The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-06-27
WOMEN IN CHINA.
Their Education, Industry and
Social Position.
Daughters More Profitable Than Sons
Woman's Supremacy In All House,
hold AfYairs-Marriage Laws
and Customs.


From financial standpoint, raising
daughters in China is far more prolita-
BILE than raising sons. There is almost
a sure return for evrey dollar invested
and frequently heavy interest in the
former, while the latter are often ac-
companied with loss. Wives are not
bought in China. The young husband
simply makes sort of genteel redemp-
ton IN presents to the good mother-in-
law for the trouble incurred in bring
ing up her daughter. These incurable
courtesies and frequent redempt ons
often cost the unfortunate husband 100
per cent. more than the wife would
bring # put up at auction. Even then
there are many who would pay double
the amount expended to return their
wives without comment on the bargain
Most American writers LABOR under the
erroneous impression as to Chinese So
cial life, suggested in the trte remark
"the Chinese are partial to male in
fants and that the fema es are not
much thought Of" These | quote
from Gutzcail. There is, perhaps, no
nation except Turkey in which the fe-
males are less seen and less known
than China. Their absolute seclus on
from public gaze, both in the street
and at home. make them strangers to
their own race This is so true that
can safely say that married men in
China do not know the opposite sex,
except through their own wives.
Womanhood is so sacred that il is shut
in and begirt by preiudices and customs
more completely than by a Chinese
wall. A wife, daughter and mother
in the Middle Kingdom are like the
Lares and Penates of the early Roman
household.
Women associate with women and
men with men upon all occasions and
under all circumstances. This is strip-
gently carried out in all well-regulated
Chinese families. Even brothers and
sisters are not allowed to eat at the
same table, but have their separate
servants and meals. In China private
dwellings are built in such manner as
to prevent visitors of the opposite sex
from meeting or even seeing the women
of a family Under these circumstances
it might seem d flicult to describe the
condition of the Chinese women and
their treatment. But this condition
and treatment are formulated by the
common law of China. They have been
taught, generation after generation, at
school and hreside, and have become
the public and private law of the land.
Exceptions are treated as misdemean-
ors and are punished accordingly. The
girl of Pc Chi Ii is brought up on the
same basis as her sisters in Shanghai.
OF course, this training is widely, if not
Numerically, different from that fol-
lowed in Christian countries. Yet the
enforced seclusion is no greater than
that which prevails in France, Span
and Italy, and the fashionable com
mentioned in the same brain with the
voluntary compression of the waist and
vitals so noticeable in America.
With all due respect TO demagogues
and bigots | am certain that the health
OF the average Chinese girl and woman
Is superior to that of their Occidental
sister, The fashionable doctors of the
great cities of Chrstendom would
starve in the populous capitals of the
Middle Kingdom. In respect to do
mestlc comfort and happiness the
Chinese paterfamlias stands head and
shoulders over the American. While
In the store and office the husband
rules supreme, in the house the wife is
lady paramount. From babyhood she
has been trained in household duties.
The government of servants, the rear
ing OF children and the management of
the home are to her household words.
From the wedding day she is, to COM
bine the slang of the Orients and Oc-
cident, both boss and joss of the family.
1t may, therefore, please the leaders of
the womans rights organzat on to
know that in one land woman reigns
supreme in all domestic relations.
While women are educated, and well
educated. they can not gain literary
honors like men. Their culture is what
IS required by and for the family. In
cooking, marketing, medicine, music.
art decorations and bellies letters thew
are universally well informed. In
science. business. politics and state
craft they are ignorant to the last de-
gree.
Their education is practical as well
as theoretical. The educated girl
paints, embroiders, raises silk worms,
makes, spins and weaves silk, carves,
enamels, grows finevegetables or breeds |
animals for the markets, and thus fire. |
9uently makes good living for both |
herself and her parents. Many of the |
handsomest robes and most beautiful |
tissues in the New York market ire
rom the hands of young girls of good |
families in China. Where in America |
thousand women have mastered the |
jacquard loom million have in China.
The most important part of her educa-
ton is that which concerns personal |
conduct Neatness, courtesy and clean
Illness, the arts of holding the tongue
still Gan unknown art it would seem in
the New World), of preparing an en-
joyable meal and of managing home
these are the first requisites of femi-
nine culture. Her knowledge of medi-
cine is aptly represented by that gained
by the lectures given in this land on
the ''first aid to the injured" and is
rather the knowledge of professional
nurse than that of physician. Her
saUoir faire is developed partly by home
experience and partly by visits to her
grandmothers, aunts and sisters. Man
ners are broader term in China than
in America. They include affection,
self-sacrifice, devotion and forethought,
as we'll as that of address and good
language. The recognition and appre-
citation of all of them is a religious as
well as social and personal duty. A
Chinese wife and mother fulfills the
functions OF Ter Office both from the
fear and awe of Buddha and from the
love she bears her husband, children
and family.
Naturally, she has but very few OPP
portunities for recreation and social
pleasure. Compared with that of a
Vassar graduate her life is monotonous
and dull; yet knowing naught of the
outside world in which American and
European girls have their being. she
has little or no desire to 60 outside OF
the limited but active sphere wherein |
she moves. kunaways, flirtations, /
marital disappointments and elops-