During my visit to St. Petersburg about two months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting your Chairman. To me, it was an unexpected privilege indeed. But at that time little did I know that through this casual friendly meeting in Florida, I would within a matter of eight weeks be given the opportunity of seeing this large gathering of ladies in Niagara Falls. Now, my delight is multiplied many times!
When your Chairman asked me to speak to you, she suggested that I should talk on Chinese women. Not being an expert on women's activities, and still less an authority on Chinese women, I was quite hesitant in accepting this delicate and difficult assignment. In spite of my varied adventures here and there and my eager search for enlightenment on women's activities and problems, I can hardly claim to have any unusual knowledge about Chinese women. It is true that I am married to one of them—for nearly thirty years—but it would be presumptuous for any man to assert that married life has taught him everything about women. This assignment is truly a path "where fools rush in and the angels fear to tread."
Sixty years ago, we had a venerable Chinese scholar and statesman representing the then Imperial Government of China as Minister to the United States of America. Dr. Wu Ting-fang—this was the Minister's name had served in Washington, D. C. for about six years (1897-1909) before finally going back to China to become Minister of Foreign Affairs. Among the things which Dr. Wu had written was a very interesting book entitled "America Through the Spectacles of An Oriental Diplomat'" published by Frederick Stokes and Co. of New York City in 1914.
Like many Chinese gentlemen during those days (before the Chinese Revolution of 1911), Dr. Wu was not fond of, nor accustomed to wearing American clothes. In fact, as he pointed out in his book he found American clothes cumbersome and uncomfortable. So most of the time, he wore a long Chinese gown, and over it a short silk jacket and the usual Chinese cap. One day, two American women saw Dr. Wu walking ahead of them in the streets of the national capital. They could not tell whether the intriguing Chinese garment was that of a man or woman. In order to settle their argument, they hurriedly approached the Chinese diplomat and asked him: "As we are not familiar with Oriental dresses, we wonder if you will help us settle an argument and tell us whether you are a gentleman or a lady." Dr. Wu, in true diplomatic style, replied: "Both of you are correct, for I am a lady's man!"
Not long ago, an American gentleman declared in the course of a television program that he believed women were superior to men. His statement surprised both the master of ceremony and the audience. But to many Chinese, that statement was and still is a truism few of our people ever question. For in our history, we have had numerous outstanding women. If we rarely admit the superiority of women publicly, we never deny it privately. For we know, as Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, that while a man may have his will it is usually the woman who has her way. So, in order to know the Chinese people, it will be worthwhile to know something about Chinese women, their status and some of their contributions to Chinese society.
Let me, first of all, remind you that China has a cultural background of more than 4,000 years. In such an old and large country—larger than Europe—there is naturally a great variety of customs and traditions in different provinces. In this vast area inhabited by nearly 500,000,000 people, there are many variations in our ideas and treatment of women. Some of these ideas and practices are good, some bad; some of them are liberal, some conservative.
It is not generally realised in America how much Chinese women have accomplished and what a great and noble influence they have had upon Chinese life and Chinese history. An Englishman, Sir Robert Hart, remarked many years ago: "The Chinese have the best food to eat which is rice, the best thing to drink which is tea, and the best material to wear which is silk." All these three necessities of life are made available or prepared by women. Is it any wonder, then, that the Chinese feel they owe much to their womenfolk, and are proud of their women?
In the home, in society and even in government affairs, Chinese women have exerted a tremendous influence. If we read some history books on China, we shall find many important and famous personalities, such as (1) Lei Tsu, wife of Emperor Huang Ti, who as early as 26 centuries before Christ, reared silkworms and taught Chinese women to cultivate mulberry trees and develop silk weaving; (2) the mother of the great Chinese scholar-philosopher, Mencius, who deliberately moved from place to place in order to find the most favorable environment to bring up her son properly; (3) another mother who was too poor to buy paper and a writing brush, but ingeniously used a bamboo to teach her son to write on sand; (4) still another mother who had so persistently inculcated the principle of loyalty upon her son's mind and had the four words "Serve Your Country Loyally" tattooed on the young man's back that he, named Yoh Fei, became one of China's outstanding patriots and heroes; and (5) Pan Chao, the most distinguished woman scholar and first woman historian in China, whose pattern for women's education had been followed by the Chinese for centuries.
