The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-14
In Her Native Costume This Oriental
Reformer Presented an Enter
tanning Picture.
LARGE AUDIENCE INTERESTED
MANNER OF BINDING THE FEET
IN CHINA DESCRIBED.
Chinese Food, DIR. Kin Says, Does Not
Differ Greatly from What Ameri-
cans Customs.

Even in China, a country thought stag
nant, fashions change. and now the Chinese
women are beginning to pattern their
clothes after those of the Chinese men; so
we are not unlike you. after ALL"
Thus spoke DR.. Yamei Kin, Chinese lee
turer and reformer, TO a large and interest
J ed audience Of women and girls yesterday
afternoon at the Girls Classical School. DR..
Kin's talks are attracting much attention
through the country. She tells OF the man
ners. customs and clothes of the women OF
the Flowery Kingdom. DR.. Kin was born
In China and has the typical appearance of
the Chinese woman. but her voice. accent
and flow of language seems American
rather than Oriental. She was a most at
tractive figure as she stood on the platform
yesterday with her richly embroidered,
lo~osely-fiowing garments that made shirt
waits and tailored skirts seem uncomfort-
able, and with her glossy black hair dressed
deliberately with crimson flowers, beside
which Western hats seemed clumsy and
burdensome.
DR.. Kin told of the customs with which
the Chinese people welcome the birth of a
child and then went on to picture the con-
sequent ceremonies and the customs to
which the little ones were brought up. The
shaving ceremony. an inevitable function,
takes place when the child is thirty days
old. and the tiny heads are shorn bare of
whatever locks they may possess except
Tor a few little tufts and patches. The little
boys or China, when they become possessed
Oh queues, braid them with red strings,
and when they arrive at the age Of ten or
twelve they exchange the red string for a
black one, which signifies that they are
grown up. The little maidens nave more
trouble with their crowning locks, and as
they grow older their coiffures become more
elaborate. until when they are really grown
up the dressing OF the hair becomes a mat
ter Of two hours. To prevent the disar-
rangement of the elaborate coiffures the
women put their heads at night on porce-
lain docks instead or tuckfng them dOwn
In soft pillows, and one of the life size"
porcelain pfllows-a most uncomfortable
looking block about two feet long-was
shown yesterday by DIR. Kin. Exquisitely
embroidered caps and bands for the head,
beautiful altar cloths and priests robes
and other pieces Of the needlework in which
Chinese ~cmen excel were also shown.
FOOTBINDING IN CHINA.
An interesting part of DR.. Kin's lecture
was her discussion of the footbinding which
she says is rapidly disappearing in China
The women Of the lower classes and the
women Of the court-the two extremes-un-
til recent years have been the only ones
who have not been subjected to the prac-
tIee. She said that the process was a most
painful one, though it did not affect the
general health of the women, and it was
even possible for women to work in the
fields or do other rough labor with bound
feet. DR.. Kin showed some OF the absurd
little shoes which form the f~OOtgear of the
golden lilies and said that until of late
there had been few women Of her acquaint-
ance who wore a shoe longer than two and
a half inches.
In the matter of eating DR.. Kin said the
Chinese were not so dependent upon their
chop sticks as the Western world believes,
though they DO find them most convenient,
and they really serve as a pair of elongated
fingers. She ridiculed the idea also of the
matter of Chinese food differing so COM
plete1y from the food of other nations,
though she said her cOuntrymen had their
own particular dainties.
In the matter OK amuSeEents the Chinese
people depend upon travelling troupes and
upon the giving of dinner parties chiefly.
The dinners are usually of sixty courses
a number which would make an American
hostess throw up her hands i'm despair; but
they are usually served I'm ten courses at
a time After dinner the guests amuse
themselves by writing poetry or matching
the halves OF sOnnets and poems. The lat
ter entertainment, which in the cultured cir
cles or this hemisphere Is looked upon as
very clever and very new, has been familiar
to the Chinese since 200 ~. ID.
one OF the most Interesting parts OF DR..
kins talk was her description Of the Sew
entn of the Seventh Moon festival. really
complishments and works of the women of
the country are shown. DIR. Kin also talked
briefly of the methods Of education and
Of the papers and traffic of the country.