong Dezheng and Hua Zhiqing organized N~quan Qingyuantuan (Women's Rights Petition Team) in Tianjin in 1924, and went to Beijing to ask the Congress to write gender equality into the Constitution. 26

Women suffragists in the 1920s tried to win support from both men and the majority of women. They allied with congressmen, willing to meet women's practical needs. The Cooperation led by Wang Xiaoying in Beijing invited congressmen for a banquet, where they requested that "sexes" be added to the Constitution Article "Citizens in the Republic of China are equal before the law, despite their differences in ethnicity, class and religion." More than 60 congressmen who attended the banquet voiced their support for the constitutional amendment, and signed the draft prepared by Congressman Lu Fu. z7 In Tianjin, Niiquan Qingyuantuan opened two People's Schools for Women (pingmin niixiao) that gave free books and stationery to students, and lectured on women's independence and equality, zs

Women's writings in the print media suggest that in the 1920s the women's movement in China gradually moved away from suffrage movement to women's labor movement. May Fourth feminists not only struggled for women's suffrage and human rights, but also made great efforts to reach out to women workers. Although women workers harbored genuine grievances against factory managers, their struggle did not indicate a united class-consciousness in the early 1920s. Women workers nonetheless successfully organized themselves associations and sisterhoods in their native place to take collective action in mediating labor disputes.

In the May Fourth era, the social composition of the urban women's movement broadened beyond its elite base. During the decade following the May Fourth Move- ment, women cotton textile workers, the largest single component of Shanghai's working class, frequently became the objects of or participated in economic, intellectual, and political movements. Left-wing intellectuals heralded the change in May 1920 by publishing an issue of New Youth devoted to labor conditions in Shanghai. Soon authors in the women's press began to advocate that the women's movement should shift its focus from middle class women to working class women. In Decem- ber 1921, Communist woman Wang Jianhong criticized in Funiisheng (Women's


Voice) that middle class women had narrow suffrage goal, and suggested that enlightened women should be on the frontline of the proletarian revolution. 29 In No- vember 1922, communist woman Yang Zhihua argued in Funii pinglun (Women Critics) that educated women should care about illiterate working women who were mistreated by men: "The thought of their suffering strengthens us in making more progress. ''3~ Even male feminists gave advice to women's movements in women's journals. Chen Wangdao wrote inXinfunii (New Women) that middle class women's target was men; working class women's oppression originated from their poverty, so they should ally with other proletariat. 31 Chen argued that women's movements could take place within labor movements in the form of strikes. 32

Women's journalism not only directed women's attention from suffrage to labor-related concerns, but also supported women workers in their strikes in 1921- 1922. The absence of enforceable labor law in China made working and living conditions unbearable, and workers in Shanghai frequently engaged in strikes between 1921 and 1927. Both Communist and GMD partisans made serious efforts to enter the labor scene: Communist labor organizers emphasized the importance of class struggle spearheaded by a united, class conscious proletariat; GMD labor organizers stressed the necessity of class harmony (laozi hezuo), with labor and capital cooper- ating for the economic development of the nation. 33 After the founding of CCP in Shanghai in 1921, communist women Xiang Jingyu, Wang Yizhi, and Yang Zhihua devoted themselves to organizing women workers. In February 1922, a Japanese owned silk factory in Zhabei refused to promote five qualified women apprentices to skilled workers (once promoted, their wages would rise from 39 cents to 70 or 80 cents per day). When the factory trade union mediated on behalf of these women, Japanese managers closed the workshop where the women worked. Three thousand workers at that factory went on strike, demanding that the factory recognize the trade union, change foremen who often beat workers, and compensate workers' losses in the strike. During the strike, Yang Zhihua published articles in Funii pinglun, calling for general support for women workers. She made public speeches to women workers encouraging them to hold on. Cheng Wanzhen, a co-worker at the YWCA, proposed an eight-hour workday with Sunday off, six weeks' paid maternity leave before and after delivery, and no night shift or dangerous work for women workers. 34 Cheng published widely on working class women's living and working conditions. 35 Calling on all Chinese women to support women workers, a woman student Yuan Wenying at the Beijing Women's Higher Normal School wrote Minguo ribao (Republican Daily) on behalfofBeijing Women's Movement Society, exposing Japa- nese managers' mistreatment of women workers and despising women's personalities. 36 Students at the People's Schools for Women in Shanghai visited women workers, distributed fliers claiming justice for workers, and raised funds to support them. 37

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Despite outside efforts to organize women workers, working class women were capable of organizing themselves to defend their own interests through traditional mutual aid societies known as sisterhoods, or native place associations. 3s Women workers often followed their headwomen into strikes. On June 28, 1922, three headwomen Liu Hongdao, Mu Zhiying, and Zhao Lanying organized the Shanghai Industrial Women's Morality Enhancement Society (Niizi Gongye Jindehui), trying to register the society at the Jiangsu provincial government for future protection. Having seen that women workers were often cheated and therefore fell into immo- rality, they organized the society to protect women workers. Funii pinglun com- mented that their action was progressive, but pointed out that the reason women workers were cheated was the unfair economic system. 39 In August 1922, a male contributor to Funiipinglun named Shao Lizi noticed that women workers were able to unite themselves in achieving collective goals in the strike: the arrest ofMu Zhiying brought two traditionally hostile groups of women workers together to push the po- lice to release Mu Zhiying. Yancheng women had natural feet, and Taixing women had bound feet; they each spoke their own dialect, and had treated the other as strangers in the past. 4~

May Fourth liberal feminists demonstrated a burgeoning legal consciousness in promoting and protecting women's rights. In early Republican years, the Supreme Court (Dali Yuan) in Beijing made efforts to modernize Chinese customs, in hope of bringing them into line with those of the international community. The Supreme Court attempted to liberalize marriage customs and to erode the authority of family elders. As early as 1915, the Court began to uphold a woman's right to marry the man of her choice. In 1917, the Court undermined parental authority by denying parents the right to withhold consent to marriage "without just reason." The legislative reforms and the Provisional Penal Code and Civil Code were based on the twin principles of gender equality and individual property. By the May Fourth era, intellectuals, urban reformers, and popular journalists perceived the law as a guarantor of individual rights. 41

The Provisional Codes provided women journalists a legal base from which to defend women's rights within marriage and family, and over property and children. 42 Besides male journalists' introduction to and discussion of women's legal rights, women's press also devoted itself to introducing women's legal rights. In Xin funii, Shen Jingxu explained who could ask for a divorce by referring to Article 1359 of the Provisional Civil Code: "When husband and wife cannot live in harmony, and are both willing to divorce, they can raise such a request." Then Shen delineated the specific conditions in Article 1362 under which one could ask for a divorce: when the spouse committed polygamy, adultery, rape, murder, physical abuse, malicious deserting, or absence without further information for more than three years. Shen


emphasized the age restriction in asking for divorce: "Article 1360 states, if the man is not 30 yet and the woman not 20 yet, they should get parental approval in asking for a divorce. ''43 Shen gave practical advice to divorced women based on a feminist consciousness, arguing that when a woman divorced she should get her dowry and property back but leave her children to her husband's family.

The Provisional Codes provided women writers a powerful platform from which to defend women's natural feet. Kong Jianmin argued that forcing women to bind their feet violated their legal rights; those who forced women to bind their feet could be perceived as damaging women's bodies, and deserved punishment according to provisional Penal Code Article 313, on those who damaged the bodies of others, bylaw 2 of Article 88 on those who damaged the functions of others' limbs, and bylaw 3 of Article 88 on those who caused minor physical damages to others. ~ Kong's knowledge of the Provisional Codes empowered her argument against foot- binding.

