New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-09-11

and degree Of freedom
That is no small matter. It Is an
indication Of no small stage IN "ad-
vancement" of Chinese parents that
their girls are In school at all. Lest
anybody be tempted to racial self
complacency, let it be remembered how
short is the span of years since the
same was true of Europe and America
That a Chinese girl can read and write
Is itself q sign of high progress in
her parents, but that she comes back
to the ancestral tablets minus what .
for Chinese woman also her browning
glory and all that, and be moreover
tho sensation Of the teahouses and
the moral dolorous viewings with
alarm over the heresies of these de-
generate days-if that bring too great
q strain on parental tolerance and
consequent hysterical scenes at family
councils, what wonder? Report has it
there is uneasiness even in the breast
of that stanch liberal and apostle or
change, Tsai Yuan-pei, chancellor Of
the government university and father
Of one Of the shorn.
the tempest Of the times. In the last
few months co-education has been in
troduced in the university in Peking.
For the first time in China's countless
generations boys and girls are sitting
together in ciassrooms. It is as yet
a tinid, self-conscious grouping It is
not yet co-education as we know it
in America, where It is more CO than
educating, but the inevitable compli-
cations have already set in.
The elite are scandaiized. Minatory
resolutions are passed by outraged
elders. The press teens with solemn
pointings to the ancient proprieties,
with abuse, with ridicule and even with
grave charges of immortality. Girls
have been seen shamefully talking in
school buildings with boys TO whom
they are not even betrothed. The halls
Of learning tremble. And for all that
insistent young girl students in other
cities also are demanding the privilege
Of imbibing knowledge by the side of
the male.
Men Of many chimes long have sung
the beauty and modesty Of the Chinese
woman's costume, it's unchanginess and
freedom from fashions whims. That
is becoming now an ancient lay. fond
memory. Beauty there Is yet; harmony
Of delicate colors, silk and satin Of
exquisite texture and design. But as
for the other qualities-the Chinese
woman also is becoming reveIatory and
diaphanous. She, too, is wearing them
higher and thinner In her case the
them" is trousers, not skirts.
IN the streets of big cities like
Shanghai, where the modern touch Is
more evident, rustics freshly come
from the country round about TO view
the wonders Of tho New World there
to be found can be seen at the busy
corners of the Great Horse Road,
marveing not go much at the motor
cars, the tramcars, the high buildings
and the luxurious shops as at the
femininity that threads IN and out on
shopping bent. 1t is the newest and
most startling Of the phenomena of the
New World.
Coats fit skin tight and are cut short
Silken trousers that once were screened
on the proper Chinese lady by wide
skirt now are unshielded before the
public gaze. Where once, moreover,
they descended below the ankle. they
cease abruptly at not so far below the
knee. And such as they are, they are
perilously and shockingly thin.
Is 1t to be wondered If the sage
grandfather, autocrat of his household
by the patriarchal system, learned in
tne classics, rigid In the prescribed
proprieties, Confucian maxims on his
) lips, Is 1t to be wondered IL he takes
one lock at his granddaughter, fsints,
revives and issues stern orders-or-
ders that in these irreverent days are
who should say, "the old fogy"7 The
domestic schisms that result need no
description TO the middle-aged Ameri-
can reader. What next? has become q
relevant question here, too.
All the girls are wearing It that way
is the unanswerable argument in de-
Tense here as well. They are styles
now. Having an unobservant male eye
and not having the bills to pay had
not noticed It, but my middle-aged
Chinese friends tell me It Is now short
sleeves and now long sleeves. now high
collars and now low collars. now
coats with this and now coats with that,
all necessitating frequent change and
more bills. And it Is an interesting re-
, Election on the knship Of all colors OF
the sex. yellow as well as white, that
the changes are dictated from the same
social level everywhere.
Let sfng-song girl whose exploits
, are known to all the young men about
town--there are such-turn up at .
. fashionable theater with one lilac stock
ing and one navy blue stocking below
. the knee-length silk trousers and two
/ months later that young lady is
cruahed hv humility rdose sfosk3rcyx