Troubling the "New Woman:”
Femininity and Feminism in The Ladies' Journal (Funü zazhi)
《婦女雜誌》, 1915-1931
Thesis
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts
in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University
By
Joshua Adam Hubbard, M.A.
Graduate Program in East Asian Studies
The Ohio State University
2012
Thesis Committee:
Ying Zhang, Advisor
Martin Joseph Ponce
Christopher A. Reed
Copyright by
Joshua Adam Hubbard
2012
Abstract
During the early 1920s, New Culture intellectuals frequently deployed the "new
woman" trope as the personification of an idealized modernity, constituted in relation to
its Confucian, traditional, other. Though this discourse is often cited in historical
scholarship, the origins of the Chinese "new woman" preceded the advent of the New
Culture Movement, and her sociocultural meanings often exceeded descriptions espoused
by affiliated male intellectuals. Emerging from the women's education movement of the
late Qing period (1644-1912), the "new woman" remained a highly contested
representation of conflicting visions of Chinese modernity throughout the early twentieth
century.
This work demonstrates the instability and adaptability of the "new woman" trope
through a case study of the most widely circulated women's periodical in Republican
China, The Ladies’ Journal (Funü zazhi). An examination of The Ladies' Journal
suggests that prevalent discourses of the "new woman," much like the goals of the
broader women's movement, shifted with China's sociopolitical landscape through the
periods of the early Republic (1915-1918), the New Culture Era (1919-1925), and the
early Guomindang (Naitonalist Party) state (1926-1931). This work troubles definitions
of "feminism" rooted in the politics of the recent West. Though many men and women in
Republican China proposed methods of improving gender relations, these figures rarely
embodied the ideals of Western-oriented feminists of the late twentieth century. Rather
than deem these historical figures as less than feminist based on present notions, this
work notes the complexities and particularities of "feminism (funü zhuyi)" in Republican
China.
ii
Acknowledgements
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Professor Ying Zhang, whose
guidance has played an immeasurable role in shaping my academic development. I also
would like to thank my thesis committee members, Professor Martin Joseph Ponce and
Professor Christopher A. Reed, for their insightful comments and suggestions.
iii
Vita
May 2006..........................................................B.A. History, Lee University
July 2006 to August 2007.................................Cooperative Teacher, SIAS International
University
September 2007 to May 2008...........................Academic Team Member, EF: English
First - Shanghai
May 2010..........................................................M.A. History, Marshall University
June 2011 to August 2011.................................International Chinese Language Program
(ICLP), National Taiwan University
June 2011 to present..........................................FLAS Fellow, The Ohio State University
Fields of Study
Major Field: East Asian Studies
iv
Table of Contents
Abstract...............................................................................................................................ii
Acknowledgements............................................................................................................iii
Vita.....................................................................................................................................iv
List of Images.....................................................................................................................vi
Introduction: The "New Woman" and the Women's Press in China...................................1
Chapter 1: The "New Woman" of the Early Republic, 1915 - 1918.................................16
Chapter 2: The "New Woman" of the New Culture Era, 1919 - 1925..............................33
Chapter 3: The "New Woman" of the Guomindang State, 1926 - 1931...........................53
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................71
Bibliography......................................................................................................................74
v
List of Images
Image 1.1: November 1915 Front Cover...........................................................................28
Image 1.2: July 1915 Front Cover.....................................................................................28
Image 1.3: Children's Exercises.........................................................................................31
Image 2.1: Pepsodent Advertisement................................................................................40
Image 2.2: "The English Student" Advertisement.............................................................40
Image 2.3: Conception.......................................................................................................45
Image 2.4: Pregnancy........................................................................................................45
vi
Introduction:
The "New Woman" and the Women's Press in China
In 1918, Hu Shi 胡適 (1891-1962) hailed the arrival of the "new woman" in
China. While addressing students and faculty at the Beijing Women's Normal School
(Beijing shifan daxue 北京師範大學), Hu depicted an image of modern femininity that
stood in opposition to traditional norms. According to Hu, the term "new woman (xin
funü 新婦女)" referred to one who
wears unusual clothing and lets down her hair...whose views are radical, whose
behavior tends to be extreme. She does not believe in religion and does not
conform to traditional conventions. She is high-minded and maintains high moral
standards 衣飾古怪，披着頭髮...言論很激烈，行為往往趨於極端，不信宗
教，不依禮法，却又思想極高，道德極高.1
In Hu's opinion, only stylish women who resisted tradition could be classified as "new.”
For the next several years, Hu and other intellectuals associated with the New Culture
Movement (1915-1925) promoted such images of modern femininity in the Chinese
popular press.2 As part of their larger project of cultural transformation, these men
frequently deployed this "new woman" trope as the personification of an idealized
1
Hu Shi 胡適, Wencun 文存, Vol. 1 (Taipei: Yuandong tushu gongsi yinxing 遠東圖書公司印行,
1953), 662; translation with slight modification from Hu Ying, Tales of Translation: Composing the New
Woman in China, 1899-1918 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000), 208 n. 11.
2
These approximate dates for the New Culture Movement range from the founding of the
affiliated periodical New Youth (Xin qingnian 新青年) in 1915 to the May Thirtieth Incident of 1925. See
Vera Schwarcz, The Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May Fourth Movement of
1919 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986), 4-11.
1
modernity, constituted in relation to a Confucian, traditional, other.3
In reality, the origins of the Chinese "new woman" preceded the advent of the
New Culture Movement, and her cultural meanings often exceeded descriptions espoused
by affiliated male intellectuals. Emerging from the women's education movement of the
late Qing period (1644-1912), the "new woman" bore various signifiers and exemplified
differing ideals throughout the early twentieth century. Influenced by dramatic shifts in
social and political conditions, Chinese men and women depicted modern femininity in
ways that reflected the specific anxieties of their time. This work seeks to complicate
scholarly interpretations of the "new woman" in Republican China through a case study
of the most widely read women's periodical, The Ladies' Journal (Funü zazhi 婦女雜誌).
This contextualized analysis of the journal's content through the periods of the early
Republic (1915-1918), the New Culture Era (1919-1925), and the early Guomindang
(Nationalist Party) state (1926-1931) will illustrate the significant impact of sociopolitical
conditions in shaping shifting conceptions of the "new woman" and the broader women's
movement during the Republican period (1911-1949).4
The Women's Press and The Ladies’ Journal
In the late Qing dynasty, the campaign to expand women’s education and the
ensuing debate fostered a demand for publications addressing women’s issues. To
publicize their efforts to establish schools for girls in China, the Women’s Study Society
3
Kristine Harris, "The New Woman Incident," Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity,
Nationhood, Gender, Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu, ed. (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997), 287.
4
The English titles given for Chinese periodicals mentioned throughout this work are not
necessarily direct translations of their Chinese titles, but are instead the English titles adopted by the
periodicals themselves during their period of publication. For example, some historians have referred to 婦
女雜誌 as Women’s Journal, however the journal itself bore the English title, The Ladies’ Journal.
2
(Nüxue hui 女學會) published Chinese Girls’ Progress (Nüxue bao 女學報) in 1898.
Though short-lived, Chinese Girls’ Progress became the first of several women’s
periodicals published in Shanghai during the late Qing and early Republican periods. In
addition to the increasing popularity of “the woman question (funü wenti 婦女問題)” as a
topic of debate, growing numbers of literate women also fueled the demand for women’s
periodicals. Between 1898 and 1915, presses in Shanghai alone published no fewer than
eight different women’s periodicals.5
Like Chinese Girls’ Progress, many of the women’s journals published in
Shanghai at the turn of the twentieth century were private, short-lived ventures organized
by reform-minded intellectuals. Most, such as Natural Foot Society News (Tianzuhui bao
天足會報) and Women’s News (Nü bao 女報), maintained monthly publications for
approximately one year, while others, including Chinese Women’s News (Zhongguo
nübao 中國女報), published only a few issues. The Women’s World (Nüzi shijie 女子世
界), founded in 1904, enjoyed relative success for three years before ending publication
in 1907. Although these publications often ended abruptly due to shifting political and
socioeconomic conditions, they provided a public forum for debating and publicizing
women’s issues from the late 1890s through the early 1930s.6
The Ladies’ Journal differed from other women’s periodicals published in China
during the early twentieth century in a number of ways. First, the largest and most
influential publisher in China at the time, the Commercial Press in Shanghai, published
5
Paul Bailey, Gender and Education in China: Gender Discourses and Women's Schooling in the
Early Twentieth Century (New York: Routledge, 2007), 19; Ma Yuxin, Women Journalists and Feminism
in China, 1898-1937 (Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2010), 58.
6
Ma, Women Journalists and Feminism in China, 58.
3
The Ladies' Journal. Unlike other presses with limited distribution and resources, the
Commercial Press sold the periodical in twenty-eight Chinese cities in addition to Hong
Kong, Macao, and Singapore. Devoid of a clearly defined political agenda, the
Commercial Press targeted the mainstream to maximize profits, aiming to sell the
magazine to a large readership and attract additional revenue from advertisers.7
In addition to its wide distribution, The Ladies’ Journal was unique in its
longevity. Although other periodicals failed due to financial woes and political
censorship, The Ladies’ Journal shifted content and personnel to adapt to volatile
conditions. Under the journal’s first editor, a man named Wang Yunzhang 王蘊章 (18841942), contributors wrote articles in classical Chinese. Despite an articulated commitment
to women’s education, the earliest issues of the journal maintained that a woman’s
rightful place remained in the home, fulfilling her duty to the nation through the support
of her husband and the rearing of children. The emphasis on domesticity continued under
Hu Binxia 胡彬夏 (1888-1931), a foreign-educated woman who served as the journal’s
second editor from 1916 to 1919.8
Following the May Fourth Incident of 1919, the content of The Ladies’ Journal
grew increasingly iconoclastic and progressive. Under the editorship of the male activist
Zhang Xichen 章錫琛 (1889-1969), translations of essays by Western feminists and
sexologists frequented the pages of The Ladies’ Journal. The journal often solicited
7
Wang Zheng, Women in the Chinese Englightenment: Oral and Textual Histories (Berkeley and
Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999), 67-116; Jacqueline Nivard, “Women and the Women’s
Press: The Case of The Ladies’ Journal (Funü zazhi), 1915-31,” Republican China 10, no. 1b (1984): 3755.
8
Nivard, "Women and the Women’s Press," 37-55; Wang, Women in the Chinese Enlightenment,
67-76.
4
contributions from writers closely associated with the New Culture Movement, including
Shen Yanbing 沈雁冰 [aka Mao Dun 矛盾 (1896-1981)], who wrote a regular column for
the journal during this period. In 1925, under the leadership of Zhang Xichen, the journal
went so far as to devote an entire issue to a discussion of sex. However, as the
Guomindang gained greater military and political power in the later 1920s, the
Commercial Press feared that the journal’s content had perhaps become too controversial.
After enduring harsh criticism from influential political and intellectual figures, the
Commercial Press removed Zhang Xichen from his position as editor in 1925.9
In the later 1920s and early 1930s, editor Du Yaquan 杜亞泉 (1873-1933)
featured discussions of controversial topics with much less frequency. In its final years of
publication, the journal exhibited the impact of the growing influence of the Guomindang
on gender discourse in the early Nanjing Decade (1927-1937). Following a series of laws
that strengthened Guomindang influence on publication, the journal articulated support
for the policy aims of the central government in Nanjing. Amid the threat of censorship
and the resurgence of nationalism, the journal promoted loyal citizenship and the
allegedly Chinese virtues of motherhood and domesticity.10
Due to its status as the longest-lived and most widely read Chinese women's
periodical, The Ladies' Journal serves as an important source for interpreting discourses
of gender in the Republican period. Perhaps no other set of textual sources addressing
these issues engaged as many writers and readers as did The Ladies' Journal. At its peak
9
Wang, Women in the Chinese Enlightenment, 79-111; Ma Yuxin, “Male Feminism and Women’s
Subjectivities: Zhang Xichen, Chen Xuezhao, and The New Woman,” Twentieth-Century China 29, no. 1
(November 2003), 6-7.
10
Nivard, "Women and the Women's Press," 40-47; Lee-hsia Hsu Ting, Government Control of
the Press in Modern China, 1900-1949 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), 79-101.
5
in the mid-1920s, the journal's circulation reached ten thousand, far more than other
Chinese women's periodicals which maintained circulations of a few hundred to a few
thousand. Some have argued that the actual readership of Chinese periodicals during this
period was in reality much higher than recorded circulation figures, given that copies
were often shared or resold. Roswell Britton has argued that in early twentieth-century
China, one copy of a periodical likely reached between ten and twenty readers.11 Thus,
the journal gives significant insight into widely circulated opinions regarding acceptable
femininity in early twentieth-century China. Though the current study directly engages a
small percentage of the total number of articles printed in the nearly two hundred issues
of The Ladies' Journal, the selection of articles is intended to represent evident trends.
The Chinese "New Woman" and the Women's Press in Historical Scholarship
Much of the secondary literature concerning femininity throughout the
Republican period has taken for granted New Culture portrayals of the “new woman” and
the influence of this intellectual/social movement on the women's press. Such scholarship
has accepted an iconoclastic, Western-oriented vision of Chinese modernity espoused by
certain groups of male intellectuals in the late 1910s and early 1920s. As the feminine
personification of this ideal, the "new woman" purportedly embraced Western languages,
fashion, and education while resisting Confucian norms of domesticity and motherhood.
In addition to these characteristics, the alleged sexual liberation of the "new woman"
constituted an integral component of her subversion of tradition.
Such portrayals of the "new woman" exist in the scholarship of Rey Chow, Sarah
11
Nivard, "Women and the Women's Press," 37-38; see also Roswell Britton, The Chinese
Periodical Press, 1802-1912 (Taipei: Ch'eng wen, 1966).
6
Stevens, and Ma Yuxin. In Women and Chinese Modernity, Rey Chow has reinforced the
association of the "new woman" with iconoclasm. This author has perceived close
associations between the "renunciation of details that signify old China" and the figure of
the "new woman."12 In "Figuring Modernity," Sarah Stevens has contrasted the image of
the "new woman" with that of the "modern girl," which rose to prominence in the later
1930s. According to Stevens, markers of the "new woman" included revolutionary
sentiment and a resistance to arranged marriage. Stevens has also asserted that the "new
woman" embodied a linear progression toward a modernized China. This understanding
of the "new woman" bears resemblance to that of Ma Yuxin. Ma’s work has drawn
primarily from texts printed in The New Woman (Xin nüxing 新女性), a women’s
periodical founded by the progressive editor Zhang Xichen following his departure from
The Ladies’ Journal in 1925. While criticizing the image as the projection of male
anxieties, Ma Yuxin has maintained a monolithic picture of the "new woman" that
embodied the values of the New Culture and May Fourth Movements in the late 1910s
and early 1920s.13
Though analyzing discussions of modern femininity in periods other than the New
Culture Era, the work of Hu Ying and Louise Edwards has continued to reinforce such
images of the Chinese "new woman." In "Policing the Modern Woman in Republican
China," Edwards has traced the development of the debate surrounding modern
femininity into the 1930s. According to Edwards, these debates reveal much about the
12
Rey Chow, Women and Chinese Modernity (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1991), 106.