Women writers articulated their criticism to the Provisional Codes for limiting women's career opportunities and property rights, and being unfair to women in regulating adultery and concubineage. Yijun argued that Article 26 and bylaw 2 of Article 28 of the Civil Code deprived women of the right to represent themselves legally; article 1467 and 1468 deprived women of the right to choose a career and inherit property: 5 Lin Duqing found the regulation on adultery in Penal Code Ar- ticle 289 only punished women who committed consensual adultery (hejian), but not men who committed the same crime. In addition, Lin Duqing found contradic- tions in the regulation on concubines in Amendment 12 of the Penal Code- - concubineage violated the principle of gender equality upheld by the Republican Codes, but was widely practiced; its legal regulation was ambiguous. Xiao criticized an order of Zhejiang Supreme Court to restrict citizens' divorce right, arguing that such an order would limit women's opportunities to file for divorce. 46

May Fourth women's media writings demonstrated a sound knowledge of the Republican Codes and sensitivity to legislative reforms. Even when they did not know the exact provision of the Codes, they still deployed the law in their rhetoric to empower their arguments. On July 12, 1922, Funii pinglun carried a legal case. A shoe-store owner, Jiang Heling bought a maid, Xiangtao, from a Cantonese to be his concubine at the price of three hundred and ten yuan. In less than a month, she escaped. Jiang found her a few days later and took her to court. After the trial, she was returned to Jiang, despite her protest that she could not bear the mistreatment of Jiang's family. The woman journalist protested the verdict: "Should the Republican law protect those who purchased concubines? A truly civilized legal code should not mention the word 'concubine' at all. Besides, Jiang Heling had violated the legal regulation on prohibiting trading people. ''47 Her report depicted Xiangtao as an utter

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victim--first as someone's maid, then sold to be a concubine; she escaped because she could not bear the mistreatment, yet was still returned to Jiang's family. The journalist did not know which provision of the legal code(s) Jiang Heling had violated, but her legal instincts told her that Republican codes should not tolerate concubineage and trading people. Employing the law as rhetoric had greatly empowered her argument.

Women writers' legal consciousness and concerns were closely tied to their feminist aspirations. Shen Bingyi argued that legal knowledge was the foundation from which women should fight for their rights. She believed that women's rights included their rights defined by the Provisional Constitution, those granted by the Civil Code, and those shaped by social custom. Understanding that the Provisional Constitution was the basis of other legal codes, she found the Electoral Law was in contradiction to the Constitution--the Constitution did not limit the sex of "the people," but the Electoral Law made the right to vote and the right to be elected a male privilege. She found it ironic that men who were sympathetic to women's suffrage remained conservative when it came to legislative matters. 4s

Women's writings popularized women's legal rights defined by the Provisional Codes, employed the Codes to protect women's rights, and criticized the Codes at places where the principle of gender equality was violated. Women writers con- sciously employed the law as a powerful rhetoric in promoting and defending women's rights.

Autonomous Love and Consensual Marriage

May Fourth women actively participated in discussing "women's issues," and were agents in proposing women's emancipation. Their discussions between 1915 and 1919 provided ideological preparation for acting later on their political beliefs and carrying out their feminist agenda. The May Fourth feminist movement grew out of the May Fourth nationalist movement. Woman attorney Zhu Su'e remem- bered that the niiquan yundong (feminist movement) only began after the May Fourth Movement in 1919. 49 The May Fourth Movement enlightened Chinese women by making them aware of their rights as women. By participating in students' movements and urban politics, women experienced their own emancipation. As an elo- quent spokesperson at the Society of Patriotic Women Comrades (Nfijie Aiguo Tongzhihui), and a leader of the Tianjin student union, Deng Yingchao marched on October 10, 1919 in the front of the Tianjin citizens' parade protesting national trai- tors and calling for a boycott of American goods. 5~ Zhang Ruoming, a seventeen year-old student activist at the No. 1 Women's Normal School in Zhili Province (Zhili Beiyang Diyi Nfizi Shifan Xuetang) and a leader of the Society of Patriotic

66 Gender lssues/ Winter 2005

Women Comrades, traveled between Beijing and Tianjin with Guo Longzhen to res- cue Tianjin patriots arrested by the warlord government in Beij ing. In January 1920, Zhang and Guo were arrested in Beijing together with future premier Zhou Enlai, and imprisoned for half a year. 5t The experience of making public speeches, leading the student movements, and being imprisoned for a political cause transformed those young women students, and strengthened their determinations to be pioneers for women's emancipation.

Zhang Ruoming's article "Vanguard Women" (Jixianfeng de niizi) best represented May Fourth women's dedication to women's emancipation. Carried on Juewu (Awakening) on November 5, 1919, the article called on women to be pioneers for women's emancipation. Zhang rejected the idea that men and women were psycho- logically and physiologically different, arguing that women could be men's equals in academia and career. She argued that men had despotically deprived women of their economic power out of men's desire to control women. Realizing that women needed organization to achieve their emancipation, Zhang recruited vanguard women by three criteria: women who were truly interested in improving women's status; women who were willing to sacrifice their reputation (because if men and women mixed together, they would inevitably be labeled as "inhuman," and criticized for "corrupt- ing customs" and "disobeying ancient instructions"); and women who could remain celibate so that they could devote their whole lives to emancipation. Zhang argued that knowledge and independence were more important for women than marriage; marriage was not necessary for women's emancipation. Women celibates not only could advocate more efficiently for women's emancipation, they would gain cred- ibility for women's independence and individuality. 52 When Zhang Ruoming was young, her mother had been treated as a servant at home after her father took a concubine. Having seen her mother's suffering and determined that she would never depend on any man nor let him bully her, she decided to be a Buddhist nun when she grew up. In the 1920s, she ran away from an arranged marriage and spent ten years in France, becoming one of the first Chinese women to receive a Ph.D. degree. 53 If women's celibacy in imperial China was still integrated into the Confucian family system in the principle of chastity and virginity, May Fourth celibacy was aggressively anti-family and a new mode of denying sexuality. 54

The spirit of the May Fourth era transformed many young women from believ- ers in celibacy to supporters of autonomous love and consensual marriage. After 1919, largely under the influence of Swedish feminist Ellen Key, May Fourth women's writings on romantic love and sexual relations became systematized. 55 Key's argument that "marriage should be based on true love, and love makes a marriage moral" was well-accepted, and the ideas lian 'ai ziyou (freedom to love), hunyin ziyou (freedom to marry), and lihun ziyou (freedom to divorce) were popular among youth

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struggling against the imposed emotional inhibitions. Women writers nonetheless

remained quite cautious in discussing au tonomous love and marriage, fully aware o f

women 's potential losses in such proposals and practices. They emphas ized the im-

portance o f mutual understanding and c o m m o n goals in a love relation, and discred-

ited love based on money, appearance, and passion, as well as love under pressure as

something "fickle. ''56 Li Zhishan argued that one should share the same goals in life

with one's true love, and be faithful and loyal to one's choice. 57 Her love story shows

how a young woman came to the idea o f au tonomous love and consensual marriage:

From the age of thirteen to seventeen, I believed in celibacy. I was the only child of my parents and they were already in their forties. My relatives often patted on me and showed pity to my mother, "If she was a boy, you would be a mother in-law soon and have a daughter in-law serve you after so many years' hard toils." My mother would sigh over her fate---she thought I would eventually marry out. I said to myself, "Suppose I do not marry at all, I could stay with my mother and change her fate" As I grew up a little, I saw people mistreated their daughter in-law. I was so spoiled by my father, how could I tolerate such mistreatment? So I decided not to marry.

Before the May Fourth movement , young girls like Li Zhishan tr ied to avoid

marriage for two reasons: first, they wanted to take care o f their sonless parents in

their old age; second, they were afraid o f being a mistreated daughter in-law. Their

cel ibacy was a private and radical way to resist the miserable fate o f girls. Li contin-

ued her story:

I was a student at Tianjin Women's Normal School from age seventeen to age twenty-three . . . . I could make a living by teaching, and enjoyed five years' freedom . . . . I could not accept arranged marriage, nor had I met even one decent man. I did not want to serve parents in-law.

Female educat ion provided women students like Li Zhishan not only skills to

make a living, but also max imum freedom. Dissatisf ied with arranged marriage,

and empowered by their independence, career women like Li pro longed their free-

dom by staying single. Then the great change took place:

The May Fourth Movement took place when I was twenty-three. Awakened to new ideas, I so much wanted to be a natural human . . . . Realizing my celibacy idea quite unnatural, I decided to reform myself.... Though I did not want an arranged marriage, I could marry in a natural way. I did not want to limit myself within the family to serve parents in-law. A woman should have the courage to remain single if she could not find the right man; but if there was a Mr. Right, she need not be celibate.

May Fourth ideas had t ransformed Li's attitude toward love and marriage. In

the past, the best thing educated women could do was to skip marr iage and focus on

their careers; the May Fourth enl ightenment made them realize the beauty o f being

natural h u m a n s - - o n e had the right to satisfy one's natural desires and pursue indi-

vidual happiness. Marr iage became no longer dreadful, but beautiful and natural.


