The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1891-01-23
CHINESE Girls NEGLECTED.
Edacation Denied rhen tseranse Tbe,
will Get Marrird


A writer la the Norti rhf,la Heralef
IN nn essay on The National Hlstorv
OF the Chinese GIri has some. inter-
esting remarks on the lack of educa.
tion OF Chinese women. When the
child grows up 10 what We should call
young school girl her friends begin
10 be very uneasy about her. This has
not the smallest connection with her
intellectual nature. which, SO far as
any culture which II receives Is con-
cerned. might rs well be nonresident.
Unless her father happens to be Il
schoolmaster aud at home with nuth-
ing to do he never thinks of teaching
his daughter To read; II would be pre-
posterous- IL Is like wedding the field
ior some other man, or putting IA gold
chain around the neck OF some one
else's puppy, which uiny NJ any mo-
ment be whistled OF, and then what
becomes OF the chain? One Of the un-
DERIVING assumptions of Chinese So
ciety Is that II Is the body OF the girl
Tor which the parents are responsible,
and not the mind. To almost any
Chinese IL would probably appear q
self-evident proposition that 20 spend
time, strength. and. much more, money
In educating the daughter-in-law of
some one else Is sheer waste. but, y
you say TO him. ''she Is your daugh-
ter" mot after she Is married f" he
replies; tshe Is theirs; let them edu-
cate her themselves IL they want her
educated. Why should / teach her
how to read, write aud Yec'ion when il
will never do me any goodPH With
which utllitarian inquiry the education
OF most Chinese girls has been banish-
ell from human Thought for the space
of some millenniums
The anxiety which all ner friends be-
gin To feel about Chinese girl as soon
as she attains any considerable size IL
exhibited in the Inquiries which are
made about her whenever she happens
TO be spoken Of These Inquiries do
not concern her character or her do
nestle accomplishments. much iess
her intellectual capacity. of which she
has, theoretically. none 10 speak of.
but they may all be summed no In the
single phrase: lis SHE saidpA mean
ing by the term said" betrothed. II
the reply should be Ia the negative the
Intelligence IL received i'm much the
same way as we should receive the in
formation that European child had
by some strange neglect been allowed
TO grow TO the age of l6 without hav-
ing been taught anything whatever out
OF books. The Instructive feeling of A
Chinese in regard to a girl Is that she
should be betrothed rs soon as possi-
BILE. This Is one OF the many points IN
regard to which IL Is almost impossible
Tor the Chinese and the Anglo-Saxon to
come To terms. AS soon as a Chinese
girl Is once betrothed she Is placed In
different relations 10 the universe gem
orally. She is no longer allowed such
freedom as hitherto. although that may
have been little enough She can not
20 anywhere. because il would be .'in-
convenient. She might be seen by
some member Of the family into which
she Is To marry than which it is
hardly possible TO think of anything
more horrible. 'Why?' the irrepress-
ible occidental inquiries, aud Is quench-
ed 10y the information that lit would
not be proper Why IL would not be
proper no one can ever tell. except
hat 1t never was proper. and therefore
IL is not 50 now. aud therefore never
viii be. The imminent risk that the
girl might at some unguarded moment
bs actually seen by the family of the
future mother-in-law j. reason why
so few engagements for girls are made
In the town in which the girl iyes-an
which would seem to be
Tor the convenience OF all parties in a
great variety of ways