13
Sarah E. Stevens, “Figuring Modernity: The New Woman and the Modern Girl in Republican
China,” NWSA Journal 15, no. 3 (Autumn 2003): 82-103; Ma, “Male Feminism and Women’s
Subjectivities," 6-7;
7
anxieties of male intellectuals amid unstable social and political conditions. However,
Edwards’ work has also reinforced the New Culture origins of the "new woman" trope
without considering its deployment in the 1910s by persons not affiliated with this
movement. In contrast, Hu Ying's Tales of Translation has placed the origins of the "new
woman" in the late Qing period. According to Hu Ying, the notion of an idealized
modern woman emerged from the circulation of translated Western literature. Although
Hu’s work rightly connected later discussions of the “new woman” with the earlier
debate over women's education, Tales of Translation emphasized continuity over change
and neglected more conservative views of modern femininity that also circulated in China
throughout the twentieth century.14
Other scholars have engaged related sources from a feminist perspective that has
seen women's periodicals as tools to advance the rights and status of women in
Republican China. Such scholars include Yan Haiping, Amy Dooling, and Wang Zheng.
The works of these scholars have focused on the earlier 1920s, when the ideology of the
New Culture Movement gained prevalence in the popular press. Wang Zheng has given
special attention to The Ladies’ Journal with an emphasis on the years of Zhang Xichen’s
editorship (1920-1925). During these years, Wang has argued, the journal served as a
"feminist fortress," in contrast to earlier and later years when the journal remained
"conservative territory."15 With a focus on this brief period, these studies of the women's
press have highlighted New Culture narratives in Republican-era gender discourse. The
14
Louise Edwards, “Policing the Modern Woman in Republican China,” Modern China 26, no. 2
(April 2000): 115-147; Hu, Tales of Translation, 1-18.
15
Yan Haiping, Chinese Women Writers and the Feminist Imagination, 1905-1948 (New York:
Routledge, 2006); Amy Dooling, Women’s Literary Feminism in Twentieth-Century China (New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2005); Wang, Women in the Chinese Enlightenment, 67-118.
8
framing of these analyses also suggests the influence of late twentieth-century Western
feminism on these interpretations of the women's movement in early twentieth-century
China.
In 1984, Jacqueline Nivard published the only study to examine the complete
lifespan of The Ladies’ Journal. Though her article lacked adequate contextualization, it
provided a generalized biography of the journal from 1915 until 1931. Nivard’s work
minimized the journal’s role as an instrument of feminism, arguing instead that many of
the men who edited and contributed to The Ladies’ Journal did so solely for the sake of
advancing their careers as writers with little genuine interest in women’s issues. Although
many scholars have challenged this assertion, the work of Nivard did demonstrate that the
nature of the journal’s content shifted over time.16
Troubling the "New Woman"
Building upon this scholarship, this work analyzes the evolution of the debate
surrounding modern femininity across the publication period of The Ladies’ Journal.
This examination of the journal’s content from its inception to its close will demonstrate
historical continuity and change in portrayals of the "new woman" with a sensitivity to
social, economic, and political context. This work aims primarily to complicate prevalent
interpretations of the "new woman" ideal in historical scholarship, arguing that
perceptions of modern femininity rarely reflected linear, progressive modernity. Instead,
an examination of The Ladies' Journal suggests that such idealized notions shifted with
China's sociopolitical landscape. Though virtues and characteristics ascribed to the "new
woman" varied throughout the sixteen years of The Ladies' Journal, monogamous
16
Nivard, "Women and the Women's Press," 37-55.
9
heterosexuality steadily grew into a critical component of the modern, feminine ideal
during this period.
Secondly, this work seeks to trouble definitions of "feminism" rooted in the politics
of the recent West. Though many male and female individuals in Republican China
proposed methods of improving gender relations, these figures seldom agreed and rarely
embodied the ideals of many Western feminists of the late twentieth century. Rather than
pronounce judgment upon these historical figures based on present notions, this work
notes the complex nature of "feminism (funü zhuyi 婦女主義，funü yundong 婦女運動)"
in Republican China.
To demonstrate historical continuity and change, this study adheres to a
chronological framework. Each of the subsequent chapters analyzes a distinct period in
the history of The Ladies' Journal. Notable events in Chinese social and political history
frame each chapter, as this work maintains that these events played a critical role in
shaping shifts in the journal's content from 1915 to 1931.
Chapter One analyzes the emerging "new woman" debate as reflected in The
Ladies’ Journal during the early years of the Chinese Republic from 1915 to 1918.
Shaped by the business interests of the Commercial Press and the demands of an insecure
state, the journal's content articulated seemingly contradictory positions on social and
political issues. Under the editorship of Wang Yunzhang and Hu Binxia, the journal
vigorously promoted women's education, while asserting motherhood and household
management as women's primary social roles. This chapter argues that during the early
years of the Republic, the journal promoted an image of the "new woman" as a devoted
mother with specialized knowledge useful for successfully managing household affairs.
10
The following chapter, Chapter Two, focuses on the years following the May
Fourth Incident, from 1919 to 1925. During this period, The Ladies’ Journal embraced
the agenda of the New Culture Movement. Shaped by progressive contributors such as
Zhang Xichen, Shen Yanbing, and Zhou Jianren 周建人 (1888-1984), the content of the
journal in the early 1920s attacked Confucian tradition and promoted individualistic
notions of "free love" and "new sexual morality." At the same time, the journal's content
reflects an unprecedented yet selective embrace of Western scholarship, particularly that
in the fields of biology and sexology. In this way, The Ladies' Journal portrayed the New
Culture "new woman" as cosmopolitan, individualistic, and scientifically knowledgeable.
The third chapter examines the final years of The Ladies’ Journal, from 1926 to
1931. These years coincide with the Northern Expedition (1926-1928) and the early years
of the Nanjing Decade. This chapter argues that in the journal’s final years of
publication, the state played an increasingly critical role in shaping discussions of
femininity. The modern woman of the Guomindang state, according to The Ladies'
Journal, pursued education as part of her civic duty. Her desire to marry, bear children,
and care for her family further demonstrated her concern for the welfare of the state.
Significance
Several factors make this examination of the aforementioned historical change
and continuity significant for the study of Republican China. First, the sources presented
from The Ladies' Journal demonstrate the complexities of the "new woman" trope, often
11
oversimplified in the secondary literature.17 In light of this work, references to a
monolithic "new woman" in China become problematic. Amid varying social and
political conditions, writers in early twentieth-century China defined the "new woman" in
starkly different ways. At times she embodied traditional, allegedly Chinese virtues of
loyalty, motherhood, and spousal fidelity. At other times she demonstrated an affinity for
foreign languages and products and embraced subversive practices such as divorce.
Though the iconoclastic writings of New Culture intellectuals tend to dominate portrayals
of the Chinese "new woman" in the secondary literature, The Ladies' Journal suggests
that figures not associated with this movement also deployed the notion of a modern
woman to illustrate their own values and virtues.
Second, this study questions the tendency of some scholars to define the women's
movement of early twentieth-century China (implicitly or explicitly) in terms of the
contemporary West.18 As The Ladies' Journal demonstrates, individuals advocating a
movement toward more equitable gender relations in Republican China rarely, if ever,
fully embraced the ideals of "feminism" as often defined in the West. Thus, parallels
between New Culture iconoclasm and Western liberal feminism seem less than accurate.
To characterize early and later contributors to The Ladies' Journal as less than "feminist"
becomes problematic. As this study shows, the specific nature and goals of movements
seeking to address the concerns of women remain dependent upon temporal and cultural
context.
17
Such portrayals of the "new woman" in historical scholarship can be found in the works of
scholars such as Sarah Stevens, Hu Ying, and Louise Edwards. See Sarah Stevens, "Figuring Modernity;"
Hu Ying, Tales of Translation; Louise Edwards, "Policing the Modern Woman in Republican China."
18
See Ma Yuxin, Women Journalists and Feminism in China; see also Wang Zheng, Women in
the Chinese Enlightenment.
12
Third, this work compels scholars to reconsider the impact of New Culture
intellectuals on public opinion.19 For a brief, roughly six-year period, the ideology of this
social and intellectual movement dominated the content of The Ladies' Journal. However,
in both earlier and later periods, the values and concerns promoted by the journal stood in
opposition to the articulated goals of this movement. Though this study focuses on the
issues of femininity and feminism, there are likely other subjects of historical inquiry in
which historians have emphasized the writings of these intellectuals to the
marginalization of more conservative opinions.
Finally, this study contributes to a growing body of scholarship that challenges
narratives of progressive, linear modernity in Republican China.20 As this study of The
Ladies' Journal has demonstrated, the very definition of "modern" shifted dramatically
from the 1910s to the 1930s. Contributors to the journal espoused differing visions of
Chinese modernity, exemplified through conflicting depictions of the "new woman."
Despite the circulation of progressive arguments attacking tradition in the early 1920s,
conservative views returned to prominence in the later 1920s and early 1930s. Thus, this
study demonstrates that the passing of time does not necessarily coincide with movement
toward a shared, teleological vision of modernity.
In addition to these implications for the historiography of Republican China, this
study also contributes to interdisciplinary studies of the early twentieth-century "new
19
See Chow Tse-tsung, The May 4th Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960); see also Vera Schwarcz, The Chinese Enlightenment.
20
Such linear, teleological narratives of progressive modernity in Chinese history are apparent in
the works of scholars such as Li Chien-nung, Lucien Bianco, and Vera Schwarcz, to name a few. See Li
Chien-nung, The Political History of China, 1840-1928, Ssu-yu Teng and Jeremy Ingalls, trans. and eds.
(Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1956); Lucien Bianco, Origins of the Chinese Revolution,
1915-1949 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1971); Vera Schwarcz, The Chinese Enlightenment.
13
woman" in transnational contexts. Along with emerging notions of hygiene, essential
gender, and the biological functions of sex, Chinese intellectuals borrowed the very
concept of the "new woman" from the West. After completing her studies at Cornell
University in New York, Hu Binxia described a number of her American classmates and
teachers for the readers of The Ladies' Journal in the 1910s to illustrate the characteristics
of "new women." New Culture contributors of the 1920s also directed the attention of
readers to Western models of modern femininity through translated texts. As Wang
Zheng has noted, the journal's emphasis on motherhood as civic duty during the early
Nanjing Decade resembled notions of "republican motherhood" that circulated in the
United States during the nineteenth century.21 However, as this study shows, contributors
to The Ladies' Journal selectively adopted and adapted these Western models to fit the
particularities of the Chinese context. Thus, this study suggests the continued significance
of national social and political conditions in shaping the localized manifestations of
transnational discourses. Furthermore, the fact that imported scientific and scientistic
arguments were often deployed to shore up norms of gender hierarchy and heterosexual
monogamy challenges preconceived notions of a progressive, "modern" West constituted
in contrast to the backward, "traditional" East.22
As Tani Barlow has demonstrated, the category of "woman" itself remained in flux
throughout Republican China. According to Barlow, the widely used terms funü 婦女 and
nüzi 女子 identified females based on their subject positions as mothers, wives, and
21
Wang, Women in the Chinese Enlightenment, 69-70.
22
See Susan L. Glosser, Chinese Visions of Family and State, 1915-1953 (Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 2003), 11-12; see also Martin Joseph Ponce, Beyond the Nation:
Diasporic Filipino Literature and Queer Reading (New York: New York University Press, 2012), 27.
14
daughters. In the 1920s, Barlow has argued, these terms gave way to the prevalent usage
of nüxing 女性, a term that reflected a growing sense of the biological roots of gender.
This fluctuation of terms, all often translated into English as "woman," shaped shifting
discourses of the "new woman," who also bore multiple signifiers (xin funü 新婦女, xin
nüzi 新女子, xin nüxing 新女性, xiandai funü 現代婦女, etc.). However, the case of The
Ladies' Journal challenges Barlow's chronological framework for the emergence of
nüxing, and complicates the assertion that it emerged in conjunction with a biologically
based, generalized "category of woman." As this study demonstrates, Chinese
intellectuals often used the terms funü and nüzi to refer to an essentialized "woman"
throughout the 1920s. Despite these apparent dissonances between empirical sources and
theoretical formulations, The Ladies' Journal confirms Barlow's assessment regarding the
complexities and instabilities of "woman" and "feminism" throughout early twentiethcentury China.23 In similar fashion, the "new woman" remained a highly contested
representation of Chinese modernity throughout the Republican period.
23
Tani E. Barlow, "Theorizing Woman: Funü, Guojia, Jiating (Chinese Women, Chinese State,
Chinese Family)," Feminism and History, Joan Wallach Scott, ed. (New York: Oxford University Press,
1996), 48-77; see also Tani E. Barlow, The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism (Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 2004), 1-3.
15
Chapter 1:
The "New Woman" of the Early Republic, 1915-1918
When The Ladies' Journal began publication in 1915, China remained in the
wake of revolution and the destruction of the millennia-old system of imperial
government. Nationalist anxieties stemming from the impending collapse of the Qing
dynasty had fostered debates concerning the "woman question”at the turn of the
twentieth century, which persisted in the early years of the fragile Republic. In the
popular press, economic interests of capitalists and the paranoia of a weak state shaped
the nature of these continued debates regarding the education, social roles, and labor of
Chinese women. In the case of The Ladies' Journal, the Commercial Press sought to
outsell competing presses while also evading the Beiyang government's censorship.24
These political and economic factors led the journal to present diverse viewpoints
from 1915 to 1918. Contemporary scholars have tended to characterize the periodical as
generally progressive based largely on its content from the early to mid-1920s. Some
historians, based on comparisons with the later New Culture period, have interpreted the
journal as a conservative publication largely opposed to women's emancipation prior to
24
Paul Bailey, Gender and Education in China Gender Discourses and Women's Schooling in the
Early Twentieth Century (New York: Routledge, 2007), 18-27; Christopher A. Reed, Gutenberg in
Shanghai: Chinese Print Capitalism, 1876-1937 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2004),
203-207; Lee-hsia Hsu Ting, Government Control of the Press in Modern China, 1900-1949 (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), 49-78.