But awakened women remained very cautious in choosing their right mates. Li Zhishan continued her story:

In 1920, I was twenty-five. One of my friends Zhen Xiaoqin got closer to me. The two of us had similar experiences and worldviews, and our personalities matched. Our relationship developed from friendship to love. After we had intimate relations in 1922, we lived together formally... I was not limited within a family. We spent a year traveling among Canton, Hongkong, Tianjin and Shanghai, doing social work. I did not serve his parents, and I was still my parents' "son." 5s

Li Zhishan and Zhen Xiaoqin had no formal wedding, no regular home, and were out of the control of their parents. As a loving couple, they devoted their youth and energy to student movements, women's movements, and labor movements. Li Zhishan's story challenged the prejudice of preferring boys to girls, and the old inheriting and marriage systems. She published her story with the hope of encouraging others to "rise against unnatural systems and customs," and called upon women celibates "to reform their minds, and establish new lives according to their own ideals." 59

Women writers frequently employed the rhetoric of autonomous love and consensual marriage to support marriages that looked unorthodox according to Confu- cian ethics. Stories about how autonomous love overcame arranged marriage and conventional prejudices were carried in the women's print media. On January 4, 1922, Yuan Ying reported in Funiipinglun a marriage between a widow Xia Guihui and her new partner Zhou Changshou. Xia Guihui was a returned student from Ja- pan and the principal of a women's school in Canton. When she received medical treatment in Shanghai, she came across Zhou Changshou, who was also a returned student from Japan and an editor at the Commercial Press. They fell in love with each other, and Xia got remarried. Yuan Ying praised their marriage as one "out of true love," and argued that it challenged the Confucian ethic of widow's chastity. 60

On July 7, 1922, Huang Suyi published her love story in Funii pinglun. She was engaged to Wu Dianhui, a son of an extended family, while she was away study- ing in Japan. An extended family in China was metaphorically described as "nine generations living under the same roof." Women who married into extended families were supposed to get along with all their husbands' relatives, do household chores, and give birth to male offspring. Individuals had to sacrifice their own freedom, emotions, and interests for the benefit o f the extended family. Huang had hoped to cancel her engagement, but dared not raise her request before her father. In April 1922, she finally brought up her request, which enraged her father so much that he disowned her as his daughter. Wu Dianhui, a teacher of physical education known for his arrogance and meanness, did not accept Huang's cancellation. But Huang decided not to remain a filial daughter of a despotic family. She wanted to be a free

Yuxin Ma 69

citizen of a new society. Bo Kun appreciated Huang's rebellion, and recommended to her Yamagawa Kikue's article "The Rebellion of Women." 61

On August 2, 1922, Funii pinglun carried Jiang Qing's report of a love story between two young teachers, Shi Zhimian and Shen Yunqiu. They fell in love with each other, but Shen's brother forced her to break with Shi. Shen Yunqiu fled from home and married Shi Zhimian in Shanghai. In her wedding speech, Shen addressed her guests: "Our marriage is a union of love. We definitely cannot sacrifice our happiness, go against our conscience, and give in under outside pressure. ''62 In the past, stories in which a young widow remarried, a betrothed woman broke her engagement, and a young girl eloped with her lover would be considered inappropriate. But the May Fourth rhetoric of autonomous love and consensual marriage not only justified problematic marriages, but made them models of consensual marriage despite the fact that most people still regarded them as inappropriate.

Pursuing individual happiness was not the only reason that women writers supported consensual marriage. Lu Qiuxin argued that consensual marriage worked best for the Republic. She took an evolutionary view on marriage, and paralleled different polities (monarchy, constitutional monarchy, and democratic republic) to different marriages (arranged one, parent proposed and children accepted one, and consensual one). She argued that "parent proposed and children accepted marriage" might work well in Liang Qichao's constitutional monarchy, but anyone who supported the Republic and democracy should accept consensual marriage. Consensual marriage for her represented democracy. 63 However, Lu Qiuxin was aware that practicing consensual marriage might place some married women at a disadvantage because many husbands divorced original wives who had no new knowledge. She proposed that if the original wife proved unwilling to divorce, the husband should encourage her to pursue new knowledge. She denied "those who have not properly divorced" the right to pursue autonomous love. 64

How to keep women's individuality and personality in a consensual marriage? Some married women reasserted their individual identities by linking their husbands' family names with their own family names in a more equitable fashion. Double surnames could indicate their marital status without sacrificing their original identity as individuals. 65 But Li Zhishan insisted that a married woman should keep her maiden name unchanged. Since Li did not think a married woman need serve her husbands' relatives, she suggested that a married woman address her husbands' parents "bofu, bomu" (uncle, aunt) and his other relatives by their names. 66 Other women writers remained sensitive to the dowry practice, arguing that dowries belittled women's worth and personality. Yunxiang proposed abolishing dowry practice for two reasons. First, a dowry was to please the husband and elevate the wife's status in her marital family. A dowry made a woman a guest in her marital family--she had to

70 Gender lssues/ Winter 2005

bring whatever she would need from her natal family to live in her marital family.

Second, most dowries were costly and of little use. They made a woman marry a man's property and a man a woman's dowry. 67

Women journalists took autonomous love and consensual marriage as an ex- pression o f women's emancipation. Taking the pursuit o f individual happiness as

their natural right, they not only elaborated new ideals o f love and marriage, but also

published exemplary stories to encourage others. In promoting consensual marriage, women writers also voiced their awareness of women's potential losses.

Coeducation and Public Relations between the Sexes

The mass urban politics stirred up by the May Fourth movement released social energies which had long been oppressed, provided the opportunities to practice some Western theories introduced by New Culture figures, and removed the barriers

Confucian ethics had imposed on individual potentials. Some shrewd women sensed the social changes and raised their demands for coeducation. During the May Fourth student movements, a young woman named Deng Chuanlan who lived in the land- locked Gansu province, wrote a letter to Cai Yuanpei, who was then the minister o f

education and the president o f the prestigious Peking University. Deng asked Cai to open Peking University which only admitted male students to women students, and

expressed her aspiration to pursue an advanced education:

"To Mr. Juemin (Cai Yuanpei) with respect, I have received an education since an early age, and been always encouraged by the prin-

ciple of gender equality.... Educating women not only goes with humanity, but also makes half of the population in China producers. Isn't that a good way for national self-strengthening?... I request on behalf of all Chinese women--please add women's classes at middle schools, so that when women students reach the level of preparatory classes at college, colleges should practice coeducation. I am willing to attend a middle school like that to set up an example for other Chinese women . . . . If I can get your approval, I will travel to Beijing with my belongings. I will commu- nicate with other comrades in Beijing, and send our applications formally... "' 6s

Unfortunately Cai Yuanpei resigned as the president o f Peking University and left Beijing under the pressure of the warlord government for his support o f the students. Because Deng Chunlan's letter arrived after Cai Yuanpei had left Peking

University, she did not receive a reply from Cai. Deng Chunlan determined to go to Beijing anyway. Since there was no railway then in Northwest China, she embarked

on a hard journey to Beijing--first taking a raft down along the rough Yellow River, before crossing the vast and bare Inner Mongolia. She took a detour of more than five thousand kilometers, and finally arrived in Beijing in June 1 9 1 9. Disappointed

to find out that the warlord government had suppressed students' movement, and

Yuxin Ma 71

that CaiYuanpei had resigned and left, Deng Chunlan published her original letter to Cai in major newspapers in Beijing and Shanghai, together with a new letter inviting like-minded women to join her in asking universities to open their doors to women. She wasted no time upon arriving in Beijing and registered to study at the only institute of advanced education for women--Beij ing Women's Higher Normal School. 69

Coeducation was among the liberal education policies Cai Yuanpei sponsored in the May Fourth years. Deng Chunlan raised her request at a time when coeducation had already been widely discussed by major educational figures. On March 15, 1919, CaiYuanpei made a speech at aYMCA conference in Beijing, saying that "To reform the relations between men and women, a place to develop good customs is needed. I think school is such a place." Though Cai believed in coeducation, he was hesitant to advocate coeducation at the college level because he did not know whether there was sufficient social demand to justify that practice. Hu Shi proposed three steps in achieving college coeducation: universities should hire women professors; universities should first allow women to audit courses; and courses at women's middle schools should match the entrance exams for preparatory classes at the universities. 7~ As two influential figures in the educational field, Cai and Hu's discussion of coeducation created a favorable atmosphere for women like Deng Chunlan. Her letter made it clear that women wanted coeducation at an advanced level.

On January 1, 1920, Shanghai Zhonghua xinbao (New Daily of China) carried Cai Yuanpei's reply to Deng Chunlan's request: "The regulation of the Ministry of Education on college education does not say college education is only limited to men, therefore opening universities to women is not an issue at all . . . . Next year, when Peking University recruits new students, women with equivalent qualifica- tions can take the entrance exam. Once they pass, they will be admitted on an equal footing." Cai's answer opened a new chapter in the educational history of the Repub- lic of China. In the same month, Wang Lan became the first woman auditor at Pe- king University. In less than two months, Deng Chunlan and seven other women were also admitted.

