3. MARCO TEÓRICO: VARIABLES DEPENDIENTES
3.4 Razones financieras afectadas
“Jiating daogao tu shuo” 家庭禱告圖説 (Illustration of Prayer at Home), Nü duo (May 1912): 23. The ideal family portrayed in Nü duo is Christian, with religious faith at its core, where all family members submitted to a Christian God and led a life governed by Christian ideals. Such a “divine domesticity” was characterised by a separation of familial roles based on gender where men were in
290 “Dr Mary Stone–China’s First Woman Doctor,” Millard’s Review of the Far East (August 28, 1920): 707. As her
dwelling was very close to the McTyeire Girls’ School of the Methodist Church South, White rented half of the building to missionaries of the McTyeire School to pay off the mortgage. See Mary Ninde Gamewell, “A Day at Joyfield,” Woman’s Missionary Friend (June 1918): 193–4.
291 Masland, “A Tribute,” 140.
85 charge of a family’s external affairs, and women were responsible for household management. This domestic principle echoes Confucian patrilineal ethics epitomised in the saying nan zhu wai nü zhu nei
男主外, 女主内 (men are in charge outside, women are in charge inside). While traditional gender norms placed women in an inferior status to men and confined women to the inner chambers, Nü duo
stressed women’s crucial role in safeguarding the household’s spirituality. As a wife, a woman should submit to her husband and assist him in domestic affairs, but as a mother, she should spare no effort in nurturing the next generation with Christian ideals. The home was the sphere where she exercised her own agency and fulfilled divine obligations.
A Good Wife
Identifying a bad wife is complementary to understanding what a good wife is. In a story published in
Nü duo in August 1913, Laura White wrote about a couple who argued over household affairs.293 Mr Yao, the husband, came back from work exhausted, only to find a messy house and his wife with dishevelled hair and a dirty face—the rice was overcooked and the oil lamp soon died out. Eventually, the husband complained to his wife but Mrs Yao ignored him as she was busy taking care of the baby. Mr Yao became angry and argued that he had fulfilled his responsibilities by providing clothes, shelter and food to the family, and insisted that laundry, cooking and cleaning were women’s duties. Mrs Yao argued back and complained that she was overburdened with chores. Mr Yao proceeded to lecture her on how to manage a household and pointed out that diligence was the key principle in household management. If domestic income was limited, then thriftiness was the way to manage household expenditures. “If a wife fails to fulfil her duties, then what is the use of having her?” said Mr Yao. To prove his point, Mr Yao mentioned Mr Wang, who ran away with his lover. Mr Yao believed it was Mrs Wang’s fault because she had been neglectful in her duties and had turned their house into a filthy and unpleasant place. When a husband saw the corrupt aspects of his wife’s character, such as laziness,
293 Laura White, “Fufu zhi bianlun” 夫婦之辯論 (The Dispute between Husband and Wife), Nü duo (August 1913):
86 arrogance and extravagance, he would be attracted to women who were gentle and whose houses were clean and tidy. At the end of the story, Mrs Yao expressed her shame and promised to serve her husband in the proper manner in the future. In response, Mr Yao laughed and said he would remain. The majority of readers of Nü duo comprised women from middle and upper classes who were soon to be, or were already, housewives. The example of Mr Yao’s expectations instructed these women that they were responsible for the domestic sphere and there was no excuse for a messy house. In White’s view, a wife was expected to manage her household by pursuing principles of diligence and thrift where a failure to do so reflected a lax and lazy attitude. This, White warns, could result in dire consequences for the family as a wife’s negligence in the household might even lead to the alienation of mutual affection.