16
1919. However, early contributions to The Ladies' Journal reflect the complexities of
gender discourse in China prior to the May Fourth Incident of 1919. As Kirk Denton has
noted, before the impassioned iconoclasm of New Culture writers came to prominence,
Chinese "modernity" did not necessarily dictate a totalistic attack on "tradition."25
Despite an unwavering support of women's education, The Ladies' Journal emphasized
the domestic sphere as the purview of women. While promoting emerging notions of
hygiene and health, the journal asserted the necessity of Confucian virtue and
demonstrated allegiance to the Beiyang government. Contributors to The Ladies' Journal
discussed the particularities of twentieth-century feminine subjectivity before the spread
of New Culture ideals. Foreshadowing later usage of xin funü 新婦女 and xin nüxing 新
女性 , xin nüzi 新女子 appeared as the personification of the modern, feminine ideal in
the journal's early years of publication.26 Shaped by political and economic factors, The
Ladies' Journal presented an image of the "new woman" from 1915 to 1919 that
incorporated both progressive notions of education and traditional virtues of motherhood.
Business and Politics
25
Wang Zheng, Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: Oral and Textual Histories (Berkeley and
Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999), 77; Jacqueline Nivard, “Women and the Women’s
Press: The Case of The Ladies’ Journal (Funü zazhi), 1915-31,” Republican China 10, no. 1b (1984): 3755; Kirk Denton, Modern Chinese Literary Thought: Writings on Literature, 1893-1945 (Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 1996), 8-10.
26
Both of these Chinese terms can be translated into English as "new woman." Tani Barlow has
argued that in some contexts nüzi may refer to an unwed daughter, and in other contexts may be used as a
more generic term resembling the English "woman." In contrast, funü implies particular subject positions,
such as wife and mother. See Barlow, "Theorizing Woman: Funü, Guojia, Jiating (Chinese Women,
Chinese State, Chinese Family)," Feminism and History, Joan Wallach Scott, ed. (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1996), 48-78.
17
Demonstrating the impact of broader sociopolitical conditions in shaping gender
discourse, The Ladies' Journal from 1915 to 1918 reflected the significant impact of the
economic interests of the Commercial Press and government censorship. Beyond
intellectual trends and popular attitudes, these factors likely played a critical role in
shaping the journal's content during this period. Sources suggest that the Commercial
Press carefully selected content in the 1910s that evaded the impediments posed by an
interventionist state while assisting the press in its goal to outsell Zhonghua Books, its
primary competitor.27
The business aims of the Commercial Press likely influenced the strong support of
women's education found within The Ladies' Journal. In his study of Chinese print
capitalism, Christopher Reed has noted the dependence of publishing companies on the
expansion of education in the Republican era. For many Chinese publishers, newly
founded schools and colleges were among the most frequent customers due to a high
demand for textbooks. Amid a fierce rivalry with Zhonghua Books in the 1910s, the
Commercial Press sought to dominate the market for textbooks in Republican China.
Together with sales of popular periodicals, such as The Ladies’ Journal and Eastern
Miscellany (Dongfang zazhi 東方雜誌), textbooks comprised a sizeable component of
the Commercial Press' business.28
The overwhelming number of advertisements for textbooks and other periodicals
in early issues of The Ladies’ Journal confirms that these business aims of the
Commercial Press shaped the journal's endorsement of women's education. In the
27
Reed, Gutenberg in Shanghai, 212; Manying Ip, The Life and Times of Zhang Yuanji, 18671959 (Beijing: Commercial Press, 1985), 151-152.
28
Reed, Gutenberg in Shanghai, 204-215.
18
journal’s earliest issues, the Commercial Press itself served as the sole advertiser. Editors
frequently placed articles passionately asserting the need for women and their children to
receive education adjacent to full-page ads for textbooks and study materials. The journal
often devoted advertising space to the promotion of the Commercial Press’
correspondence school, which offered courses in English language, standardized Chinese
language, and mathematics. The Commercial Press’ desire to increase sales of its other
periodicals, also frequently advertised in The Ladies’ Journal, likely motivated the
journal’s explicit promotion of literacy among women.29
Aside from these economic factors, the political anxieties of the fragile
Republican government also shaped the journal’s content in these early years. In 1914,
Yuan Shikai’s 袁世凱 (1859-1916) government enacted a publication law that gave
regional authorities the power to suppress the publication of any newspaper, magazine, or
book deemed hostile to the government. In Beijing, the total number of newspapers
plummeted from one hundred to twenty due to Yuan’s censorship efforts. Yuan sent
special agents to Shanghai, the center of Chinese publishing, to arrest journalists and
editors suspected of disloyalty. Yuan Shikai’s censorship efforts also affected publishers
within the foreign concessions in Shanghai, as the increasingly dictatorial president of the
Republic forbade the postal service from delivering censored publications. In 1913,
authorities in the French concession closed the subversive Zhendan Minbao 震旦民報 at
29
Frontmatter, Funü Zazhi 婦女雜誌 （hereafter, FNZZ), 1, no. 8 (August 1915); Frontmatter,
FNZZ, 1, no. 9 (September 1915); 1267; 1698; 1706; Ip, The Life and Times of Zhang Yuanji, 166-167.
19
Yuan’s request, demonstrating Yuan’s ability to influence publication even within
territories not directly administered by the Chinese government.30
Though the power of the Beiyang government weakened significantly following
the death of Yuan Shikai in 1916, Lee-hsia Hsu Ting has argued that Beiyang leaders
maintained significant influence over publication in the late 1910s. In contrast to Yuan
Shikai's use of force to suppress dissidents, other political figures such as the warlord and
later Premier of the Republic Duan Qirui 段祺瑞 (1865-1936) utilized indirect methods
of coercion to influence newspapers and periodicals in Shanghai. Staff at loyal publishing
companies received ceremonial posts as consultants or special secretaries, which allowed
them to draw government salaries – essentially bribes– without assuming additional
duties or traveling to Beijing.31
Given such censorship and coercion, in addition to the press's dependence on
government textbook contracts, the journal continued to recognize the Beiyang
government in Beijing even as China descended into decentralized militarism. Articles in
1916 depicted rebellions in Yunnan and Guangxi as disastrous events worthy of
condemnation.32 The journal published positive portrayals of Beiyang officials. In
December 1916, the journal featured a photograph of the four children of then-President
Li Yuanhong 黎元洪 (1864-1928), associating the head of state with virtues of
fatherhood and family devotion. The same issue contained an article describing the
30
Ting, Government Control of the Press in Modern China, 49-51.
31
Ibid., 51-58.
32
Zhen Yan 真言, “Minguo sinian zhi zhongguo 民國四年之中國,” FNZZ 2, no. 1 (January
1916): 1-8; Zhen Yan 真言, “Dian shi fasheng zhi di er yue 滇事發生後之第二月,” FNZZ 2, No. 3
(March 1916): 1-3.
20
qualifications of then-Vice President Feng Guozhang 馮國璋 (1859-1919), further
demonstrating the journal’s recognition of the Beiyang government in the mid- to late
1910s.33
These political and economic concerns also led the journal to promote education
as a means to foster nationalistic loyalty. An example of such an argument appeared in a
1915 article written under the pseudonym Piao Ping 飄萍. According to this writer,
women should receive education for two primary purposes: to equip themselves to
manage a household and to develop patriotic ideas. In stark contrast to later New Culture
values, this author argued that Chinese women should first study the culture and political
system of their own country, before exploring the ideas of foreigners. Once educated,
women should use their skills to maintain a home and raise children so that men could
serve their country in more direct ways, primarily as soldiers. According to Piao Ping,
education, along with household management, constituted a woman’s patriotic duty.34 A
letter published in the July 1915 issue written by a third-year student at the Jiashan
Secondary School for Girls (Jiashan gaoxiao nüxue 嘉善高小女學) in Zhejiang province
further demonstrated the ability of education to develop patriotism. The student wrote:
People gather to form families, families gather to form nations, this is what nations
are. It is not one person's nation. It is the nation of all the people. The relationship
between people and their nation is like that of younger generations protecting their
parents, using their hands and feet to protect their heads.“積人而成家，積家而
33
Frontmatter, FNZZ 2, no. 12 (December 1916); Zhen Yan 真言, “Fuzongtong Feng Guozhang
副總統馮國璋” FNZZ 2, No. 12 (December 1916): 1 - 3.
34
Piao Ping 飄萍, "Lixiang zhi nü xuesheng 理想之女學生," FNZZ 1, no. 1 (January 1915); see
also Wendy Larson, Women and Writing in Modern China (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press,
1998), 57-58.
21
成國，國也者。非一人之國，乃人人之國也。人民至於國家如子弟之衛父母
手足之捍頭目也.35
Along with positive portrayals of Beiyang leaders, these expressions of patriotism helped
periodicals such as The Ladies' Journal circumvent the forces of censorship that brought
an end to more subversive publications, while also allowing the Commercial Press to
dominate much of the textbook market in China during the 1910s.
Promoting Women's Education
In light of these political and economic factors, contributors to The Ladies'
Journal consistently expressed support for women's education throughout the 1910s. The
twentieth-century debate regarding women's education in China had begun decades
earlier in the late Qing dynasty. Though conservative intellectuals and political figures
feared that the education of women threatened social harmony, late Qing reformers such
as Liang Qichao had advocated the education of women as a cure for China's
sociopolitical ills. Viewing late-Qing women as parasitic, Liang had argued that Chinese
women consumed without contributing to the welfare of the nation. To remedy their
perceived backwardness, Liang, in cooperation with other reform-minded intellectuals
such as Jing Yuanshan 經元善 (1841-1903), had founded women's study groups in urban
areas. In the late 1890s, these groups had led to the first secular institutions of higher
learning for females in China. Though the prevalence of schools for girls grew in the
35
Zhang Xinwan 張心萬, "Guomin you bao guo zhi ze shuo 國民有保國之責說," (July 1915): 9.
22
early twentieth century, debates regarding the necessity and purpose of women's
education continued into the Republican period.36
The content of The Ladies' Journal demonstrates the relevance of this continued
debate for readers, publishers, and political figures throughout the mid to late 1910s.
Discussions of women's education filled the pages of every issue of the journal in its
early years of publication. Though contributors acknowledged persistent opposition to the
education of women among conservatives, the journal asserted education’s many benefits
for individual women, their families, and Chinese society.
The editors of the journal carried out this promotion of education in a number of
ways. Institutions of higher learning for females maintained a highly visible presence in
The Ladies' Journal during this period. Countless photographs of students and teachers
posing near schoolhouses frequented multiple issues of the periodical. Early issues
included sections devoted to "debate (bianlun 辯論),”which often featured letters from
female students. Primarily from Shanghai and the surrounding Jiangnan region, these
students articulated their viewpoints on various social issues in eloquent classical Chinese
prose. Aside from these photographs and printed letters, early issues of the journal
devoted entire sections of articles to "women's education discussions (nüxue shangque 女
學商榷)." The journal also printed pieces entitled "investigations (diaocha 調查),”
which provided case studies of schools for girls with specific examples of the benefits of
36
Bailey, Gender and Education in China, 18-20.
23
education. Together, these images and writings contributed to the increased visibility of
women's education among the literate public.37
In addition to these methods, the personal essays of the journal's second editor,
Hu Binxia, effectively demonstrated the benefits of education. Historians and literary
scholars have reached varying conclusions regarding the significance of Hu Binxia.
Nivard has suggested that Hu Binxia served as editor in name-only. Though Siao-chen
Hu's recent study refrains from such strong conclusions, Hu maintains that the ideas of
Wang Yunzhang, the journal's first editor, continued to dominate the magazine's content
throughout the 1910s.38 Though the extent of Hu's editorial responsibilities remains
uncertain, the frequent publication of her very personal essays demonstrated her critical
role in shaping both the journal's content and widely circulated images of the modern
woman in Republican China.
Born in Jiangsu province, Hu Binxia studied in both Japan and the United States
during the final years of the Qing dynasty. Her experience at Cornell University in New
York had a particularly profound impact upon her worldview. To illustrate opinions on
various social issues, Hu often cited examples from her time in the United States. As she
conveyed in her writings for The Ladies' Journal, Hu forged a number of important
friendships with teachers, classmates, and their families while studying at Cornell. In
1913, Hu gave a speech at the university in which she compared her vision of the selfsacrificing woman of the past with the arguably self-serving woman of the twentieth37
"Nüxue shangque 女學商榷," FNZZ 1, no. 7 (July 1915): 31; “Lunshuo 論說," FNZZ 1, no. 7
(July 1915): 1; Frontmatter, FNZZ 1, no. 8 (August 1915).
38
Siao-chen Hu, "The Construction of Gender and Genre in the 1910s New Media: Evidence from
The Ladies' Journal," Different World of Discourse: Transformations of Gender and Genre in Late Qing
and Early Republican China, Nanxiu Qian, Grace S. Fong, and Richard J. Smith, eds. (Leiden,
Netherlands: Brill, 2008), 351, n.1.
24
century. According to Hu, unlike women of the past who devoted themselves fully to
serving their families, modern women possessed personal ambition and often pursued
education. Hu asserted that both of these sensibilities resided within her, suggesting the
intermingling of tradition and modernity that would characterize depictions of modern
femininity in The Ladies' Journal under Hu's editorship.39
After returning to China, Hu served as founding deputy editor of The Ladies'
Journal in 1915, and as editor of the magazine from 1916 to 1919. From 1916, issues of
the journal often featured Hu's essays, which frequently engaged the broader debate on
the role of women in Chinese society. Through these essays, Hu presented herself and her
acquaintances as model "new women" for the readership of the journal. As she described
her habits along with those of her teachers, classmates, and colleagues, Hu glorified the
benefits of education while also promoting motherhood and domesticity as the critical
roles of women.40
In one such essay from 1916, Hu Binxia explicitly characterized three of her
acquaintances as "new women" or xin nüzi 新女子. The printed use of this term in 1916
predates Hu Shi's later use of xin funü 新婦女, often cited as the origin of the "new
woman" trope in China. Hu Binxia's article, "The New Woman of the Twentieth Century
(Ershi shiji zhi xin nüzi 二十世紀之新女子)," demonstrates that the image of a "new
woman" had already become a discursive tool for discussing the intersection of
modernity and femininity in China by early 1916. Furthermore, the fact that the use of the
39
Bailey, Gender and Education in China, 47, 96.
40
Ibid., 57, 96; Wendy Larson, Women and Writing in Modern China (Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press, 1998), 56-57.