Later, when Deng Chunlan told her story to Xu Yanzhi, a male student journalist at Peking University, she emphasized the difficulties a girl faced in pursing an advanced education. Born into a privileged family in Gansu province, she and her sisters finished their primary education at a boy's school. Deng's father was a gradu- ate of Peking University. He established a normal school that provided eight years of education for girls in Lanzhou. But most girls dropped out of the school to get married. The Deng sisters received two years of teacher training and started teaching primary schools. Though her father was an educational official, to avoid the criticism of nepotism, he did not recommend Deng Chunlan to study on official expense


at the only advanced institute for women--the Women's Higher Normal School in Beijing. But Chunlan persuaded him to send her to Beijing at her family's expense. 71

Deng Chunlan's request reflected an educational problem in 1919--women students with an education equivalent to (or even higher than) middle school had no chance to receive the same advanced education as their male counterparts. At a time when Deng Chunlan traveled across half of China to realize her dream, some students at women's universities in Beijing also remained dissatisfied with their college education. Wang Lan told her story to Xu Yanzhi in this way: she had studied at several women's schools before she was admitted at the age of sixteen to the Women's Higher Normal School in Beijing. She studied at the Normal School for more than four years, but did not finish because she became ill in the last semester. Before entering the Normal School, she had the freedom to develop herself physically and spiritually. But at the Normal School, she suffered physically and felt suffocated spiritually--teachers there used commanding language and had superior attitudes, treating students like slaves. Although her knowledge had improved, she lacked the freedom to do the things she wanted. Wang Lan's young brother had been a student at Peking University during the New Culture Movement. He brought her new books and explained new theories to her. Realizing the huge gap between men and women's education, Wang Lan longed to attend Peking University. 72 Deng Chunlan's letter in the newspaper spoke for the needs of women college students like Wang Lan, and brought her great hope. When Deng's letter did not receive an immediate result, Wang Lan decided to visit in person Tao Menghe, the dean of Peking University. Fortunately coeducation was being discussed widely in the print media in early 1920. To her great joy, she easily received permission and became the first woman auditor at Peking University. Wang Lan had liberal parents. Though they heard much oppo- sition from their relatives, they still let their daughter go her o w n w a y , 73 In telling her story to Xu Yanzhi, Wang Lan encouraged other Chinese women to be brave in pursuing coeducation. TM

Besides Wang Lan and Deng Chunlan, the stories of seven other women audi- tors at Peking University in early 1920 suggested that more problems existed in female education before coeducation, including irregular teaching, an unbalanced curriculum, spiritual imprisonment, and psychological depression. Since the age of twelve, Cheng Qinruo had on and off received ten years' private education, with a focus on Chinese literature. Since she had no degree, she was admitted to Peking University based on the virtue of her application essay. Cha Xiaoyuan graduated from St. Mary's middle school, and also attended its high school. Suffering from health problems, the loss of her mother, and the heavy study load, she dropped the school in 1918. When Peking University opened its doors to women, she and her cousin Xi Zhen transferred there from Xiehe Women's University, a protestant uni-

Yuxin Ma 73

versity. Xi Zhen graduated from Wuben Women's School in Shanghai and Jinghai Women's High School in Suzhou. She loved literature and did not like the courses taught at Xiehe Women's University, which was why she came to Peking Univer- sity. 75 Coeducation at Peking University allowed women students to enjoy a liberal learning atmosphere, take the same courses as men, have access to the best teachers, and study a balanced curriculum. Yet male students were suspicious of women audi- tors in the first two or three weeks. When they met, they would ask each other, "Is there a woman in your class? What is her attitude towards you? How do you treat her?" They made random comments about women students. But after four months, they had become more accustomed to the presence of women in their classes. 76

If women students had not taken the initiative to raise their requests, coeducation at Peking University in early 1920 would not have happened or would have had to wait till later. Those nine women were persistent and resourceful in reaching their goals. Deng Chunlan traveled across half of China, wrote a letter to the president of Peking University, and employed the print media for attention and comrades. Wang Lan took the initiative to visit the dean of Peking University, and ignored the oppo- sition of her relatives. Cha Xiaoyuan and Xi Zhen made quick decisions to transfer from a Christian women's college to the liberal Peking University. Were it not for such highly motivated and prompt actions, they could not have been admitted. After February 1920, many other women applying to Peking University were nonetheless rejected because there were no more openings, and students were not admitted during the middle of a semester. 77 The first nine women not only had strong motivation and will, but were also resourceful and resolute.

Coeducation at the college level only reflected one facet of May Fourth women's aspirations for greater educational opportunities. In May 1923, the Tianjin Women's Rights Petition Group (Tianjin Niiquan Qingyuantuan) launched a study movement and pushed Nankai Middle School (grades 7 to 9) to accept women students. They also lobbied Zhili Provincial Ministry of Education to establish the No. 1 Women's Middle School. Huang Xuzhi reported women's achievements inXin minyibao, (New People's View) in a special column called "Women's Study Movement" making known their progress to many young women who looked forward to greater educational opportunities. TM The year 1923 witnessed nationwide protests against the Tsinghua School's decision to stop sending women students to study in the United States. Starting in 1914, Tsinghua School sent ten qualified women students every other year to study in America on the returned Boxers' indemnity. Between 1914 and 1923, five batches of women (43 women) were selected and sent. Since the selection criteria were very high (women students should be less than 23 years old; their Chinese should be above middle school level; their English and Sciences should be equivalent to that of an American college student), not many women were quali-


fled. In 1918, only eight women were sent. Tsinghua University decided to stop sending women in 1920 and again in 1923. But women students' protestations caused social disturbances. In 1923, many social celebrities supported women students, and eventually Tsinghua reversed its decision. After social protests, five women were sent in 1923. 79

Education ceased to become a privilege of the middle or upper class women during the May Fourth era. When coeducation gained momentum, a more radical program which employed education as a means of raising the cultural and intellectual levels of the masses was set into motion. The People's School (Pingmin xuexiao) and a related work-study program were originally designed for men, but it was not long before girls and women were drawn to each. Ultimately, versions of each were created expressly for women. Pingmin nfixiao (People's School for Women) created a practical and modern curriculum, and was geared to train women for work in an increasingly industrialized and proletarian society. The goal of such schools was to break the elite's monopoly on education by creating institutions that would raise the educational level of the masses, s~

In the May Fourth era, the discussion and practice of coeducation brought another issue to the front--if men and women studied under the same roof, how should they treat each other? In imperial China, the distinction between women's inner sphere and men's outer sphere had stood at the center of Confucian thought and social norms. The principle of bie--separate spheres-- stressed that "wives and mothers inside the home embody the moral autonomy and authority on which husbands and sons must rely on to succeed outside." s~ Men and women were expected to assume responsibilities and roles specific to gender. As Ann Waltner notes, "the generative powers of the universe [depended] on the maintenance of clear boundary lines between male and female." 82 If women students mingled with male students, and

studied the same materials as men did, that subverted the social order and gender roles. The emperor's departure in 1911, the attacks on Confucianism from 1915 to 1919, and the entry of women activists into the public sphere, all challenged the practice of gender separation in China. Based on Western ideas of individualism and gender equality, intellectuals of both sexes proposed new public relations between men and women. As individuals, women should have the same access to public space as men, and men should respect women as their equals in society.

Initially, students returning from overseas who admired the gender relations of Western countries raised the issue in China of public relations between men and women. May Fourth women favored public relations between sexes for two reasons: they wanted to enter public spaces, and they hoped to be accepted by men and society as dignified individuals with complete personalities. Women writers argued that public relations between the sexes recognized women's personalities (ren 'ge) and

Yuxin Ma 75

demonstrated the principle of gender equality. But some women writers realized that some men might read public relations between the sexes as a justification for autonomous love. Bing argued that public relations between the sexes demonstrated that women were human and men's equals: "the proper public relation between sexes is the communication between two humans, and stops at the friendship level." She maintained that in China public relations between the sexes were neither fish nor fowl (feiIiifeima)--most women did not have economic power and were not men's equals, and some men were only pretenders. The way to correct that situation was "to change the social system," and "let women have economic power. ''s3

Women's media writings corrected wrong attitudes toward public relations between the sexes. C. E (a pen name) found that some women "treated all men as wolves" because of their failed experiences with men in the past. Some men with an advanced education did not care about public relations between the sexes, while other men were only looking for mates, s4 Haiyan found that some "silly" youth took

sex for the only possible relations between men and womenY Yan Zhongyun argued that women had to rely on decent public relations between the sexes to remove the obstacles between men and women, and eventually achieve gender equality. She advised women to hold their self-esteem high in their public contact with men. s6

In promoting and practicing coeducation, May Fourth women skillfully employed the print media to appeal for wider attention and support. They took the initiative to raise their request in a liberal atmosphere, and took resolute actions to reach their goals. May Fourth women writers steered a new discourse of gender relations-- some early Republican women took men for their enemies and a barrier to women's suffrage, but May Fourth women were more willing to socialize with men on an equal footing to achieve their feminist goals.