Pan Chao had advocated education for women as early as the first century, A. D. Married at the age of 15, Pan Chao early became a widow. But at once she set about using her widowhood in historical and literary studies. Her brother, Pan Ku, was the Imperial Court historiographer, and so she had given him much assistance. Later, she herself was given the job of revising and writing the country's official history. As a reward for her efforts, Pan Chao was honored with the title "Lady of Poetry and Eloquence". One of her works which had become famous in the annals of Chinese literature was called, most interestingly: "Lessons for the Female Sex."
Though perhaps the most outstanding, Pan Chao was only one of about 310 ladies who were deemed worthy of mention in the Chinese series of books called "Biographies of Famous Women." Time does not permit me to go on with any of the other famous women we have had in our history.
Before Western ideas were introduced into China around the 17th century, her conception and treatment of women were largely governed by Confucianism. In ancient times, the position of women was limited to the home, but in the home Chinese women held a degree of power and prestige very little understood in the West. Although for centuries, Chinese women have more or less stayed in the background, actually they have had immense influence in shaping the life and development of the country.
The influence of Chinese women—particularly during the old days—was especially noticeable and solid through what we called in China, home education. Home education and parental guidance (before the introduction of modern schools and colleges in China) had been the most widely used and most effective instrument for molding the lives of young people. In the process of conducting this home education, Chinese wives and mothers have emphasized the virtues of filial piety, respect for teachers and elders, and the importance of gentlemanly conduct. During the old days the Chinese people were meticulously careful in observing Confucian ethics. For instance, according to Confucian teachings, men and women should' not mix freely. And so you hear many people say that Chinese men and their wives rarely show their affection in public. Even today, many Chinese families in the United States stress the importance of home education and good behavior on the part of the youngsters. This is perhaps one of the reasons why juvenile delinquency amongst the Chinese communities in America is not as extensive as it is found in other groups of people.
With the opening of China in the 18th and 19th centuries and the inauguration of modern educational systems, Chinese women have gained more freedom of action. This increase in freedom and improvement in their social and political status has been especially rapid since the 1911 Revolution. Actually, amongst the original revolutionaries who overthrew the Manchu regime 46 years ago, there were several women leaders. Today, Chinese women occupy a position in Chinese society as high as their sisters do in many Western countries. Nowadays, Chinese women go into various occupations and professions freely. Some of our best educators, scientists, doctors, lawyers, business executives, social workers, writers, government officials are women. And in the Chinese government there has been a steady increase in the number of women employees during the last 40 years. Gradually and quietly, Chinese women have improved their position in society and extended their influence. This development has been so natural and has taken place so unobtrusively that we Chinese people accept the new influence and status of women in our national life as a matter of course. And this probably explains why there has been so very little opposition against what is commonly called the Women's Movement in China.
Chinese women are human beings and like women in any other country. Just as their sisters in the West, they have the same feelings, aspirations and problems: Like their sisters in America, they have the same vices and vanities.
For instance, Chinese women are just as eager as their sisters in the West to look young. The story was told about a Chinese bride who once tried to conceal her real age to the bridegroom, a middle-aged man. According to old Chinese customs, the families of the bride and the bridegroom would exchange particulars through a match-maker before the date of marriage, and often the bride's family would give her age lower than it really was. But one day there was a middle aged man who was too clever to be deceived. When the bride and the bridegroom got through with the wedding ceremony and retired to their new home, he asked her:
"What is your real age though on the betrothal paper brought to me by the match-maker, your age was put down as 35?" To this the bride answered: "Well, if you want to know my real age and feel so desperate about it, I shall tell you. I am only 45." Thereupon the bridegroom said: "I see, but before I retire I'd better lock the door and cover up the salt in the kitchen, so that the rats will not eat it." The bride was very much surprised to hear this and retorted: "You fool, in all my 55 years of life I have never heard of rats eating salt!"
Perhaps a more positive characteristic of Chinese women which I must mention today is their ability to face hardships, make adjustments and to live in harmony with various members of their families—including their mothers-in-law! Chinese women (of course, there are exceptions) are noted for their ability to sink their differences in trying to live a peaceful family life. In China, especially during the old days, we have very large families living together for years and years virtually under the same roof.