25
term by a female significantly predates that of Hu Shi challenges arguments that "new
woman" discussions merely reflected the anxieties of male intellectuals.41
Hu Binxia's depiction of the "new woman" differed significantly from that
promoted by later, New Culture intellectuals. By describing three specific individuals as
examples of xin nüzi, Hu Binxia asserted the necessity of education as a component of
modern femininity. However, she also noted that all of these "new women" continued to
view managing a home as their primary responsibility. According to Hu Binxia,
education enhanced the lives of these women and enabled them to support their husbands,
teach their children, and successfully maintain domestic harmony. Based on this
understanding of the nature of womanhood in the twentieth century, Hu outlined her
editorial philosophy for subsequent issues of the journal. From 1916 to 1919, the journal
would engage topics such as hygiene, household management, and childcare, while also
providing readers with information on politics, education, and science. With this
statement, Hu reinforced the fusion of traditional virtue and contemporary knowledge
that would continue to shape descriptions of the "new woman" in the later 1910s.42
MOTHERHOOD AND HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT
As this chapter has already shown, despite the arguably progressive position in
support of women's education, contributors to early issues of The Ladies' Journal
asserted that motherhood and household management remained a woman's primary duties.
41
Hu Binxia 胡彬夏,“Ershi shiji zhi xin nüzi 二十世紀之新女子," FNZZ 2, no. 1 (January 1916):
1-13; Hu Ying, Tales of Translation: Composing the New Woman in China, 1899-1918 (Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 2000), 1-18; Louise Edwards, "Policing the Modern Woman in Republican
China," Modern China 26, no. 2 (April 2000): 115-116.
42
Hu Binxia 胡彬夏, "Ershi shiji zhi xin nüzi 二十世紀之新女子, " 1-13.
26
Along with education, descriptions of child rearing and domestic labor constituted the
majority of the journal's content from 1915 to 1919. Much like the portrayal of education,
images, editorials, and printed letters from readers fused traditional and modern elements
to present a complex, evolving notion of venerable motherhood. While emphasizing
long-held beliefs regarding women's domestic and reproductive roles, the journal also
promoted emerging discourses of health and hygiene as integral components of
motherhood and household management in the twentieth century.
From its outset, The Ladies' Journal associated femininity with traditional views
of domestic labor. Throughout 1915, multiple covers contained images reinforcing
conventional views that regarded needlework and textile production as women's work. As
Francesca Bray has demonstrated, ideal-gendered divisions of labor emphasized sewing
and weaving as the productive components of women's domestic labor throughout the
imperial period. Placing such tasks within the feminine domain allowed women to
contribute to the economic welfare of their families without violating Confucian norms of
gender segregation. Though in many cases, economic realities prevented observance of
these idealized norms, many continued to view textile production as feminine labor into
the Republican period. Covers of The Ladies' Journal in its first year of publication
frequently reinforced these traditional notions, through depictions of women spinning,
weaving, and sewing within the home.43
43
Other front covers of The Ladies' Journal from this period also reflected an embrace of
"traditional" elements of Chinese culture. Examples include a series of covers from 1918 composed of
female artist Wu Shujuan's 吴淑娟 (1853-1930) landscape paintings. See Front covers, FNZZ 4, 1-12
(January - December 1918); Elise David, "Making Visible Feminine Modernities: The Traditionalist
Paintings and Modern Methods of Wu Shujuan," (master's thesis, The Ohio State University, 2012), 39; see
also Francesca Bray, Techonology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China (Berkeley and
Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997), 4-6; Ono Kazuko, Chinese Women in a Century of
Revolution, 1850-1950, Joshua Fogel, ed. and trans. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1989), 112139; Front Covers, FNZZ, (July, October, November, December 1915).
27
Image 1.1: November 1915 Front Cover
Source: Front Cover, FNZZ (November 1915)
Image 1.2: July 1915 Front Cover
Source: Front Cover, FNZZ (July 1915)
In addition to these images, the text of the journal reaffirmed notions of the
domestic sphere as the feminine realm. As one contributor named Yun Xue 芸雪 asserted
in July 1915, "Men manage what is outside, women (nüzi) manage what is inside, this is
the established principle 男子治外，女子治內，此定理也.”Like many other
contributors during this period, Yun asserted this rigid division of labor in order to glorify
rather than degrade women. Given the necessity of domestic labor for the welfare of both
28
family and society, many authors asserted the significance of such tasks and criticized
those who trivialized them.44
Editor Hu Binxia echoed the words of those asserting the significance of domestic
labor. Before working for The Ladies' Journal, Hu gave a speech in Japan in which she
harshly criticized Chinese women, comparing them to swine and dogs, for treating
housework as a "mean occupation (jian ye 賤業)." Instead, Hu asserted that raising
children and managing a household required skill, and that women must perform these
duties to ensure social harmony and national prosperity. Hu brought these observations to
the pages of The Ladies' Journal from 1916 to 1918. Influenced by increasingly prevalent
notions in Japan and the United States, Hu emphasized "domestic science" as a central
component of women's education to better equip them to manage their households.
According to Hu, this critical responsibility of women required skill and paralleled the
military service of men.45
To reiterate the necessity of specialized skills and knowledge for successfully
performing domestic tasks, Hu and other contributors during this period incorporated
emerging notions of health and hygiene into discussions of household management.
Increased awareness of disease made cleanliness a primary concern for mothers and
wives. In June 1916, Hu Binxia wrote“Improving the family is the most important duty
we women (funü) will have in the next fifty years, and improving the family begins with
keeping the household clean 故改良家庭，當為吾婦女今後五十年內最要之職務，而
44
Yun Xue 芸雪, “Funü bi zhi zhi jiating suoshi 婦女須知之家庭瑣事,” FNZZ 1, no. 7 (July
1915): 15.
45
Bailey, Gender and Education in China, 47, 57, 96.
29
改良家庭以清潔家庭為始."46 In 1916, an article written under the pseudonym "An
English Woman 英國女士" discussed factors contributing to high rates of infant
mortality based on observations of England during World War I. The author asserted that
no statistics existed for China, but estimated that tens of thousands of Chinese infants
died each year due to poor sanitary conditions. To combat infant mortality, this author
instructed readers to educate themselves on matters of hygiene, specifically to adopt
sanitary habits of food preparation, to keep children's clothing and environment clean,
and to take their infants to physicians for regular examinations.47
In addition to cleanliness, The Ladies' Journal promoted knowledge of healthy
habits as an essential component of modern motherhood. The journal provided readers
with summaries of recent research regarding the physical health of children. These
articles included exercise diagrams demonstrating stretches particularly beneficial for
growing youths.48 A 1915 article entitled "Methods for Protecting the Health of Children
(Ertong jiankang zhi baohu fa 兒童健康之保護法)”articulated the important role
women played for the nation as a whole by attending to the health of their children. The
author wrote,
Where does the nation's strength come from? It comes from the strength of its
citizens. Where does the strength of citizens come from? It comes from whether
or not people are strong in their youth. Therefore, the strength of children is
exactly the strength of the citizenry, and thus, the strength of the nation. 國家之強
46
Hu Binxia 胡彬夏, "Hezhe wei funü jinhou wushi nian zhi zhiwu 何者為吾婦女今後五十年內
之職務,” FNZZ 2, no. 6 (June 1916): 1- 5.
47
Yingguo Nüshi 英國女士,“Yuying Yaofa 育嬰要法," FNZZ 2, no. 9 (September 1916): 1-3.
48
Tian Xing 天行, “Ertong tiyu zhi yanjiu 兒童體育之研究," FNZZ 1, no. 9 (September 1915): 1
- 10.
30
弱奚自乎？自乎國民之強弱而已。國民之強弱奚自乎？自乎兒童時之強弱與
否也。故兒童之強弱即國民之強弱，亦即國家之強弱.
The author instructed readers that to rise to this critical task of maintaining children's
health, women must insure that children breathe fresh air, eat adequate amounts of
sanitary food, drink plenty of water, and wear only clean clothes.49
Image 1.3: Children's Exercises
Source: Tian Xing 天行, “Ertong tiyu zhi yanjiu 兒童體育之研究," FNZZ 1, no. 9 FNZZ (September
1915): 2
CONCLUSION
In its early years of publication, The Ladies' Journal presented an image of the
modern woman that emphasized both progressive notions of women's education and
conventional roles of motherhood and housewife. Though this "new woman" pursued
worldly knowledge and challenged those who impeded her access to schooling, her
modern sensibilities did not compel her to attack traditional norms or gendered divisions
49
Meng Lan 夢蘭, "Ertong jiankang zhi baohu fa 兒童健康之保護法,” FNZZ 1, no. 11
(November 1915): 17.
31
of labor. Instead, the way in which she fulfilled these duties demonstrated her modernity.
Embracing motherhood and household management as her primary responsibilities, the
"new woman" of the early Republic used the skill and expertise acquired through
education to maintain the health and welfare of her children. Though advocating women's
entrance into education, contributors to the journal rarely criticized Confucian gender
norms. This benign view of tradition fell out of fashion after 1919, as the May Fourth
Incident (1919) brought New Culture iconoclasm from Beijing to Shanghai, and into the
popular press. As growing numbers of New Culture intellectuals obtained staff positions
in the Commercial Press, the "new woman" of the early Republic gave way to more
radical models that embodied opposition to conventional morality and patriarchy.50
50
Ip, The Life and Times of Zhang Yuanji, 176-191.
32
Chapter 2:
The "New Woman " of the New Culture Era, 1919-1925
National and international sociopolitical events in the late 1910s shaped the
content of The Ladies' Journal into the 1920s. By the late 1910s, the failures of
Republican government alienated many intellectuals from the political sphere, fostering a
focus on the individual pursuit of enlightenment rather than the collective struggle for
national salvation. Though the treaty ending the First World War sparked anti-foreign
demonstrations among Chinese youth, the triumph of the Allies led many academics to
embrace philosophy and science from the West and Japan.51 In 1919, these New Culture
intellectuals brought their enlightenment project to Chinese women through the pages of
The Ladies' Journal, promoting conceptions of biologically gendered bodies and
individualistic moral relativism. Under the influence of New Culture intellectuals, The
Ladies' Journal presented images of the "new woman" that exemplified these ideals of
enlightenment and individualism from 1919 to 1925.
The New Culture Movement
51
Vera Schwarcz, The Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May Fourth
Movement of 1919, (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986), 26-30.
33
Most scholars locate the advent of the New Culture Movement in the mid- to late
1910s. The failed attempts of Yuan Shikai and Zhang Xun 張勳 (1854-1923) to restore
monarchical rule in 1915 and 1917, respectively, served as evidence of the failure of the
Republican revolution for many Chinese intellectuals. As China's political system
descended into decentralized warlordism, many learned men associated with this
movement confessed their disillusionment with the decades-long struggle for national
salvation. Departing from many ideas of late Qing reformers and Republican
revolutionaries, New Culture intellectuals sought autonomy from politics and the
freedom to pursue and promote knowledge. Critical of Confucian tradition, these
individuals selectively deployed Japanese and Western scholarship to bring about social
and cultural change in China. Arguments for cultural transformation gained momentum
after May 4, 1919, when the decision of the Paris Peace Conference to redistribute
German concessions in Shandong to Japan ignited mass demonstrations. These public
protests facilitated the expansion of New Culture ideas from academic circles in Beijing
into China's southern cities. However, many intellectuals associated with these earlier
trends emphasized cultural transformation over national salvation and resisted the antiforeign sentiment associated with the student protests of 1919.52
This shift in intellectual trends caused the publications of the Commercial Press to
endure criticism. Increasing numbers of readers abandoned the moderate periodicals of
the Commercial Press for more avant-garde publications, such as New Tide (Xin chao 新
52
This work resists the tendency of many scholars to conflate the coexisting and intersecting New
Culture and May Fourth movements (sometimes written as "New Culture/May Fourth"). It should be noted
that the content of The Ladies' Journal from 1919 to 1925 reflects an embrace of the ideals of intellectuals
associated with other publications such as New Tide (Xin chao 新潮), and not the anti-foreign nationalism
of figures associated with Citizen (Guomin 国民). See Schwarcz, The Chinese Enlightenment, 26-30.
34
潮). These progressive periodicals boldly criticized traditional views as the source of
China's weakness. In 1918, New Culture figure Luo Jialun 羅家倫 (1897-1969) singled
out the Commercial Press in an article published in New Tide. Luo claimed that the
press's magazines lacked definitive positions on contemporary social issues, and
criticized the Commercial Press for its cooperation with the corrupt Beiyang government.
Amid such criticism, the Commercial Press and its publications underwent drastic
reforms in 1919.53
As part of an overarching aim to educate the common people and distinguish
themselves from the imperial literati, New Culture intellectuals promoted the use of an
emerging written vernacular (baihua 白話) over the classical, literary Chinese (wenyan
文言) that had dominated literature and media for centuries. During the late 1910s and
early 1920s, New Culturists influenced major publishers, such as the Commercial Press,
to disseminate and standardize baihua through the publication of vernacular textbooks
and periodicals.54 The influence of the New Culture Movement first became evident in
The Ladies' Journal through this promotion of baihua. In October 1919, an article
entitled "New Literature and New Women (Xin wenxue yu xin nüzi 新文學與新女子)"
contained one of the earliest uses of baihua in the journal. The author defended his use of
vernacular language in this popular publication through an association of baihua with
modernity and "China's new learning (Zhongguo de xin xueshu 中國的新學術)." Setting
the tone of the journal's content for the next several years, the author established clear ties
53
Ip, The Life and Times of Zhang Yuanji,1867-1959 (Beijing: Commercial Press, 1985), 173-178.
54
Robert Culp, "Teaching Baihua: Textbook Publishing and the Production of Vernacular
Language and a New Literary Canon in Early Twentieth-Century China," Twentieth-Century China 34, no.
1 (November 2008): 4-41.
35
between "new women" and the goals of the New Culture Movement. Contributors wrote
articles in both baihua and wenyan in November and December of 1919. As increasing
numbers of New Culture intellectuals wrote pieces for The Ladies' Journal, the periodical
almost exclusively published content written in the vernacular from January 1920. This
remained true throughout the remainder of the journal's period of publication.55
The impact of these intellectual trends on the content of The Ladies' Journal
became increasingly apparent in the early 1920s, with a number of writers explicitly
endorsing the New Culture Movement. The contributions of associated writers such as
Zhou Jianren, Shen Yanbing, and Zhang Xichen permeated the pages of the periodical
during this period. To achieve their goal of cultural transformation, these writers sought
to expand provincial worldviews through the selective embrace of foreign scholarship.
Perceiving the disadvantages of women as symptomatic of China's larger cultural
deficiencies, they attacked prescriptive, Confucian codes of conduct. Instead, these
contributors promoted conceptions of essential gender based on science and relative
sexual morality based on individualism. From 1919 to 1925, New Culture intellectuals
used the medium of The Ladies' Journal to promote an image of the "new woman" as
cosmopolitan, scientifically knowledgeable, and individualistic.