New Women and Full Human

May Fourth women's struggle for emancipation in discourse and social practices suggested their desire to be fully human and enjoy the same rights and privileges as men do. Their genuine concern about women's specific needs also indicated an awakening of female consciousness. Women writers explored in discourse and through social practices is how to be new women in the changing social context of the May Fourth era. Their desire to be fully human did not conflict with their gender specific concerns-- they did not shun their duties as mothers and wives, and offered constructive ideas on how to meet women's specific needs.

The interplay between ideas and practices o f new women made the construction of modern Chinese womanhood a process which was constantly under revision and enrichment. The issue of the "new woman" had first been discussed in the male


intellectual world during the early Revolutionary stage in the first decade of the twentieth century, along with the beginning of women's modern education. By the May Fourth era, "women's issues" had begun to coalesce as a major category of male debate, which gave rise to a variety of new understandings of "new woman." Male intellectuals used discussions of the "new woman" to articulate their frustration with their own position in the traditional family and hierarchy. The "new woman" discourse provided an alternative way for male intellectuals to redefine their male identity in relation to the female other. Women's journal writings in the May Fourth era reveal that women writers understood differently the role of new women in China.

Women writers of the May Fourth era agreed unanimously that a new woman should be independent, and stand up for her own personality and will. The individualistic Nora was a popular cultural icon in the May Fourth era. In The Ladies' Jour- nal in August 1924, Lu Xun warned Chinese women in his article "What Would Happen after Nora Left Home," that women's emancipation meant more than an awakened mind--attaining independence was more important and much harder than simply leaving home. A woman writer named Cheng Qiying argued that women's liberation should begin with women's independence, and that women's education should pave the way for their independence. 87 In 1923, a seventeen-year old woman

student Chen Xuezhao won second prize in an essay contest sponsored by Shibao (Times). Her article "My Expectations for New Women" (Wosuo xiwangde xinfunii) argued that new women should cultivate their personalities through education, lead career lives, and be independent; new women should shoulder the same responsibility to society as men. 88 New women as independent human beings should have their own wills and personalities. Yang Zihua aggressively asserted, "Who can shake my own will? Who can force me to do anything? Who can give me orders? I have abso- lute control over my life, and no one else can meddle with my life. ''89

Believing that new women should be useful people in society rather than stay at home to be wives and mothers, May Fourth women writers argued that families were women's direct oppressors. They not only criticized the traditional extended family (dajiating), but also cast doubt on the nuclear family (xiaojiating) celebrated by Westernized male intellectuals. Although May Fourth young men attacked the traditional joint family system, they never challenged the assumption that marriage and family were central to the political and social order when they proposed the "xiaojiating" model based on Western individualism and companionate marriage. 9~ Guo Miaoran likened an old family to a despotic state that obstructed social progress; only by totally destroying the old family could society be reformed and new women find room to develop themselves. She defined new women as "women with complete personalities" and "useful citizens of society. ''91 Xiang Jingyu considered new families equally problematic as places where women helped men to achieve happi-

Yuxin Ma 77

ness. She argued that new women should acquire productive skills outside the household. 92 Haileng (pen name) spoke against extended families and nuclear families from the perspective of women's rights to be human: "Extended families enclose women at home to be slaves (niuma), and nuclear families hoax women to stay home as pets (niaoque). Neither treats women as humans." She argued that both men and women should work and serve society as humans; both should enjoy freedom and happiness. The most urgent task for women was "to break away from families, breathe the fresh air in society, and be full humans "'93 In attacking the family system, women writers expressed their desire to be human and producers outside the family. In their consciousness, a woman's right to be human came before the importance o f main- taining marriage and family.

Although women writers expected new women to be independent career women, they were equally explicit that in addition to a career life, new women should be politically and socially active. In May 1920, Zhang Ruoming argued that having a career life was only a partial solution to the problem; new women who were serious about women's issues should know national politics and fight for women's suffrage by uniting with political parties that promoted women's rights. 94 Xiang Jingyu advised women of the intelligentsia to unite politically with working class women, 95 but disagreed with the goal of suffrage because the Assembly only represented the middle class. 96

The May Fourth women's print media portrayed new women as independent career women outside the household. They preferred that women lead an active social and political life and shoulder the same responsibility to society as men. As such, they were quite different from the late Qing ideal of niiguomin or the early Republican suffragists. New women in other words placed their individual fulfillment above the national interests or political representation. In China, women's re- invention of their personality was synchronic with "the discovery of man." As articulated by the popular cultural icon Nora, "women are human, and have human rights." Hu Shi turned to American women as models for Chinese women, and proposed adding a productive role in society to women's traditional reproductive role. 97 To make Chinese women fully human, the May Fourth discourse to some degree required that new women be able to do what men could do.

The stronger their desire to be fully human, the more sensitive May Fourth women writers became to the reality that Chinese women were still not treated ac- cordingly. They argued that prostitution, concubineage, and the maid system were social evils that should be eliminated. In the May Fourth era, Li Dazhao was among the first to demand that prostitution be discarded in China's march toward modernity. In The Ladies 'Journal, feminist critics of both sexes criticized the capitalist roots of prostitution, arguing that prostitutes were victims o f male economic, sexual,


and moral domination. 9s May Fourth women writers also explored the social and economic origin of prostitution. Junxiao argued that prostitution was a byproduct of capitalism--women workers were paid so little that they had to turn to prostitution to increase their income. 99 Wang Nanxi argued that arranged marriage and Confu- cian gender norms caused prostitution. Unhappily married men visited brothels because their wives were supposed to be moral and serious rather than seducing and flirting, and could not fulfill their sexual desires? ~176

May Fourth women writers were very sensitive to women's dignity, and would not tolerate men who insulted women. On January 1, 1922, Funii pinglun carried male writer Zemin's letter, "If we do not change women's current economic status, all women are invisible prostitutes? '~~ His careless words enraged female writer Hanying, who criticized him for insulting all women. In response, Zemin elaborated further, "In the current society, women exchange their sex for subsistence within marriages." He blamed the economic system for women's situation as "invisible prostitutes? '~~ Another woman named Guohua argued with Zemin, "The socio-economic system has made a small group of women prostitutes. But why do m e n . . , treat all women as prostitutes. ''1~ In suggesting that women who exchanged sex for subsistence were prostitutes, Zemin neglected the fact that many other women were homemakers who worked hard to maintain their families. The fact that women's work at home was not paid reflected the problems with the current economic system, but that did not mean that married women received their subsistence simply by having sex with men. Hanyin and Guohua understood prostitutes as women who merely lived on selling sex for subsistence. They thought that most women lived honestly by doing their household chores.

