Pueblo chieftain., 1921-08-20
CHANGES IN CHINESE CUSTOMS

, the sun. Now. with short hair, they
must have hats. They did not know
what was to be the proper style in
head coverings for men. but in the
emergency they rrnwdcd into Amcri-
can merchandise Shops to buy any
thing-straw hats. caps, even women's
hats.
AT first a few cid men wished to
retain their queues,' Mr.. Chan recol-
! lected with smile. so they wrapped
cred IL with n cap. But the police are
suspicious. and make any suspects take
off the caps. II the queue is there. tho
policeman pulls out n big knife and
gives the man , free hair cut"
Foot-hinding is another fashion as
passe In China ls the wasp waist is
In America. The small feet" girl in
China now has difficulty in getting n
husband. The young men want large
feet wives Nor can n small feet
slrl go to tho puolic or mission schools.
She Is as unpopular as the girl with
unbound feet was a few years ago.
Binding the womon's feet, according
to Mr.. Chan. is an even more ancient
practice In China than wearing the
hair I'm a queue There are two stories
OF its origin one says that one thou
sand years ago, an exceedingly beau
tlful queen of tho Tong dynasty had
a dcformity OF ner feet. To hide this
defect from the notice Of tn. kiuS.
she bound her feet tightly and pre-
tended that she wished them to be very
small as mark Of beauty. even tho
II kept her from walking. The other
women Of the court. ali eager for the
honor OF being chCren as concubines
by the king. followed the new fash
ion to nchievc beauty. And So foot
binding spread over china.
The other theory is that the
Chinese men long ago found ouv that
the best way to keep a woman in the
home was to -erder her helpless.
There would then he nothing to dis
tract her from her home duties and
she would look up to her husband AS
knowing so much rlnre about the OUT
side world than sho knew Thus the
perfect wife was created in China and
bu the most efficient method possible
making " tho rashion for a woman
to cripple her feet
For ter centuries this unwritten
style held tho Chinese women in tts
wise The large foot Eirl could not
got married. She VITA socially pnriah.
Fifteen years ago. half q dozen Chris,
tihn native women rlef at Annoy and
formed an auti-fuot- binding society.
China was awakening to the outside
world and progress. and the society
easily stirred up Iublc opinion. Pc
titiors were presented to the Queen
DoNnger. and shs finally issued an
edict to abolish the old custom.
"My sisters fee.." said Mr.. chan.
were only three inches long She un-
bound them. All OF her children have
large feet. The older women could
not benefit by the new style. After
thirty years Of age, the bones are set
in the cramped curdition and cannot
relax So now, sriill feet are rarely
found except on tho old women Of
China aud tho wo,Aeu of far inland
provinces where customs take years
to penetrate
The now fashion made ~ possible
for chinese women to become more
active in affairs. They entered bust
ness. and even politics. There we're
women IN the FRS; parliament OF the
republic in 1915. In the most progress
siv~ province Euaug-tuuE. women suf-
fraEc has ncen established. Nurses aud
telephone GIRLS have always hccu
men in China. but recently girls In
Canton have taken over this work. Aud
they are even ticket agents aud CON
ductors on steam trains
short sLitt. Taboo
Canton. how svar Ia taking some
precautions against too conscientious
copying Of western progress, There Is
n municipal ordintuc, in Canton hat
no western short rkirts Cr short HlocNe
drc-arH shall he worn in the streets D.