Looking to the "Civilized Societies (wenming shehui 文明社會)”
In stark contrast to the anti-foreign sentiment that characterized the mass
protests of the May Fourth Movement, writers of The Ladies' Journal tended to promote
55
Liu Linsheng 劉麟生, "Xin wenxue yu xin nüzi 新文學與新女子,” FNZZ 5, no. 10 (October
1919): 1 - 5.
36
cosmopolitanism over nationalism from 1919 to 1925.56 Multiple news columns
discussing current events throughout Europe, North America, and Japan appeared in
nearly every issue, suggesting the vigorous promotion of an interest in international
affairs among Chinese women. By printing translations of Western and Japanese
scholarship, the journal endorsed a vision of modernity closely associated with imported
knowledge. Advertisements for foreign products and language textbooks complemented
the international scope of many of the journal's articles. These aspects of the journal's
content collectively cosompolitanized the "new woman" construct, associating modern
femininity with an affinity for foreign news, learning, and goods.
Although foreign scholarship and politics had influenced reform-minded
Chinese intellectuals for decades, this renewed focus on sociopolitical events outside of
China emerged in the wake of the First World War. Beyond the student protests sparked
by the Treaty of Paris in 1919, many viewed the war itself as an event that marked the
temporal rupture between the "modern" era and the "traditional" past. Contributors to The
Ladies' Journal educated female readers on the significance of this worldwide conflict.
One author asserted, "Since Europe's fierce armed conflict...the state of the entire world
has transformed 自從歐洲烈烈的砲火...世界全部分的局勢，跟隨轉變."57 Others
emphasized the significance of this event for women specifically. An author credited as
"Y. D." asserted in 1921, "After the Great War, professional women (funü), are
increasingly regarded as important by society 自從大戰以後，職業的婦女，被社會看
56
See Schwarcz, The Chinese Enlightenment, 26-30.
57
Joseph R. Levenson, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and the Mind of Modern China (Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 1953); Wang Pingling 王平陵, "Dongfang furen zai falü shang de
diwei 東方婦人在法律上的地位,” FNZZ 8, no. 10（October 1922): 23－30.
37
重了諸多."58 Such discussions of international political events contributed to the larger,
New Culture project of displacing provincial worldviews with cosmopolitanism.
These discussions of World War I in the early 1920s initiated a focus on
foreign politics that would become an integral component of the journal's content from
1922 to 1925. Throughout the 1920s, recurring columns such as "Domestic and Foreign
Women's News (Neiwai funü xiaoxi 內外婦女消息)" and "The Conditions of Women in
the World (Shijie funü zhuangkuang 世界婦女狀況)" directed the attention of Chinese
women to places and events outside the borders of China. In contrast to the earlier
readership of The Ladies' Journal who read numerous pieces of classical Chinese
literature, readers during the New Culture Era consumed large quantities of international
news. The overwhelming majority of these news pieces focused on what authors often
referred to as the "civilized societies (wenming shehui 文明社會)" of the United States,
Western Europe, and Japan.59
In addition to news, The Ladies' Journal printed translated excerpts from various
foreign language publications throughout the early 1920s. These articles covered a range
of topics, but often discussed a woman's role in society. Translations of the works of
notable Western feminists, including Margaret Llewellyn Davies (1861-1944) and
Beatrice Robertson-Forbes Hale (1881-1967), frequented the pages of the journal from
1920 to 1922. These passages challenged broad claims regarding the elevated social
58
59
Y.D., "Zhiye yu funü 職業與婦女," FNZZ 7, no. 11 (November 1921): 8-11.
Zeng Qi 曾琦, "Funü wenti yu xiandai shehui 婦女問題與現代社會," FNZZ 8, no. 1 (January
1922): 2-7.
38
status of males and advocated for a woman's right of self-determination.60 Articles from
various Japanese periodicals also appeared during this period, often discussing romantic
relationships and promoting free choice in marriage. In the mid-1920s, the journal
increasingly printed translations of foreign sexological and psychological texts.61 Though
many of these translations stood alone without commentary from editorial staff, their
presence in this widely read women's periodical contributed to a dominant conception of
modern femininity heavily associated with foreign ideas.
Along with international news and translated texts, advertisements for imported
goods and foreign language textbooks effectively cosmopolitanized modern femininity as
presented in The Ladies' Journal. These images became increasingly prevalent from 1923
to 1925. Advertising introduced readers to foreign brands such as Colgate, Quaker Oats,
Palmolive and Pepsodent. Presenting images of fashionable women in Western dress,
these advertisements often played to the association of cosmopolitanism with modern
sensibility by asserting that individuals in multiple countries used these products.62 In
addition to these advertisements, the Commercial Press itself also used the journal to
60
Margaret Llewelyn Davies, "Xianzai funü suo yaoqiu shi shenme 現在婦女所要求是什麼？"
Si Zhen 四珍 trans., FNZZ 6, no. 1 (January 1920): 1-4; B.F.R. Hale, "Liang xing chongtu de yuanyin
weishenme nanzi fandui funü yundong 兩性衝突的原因 ‐ 為甚麼男子反對婦女運動," 沈澤民 Shen
Zemin, trans., FNZZ 6, no. 6 (June 1920): 1-15.
61
Zi Hu 紫瑚, "Riben funü yundong de xin qingxiang 日本婦女運動的新傾向," FNZZ 7, no. 10
(January 1922): 24-26; Yu Jifan 俞寄凡, "Lian'ai he xingyu de guanxi 戀愛和性慾的關係," (trans. from
Riben Xing Zazhi 日本性雜誌), FNZZ 7, no. 6 (June 1921): 41-43; Yang Xianjiang 楊賢江, "Xin shidai zhi
zhencao lun 新時代之貞操論,” (trans. from Riben Fanzu Liyilang Yuanzhu 日本帆足理一郎原著）FNZZ
7, no. 7 (July 1921): 5-11.
62
Colgate advertisement, FNZZ 7, no. 12 (December 1921): 70-71; Quaker Oats advertisement,
FNZZ 10, no. 11 (November 1924): 7-8; Palmolive advertisement, FNZZ 10, no. 11 (November 1924): 8-9;
Pepsodent advertisement, FNZZ 11, no. 1 (January 1925): 101.
39
promote a range of foreign language textbooks and English periodicals.63 Together with
printed news and translated articles, these messages demonstrated conceptions of
cosmopolitan femininity shared by editors, contributors, advertisers, and readers.
Image 2.1 - "The English Student" Advertisement
Source: FNZZ 11,1 (January 1925): 145.
Image 2.2 - Pepsodent Advertisement
Source: FNZZ 11, 1 (January 1925): 101.
Scientific Knowledge and Sexual Difference
The promotion of foreign scholarship included an emphasis on scientific
knowledge. Prior to 1919, scientific language appeared in The Ladies' Journal primarily
in directions for making cosmetics at home. Throughout 1919 and 1920, the journal
increasingly featured articles devoted to science, demonstrating the publication's
63
"The English Student / Yingwen zazhi 英文雜誌" (advertisement), FNZZ 11, no. 1 (January
1925): 145.
40
endorsement of New Culture goals of enlightenment. In these years, the embrace of
scientific understanding manifested itself primarily in academic discussions of chemistry,
physics, and astronomy. Editors printed complex diagrams and equations without
discussing their particular relevance for everyday life. Yet, such articles in 1919 and 1920
demonstrated the journal's efforts to establish science as a matter of concern for Chinese
women in the twentieth century.64
Throughout the early to mid-1920s, the scientifically oriented content of The
Ladies' Journal expanded and diversified. Contributors encouraged women to acquaint
themselves with knowledge of science and medicine in order to properly educate and care
for their children. In a 1920 article discussing the benefits of reading material for
children, the author described the age of five to six sui 歲 as the most critical time of
childhood development. From this psychological understanding of childhood, the author
emphasized the importance of early education as fundamental to a child's future. Another
article of the same issue discussed treatments for childhood heart disease. The author,
Shen Yanbing, estimated that three percent of boys in elementary school and four percent
of girls suffered from this illness. After outlining symptoms such as loss of appetite,
rashes, and fever, Shen assured readers that scientific remedies existed for these problems.
The author listed consulting a doctor and ensuring that children had proper physical
exercise among suggested courses of action. These articles demonstrated an embrace of
64
"Weilai zhi kexue fada guan 未來之科學發達觀," FNZZ 7, no. 1 (January 1921): 1-3; Nivard,
"Women in the Women's Press," 47-48.
41
the New Culture emphasis on science-based methods for nurturing health and
development over traditional models of cultivating virtue.65
The promotion of science and scientism in The Ladies' Journal also demonstrates
shifts in conceptions of gender and complicates understandings of New Culture
feminism. A number of scholars have drawn parallels between New Culture attacks on
Confucian patriarchy and American liberal feminism. These scholars note the ways in
which many contributors to the journal during this period associated themselves with
"feminism (funü zhuyi 婦女主義)" or the "women's movement (funü yundong 婦女運
動)," and advocated the liberation of women from oppressive marriage practices.66 Yet,
many have failed to note the complex and contextually dependent nature of these
movements and related discourses in Republican China. As the journal's content
demonstrates, New Culture intellectuals selectively imported the ideas of Western
researchers and adapted them to fit the Chinese context. While deploying science and
scientism to attack Confucian patriarchy, these contributors maintained the biological
inferiority of women and reinforced norms of compulsory heterosexuality.67
One example of such discourse appeared in a 1923 article by biologist and New
Culture figure Zhou Jianren. In "The Scientific Foundations of Feminism (Funü zhuyi zhi
kexue de jichu 婦女主義之科學的基礎)," Zhou promoted the social advancement of
65
Ding Xilun 丁錫綸, "Ertong duwu de yanjiu 兒童讀物的研究," FNZZ 6, no. 1 (January 1920):
1-4; Pei Wei 佩韋, "Xiao'er xinbing zhiliaofa 小兒心病治療法,” FNZZ 6, no. 1（January 1920): 1-2.
66
Wang Zheng, Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: Oral and Textual Histories (Berkeley and
Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1999), 67-118.
67
Howard Chiang has emphasized the role of Western sexology in shaping discourses of gender
and sexuality in Republican China, however Sang Tze-lan has noted the ways in which selected arguments
of Western sexology fused with traditional norms in Republican China. Howard Chiang, "Epistemic
Modernity and the Emergence of Homosexuality in China," Gender & History 22, 3 (November 2010):
629–657; Sang, The Emerging Lesbian: Female Same-Sex Desire in Modern China (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2003), 123.
42
women, while also maintaining the biological inferiority of most women compared to
most men. In this article, Zhou based his arguments on the theories of Austrian
philosopher Otto Weininger (1880-1903), who notoriously misinterpreted scientific data
to justify misogynistic and anti-Semitic views. Like Weininger, Zhou presented an image
of femininity associated with passivity and weakness. This feminine essence existed in all
individuals, both male and female, to varying degrees. Conversely, Zhou asserted that
some women also possessed a significant quantity of masculine essence, interpreted as
competence and strength. Expanding upon a selection of Weininger's original ideas,
Zhou asserted that women should be afforded the same opportunities as men on the basis
that some women also maintained a measure of masculine essence. Citing Weininger's
example of the "masculine" female French novelist George Sand (1804-1876), Zhou
asserted that not all women were completely feminine and therefore some had talents
comparable to those of men. Although Zhou's opinions allowed for a measure of
flexibility toward gender identity, these claims assumed the superiority of masculinity
over femininity.68
A later article by Zhou Jianren used science-based arguments to establish
clearer distinctions between men and women and to promote heterosexual relationships.
In "Sex Education and Important Aspects of Household Relationships (Xing jiaoyu yu
jiating guanxi de zhongyao 性教育與家庭關係的重要)," Zhou suggested the necessity
of heterosexual copulation based on the assumption that every organism has the need to
sustain its existence. Given this fundamental need, Zhou advocated educating children
68
Zhou Jianren 周建人, "Funü zhuyi zhi kexue de jichu 婦女主意之科學的基礎," FNZZ 9, no. 4
(April 1923): 2 - 4; Chandak Sengoopta, Otto Weininger: Sex, Science, and Self in Imperial Vienna
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 69-86; see also Otto Weininger, Geschlecht und Charakter:
Eine prinzipielle Untersuchung (Vienna and Leipzig: K.U.K. Hof und Universitats-Buchandler, 1907).
43
about reproduction as the basic function and purpose of sexual relations. Though similar
attitudes regarding the nature of sex existed in Confucian discourse of the imperial period,
Zhou based these assertions on biological conceptions of essential sexual difference.
Zhou's vision of sexual education included promoting awareness among Chinese children
of the biological origins of gender, tied to the development of secondary sex
characteristics in adolescence. In addition to advocating sex education among children,
Zhou also encouraged readers to become knowledgeable of human biology in order to
educate their children on these matters.69
Many other contributors in the 1920s echoed this goal of educating women on
the scientific bases for gender and sex. A recurring column entitled "Women's Sexual
Knowledge (Nüzi zhi xing de zhishi 女子之性的知識)," translated various Western and
Japanese texts to instruct women on the biological differences between the sexes and the
reproductive function of human sexuality. In the May 1923 issue, this column included a
translation of an essay by American physician William J. Robinson (1867-1936). Though
Robinson actively promoted access to contraceptives, this translated excerpt merely
provided readers scientific details concerning "conception (shoutai 受胎).”
Emphasizing the heteronormative and reproductive nature of sex, this piece presented the
union of "a man's sperm (nanzi de jingzi 男子的精子)”and "a woman's ovum (nüzi de
luanzi 女子的卵子)”as the objective of sexual relations. In addition to the translated
text, the column included diagrams illustrating conception and pregnancy, promoting
69
Zhou Jianren 周建人, "Xing jiaoyu yu jiating guanxi de zhongyao 性教育與家庭關係的重要,”
FNZZ 9, no. 7 (July 1923): 2-5.
44
scientific knowledge of these phenomena as markers of modernity among the journal's
readership.70
Image 2.3
- Conception
Image 2.4 - Pregnancy
Source: FNZZ 9, no. 5 (May 1923): 100.
Source: FNZZ 9, no. 5 (May 1923): 101.
Discussions of sex became increasingly prevalent in the mid-1920s. In an
introductory article to a 1925 themed issue devoted to "new sexual morality (xin xing
daode 新性道德)," editor Zhang Xichen discussed selected ideas of Swiss psychiatrist
and sexologist, August Forel (1848-1931). Fusing sociological and biological methods to
examine human sexuality, Forel's The Sexual Question harshly criticized normative
proscriptions on sexual behavior. Although Forel's text called for the decriminalization of
70
William J. Robinson, "Nüzi zhi xing de zhishi 女子之性的知識," Wei Xin 味辛 trans., FNZZ 9,
no. 5 (May 1923): 99-105; see also William J. Robinson, "The Paramount Need of Sex Knowledge for
Girls and Women," Woman: Her Sex and Love Life (New York: Eugenics Publishing Company, 1917), 2330.