During the 7th century, there was a man named Chang Kurig-yi whose family, composed of several hundred members, had lived harmoniously in one compound for decades. In Chang's household, there were never any quarrels between the men and the women; there were no quarrels between the women themselves. It was reported that amidst such a peaceful atmosphere, even the dogs in the Chang courtyard did not bark at one another. This House of Harmony became so well-known that one day the Emperor, Kao Tsung, came to the village to find out the secret of good government. When the Emperor asked Chang Kung-yi: "What is the secret of harmonious living?" the 90-year-old man was too frail to talk. But he summoned his grandchildren to bring him a pen and a piece of paper, and on the paper he wrote the Chinese word for tolerance a hundred times!
Tolerance—the capacity to endure hardships, to overcome difficulties and to outlive one's problems—is one of the outstanding characteristics of Chinese women and has been one of the strong points of Chinese culture.
In Free China today, the status of women has advanced by leaps and bounds, and their progress in many fields of activity is remarkable indeed. Walking in the streets of Taiwan as I did last summer or visiting the business and government offices there, one will see women holding important positions and carrying on their work as easily as men do. In Taiwan there has been a steady increase in government workers, teachers, lawyers, judges, business executives, accountants, writers, journalists and publishers during the last few years. Of the two English dailies in Taiwan, one—the China Post—is edited and published by a woman, named Nancy Yu. The director of the Social Education Division of the Ministry of Education is a woman, Miss Yeh Tsu-shing. The deputy director of the Taiwan Provincial Bureau of Education is a woman, named Chang Peng-tseng.
At this point, let me emphasize that according to the Chinese Constitution, women are guaranteed equal rights and privileges as those given to men. Article 7 of the Chinese Constitution states that all citizens of the Republic of China, irrespective of sex, religion, race, class or party affiliation, shall be equal before the law. Article 153 gives special protection to women and child workers, limiting their working hour to eight per day. Articles 159 and 160 provide free elementary education, textbooks, for all children from 6 to 12 years of age, irrespective of sex. And finally, Article 26 contains a special provision for minimum women's representation in the nation's elections.
This brings me to something that is very little known to Americans: according to China's Electoral Law, no less than 10 per cent of the delegates in our central, provincial and local legislative bodies must be women. Thus out of a total of about 537 members in our Legislative Yuan (or Parliament) currently functioning in Taiwan, at least 60 are women. In the United States Congress, I believe, you now have only one woman senator and no more than 15 Congresswomen. Numerically speaking, we seem to be even more modern than modern America.
In the Taiwan Provincial Assembly, the same extent of women's representation may be noted. Just as in the central or federal legislative body, whenever a seat is left vacant by a woman delegate it can be filled only by another woman.
At present, Taiwan has one provincial and more than 20 local women's associations aimed at promoting women's welfare. Their activities include free professional guidance to expectant mothers, free medical attention to poor women and children; nursery service, employment aid, advice on marriage and domestic problems, and in some places even free classes on home economics, and Chinese and English languages.
But no review of Chinese women's progress and contributions will be complete without my reporting to you, though very briefly, the fine work which the Chinese Women's Anti-Aggression League has been doing since its establishment by Madame Chiang Kai-shek and her colleagues in 1950. Founded for the purpose of mobilizing women's efforts in practical projects of social and military services, and with its headquarters in Taipei, the League now has 56 branches, 240 sub-branches and about 100 working groups in Taiwan. During the last seven years, the Chinese Women's Anti-Aggression League has directed its energy not only towards members of the armed services, but also to underdeveloped regions or rural areas, factories, schools, colleges, mines and industrial enterprises in enlisting the active participation of women of all classes and age groups. It has helped tens of thousands of wounded or sick servicemen, and has given relief to multitudes of political refugees from Communist China.
And behind all these efforts lies the moving spirit of a great Chinese woman, Madame Chiang Kai-shek. It is none other than this courageous Chinese woman, who is now helping President Chiang day in and day out in combating the expansion of Communism in the Far East and who has told the world:
We will fight the Communists to the last man and the last woman, and then meet our Maker in Heaven with a clear conscience of having done our duty."
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Editor's Note—This is a speech delivered by C. H. Lowe, Chinese author, lecturer and counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D. C., before the Women's Republican Club of Niagara Falls, N. Y. on April 1, 1957.
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A sense of caution should not be wanting; a sense of cheating should never be cultivated.