Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-06


university only few years ago And in private
schools there are dozens of female principals.
Women are coming into their own in busi-
ness. too. Wing On's, Sun Suns and Sincere's,
the three largest department stores in Shanghai,
employ hundreds Of girls as clerks. And each
store has woman buyers who make annual trips
abroad.
The vice president of large Chimes insur-
ance company is one of those butterfly
creatures frequently seen dancing at the Ma
jeStic. The brains behind the success Of Lao
Kai Fook's, Shanghais most celebrated silk
store, is woman, and recently in Shanghai a
new taxi company announced that its ears
would be driven by experienced Chinese chauf-
feurettes.
Women even have gone in for banditry and
kidnapping For completely In armed robberies
three women were executed at the Shanghai
garrison during the last six months. The notO-
rious Bias Bay pirates, from whose lair near
Hongkong shipping has been preyed upon for
the last half dozen years, acknowledge as their
leader a daring girl, who recently wrote her
biography for Cantonese paper. Stories Of the
exploits Of an equally astonishing young woman
who heads kind of Robin Hood bandit aggre-
CATION in War-torn HOnan have lately filled the
Chinese press. Several times she has spurned
official overtures Offering her a responsible post
in reward for her remuneration of bandit life
The theater which for centuries banned
woman participants, is undergoing a revolution
with their restoration to the stage. Formerly
all female roles were enacted by men, Today
women are women in the dTama-and The
audience seems to like the innovation.
Upon all this new activity the irate elders,
of whom there are just as many Tor more)
than elsewhere in the world, look with frown-
ing dsapprobation. Young America may be
surprised to know that much the same recrimi-
nations as are heaped upon it are now being
directed at the modern Chinese girl. AS mat
ter of fact the most current criticism one hears
from the reactionaries concerns the American
iZation of their women
What we resent" dignifed pater once told
me, lis the desertiOn of the old virtues OF
Chinese womanhOod for the cheap the bizarre,
the superficial accoutTementS of the Wsst-the
type Of girl who hobs her hair, smokes
cigarettes cuts of half her skirt and initiates
mannersms which she has picked up from the
latest fappeT movie"
PUT, oddly enough. it is the young men, often
those who are the most modern and West
ernized, who are the severest critics of New
Lady China. While editor Of an English
language journal that eirculates largely among
Western-educated Chinese 1 accidentally opened
up AN interesting forum by publishing an
editorial on the question.
My attitude was that much undeserved criti-
cism has been leveled at the modern girl. I
even felt it was conceivable that despite all her
alleged shortcomings, she somehow would pull
her race through another generation. This
opinion did not find concurrence among our
male readers. began to receive essays and
articles which rOundly scored the modern girls
tendency to initiate the West, maintaining that
she was even more ornamental than the
porcelain woman" Of yesterday. The perora-
ton Of these animAdveTtents was delivered, I
think by young business man who wrote:
she 1.-THE modern giTl) bObs her hair, puts
on foreign-styie shoes and dresses and carries
foreign handbags. Prom head to foot every.
thing on her either Is Of foreign make or
domestic imitation Of foreign goods. To Oe
sure, she is afraid Of no man and goes out
with them to dancing halls and cinema houses
to have a good time. She stays out late at
night and enjoys as much freedom as her
brothers, while in daily pursuance Of excite
ment she looks upon home life as dreary and
tresome and domestic affairs trivial and
unworthy. Thus she neither goes into the
kitchen nor makes her own clothes, as her older
sister did.
She defies the orders of her parents and
laughs at the teachings of the old female
virtues She attends school not for the sake
of education, but for lettering her chances in
selecting husband. At school her curriculum
is learning new dance steps and imported love
songs.
I'VE find such modern girls everywhere, con-
stantly increasing in numbers. The young man
who has not vet married looks upon them with
suspicion and terror and remains at the cross
roads to muse whether he should continue to
lead a single but earefree life or bear the
unnecessary burden Of selecting a gOOd-fOr-
nothing wife. And if you ask me what the
modern Chinese girl has brought us, why, I
should say. "A bad matrimonial bargain and,
thanks to the West, the ability to blow smoke
through her noseP"
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