45
such practices as homosexuality, bestiality, and incest, Zhang's article primarily called for
more lenient attitudes toward divorce and remarriage.71 Despite its engagement with a
radically subversive Western text, this article in The Ladies' Journal maintained an
uncompromised view of opposite-sex union as the natural and inevitable act of the
modern woman.
Individualism and Moral Relativism
Discussions of morality in The Ladies' Journal during this period also reflected
the impact of the New Culture movement on gender discourse in the early to mid-1920s.
As iconoclastic narratives attacked Confucian codes of morality, many contributors to the
journal endorsed moral relativism. Unlike earlier and later discussions of morality based
on one's duty to family, society, and country, the "new woman" of the New Culture Era
acted to sustain her own happiness provided that such actions did not pose direct harm to
others. Though these ideas culminated in the 1925 issue devoted to "new sexual
morality," the promotion of such an approach to morality began earlier in the 1920s.
Challenging tradition within the bounds of heteronormativity, this content most often
engaged the topics of marriage, divorce, and chastity.
Contributors to the journal during this period elevated "romantic love (aiqing 愛
情)" as an essential component of moral marriages. In 1920, Li Sanwu 李三無 asserted
that “Marriage must have love as its foundation. Conversely, if a man and woman lack
love, they cannot marry 結婚必有愛情做他的基礎。反過來說，就是無愛情的男女，
71
Zhang Xichen 章錫琛,“Xin xing daode shi shenme 新性道德是什麼,” FNZZ 11, no. 1 (January
1925): 2-7.
46
不能結婚."72 Later in 1923, Dong Xiangbai 董香白 wrote an article asserting that mutual
love characterizes a moral romantic relationship. In Dong's view, even a legal marriage
that lacks love is immoral.73 This emphasis on individual sentiment rather than familial or
national duty stands in stark contrast to the descriptions of morality presented in the
journal in other time periods.
This elevation of romantic love as the center of morality led many contributors
to support divorce as an escape from unhappy marriages. In a 1922 article entitled
"Love's Meaning and Worth (Lian'ai yiyi yu jiazhi 戀愛意義與價值)," Zhou Jianren
stated, "Divorcing when love has been destroyed is, in fact, moral behavior. In other
words, one could also say that if love has gone and the marriage is preserved, this is
immoral behavior 戀愛破壞而離婚，既是合於道德的行為，換一句話，也可以說如
果戀愛破壞而還保存這結婚的形式，是不道德的行為."74 Many other contributors
expressed similar attitudes toward divorce in the 1920s and challenged the notion that
divorce threatened the institution of marriage. Li Sanwu asserted the necessity of divorce
rights by stating that "free divorce isn't in fact the destruction of marriage; one could say
it is the primary condition for the preservation of marriage 自由離婚，並不是結婚的破
壞，可說是結婚保存的第一條件."75 In contrast to later writers, these contributors
viewed an unfulfilling relationship as a situation worse than the dissolution of marriage.
72
Li Sanwu 李三無, "Ziyou lihun lun 自由離婚論," FNZZ 6, no. 7 (July 1920): 1-81.
73
Dong Xiangbai 董香白, "Furen daode 婦人道德," FNZZ 9, no. 7 (July 1923): 16-23.
74
Zhou Jianren 周建人, "Lian'ai yiyi yu jiazhi 戀愛意義與價值," FNZZ 8, no. 2 (February 1922):
2-6.
75
Li Sanwu 李三無, "Ziyou lihun lun 自由離婚論," 16.
47
Given that, unlike those of earlier and later periods, these articles gave little consideration
to the consequences of divorce for extended families or society, they demonstrate the
tendency of the journal during this period to emphasize individual happiness over
collective duty.
The editors of The Ladies' Journal published a themed issue discussing divorce
in April 1922. The preface to this issue acknowledged the existence of more conservative
attitudes present in Chinese society. In this preface, the editorial staff countered anxieties
regarding the slowly rising divorce rate in China by noting that it remained much lower
than that of many other countries. Though some feared the consequences of growing
divorce rates, the editors asserted the far worse consequences of unhappy marriages.76
Such comments reinforced a shifted focus toward a morality based on individualism.
Various contributors to this themed issue affirmed the views presented in the preface.
One contributor claimed "this question has become the focal point of the conflict between
the thinking of the old and the thinking of the young 這問題在現今已經成為老年思想
於青年思想衝突的焦點," reinforcing the association between flexible attitudes toward
divorce and those who were "new" or "modern."77
The question of divorce also fostered a renewed debate of female chastity.
Throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties, the feminine virtue of chastity had received
close attention from male intellectuals as well as promotion by the imperial state.
According to a number of imperial literati, chastity dictated that females not only abstain
from extramarital sexual relationships, but also remain loyal to one husband throughout
76
"Lihun wenti hao 離婚問題號(Preface)," FNZZ 8, no. 4 (April 1922): frontmatter.
77
Shen Yanbing 沈雁冰, "Lihun yu daode wenti 離婚與道德問題," FNZZ 8, no. 4 (April 1922):
13-16.
48
the entirety of their lives. Widows who remained celibate until death received
posthumous honors from the state in the form of certificates and memorial arches.78
In contrast to this traditional virtue, contributors to The Ladies' Journal in the
early 1920s redefined the Chinese term zhencao 貞操, once used to refer to female
chastity, as the mutual devotion of husband and wife.79 This new definition emphasized
romantic love and allowed for divorce and remarriage. In accordance with the
iconoclastic mission of the New Culture Movement, Gao Shan 高山 discussed "reforms
to the notion of chastity 貞操觀念的改造" that must come about because "the ancient
notion of chastity isn't a type of fair morality 古代貞操觀念並不是一種公正的道德."80
Often referred to as "new chastity/fidelity (xin zhencao 新貞操)," this revised moral
code also relied heavily upon the elevation of romantic love. Li Zongwu 李宗武 wrote in
1922, "If there is no love between a husband and wife, yet they are forced to comply with
the old ways and continue this form of relationship, this cannot be considered fidelity
(zhencao) 如夫婦間沒有戀愛，雖依舊勉強維持那形式的關係, 已經不能算是貞
操."81
78
Janet M. Theiss, Disgraceful Matters: The Politics of Chastity in Eighteenth-Century China
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004); see also Lu Weijing, True to Her Word:
The Faithful Maiden Cult in Late Imperial China (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008).
79
In the imperial period, some literati also used the character zhen 貞 to refer to political loyalty or
integrity. Haiyan Lee has translated zhencao as "constancy." See Haiyan Lee, Revolution of the Heart: A
Genealogy of Love in China, 1900-1950 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007), 145; see also
Ying Zhang, "Politics and Morality in the Ming-Qing Transition, 1570-1670" (PhD diss., University of
Michigan, 2010), 142, 240.
80
Gao Shan 高山, "Zhencao Guannian de Gaizao 貞操觀念的改造," FNZZ 7, no. 12 (December
1922): 2.
81
Li Zongwu 李宗武, "Zai jia yu rensheng 再嫁與人生," FNZZ 8, no. 3 (March 1922): 5-7.
49
These discussions culminated in the January 1925 themed issue on "new sexual
morality." First advertised in December 1924, this issue marked the tenth anniversary of
The Ladies' Journal. Though many of the articles discussed divorce and remarriage, the
issue began with a clear articulation of the relativistic nature of this "new" moral
philosophy. According to editor Zhang Xichen, prescriptive codes of conduct had little
relevance in modern society. Instead, Zhang loosely defined immoral acts as those that
caused injury or harm to others in a particular set of circumstances. To demonstrate this
point, Zhang mentioned a number of examples. If an undesirable man impregnated a
virgin and then fled, Zhang argued this should be considered immoral because it caused
harm to the woman. However, if a man of exceptional character married a woman only to
satisfy his lust, and then had children with her, Zhang interpreted these actions as
extremely immoral because they adversely affected both the man's wife and his
children.82 This moral relativism served as the basic principle of Zhang's "new sexual
morality" and affirmed the comparatively lenient attitudes toward divorce and remarriage
expressed by other contributors to this issue.
Despite the relativistic nature of Zhang's introductory article, no contributor to
the journal endorsed sexual relationships outside the bonds of opposite-sex marriage.
Writers frequently championed the concept of "free love (ziyou lian'ai 自由戀愛)."
However, "free love" referred exclusively to one's right to choose his/her own spouse of
the opposite sex, the right to exit an unhappy marriage, and the right to later remarry.
Discussions of "free love" refrained from any articulated tolerance of sexual relations
outside of marriage. In fact, some contributors took pains to avoid any misinterpretation
82
Zhang Xichen 章錫琛,“Xin xing daode shi shenme 新性道德是什麼?” FNZZ 10, no. 1
(January 1925): 2-7.
50
of an endorsement of extramarital relationships. A 1925 article entitled "Marrying After
Divorce (Lihun hou de jiehun 離婚後的結婚)" explicitly condemned women who
entered into a new engagement (婚約 hunyue) before divorcing, "because the same
person cannot maintain two natural marriages at the same time 因為同一人兩個自然的
婚姻不能在同時間並存." 83 In this way, the journal continued to emphasize heterosexual
monogamy as an integral component of moral behavior for both men and women of the
twentieth century.
Conclusion
From 1919 to 1925, The Ladies' Journal reflected the impact of the New Culture
Movement in China. Notable intellectuals associated with this movement became
actively involved in the writing and editing of the journal's content. These figures
borrowed from selected Western and Japanese scholarship to shape an image of modern
femininity that exemplified the principles of cosmopolitanism, scientific enlightenment,
and individualism. Unlike contributors in earlier and later periods, these writers
minimized a woman's duty to family and country and instead championed her right of
self-determination. Despite these progressive themes, arguments supporting women's
liberation maintained the biological inferiority of females and asserted the natural need of
women to sustain relationships with men.
The endorsement of relative morality and free divorce proved highly controversial
in 1920s China. In 1925, the Commercial Press garnered criticism from cultural
conservatives, including notable figures such as Beijing University professor Chen
83
"Lihun hou de jiehun 離婚後的結婚," FNZZ 10, no. 1 (January 1925): 136-144.
51
Bainian 陳百年 (1886-1983). In response to this growing criticism, the Commercial
Press removed Zhang Xichen from his post as editor in September 1925. Zhang
subsequently founded a periodical titled The New Woman (Xin nüxing 新女性), which
The Women's Study Society (Funü wenti yanjiuhui 婦女問題研究會) of Shanghai
published monthly until December 1929. Though The New Woman continued to promote
progressive themes during these years to a smaller audience, The Ladies' Journal
gradually moved toward more conservative content in the later 1920s under its new editor,
Du Yaquan.84
84
Ma Yuxin has translated the title of Zhang Xichen's new journal, Xin nüxing, as New
Femininity. Ma, Women Journalists and Feminism in China, 1898-1937 (Amherst, NY: Cambria Press,
2010), 227; Nivard, "Women and the Women's Press: The Case of The Ladies' Journal (Funü zazhi), 19151931," Republican China 10, no. 1b (November 1984): 40-42.
52
Chapter 3:
The "New Woman" of the Guomindang State, 1926-1931
The iconoclastic messages presented in The Ladies' Journal fell out of fashion
amid shifting political conditions in the later 1920s and early 1930s. Editor Zhang
Xichen's messages of "new sexual morality" garnered criticism from readers and
intellectual figures as the New Culture Movement gave way to more conservative
intellectual trends. As the Chinese Communist Party and the Guomindang joined forces
against warlordism and imperialism in 1926, many intellectuals came to see themselves
as "zhishi fenzi 知識分子” or, in the words of Vera Schwarcz, "knowledgeable elements
of a larger, class-conscious body politic."85 In this political and intellectual climate, the
necessity of national salvation came to marginalize messages promoting cultural
transformation.
This shifting political and intellectual climate brought changes to Shanghai's
Commercial Press as well. In May of 1925, a Chinese worker died amid poor conditions
in a Japanese textile factory in Shanghai. When authorities in the foreign concession
85
Vera Schwarcz, The Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May Fourth
Movement of 1919, (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986), 9-10; 148-150;
Nivard, “Women and the Women’s Press: The Case of The Ladies' Journal, 1915-1931," Republican China
10, no. 1b (November 1984): 37-55.
53
opened fire on demonstrators, this Shanghai labor strike sparked mass, anti-foreign
demonstrations throughout China. Though Shanghai municipal authorities forbade
publications from publicizing the strike, several notable staff members of the Commercial
Press voiced support for these demonstrations, collectively known as the May Thirtieth
Movement (1925). In 1927, the Guomindang established political authority over Chinesecontrolled areas of Shanghai and suppressed the activities of labor unions associated with
the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) proletariat movement. After Commercial Press
editors and writers Cai Yuanpei 蔡元培 (1868-1940), Wu Zhihui 吳稚輝 (1865-1953),
and Li Shizeng 李石曾 (1881-1973) submitted a letter to the government denouncing the
suppression of labor unions, the Commercial Press attracted the scrutiny of the
Guomindang's censorship apparatus.86 Combined with intellectual trends, these political
conditions dictated a shift in the content of Commercial Press publications, such as The
Ladies' Journal, in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
In its final years of publication, the content of The Ladies' Journal shifted away
from progressive themes to accommodate these more conservative trends and ultimately,
the demands of the newly founded Guomindang government in China. Although
Jacqueline Nivard's 1984 study of The Ladies’ Journal suggested an abrupt turn toward
conservatism in 1926, critical analysis of the journal’s content reveals a more gradual
movement toward a vigorous promotion of traditional virtues and domesticity. As the
cause of such a shift, Nivard and Ma Yuxin have emphasized changes in the journal's
personnel. However the gradual progression of this transition and the articulated support
86
Manying Ip, The Life and Times of Zhang Yuanji, 1867-1959 (Beijing: Commercial Press,
1985), 210-220.
54
of Guomindang policy suggests that changing sociopolitical conditions played a more
significant role in shaping the journal’s content.87 Amid the growing influence of the
Guomindang over publication, the image of the cosmopolitan, subversive woman of the
late 1910s and early 1920s served as an implicit defining other for discussions of the
“new woman" from 1926 to 1931. During this period, the content of The Ladies’ Journal
came to depict the "new woman" of the Nanjing Decade as a liberated and loyal citizen,
wife, and mother.
"Urgent Matters for Women (funü de jiwu 婦女的急務)"
Articles published immediately following the removal of editor Zhang Xichen in
late 1925 avoided many of the controversial topics that had garnered criticism for the
journal during Zhang’s tenure. Yet, the new editor of The Ladies’ Journal, Du Yaquan,
refrained from explicitly criticizing Zhang or his fellow New Culture intellectuals.