In the May Fourth era, even the most progressive group of women- -women students, were not treated fully as humans by men. Xi (pen name) criticized women's schools for emphasizing housework. She argued that women could naturally learn how to do housework, so there was no need to learn that at school. She maintained that women's schools supervised women students' private letters, which was anti- constitutional: "The Provisional Constitution grants a citizen the freedom to write personal letters. Can such a stupid measure stop women students from communicat- ing with men?" She was insulted that school authority distrusted women students' personalities: "Do all women students elope with men? If you do not respect others' personalities, then you despise your own! ''~~ Lu Qiuxin believed that supervising students and checking their private letters turned schools into prisons? ~ She proposed abolishing women's schools and practicing coeducation for the reason that both men and women were human, and should study under the same roof. 106

Although women writers employed humanist rhetoric to empower their struggles for coeducation, women's careers, and women's suffrage, they did not always agree

Yuxin Ma 79

with men on specific women's issues. Women journalists best expressed their female consciousness when it came to discussing women's reproductive roles. Take, for example, the discussion on birth control in Funiisheng. From a Marxist view, male intellectual Mao Dun argued that birth control was not necessary--the un- equal distribution of wealth and services rather than excessive population resulted in poverty. But woman communist Wang Jianhong supported birth control from the perspective of women's health and potential in society. She considered multiple child- births detrimental to women's health and women's chance to develop their personalities and capacities, making it impossible for women to be independent. Commu- nist woman Wang Huiwu argued that practicing birth control would improve the entire human species, and give women greater freedom. In discussing women's re- production, women writers were genuinely concerned about women's health, freedom, and independence. 107

The nationalist movements in the May Fourth era did not override women's commitment to their own emancipation. Deng Chunlan clearly prioritized the women's movement over the nationalist movement. As she claimed in October 1919, "Though patriotic movements are important, women's movements are even more important. If Chinese women want true democracy in China, we should first fight for the true democracy for Chinese women." In addressing women's gender specific needs, Deng Chunlan expected society to assist women in fulfilling their reproductive duties, by establishing child-care centers and kindergartens. Women would need only to delay briefly their careers to have a baby and could still maintain their careers most of the time? ~ Encouraged by European women's involvement in the First World War and their ensuing suffrage and political representation, Deng Chunlan advised Chinese women to struggle for their rights in education, career, and suffrageJ ~ She jour- neyed to Beijing in the summer of 1919 not just to attend Peking University, but also to unite other women in the fight for women's citizen rights. She recalled, "As a woman, I was most interested in women's emancipation. Though I was not oppressed at home, I saw the inequality between men and women everywhere. I wanted to change the situation. ''~ ~0

The new woman ideal proposed by May Fourth women writers nevertheless did not reflect new women's reality. The most visible new women in the urban space in the May Fourth era were women students, who were controversial figures in women's print media. In 1919, Bing Xin wrote that Chinese society had gone through an early admiration of women students for their modern education and Western manners, and a later contempt for their rampant speeches and behaviors. Since the May Fourth Movement, women students had become more practical, proper, and mature, and had been received more positively by society. H~ Even so, women journalists closely followed women students, criticizing their shortcomings and making


comments on their social behavior. Women students were often criticized for their vanity, love of luxury, vulgar manners, and total Westernization. Aijuan criticized women students for their gaudy clothes and lack of decency: "They are like prostitutes in students' clothes, playing to men's pity and becoming men's toys by feigning fragility. ''~2 Lu Qiuxin criticized their vanity, love of decoration, and wearing of pearl flowers and gold bracelets. 113 She doubted whether they were truly emanci- pated214 She thought that women students at church schools were too westernized-- good at English but poor in Chinese, many only spoke the Shanghai dialect rather than the standard Mandarin.l~5

In constructing the new woman ideal in discourse, and reporting about new women in real life, women journalists helped women readers realize the gaps between ideal womanhood and their own lives, and pushed new women to reflect on and improve themselves. Women's print media provided a gendered forum, and offered critical voices to new women. Women writers often portrayed women students as being unable to adapt themselves to the modern world--most women students lacked social experience, could not cope with outside pressure, and were easily vic- timized in a hostile environment. The rising suicide rate among women students especially caught women writers' attention. On September 13, 1922, Funiipinglun reported that Xi Shangzhen of the Shangbao (Commercial News) press had committed suicide. Xi had received a simple teacher's training, and worked as a recep- tionist at the Shangbao press. The press manager Tang Zhijie had borrowed five thousand yuan from Xi to buy stock, but never returned the money. When she asked for her money back, Tang even teased her, "Why cannot you be my concubine?" Angered at her loss and his insult, Xi hanged herself. Funk pinglun analyzed what had caused her suicide: she had very little social experience and had over-trusted an influential person; she had shallow education and lacked the proper legal knowledge to protect herself; and she still held onto the old Confucian ethics and values.~6 On October 12, 1922, Funii pinglun carried Li Bai's article on the suicide of Zhang Jingyi, a student at the affiliated middle school of the Women's Higher Normal School in Beijing. Zhang Jingyi lived with her brother and sister-in-law but could not get along with them. She had difficulty in paying her tuition, but her school showed her no sympathy. That fall, she was not allowed to move to the next grade because of her bad grades. Out of desperation, she lay down on the railway. ~17 Li Bai criticized Zhang's narrow-mindedness and the school's indifference to her difficulties. Xin funii carried Xuan Lu's report of ZhaoYing's suicide, arguing that her isolation from the New Culture had caused her death. Zhao Ying had been a student at the Patriotic Women's School and Chengdong Women's School in Shanghai. Silent and stubborn, she immersed herself in her studies of ancient paintings and calligraphy. She lived

Yuxin Ma 81

with her father's concubine but could not get along with her cousin Yufen's unhappy marriage and the Buddhist atmosphere of Patriotic Women's School made her a pessimistic celibate. Eventually Zhao went out of her mind and committed suicide by jumping from a tall buildingJ TM

Not all women's journals in the May Fourth era shared the same ideal of new women as independent and strong-willed career women who were socially and politically active. Christian women's journals offered a contending vision of modern Chinese womanhood which often conflicted with the individualistic and feminist ideal of new women. Some Christian women's journals argued for the power of temperance. Chen Yuling discussed the origin of the Women Christian Temperance Association in (Newspaper of Young Women) Qingnian nfibao. Several decades ago, alcoholism had been a serious problem in the United States, and numerous drunk- ards were jobless and did not care about their families. Some Christian women in Ohio organized themselves and promoted the Women Christian Temperance Asso- ciation, which tried to change the situation. Chen Yuling argued that by using the sacred law of God to fight against the evils of the world, women could change bad persons into good ones? '119 (The Women's Messenger) Nfiduobao edited by the Chris- tian Literature Society in Shanghai had a different view on new women's independence. In March 1923, Niiduo bao reported the story of Han Duanci. Not satisfied with her husband Mao Cixiu, Han had left home soon after her wedding to pursue an education. After attending an art school in Shanghai, Hart had graduated the previ- ous year and begun teaching at a women's handicraft and art school. Han had asked for a divorce but could not get it, and eventually died of depression. This story could be used to attack the evil of arranged marriage or to praise the independence of a new woman. But an American missionary lady (whose Chinese name was Liang Yueri) was critical of what Han had done to her own marriage. Liang Yueri admitted that Han was worth praising for serving society, learning embroidery and painting, and loving her natal family, but criticized her for two reasons. First, China was a Republic and Han was educated. Why did she let her brother and sister-in-law force her to marry? Second, her husband was a loving man and Han was not wise to leave him. The missionary argued that one's talent and character were two different things. In the United States, some women preferred to marry less talented husbands because of their noble characters, and sacrificed their own talents by working in society so that their husbands could study. But Han had been proud and despised her husband; she only cared about her career, and had treated her husband as a stranger. Besides, her divorce request was not appropriate because her husband had never mistreated her; instead, he had tried to restore their relationship. Liang Yueri rea- soned that it was a pity that Han Duanci did not know the truth of Christianity; she


advised educated Chinese women not to blame their husbands for women's "thou- sands years' misery under men" because to do so would invite criticism from con- servatives.~2~

Conclusion

May Fourth women appropriated the rhetoric of women's emancipation advocated by New Culturalists to struggle for women's political aspirations and steered cultural changes towards their feminist interests. Their media writings carved out subject positions that empowered women and spaces for women activists to practice their new women ideals. The rhetoric of "women's emancipation" enabled women writers to redefine the gender of public spaces, and legitimized women's presence in the public sphere. The interplay between ideas and practices associated with new women invited May Fourth women journalists constantly to explore various possi- bilities of modem Chinese womanhood and to revise and subvert the discourse of "new woman" proposed by men. Women activists appropriated the ideal of unalienable human rights to share male power and privilege, while seriously exploring how to be women in a modem society. They wanted to be independent human beings with dignity, and enjoy a social and public life; they also demanded that women's specific reproductive needs could be taken care of so women would have greater public opportunities. Women intellectuals steered women's discourse from suffrage movement to women's labor movements. Their media writings demonstrated the formation of a legal consciousness among some women intellectuals.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Michael Price, the chair of History Department at Armstrong Atlantic State University for his helpful comments and editorial assis- tance.

Notes

1. Susan Glosser, Chinese Visions of Family and State, 1915-1953 (Berkeley and Los Ange- les, CA: University of California Press, 2003), 81.

2. Vera Schwarcz, The Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May Fourth Movement of 1919 (Berkeley: University of California, 1986), 109.

3. Most scholars define the May Fourth era as the eight years from 1915 to 1923. Chow Tse- tsung, The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960). Susan Glosser, Chinese Visions of Family and State, 3.

