Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-08-02
THE CHINESE WOMEN
AN ENLIGHTENING ARTICLE RE-
GARDING THEM.
ARE COMFORTABLY COWNED
At Home They Work in Stores and
Shops and in the Professions,
But Are Surrounded by Many
Agreeable Regulations, so Nine.
WI Writes.

WI Writes.
HOW do Chinese and American wo-
men compare? writes Nine WI, wife
of the Chinese minister, in Harper's
Bazaar. She asserts that women are
very much alike the world over. A
traveller passing around the world,
visiting Europe and the east and then
coming to America, would say that he
had seen many differences among the
women. He would note the peculiari-
ties Of dress, speech, manners and To-
cal customs, what people eat and
wear and how they walk and associate
with one another.
But, after all, what do these things
count? The thoughtful traveller would
have TO say that in the more es-
sential relations, as tender mothers.
careful of the welfare of their chill
dren, or as devoted daughters, wives or
sisters, women were much the same
wherever ne went. The place of a
Womans birth-life on one side of the
globe or the other-may influence her
III some small particulars but these
mere accidental influences of locality
cannot alter the first and essential
fact that she is created a woman, with
all those elements which nature ac-
cords to the sex. If she is not so
Stpnn nj aol1Xr Ok
her, that is a reason urged by nature
for giving her a place in the home
where her sex and her share of
strength will contribute most to the
good of those about her and to her
own good This is so of women in
China and America.
American women appear somewhat
strange to me in the part they take
in affairs outside the home In this
country l find women most enterprls-
ing. They are in many trades and
professions, they hold congresses and
discuss important problems. They do
much labor in factories, as clerks in
stores and in the government depart
ment. This is a woman's part in the
new world of which a traveller sees
very little in the east. Apparently
in the United States women are proud
to work for their living, and they do
so without reference to the home
In China women, too, work in fac
tories, in stores, as dOmestics, as
teachers and as doctors. But it is
the poorer classes that work, and if
a girl clerks in store it is always
her fathers store, or if a woman it is
her husbands store. If she studies
medicine she does not go away from
her home. She studies with some
male member of her own family who
is physician, and her practice is
among women. The well-to-do fami-
lies Of China have their daughters al
ways educated at home We consider
it misfortune that a girl has to go
away from home to be taught her
duties in life. Neither DO boys and
girls go to the same schools in our
country, except in some small viii
lagos, where necessity compels this.
Our form of society from the begin-
ming considers women as the natural
and proper companions of their sex.
Our social functions provide always
for separately entertaining the men
and women assembled. Women have
their relations with men solely under
the protection of the family relation.
This, [ think, explains the superior
mOdesty of Chinese women. Foreign
ers who know our people will admit
that the women Of China are always
peculiarly dignifed and modest in
their relations with men. Even the
girls sold into slavery who are thus
doomed to what are held to be i'm
moral lives, are entirely free from
the wantonness of women of a similar
moral status in civilized countries.
The classic literature of our people
bears evidence Of the pure thought
animating the relations of men and
women. Our classics, unlike the
Latin and English, may all be put
into the hands of young girl to read.
1t is the regard which Chinese have
for the mOdesty of woman that is the
strongest barrier against what you
consider here the progression Of the
sex. For women to work like men, we
think, is not the greatness, but the
misfortune of woman. 1t is only
where cotton factories have sprung up
at Shanghai and a few other places
near the coast that women are to any
extent employed in China. They work
in these factories because they are in
need of money, not because they love
independence, and there is a demand
for them because their labor is es
pecially skillful. Public sentiment, |
however, is against employing them. |
One often hears indignant complaints
that factory women go to and from
their work in large groups, laughing |
and talking freely along the streets. |
Such action on the part of women is
a shock to the people Of my country |
often think how different 1t is in !
China as I see female employees of the |
government at Washington on their |
way to work. Our government in |
China would be accused of having |
Door regard for the interests Of the |
people if it employed woman clerks.
The important work of woman, we |
t-, hi 1on ~