Instead, the journal glorified the achievements of the women’s movement throughout
previous decades, implying that activism was no longer necessary given the drastic
improvements to the status of women in Chinese society. Within such discourse, the
idealized woman of the New Culture Era, critical of Confucian patriarchy and advocating
for social change, grew passé. In the “modern” China of the later 1920s, truly “new”
women had moved beyond the narrative of victimization, having already obtained
education, economic independence, and a degree of autonomy with regard to marriage.
87
Nivard, "Women and the Women's Press;" Ma, “Male Feminism and Women’s Subjectivities:
Zhang Xichen, Chen Xuezhao, and The New Woman." Twentieth-Century China 29, no. 1 (November
2003): 1-37.
55
Asserting the notion that previous activism had largely achieved its goals, articles
published in The Ladies' Journal during the late 1920s often compared the plight of
contemporary women to that of Chinese women throughout history. An overwhelming
number of articles expressed observations regarding the growing scarcity of “old”
practices such as footbinding, arranged marriage, and polygamy. In a 1927 article
entitled, “In the Eyes of Foreigners is the Chinese Women’s Reform Movement (Wairen
yan'guang zhong shi zhongguo funü gexin yundong 外人眼光中是中國婦女革新運動),"
the author claimed that improvements in the lives of women had become the defining
characteristic of China’s modern culture. According to the article, both domestic and
foreign observers praised such advances. Like many other contributors to the journal, the
author asserted that women in the later 1920s enjoyed significantly expanded freedom,
given that they no longer bound their feet and that increasing numbers had received
education.88 In a description of women from Xinhui County (Xinhui xian 新會縣) in
Guangdong province, another article asserted that the liberation of Chinese women had
spread beyond cities to benefit women of rural areas. Although the author noted that the
women of Xinhui had yet to achieve social status comparable to that of men in the county,
the article emphasized the ways in which the lives of these women had improved
dramatically compared to the past.89
Reinforcing the notion that New Culture feminism had achieved its goals in the
later 1920s, a number of contributors to the journal during this period asserted the
88
Ming Yang 明養, “Wairen yangguang zhong shi zhongguo funü gexin yundong 外人眼光中是
中國婦女革新運動,” FNZZ 13, no. 12 (1927): 7-11.
89
Zhong Hua 仲華, “Xinhui de funü shenghuo 新會的婦女生活,” FNZZ 14, no. 1 (January 1928):
53-54.
56
progress of women globally. These writers connected the advancement of women in
China to that of women in Europe and North America in the interwar years. In a 1926
article, a contributor named Ying Zhi 穎之 praised the recent achievements of women in
various countries, given that many had entered the professional workforce and had
obtained the right to vote. Though conceding that Chinese women had yet to obtain many
of the same legal rights as their Western counterparts, the author emphasized the
advances of Chinese women, situating them within international trends. Given that the
feminists of the early twentieth century had realized many of their initial goals, the author
supported the advent of a new kind of women's movement. In contrast to past efforts that
called for social changes with direct benefit for women specifically, women should focus
instead on supporting the prosperity of the Chinese nation. Alluding to the goals of the
Northern Expedition, the author specifically urged women to oppose imperialism and
advocate for peace. According to the author, in the modern era, these issues constituted
the most "urgent matters for women (funü de jiwu 婦女的急務)."90
Despite the journal's accommodation of shifting attitudes, many readers of The
Ladies’ Journal in the later 1920s continued to express dissatisfaction with the few
articles advocating for the expansion of rights and status of Chinese women. In 1928, a
member of the journal's staff responded to such criticism directly through a message
printed at the beginning of the April issue. The staff member wrote, “Recently we have
received many letters from readers, including some who are unsatisfied with ‘new
women (xin nüzi)’ and feel that society has already opened every occupation to them 進
90
Ying Zhi 穎之,“Ouzhou furen de pinghe yundong 歐洲婦人的平和運動,” FNZZ 12, no. 10
(1926): 2-4.
57
來常常接到諸多讀者寄來的文字，對於新女子有所不滿，以為社會一把一切事業都
開放給她們了."91 Many readers had also reportedly expressed that the scarcity of
women in the public sphere resulted not from a lack of opportunity, but instead the
reluctance of women to fulfill their duty to society. In response to these readers, the staff
member proposed a new vision for The Ladies’ Journal, and the broader women's
movement, that included protecting recent advances while encouraging women to use
their new freedom to contribute to Chinese society. Beyond the shifts in public opinion in
the wake of the New Culture Movement, such comments reflect the growing impact of
re-emerging, centralized government on gender discourse, as focus shifted away from
women as individuals to the potential contributions of women to the nation as a whole.92
Women and the State
Following the success of the Northern Expedition and the establishment of the
Nanjing government in 1928, the state came to play a critical role in shaping the content
of women's periodicals such as The Ladies’ Journal. Throughout the Nanjing Decade, the
state’s resolve to censor its discontents determined the realm of the speakable in public
discourse, prohibiting consideration of any view that stood in opposition to the policies of
the Guomindang. The content of the journal reflected the impact of a series of laws
beginning in 1928 that gradually expanded regulations over publication in the Republic
of China. Although nationalist sentiment had pervaded discussions of women since the
late Qing period, editors and contributors during the late 1920s sought to make Chinese
91
Shang Mu 尚木, (note), FNZZ 14, no.4（April 1928): 2.
92
Ibid., 2.
58
women intelligible subjects to the emerging nation-state. As such, contributors to The
Ladies’ Journal often framed discussions of women’s issues within the context of
specific policies and aims of the Guomindang from 1928 to 1931.
Nowhere was this more apparent than in the contributions of Xu Yasheng 徐亞生,
Director of the Danyang County (danyang xian 丹陽縣) Education Bureau in Jiangsu
province. From late 1928 to 1930, the writings of Xu Yasheng constituted a significant
portion of the total content of The Ladies’ Journal. Well-versed in the political
philosophy of the central government in Nanjing, Xu articulated state policy to the
readership of the journal and suggested the relevance of such policies for the lives of
women. Xu's contributions also compelled readers of the journal to support the
government's campaigns, outlining potential negative consequences for society if the
public, specifically women, failed to embrace the Guomindang's agenda.93
Many of Xu Yasheng’s contributions to The Ladies’ Journal at the onset of the
Nanjing Decade voiced support for the Guomindang’s designation of a “period of
political tutelage (xunzheng shiqi 訓政時期).” As Xu outlined for the readers of The
Ladies’ Journal, Sun Yat-sen’s [Sun Zhongshan 孫中山 (1866-1925)] plan for the
restoration of the Chinese republic included three stages. First, a "period of military rule
(junzheng shiqi 軍政時期)" to reunify the country and combat warlordism. Second, a
"period of political tutelage" in which the government would emphasize the education of
the masses in preparation for the final "period of constitutional government (xianzheng
shiqi 憲政時期)." Upon the defeat of the Beiyang government in 1928, Chiang Kai-shek
93
Caption of photo of Xu Yasheng 徐亞生, FNZZ 16, no. 5 (May 1930): 28.
59
[Jiang Jieshi 蔣介石 (1887-1975)] proclaimed the beginning of the second phase,
political tutelage, using Sun's stages of development as a justification for autocratic rule
throughout the 1920s and 1930s.94
According to Xu Yasheng, the government’s campaign to educate the masses had
particular significance for women throughout China. In “Household Lectures and
Women’s Mass Education (Jiating yanjiang yu nüzi de minzhong jiaoyu 家庭演講與女
子的民眾教育),” Xu provided population statistics from a recent census to illustrate the
critical role of women in the new state. According to the survey, at least half of China's
four hundred million people were female, with women constituting the majority of
China's roughly three hundred million individuals without formal education. According
to Xu, if women expected to gain the right of political participation, they must actively
prepare themselves to become responsible citizens. Xu warned that any resistance to the
state’s campaign of educating the masses during this critical period would leave a
significant portion of the population unqualified to vote and may delay the transition to
democratic government in China. The necessity of women’s participation in the
campaigns of the Guomindang government became a recurring theme in many of Xu
Yasheng's articles printed between 1928 and 1930, as Xu believed that a general lack of
education among Chinese women presented a direct threat to the stability of the state.95
94
Xu Yasheng 徐亞生, “Xunzheng yu funü 訓政與婦女,” FNZZ 16, no. 5 (May 1930): 2-41.
95
Xu Yasheng 徐亞生, “Jiating yanjiang yu nüzi de minzhong jiaoyu 家庭演講與女子的民眾教
育,” FNZZ 15, no. 8 (August 1929): 2-13; Xu Yasheng 徐亞生, “Lun woguo nüzi de canzheng wenti 論我
國女子的參政問題,” FNZZ 15, no. 9 (September 1929): 2-7; Xu Yasheng 徐亞生, “Nüzi de minzhong
jiaoyu wenti 女子的民眾教育問題,” FNZZ 14, no. 11（November 1928): 2-5.
60
Although this renewed focus on the education of women stood in stark contrast to
the post-feminist tone of the journal prior to the foundation of the Nanjing government,
the New Culture woman retained her position as an implicit, constitutive Other in this
discourse. Unlike the individualistic woman of the early 1920s who desired personal
autonomy, the “new woman” of the Nanjing decade pursued education and the right of
political participation in order to fulfill her duty to the nation and demonstrate her loyalty
to the state. Within the arguments of Xu Yasheng, the uneducated woman became not
only backward and out of fashion, but also a threat to national survival.
Though the writings of Xu Yasheng came to dominate much of the journal’s
content during this period, other contributors affirmed his call that women consider the
broader consequences of their behavior for society and state. Although advertisements for
various cosmetics and clothing gained greater presence in the journal in the later 1920s,
many articles criticized fashionable images of the “new woman,” and instead emphasized
the necessity of patriotism and the threat posed by certain female pursuits. In a 1929
article entitled, “The Strengths and Weaknesses of My Country’s Women (Wo guo funü
de youdian ji liedian 我國婦女的優點及劣點,” the author criticized the spread of vanity
among Chinese women, arguing instead that women should be hardworking and frugal.
Another contributor asserted that an obsession with Western fashion and goods had
become the sickness of Chinese women, many of whom had become “new” only on the
outside. In the view of this author, truly modern women had to change their thinking to
consider how they could better contribute to the nation as a whole.96
96
Chu Wei 儲偉 “Woguo funü de youdian ji liedian 我國婦女的優點及劣點,” FNZZ 14, no. 11
(November 1928):14-24; Ai Hua 愛華, “Shu wo suo renwei sin nüzizhe 書我所認為新女子者,” FNZZ 17,
no. 8 (August 1931): 91-96.
61
Similar sentiments also appeared later in a 1931 article by Tao Xisheng 陶希聖
entitled “New/Old Goods and New/Old Women (Xin jiu shangpin yu xin jiu funü 新舊商
品與新舊婦女).” In this article, the author criticized the obsession of Chinese women
with the foreign. According to the author, former images of the “new woman”
emphasized her ability to speak foreign languages and her affinity for foreign goods. The
author attempted to revise this outdated perception through a description of the ideal
“new woman” of the Nanjing Decade, who instead supported domestic manufacturing
and carefully considered a man’s loyalty to the state when choosing a husband.97
Beyond their habits and ideas, the bodies of women also garnered scrutiny as
expressions of one’s loyalty to the nation-state in the discourse of the late 1920s and early
1930s. According to contributor Chen Jiangtao 陳江滔, a number of Chinese intellectuals
felt that the physical weakness of women made them unfit for participation in politics.
Because of the inferiority of their bodies, women could not be viewed as fundamentally
equal to men. The threat of foreign aggression fueled such concerns, as some believed
that women would be unable to physically fight in armed conflict.98
Echoing the words of many male intellectuals of the late Qing, a number of
contributors to The Ladies’ Journal engaged in a nationalist discussion of women’s
bodies that emphasized the need for women to become physically fit and strong. Many of
these articles suggested the prevalence of the belief that the physical weakness of women
hindered their entrance into the public sphere. However, rather than highlighting the
97
Tao Xisheng 陶希聖, “Xinjiu shangpin yu xinjiu funü 新舊商品與新舊婦女,” FNZZ 17, no. 2
(February 1931): 2-5.
98
Chen Jiangtao 陳江滔, "Jinhou woguo funü yingyou zhi zhengfa quan 今後我國婦女應有之政
法權," FNZZ 13, no. 10 (October 1927): 2-4; see also Bailey, Gender and Education in China, 12-15, 78.
62
benefits of exercise and hygiene for one’s individual wellbeing, these articles asserted the
maintenance of a woman’s health as part of her duty to the Chinese nation. As a result,
diagrams and photographs illustrating various strength-building exercises frequented the
pages of the journal during this period.99
The theme of women’s health as critical to the success of the nation-state also
resulted in the rare discussion of feminine hygiene and sexual health. Although some
scholars, such as Jacqueline Nivard, have argued that controversial and taboo topics
completely disappeared from the journal following the exodus of Zhang Xichen in 1925,
a number of articles discussing women’s health present a clear exception to this trend.100
In an article from 1928, the author instructed readers on the maintenance of their bodies
during menstruation and pregnancy, arguing that while physical exercise remained
essential for health, women should rest during these periods. Another article warned
about the physical dangers of unrestrained sexual desire for both men and women,
arguing that masturbation and lust may have disastrous consequences for the health of
individuals and social harmony. A rare discussion of birth control appeared in 1931, in
which the author urged readers to carefully consider the possible benefits of
contraception. According to the author, despite the need for women to produce sons,
99
Exercise diagrams, FNZZ 17, no. 2 (February 1931): frontmatter.
100
Nivard’s study of The Ladies' Journal argued that controversial topics disappeared from the
journal in its final years of publication, specifically mentioning divorce as an example. Careful analysis of
the journal itself reveals multiple discussions of divorce specifically, with many other potentially
controversial or taboo topics appearing with less frequency. See Nivard, "Women and the Women's Press,"
40-47; see also Zhong Hua 仲華, "Shinian jian fenlan lihun lü de juzeng 十年間芬蘭離婚率的劇增,"
FNZZ 15, no. 4 (April 1929): 37; Xu Yasheng 徐亞生, "Lihun lunlüe 離婚論略," FNZZ 16, no. 3 (May
1930): 2‐10.