4. Chow Tse-tsung, The May Fourth Movement; Ono Kazuko, Chinese Women in a Century of Revolution 1850-1950 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989.

Yuxin Ma 83

5. Wang Zheng, Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: Oral and Textual Histories (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1999), 20-21. Roxane Heater Witke, "Transformation of Attitudes Toward Women During the May Fourth Era of Modern China" 334

6. Christian Kelley Gilmartin, Engendering the Chinese Revolution: Radical Women, Commu- nistPolitics, andMass Movements in the 1920s (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1995).

7. Ching-Kiu Stephen Chan, "The Language of Despair: Ideological Representation of the New Women by May Fourth Writers" (Modern Chinese Literature 4, no. 1-2 (1988): 19-38. Vera Schwarcz, The Chinese Enlightenment.

8. Wang Zheng, Women in the Chinese Enlightenment, 17-20. 9. Yuxin Ma, "Male Feminism and Women's Subjectivities: Zhang Xichen, Chen Xuezhao,

and The New Woman," Twentieth Century China 29, no. 2 (November 2003): 1-37. 10. Jacqueline Nivard, "Women and the Women's Press: The Case of The Ladies "Journal (Funii

zazhi) 1915-1931 ," Republican China x, no. l-b (November 1984): 39. 11. Lii Meiyi, "Lun Zhongguo jindai funii yundong dui shehui bianqian de tuidong zuoyong"

[The push of modern Chinese women's movement on social transformation] Zhengzhou daxue xuebao (1999, 4): 5-11.

12. Chandra Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses" in Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, ed. Chandra Mohanty, Anne Russo, and Lourdes Torres (Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana, 1991), 53.

13. Ono Kazuko, Chinese Women, 95. 14. Li Dazhao, "Zhanhuo zhi furen wenti"[Women's issues after the First World War ] New

Youth 6, 2 (February 25, 1919). 15. "'Xinqingnian jizhe qishi" [A notice from editors of New Youth] New Youth 2, 5 (January 1,

1917). 16. Li-Zhang Zhaonan, "Yu zhi bingyuan zhong jingyan" [My experience at a hospital] New

Youth 3, 4 (June 1917): 387-392; "Ai qingnian"[Lament for youth] New Youth 2, 6 (February 1, 1917): 651-651

17. Chen-Qian Aichen,"Xianmushi yu zhongguo qiantu zhi guanxi"[The relation between wise mother and the future of China] New Youth 2, 6 (February, 1917): 652-654.

18. Gao Susu, "Niizi wenti zhi da jiejue"[The final solution of women's issues] NewYouth 3, 3 (May, 1917): 333-337.

19. Wu Zenglan, "Niiquan pingyi"[A discussion on women's rights] New Youth 3, 4 (June 1917): 441--445.

20. Minghui, "Funii xuanjuquan"[On women's suffrage] in "Tongxun," New Youth 7, 3 (Febru- ary 1920): 147-148.

21. Wang Zheng, Women in the Chinese Enlightenment, 14. 22. Tan Sheying, Zhongguofuniiyundong tongshi, Nanjing: Funii gongming she; 1936), 252. 23. Zhongguofunfi yundongshi: xinminzhu zhuyi gemingshiqi [A history of Chinese women's

movement, 1919-1949] (1986), 70-72. 24. Dongfang zazhi 19; Yang Zhihua, "Zhongguo funii yundong zhi guoqu ji jianglai" [The

past and future of Chinese women's movement] Zhongguofunii 12 (April 20, 1926) and 14 (May 10, 1926).

25. "Liu Shaobi faqi N~tzi Jiuguohui"[Liu Shaobi started Women's National Salvation Soci- ety] Funiipinglun 46.

26. Deng Yingchao, "Guanyu Tianjin Niiquan Qingyuantuan de huiyi"[Memories on Tianjin Women's Rights Petition Team] Deng Yingchao yu Tianjin zaoqi funii yundong, (Bejing: Zhongguo Fungi Chubanshe, 1987), 568-576.

27. "Nfizi Canzheng Xiejinghui de huodong"[The activities of Women's Suffrage Coopera- tion] Funiipinglun 56 (August 30, 1922).


28. Deng Yingchao, "Guanyu Tianjin Niiquan Qingyuantuan de huiyi,"568-576. 29. "Nfiquan yundong de zhongxin ying yidao disi jieji"[The center of feminist movement

should shift to the fourth class] Funiisheng 1 (December 10, 1921). 30. "Tan niizi zhiye"[On women's career] Funii pinglun 65 (November 1, 1922): 1. 31. "Wo xiang" [My thoughts] Xinfunfi 4, 4 (1920): 1. 32. "Funii yundong he laogong wenti" [Women's movements and the labor issue] Xinfunfi 5,

1(1921): 13-16. 33. Elizabeth J. Perry, Shanghai on Strike: The Politics of Chinese Labor (Stanford, CA: Stanford

University Press, 1993), 67-68. 34. "Niizi shuode 'niizi laodong wenti' "[Women talk about 'women's labor issues'] Funii

pinglun 62 (October 12, 1922). 35. "Pudong funii de laodong wenti"[The issue of women's labor in Pudong] Funfipinglun 42

(May 24, 1922 ): 3; "Cheng niishi diaocha iaogong zhuangkuang de shouhuo"[Ms. Cheng's survey on women workers' situation] Funiipinglun 48 (July 5, 1922); "Shaosi gongzuo qingxing de dagai"[The general working situation of silk filature] Funii pinglun 54 (August 16, 1922).

36. "Pudong niigong bagong de jieju"[The final result of women workers' strike in Pudong] Funii pinglun 44 (June 7, 1922).

37. "Pudong de funii laodong wenti"[The issue of women's labor in Pudong] Funiipinglun 42 (May 24, 1922 ): 3.

38. Emily Honig, Sisters and Strangers: Women in the Shenghi Cotton Mills, 1919-1941 Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986). 209-217.

39. "Yizhoujian de funfi xiaoxi"[News on women during the week] Funiipinglun 47 (June 28, 1922)

40. "Shanghai sichang niigong bagong ji" [The strike of women silk workers in Shanghai] Funii pinglun 53 (August 9, 1922) and 54 (August 16, 1922).

41. Susan Glosser, Chinese Visions of Family and State, 81-82, 42. Kathryn Bernhardt, Women and Property in China; "Women and the Law: Divorce in the

Republican Period," Civil Law in Qing and Republican China, ed. Kathryn Bernhardt and Philip Huang (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994).

43. "Falii shangde lihun wenti" [The divorce issue in the law] Xinfunfi 2, 6[The new woman]: 9-18.

44. "Bucheng wenti de wenti zhi yifa jiejue" [The legal solution of an issue which was neglected] Funii zhoukan 6 (January 14, 1925).

45. "Nanxing zhongxin xia de Zhongguo funii"[Chinese women under male centrism] Funii zhoukan 2 (December 17, 1924).

46. "'Xianzhi lihun' de hunmi" [On the dumbness in limiting divorce] Funfipinglun 29 (Feb- ruary 21, 1922).

47. "Maiqie j ingdele falfi baozheng" [Purchasing concubine yet getting legal protection] Funfi pinglun 49 (July 12, 1922).

48. "Falii zhishi wei zheng niiquan de genji"[Legal knowledge was the foundation for women's rights] Nii qingnian bao (May, 1923).

49. Wang Zheng, Women in the Chinese Enlightenment, 198, 200. 50. DengYingchao, "Wusi yundong de huiyi"[Remembering the May Fourth Movement] Wusi

shiqi funii wenti wenxuan [An anthology on women "s issues in May Fourth Era] (Beijing: Zhongguo funii chubanshe, 1990), 1-7.

51. Zhang Ruoming yanjiu ziliao [A collection of sources on Zhang Ruoming] (Beijing: Zhongguo funii chubanshe, 1995), 61, 69-73.

52. Zhang Ruoming, "Jixianfeng de nfizi" [Women pioneers] Zhang Ruomingyanjiu ziliao, 5- 8; 14~15.

Yuxin Ma 85

53. ziliao, 63.

54. 55. 56.

"Zhang Ruoming shengping" [The biography ofZhang Ruoming] Zhang Ruomingyanjiu

Roxane Heater Witke, "Transformation of Attitudes towards Women" 210. Ibid, 140. Deng Yinchao, "Cuowu de lian'ai" [Wrong view on love] Nfixing (May 5, 1923).

57. Li Zhishan, "Zenyang caikeyi dezhao meiman de lian'ai"[How to get an ideal love] Niixing 12 (Aug. 15, 1923).

58. Li Zhishan, "Wode hunyin guannian de bianqian" [Changes of my view on marriage] Xinghuo (March 20-21, 1923).

59. Ibid. 60. YuanYing, "Yuandanri de yige hunli"[A wedding on the New Year's Day] Funiipinglun 23

(January 4, 1922). 61. "Niixing fanpan de jingshen"[The rebellious spirit of women] Funii pinglun 49 (July 12,

1922): I. 62. Jiang Qing, "Shi Zhimian, Shen Yunqiujiehun tan" [A discussion on the marriage between

Shi Zhimian and Shen Yunqiu] Funii pinglun 52 (August 2, 1922). 63. Lu Qiuxin, "Hunyin ziyou he demokelixi"[Consensual marriage and democracy] Xinfunii

2,6. 64. Lu Qiuxin, "Hunyin wenti de sange shiqi"[The three stages of marriage] Xinfunii 2, 2: 1-7. 65. Roxane Heater Witke, "Transformation of Attitudes towards Women," 98. 66. Li Zhishan, "Jiehunhuo niizi chenghu de shanghe" [A discussion on women's names after

marriage] Funii pinglun 28 (February 15, 1922). 67. Yunxiang, "Zhuanglian wenti"[The issue of dowry] Funiipinglun (Wuxi) 2, 2. (October 1,

1920) (Funii wenti taolunhui bian). 68. Gansu wenshi ziliao vol. 17[Literary and historical sources in Gansu]: 117-118. 69. Xu Yanzhi, "Beijing Daxue nannii gongxiao ji" [A review of coeducation at Peking Uni-

versity] Wusi shiqifunfi wenti wenxuan [An anthology on women's issues during the May Fourth era] (Beijing: Zhongguo funii chubanshe, 1990), 266.

70. Ibid, 262, 267. 71. Ibid. 264-266. 72. Ibid, 268-270. 73. Ibid, 270. 74. Ibid, 271. 75. Ibid, 271-273. 76. Ibid, 273. 77. Ibid, 273. 78. Huang Xuzhi, "Guanyu Niiquan Qingyuantuan de huiyi" [Remembering Women's Rights

Petition Group] Deng Yingchao yu Tianjin zaoqifunii yundong [Deng Yingchao and early women's movements in Tianjin] (Beijing: Zhongguo funii chubanshe, 1987), 575-576.

79. Ma Gengcun, Jindai niizi liuxueshi [A history of Chinese women who studied abroad] (Beijing: Zhongguo heping chubanshe, 1995), 145-152.

80. Roxane Heater Witke, "Transformation of Attitudes Towards Women," 237-238. 81. Susan Mann, Precious Records, 15. 82. Ann Waltner, "The Moral Status of the Child in Late Imperial China: Childhood in Ritual

and in Law." Social Research 53, no. 4 (1986): 686. 83. "Zai lun nannii shejiao wenti"[ More on public relation between men and women] Funii

pinglun 9 (September 28, 1921): 1. 84. "Shejiao gongkai de zhang'ai"[Obstacles to public relation between sexes] Funii pinglun

14 (October 26, 1921): 1.


85. "Nannii shejiao yu lian'ai"[ Public relation between sexes and love] Funii pinglun 9 (Sep- tember 28, 1921): 2.

86. "Yijuewu nfizi duiyu nannii sbejiao de zeren" [On the responsibility of awakened women to public relation between men and women] Funiipinglun 19 (December 2, 1921): 2.

87. "Niizi shengji jiaoyu de jianyi" [Some advice on women's livelihood] Xinfunii 2, 1: 3-8. 88. Tianya guike-Chen Xuezhao [The returned guest from faraway--Chen Xuezhao] (Henan

remin Chubanshe, 2000), 27-29. 89. "Shejiao yu lian'ai" [Public relation between sexes and autonomous love] Funfi pinglun

51: 1. 90. Susan Glosser, Chinese Visions of Family and State; "'The Truths I Have Learned:' Na-

tionalism, Family Reform, and Male Identity in China's New Culture Movement 1915-1923,' Chi- nese Femininities, Chinese Maseulinities, ed. Susan Brownell and Jeffery N. Wasserstrom (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2002): 120-144.

91. "Xianzai Zhongguo jiazhang"[Contemporary Chinese family elders] Xinfunii 4, 6:1 92. "Niizi jiefang yu gaizao de shanghe"[Discussions on women's emancipation and reform]

Shaonian Zhongguo 2, 2 (May 26, 1920). 93. "Yijushoude ganxiang"[Thoughts on a volunteer's answer to a question] Niixing 2 (May 5,

1923). 94. "Xiandai de nfizi yi zenyangde jiefang wei manyi"[What kind of emancipation should

modern women be satisfied with] Funii ribao [Women's daily] (March I8, 1924). 95. Roxane Heater Witke, "Transformation of Attitudes Towards Women," 287. 96. "Niizi jiefang yu gaizao de shanghe"[Discussion on women's emancipation and reform]

Shaonian Zhongguo 2, 2 (May 26, 1920). 97. "Meiguo de furen"[Women in the USA]New Youth 5, 3 (September 15, 1918): 241-252. 98. Gail Hershatter, Dangerous Pleasures: Prostitution and Modernity in Twentieth-Century

Shanghi (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 251-252. 99. "Feichang yundong he zibenzhidu"[Abolishing prostitution and the capitalist system] Mingri

[Tomorrow] (January 5, 1923) (A supplement of the progressive paper Xin minyibao). 100. "Feichang yundong de xianjue wenti"[The preconditions on abolishing prostitution] Niixing

7 (June 23, 1923). 101. "Duiyu feichang yundong shuo jiju hua"[A few words on abolishing prostitution] Funii

pinglun 26 (January 1, 1922). 102. "N(izi j inri de diwei"[Women's status today] Funii pinglun 27 (January 8, 1922). 103. "You shi yifeng tan ni.izi diwei de xin"[Another letter on women's status] Funii pingIun

27 (January 8, 1922). 104. "Yingxilou xiantan" [Chats from Yingxilou] Shanghai Niijie Lianhehui xunkan 2, (Octo-

ber 1, 1919): 28. 105. "Xuesheng he zuifan" [Students and criminals] Xinfunii 3, 4 (1920): 37. 106. "Nannii tongxiao" [On Coeducation] Xinfunii 2, 1(1920): 41. 107. Christina Kelly Gilmartin, Engendering the Chinese Revolution, 57-59. 108. "Wode funii jiefang zhi jihua tong wo geren jinxing zhi fangfa"[My plan for women's

emancipation and my own method to carry it out] Shaonian zhongguo 1, 4 [Young China] (October 1919).

t09. ZhuYouxian, Zhongguojindaixuezhishiliaovol. 3-b [Historical sources on modern Chi- nese educational system] (Huadong shifan daxue chubanshe, 1992), 85.

110. Deng Chunlan, "Wo qingqiu Beida kaifang n(ijin de jingguo" [My experience in asking Peking University to lift its ban on women] (manuscript), 196t.

111. "Puohuai yu jianshe shiqide niixuesheng"[Women students in the age of destruction and construction] Chenbao (September 4, 1919).

Yuxin Ma 87

112. "Niixingde luedian" [The defects of women] Funiipinglun 8 (September 21, 1921):1. 113. "Zhuhua he jinzhuo"[Pearl flower and gold bracelet] Xin funii 3, 4 (1920): 37. 114. "Xuesheng he zuifan"[Students and prisoners] 3fin funfi 3, 4 (I 920) : 37. 115. "Shengjing he tuhua"[Bible and local dialect] Xinfunii 3, 4 (I 920) 116. "Xi Shangzhen niishi de ziyi"[Ms. Xi Shangzi's suicide] Funiipinglun 58 (September 13,

1922). 117. "Zhang Jingyi nfishi de zusba"[The suicide of Ms. Zhang Jingyi] Funiipinglun 62 (Octo-

ber 12, 1922). 118. "Sizai shehui mianqian de yige ntizi" [A woman who died before the society] Xinfunii 4,

4 (1920): 3. 119. "Funii jiezhibui shulue"[The brief of Christian Women's Temperament Association]

Qingnian niibao 2, 3 [The Youth Women's Christian Association of China] 120. "Du Minguo ribao Han niishi zhuankan shu hou" [After reading the special issue on Ms.

Hart in Minguo ribao] Niiduo bao [The Women's Messenger] (March, 1923).

women journalists in the chinese enlightenment, 1915–1923

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