63
multiple, unplanned pregnancies threatened the physical health of women, and therefore
the overall strength of the Chinese nation.101
Later issues of The Ladies Journal also reflected state anxieties concerning
stagnant population growth. China’s population had grown exponentially following the
introduction of "new world" crops during the Qing dynasty. However, from the midnineteenth to the early twentieth century, military conflict, political disorder, and
migration curbed growth significantly in eastern China, particularly in the Lower Yangzi
region where Guomindang power was concentrated. According to a survey cited in The
Ladies' Journal, the population growth rate in areas under Guomindang control remained
significantly lower than those of many Western nations. Fears concerning the survival of
the Chinese people sparked an impassioned promotion of opposite-sex marriage and
procreation, leading many to emphasize the need for women to produce sons for the good
of the state. In the final years of the journal, such arguments represented yet another way
in which the content of The Ladies’ Journal embraced various policies of the Nanjing
government.102
"Virtuous Mothers and Good Wives"
101
Su Fen 素芬, "Xingyu yu rensheng 性慾與人生 FNZZ 14, no.2 (February 1928): 42-54; Jiao
Zhi 徼知, "Funü xing shenghuo shang de aoyao 婦女性生活上的奧窔," FNZZ 14, no.2 (February 1928):
70-74; Xu Yasheng 徐亞生, "Hunyin wenti de yanjiu 婚姻問題的研究," FNZZ 15, no. 4 (April 1929): 216, Jin Zhonghua 金仲華, "Jiezhi shengyu yu furen shengli de jiefang 節制生育與婦人生理的解放,"
FNZZ 17, no. 9 (September 1931): 2-10.
102
Lin Lixing 林歷星, "Renkou wenti yu chan'er zhixian 人口問題與 兒制限," FNZZ 17, no. 8
(August 1931): 2-10; see also Frederic Wakeman, Jr., The Fall of Imperial China (New York: The Free
Press, 1975), 2-3, 12-13; James Z. Lee and Wang Feng, One Quarter of Humanity: Malthusian Mythology
and Chinese Realities, 1700-2000 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 116-117.
64
Without exception, marriage was the most prevalent topic in The Ladies’ Journal
throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s. Through advertising, photographs, literature
and editorials, the journal presented an unchallenged endorsement of monogamous,
opposite-sex marriage. During these years, discourses of love and sexuality refrained
from any acknowledgement of romantic relationships existing outside the realm of
marriage. Although some intellectuals of the New Culture Era supported notions of
"alternative sexual morality" and the freedom to divorce and remarry, the perceived threat
to society and state forbade the “new woman” of the Nanjing Decade from engaging in
such practices.103
Readers of The Ladies' Journal encountered messages of compulsory marriage
and procreation through advertisements. Along with cosmetics and clothing, children’s
books, toys, and medicines constituted the most prominent images in the journal.
Advertisements for household products, such as cleaning supplies and food, often
depicted scenes of domestic bliss, in which a woman used the manufacturer’s product to
care for her husband and children. Even advertisements for seemingly unrelated products
such as a Kodak camera suggested a woman’s primary role as wife and mother through
depictions of a woman and child viewing photographs together. Given the aim of
advertisers to appeal to the masses, these images suggest a prevailing notion of
motherhood and domesticity as central aspects of acceptable femininity during the
Nanjing Decade.104
103
Ma, "Male Feminism and Women's Subjectivities," 5.
104
Such advertisements dominated the pages of The Ladies’ Journal throughout the late 1920s and
early 1930s. Some examples include: FNZZ 12, no.1 (January 1926): 35; 13, no. 2 (February 1927): 17-18.
65
Articles printed in The Ladies’ Journal engaged in a more direct promotion of
monogamous, heterosexual, companionate marriage that became increasingly dominant
in the final years of the journal’s publication. Despite a long, well-documented history of
concubinage and same-sex relationships, contributors to the journal often portrayed
opposite-sex, monogamous marriage as the foundational unit of Chinese civilization.105
Many articles discussing marriage asserted the universal desire to marry for all of
humanity. In the words of one contributor, “I believe everyone in the world, no matter
whether male or female, has the essential need for establishing a family 我相信世界上的
人們，無論男女，均有組織家庭的必要.”106 Another contributor remarked, “The
question of marriage is a person's most important personal question 婚姻問題是人生最
重要切身的一個問題.”107 Xu Yasheng asserted, “No matter what person…nearly all
seek a way to find marriage 無論甚麼人…差不多都要謀婚姻的解決.”108 Such
comments reveal the tendency of the journal to portray opposite-sex marriage as a joyous
and compulsory rite of passage for every Chinese man and woman.
Given the presumed universality of the desire to marry, many articles in The
Ladies’ Journal instructed women on grooming daughters for marriage, finding an ideal
husband, and maintaining healthy marital relationships. In the mid- to late 1920s, these
articles tended to emphasize finding a caring mate with a compatible disposition to
105
See Wu Cuncun, Homoerotic Sensibilities in Late-Imperial China (New York:
RoutledgeCurzon, 2004).
106
Aiqiong Nüshi 愛瓊女士, "Jinnian lai wo suo zhuyi de shi 今年來我所注意的事," FNZZ 12,
no. 5 (May 1926): 20-21.
107
Lu Shaoji 盧紹稷, "Nü xuesheng de hunyin wenti 女學生的婚姻問題," FNZZ 14, no. 7 (July
1928): 112-114.
108
Xu Yasheng 徐亞生, "Hunyin wenti de yanjiu 婚姻問題的研究," 2-16.
66
ensure domestic harmony. One such article from 1928 considered the strengths and
weaknesses of potential husbands in various professions, only to conclude that a man’s
occupation had little to do with his potential for marriage. According to this author, in the
end, the most important quality of a potential husband is a commitment to love and care
for his wife.109
Later articles in The Ladies' Journal placed a greater emphasis on marriage as a
woman's service to society and country. In 1929, a contributor named Wang Zeli 王則李
refuted the iconoclasm of earlier years and argued for a return to the notion that
"supporting one's husband and raising children is a woman's (nüzi) mission in life 女子相
夫教子，是她們的天職." Though the author admitted the individual benefits of
achieving economic independence and social status comparable to that of men, the article
warned that the women's movement of the past may have had negative consequences for
Chinese society. In the opinion of this author, a woman's first priority should be to
become a "virtuous mother and a good wife (xian mu liang qi 賢母良妻)."110 Another
article printed in 1927 emphasized the necessity of domestic education for girls to
prepare them to perform their critical role in the future of the Chinese nation. This
contributor asserted that although marriage should be an equal partnership between
husband and wife, women remained ultimately responsible for raising children and
maintaining the home.111
109
Ju Ci 琚慈, "Lixiang de zhangfu 理想的丈夫," FNZZ 14, no. 4 (April 1928): 13-14.
110
Wang Zeli 王則李, "Cong xiandai nüquan yundong shuo dao xianmu liangqi 從現代女權運動
到賢母良妻," FNZZ 15, no. 4 (April 1929): 21-23.
111
Li Jiusi 李九思, "Gailiang jiashi jiaoyu tan 改良家事教育談," FNZZ 13, no. 1 (January 1927):
39-44.
67
The glorification of married bliss led some contributors to criticize harshly the
practice of divorce in Chinese society. Unlike discussions of divorce in the New Culture
Era that championed a woman's right of self-determination, divorce in the Nanjing
Decade became something to avoid at virtually any cost. Most contributors asserted the
necessity of grooming a son or daughter for marriage and the pursuit of a compatible
mate in order to prevent future unhappiness.112 Other contributors, including Xu
Yasheng, warned of the disastrous consequences for society as a whole. In a 1930 article,
Xu wrote that even though the divorce rate in China had not reached that of Europe and
North America, the slow increase in the amount of divorces threatened the stability of the
nation. Xu feared divorce could lead to the collapse of the family as a foundational
institution, detriment to the welfare of children, and the decline of China's population.113
Although such demonization of the divorced included the recognition of their
existence, contributors during this period refrained from acknowledging individuals
without clear ties to heterosexual marriage. Young women were to groom themselves for
future marriage while adult women were charged with obtaining a compatible husband
and preventing divorce. Through this uncompromised promotion of heteronormative
kinship, the editorial staff of The Ladies’ Journal participated in an implicit form of
censorship that failed to recognize the unmarried and foreclosed consideration of
extramarital or non-heteronormative relationships. Though articulated criticism of such
phenomena would have allowed for some measure of recognition within the realm of
112
Chen Hanmin 陳罕敏, "Lihun yu jiating ji daode wenti 離婚與家庭及道德問題," FNZZ 14,
no. 8 (August 1928): 50-56.
113
Xu Yasheng 徐亞生, "Lihun lunlüe 離婚論略," 2-10.
68
public discourse, the total avoidance of such topics reinforced an image of modern
femininity closely associated with heterosexual monogamy and procreation.
One example of such heterosexist discourse can be found in a 1929 article by Zhu
Bingguo 朱秉國 entitled "Knowledge that Women Should have Before and After They
Marry (Jia qian yu jia hou ying you de renshi 嫁前與嫁後應有的認識)." In this article,
the author classified women within two categories: those who will marry and those who
have already married. Alienating the spinster and widow, the author stated that
"unmarried women (nüzi), it can be said that all are young 未嫁女子，可說全是青年."
To reinforce the norm that women become not only "good wives" but also "virtuous
mothers," the author continued, "married women (nüzi), most of them are mothers 嫁的
女子，又多半是母親." According to this author, heterosexual marriage and procreation
constituted a woman's important task to society and state.114 The author of a later article
entitled "Marriage and Happiness (Hunyin yu xingfu 婚姻與幸福)" presented similar
sentiments, affirming the overwhelming social pressure to marry with the assertion that
through marriage a woman obtains happiness and a sense of belonging.115
Conclusion
Throughout the later 1920s and early 1930s, the content of The Ladies' Journal
transitioned away from iconoclastic narratives to a discourse that emphasized
heteronormativity and the service of women to the nation-state. Expressing the belief that
114
Zhu Bingguo 朱秉國, "Jia qian yu jia hou yingyou de renshi 嫁前與嫁後應有的認識," FNZZ
15, no.10 (October 1929): 2-6.
115
Bao Sun 葆損, "Jiehun yu xingfu 結婚與幸福," FNZZ 16, no. 1 (January 1930): 15-21.
69
the feminism of the past had largely achieved its goals, contributors suggested a new
focus for the women's movement that emphasized national salvation. In order to
demonstrate their loyalty and devotion to the nation-state, "new women" of the Nanjing
Decade supported Guomindang policy and produced children to boost China's population.
Although shifts in public opinion initiated these trends in the journal's content, from 1928,
the centralized power of the Nanjing Government compelled the journal to endorse
Guomindang policies. The evident impact of state policy on widely circulated opinions
regarding femininity, kinship, and marriage demonstrates the significance of political
conditions in shaping gender discourse and prevalent notions of the modern feminine
ideal.
70
Conclusion
This study has examined the impact of highly volatile sociopolitical conditions on
gender discourse in the longest-lived and most widely read women's periodical in
Republican China, The Ladies' Journal. Amid revolution, imperialism, social movements,
and war, political and intellectual figures debated the particularities of twentieth-century
feminine subjectivity through multiple, differing representations of the Chinese "new
woman." In the early years of the Republic of China, contributors to The Ladies' Journal
depicted the idealized "new woman" as an educated and skilled homemaker. As the
journal embraced the goals of the New Culture Movement in 1919, the modern feminine
ideal came to exemplify the values of cosmopolitanism, enlightenment, and individualism,
while resisting traditional norms that forbade free-choice marriage and divorce. Amid the
political reunification of China and the establishment of a centralized government in the
late 1920s, the journal's depiction of the "new woman" shifted once again to encompass
demonstrations of loyalty to the Guomindang state.
As conceptions of modernity and the feminine ideal shifted, so too did the goals
of the larger women's movement. Students and writers associated with the "women's
movement (funü yundong 婦女運動)" in the mid-1910s passionately promoted expanded
educational opportunities for women and girls. From the late 1910s to the early 1920s,
71
those articulating support for "feminism (funü zhuyi 婦女主義)" vehemently criticized
patriarchy and championed free divorce and remarriage as the realization of a woman's
right of self-determination. As progressive activism fell out of intellectual fashion,
readers of The Ladies' Journal voiced disillusionment with such criticism of women's
oppression. In response, many writers of the later 1920s and early 1930s endorsed a new
vision for the women's movement that listed resistance to imperialism and war among its
primary goals.
Despite this historical variance, one striking area of continuity in discussions of
femininity remained across the lifespan of The Ladies' Journal. From its inception to its
close, the journal presented monogamous, opposite-sex marriage and procreation as
compulsory actions of Chinese women. In the journal's early years of publication,
motherhood necessitated women's education, as specialized knowledge and skill assisted
in the rearing of children. Selectively importing and adapting Western sexology,
intellectuals of the early 1920s established "woman" as a biological category that fulfilled
its basic, reproductive function through sexual union with "man." The New Culture attack
on traditional practices such as concubinage also affirmed the emergence of one-manone-woman marriage as a marker of modernity. In the late 1920s and early 1930s,
contributors to the journal compelled Chinese women to practice heterosexual monogamy
for the sake of social harmony and in order to produce sons who would defend the state.
After 1931
In December 1931, The Ladies’ Journal published its final issue. Just as broader
political conditions had shaped its content throughout its period of publication, the
72
growing conflict between Japan and the Guomindang government resulted in the
journal’s demise. Tensions concerning Japan’s continued control of Manchuria
culminated in a surprise attack on Shanghai in January 1932. The Japanese bombing of
the city had disastrous consequences for the Commercial Press. Six bombs struck the
Commercial Press’s complex of factories and warehouses resulting in a fire that raged for
days. In light of such devastating financial loss, the Commercial Press ceased production
for a period of eight months. In August 1932, a much smaller press resumed operation
with only five periodicals, which did not include The Ladies’ Journal.116
Though The Ladies’ Journal ended, discussions of the Chinese “new woman”
continued into the later 1930s. In publications such as Women’s Monthly (Nüzi yuekan 女
子月刊), advertisers depicted the modern Chinese woman as a fashionable consumer in
contrast to writers who emphasized her intellect and moral character. The Guomindang
state promoted alternative images of the modern woman through the New Life Campaign
of 1934 that stressed Confucian virtue and civic responsibility. Competing archetypes of
the “modern girl (modeng gou'er 摩登狗兒／ modeng guniang 摩登姑娘)” also
appeared in the literature of the later 1930s, as writers sought to resist other circulating
notions and present a cosmopolitan feminine ideal for the later Nanjing Decade.117
Though beyond the scope of this case study, these phenomena affirm the instability and
adaptability of the “new woman” ideal in Republican China.
116
Manying Ip, The Life and Times of Zhang Yuanji, 1867-1959 (Beijing: Commercial Press,
1985), 234-239.
117
Edwards, “Policing the Modern Woman in Republican China,” Modern China 26, no. 2 (April
2000): 115-147; Stevens, “Figuring Modernity: The New Woman and the Modern Girl in Republican
China,” NWSA Journal 15, no. 3 (Autumn 2003): 82-103.
73
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