In another essay, White addressed the issue of a good wife from a more positive perspective.294 In response to a woman’s question on how to win her husband’s respect, White stated the qualities of a good wife. For a low-income family, the wife should be diligent in spinning and weaving, sweeping the floor, and cooking and pointed out that managing a household did not necessarily require much money. As long as the house was clean and everything was in order, the husband could then find peace and calm at home. For a wealthy family, while the wife might not be required to engage in household chores, she was required to get up one hour earlier in the morning to oversee her servants. Ultimately, an ideal wife must be humble, peaceful, and kind both within and outside the house. Fundamental to White’s concept of ideal womanhood was for women to fulfil their duties at home. The concept of tian zhi天職, ‘heavenly duty,’ was a recurrent term in White’s articles. Husbands were charged with financially supporting his family while his wife’s heavenly duty was to manage the household well. Far from considering domesticity as confinement for women, White thought it was a women’s privilege to obey this divine design. Since it was a heavenly occupation, women were
87 endowed with the talent to manage the household. In this sense, it was natural for women to stay at home and work on domestic chores.
White legitimised her views by resorting to a study of Western civilisation to argue that domesticity for women was a universal truth. Her serialised work entitled “History of Notable Women” was such an attempt. Sharing an equal relationship with each other, White considered both men and women had their specialities.295 In one article, White praised the German family model of the Renaissance where she asserted that the deeds of German women were beneficial to their husbands. The German women’s industrious housework skills were exemplified in the long hours they spent weaving, managing meals for the family and helping the poor. A German wife was houseproud and a German mother would spare no effort in caring for her children and their needs, especially in areas such as health, hygiene and education.296
Theology underwrote the concept of tian zhi in White’s writings and is present in many articles in Nü duo which were part of a series featuring Christian ideals of marriage and the home. The Chinese title for this series was “Funü zhi tianzhi” or “Women’s Heavenly Duty.” The articles were translated and compiled by Mrs MacGillivray, a missionary dispatched by the London Mission Society in 1898297 and who joined the CLS from 1900. The series was published in five separate articles from 1915 to 1916.298 Issues covered the institution of marriage, the role of husband and wife, the character of the home, as well as the domestic and social duties of women. In the series, Mrs MacGillivray articulated that Christianity valued women’s status in marriage. The Christian ideal for women was to help their husbands and raise their offspring. Together with the biblical teaching that man was created before women, the gendered home was interpreted as a reflection of divine will. Nevertheless, women’s
295 Laura White, “Nüzu zuizhu zhi lishi” 女族最著之歷史 (History of Notable Women), Nü duo (May 1913): 1–4. 296 Laura White, “Nüzu zuizhu zhi lishi” 女族最著之歷史 (History of Notable Women), Nü duo (December 1913):
4–8.
297 John D. Meehan, Chasing the Dragon in Shanghai: Canada’s Early Relations with China, 1858–1952 (Vancouver,
Toronto: UBC Press, 2011).
298 Mrs MacGillivray, “Funü zhi tianzhi” 婦女之天職 (Women’s Heavenly Duty), Nü duo (September, October,
88 domestic obligations did not mean putting women in an inferior position to men. Instead, they possessed an essential duty that had divine imprimature.
While White emphasised women’s household duties, she was not against women’s agency in forming organisations to improve women’s lives. From 1912 to 1919, Nü duo introduced several women’s societies and institutions to its readers, such as the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), and a relief society founded for women and children. One article published in September 1912, for example, introduced a woman’s seminar in Fuzhou organised by Miss M. E. Faithful-Davies (also known as Zhou Yingzhu 周瑩珠), a missionary from the Church Mission Society in Fujian. The purpose of the seminar was to increase women’s awareness and social inclusion and those who were not at school were encouraged to join for regular reading sessions299 where Nü duo was one of the selected readings.300
Magazines that followed Confucian principles shared White’s promotion of women’s role as homemaker as a heavenly duty. The term tian zhi can be seen in early Confucian writings. According to the “Discourse on Heaven,” the seventeenth Chapter of the Xunzi荀子, tian zhi is defined as “that which is accomplished without anyone’s doing it and which is obtained without anyone’s seeking.”301 As an essay on the nature of heaven, it emphasises consistent principles in the natural world such as the cycle of the four seasons. In early twentieth-century magazines, tian zhi was often linked to women, denoting their role of homemaking as a heavenly principle. In October 1910, a female student studying in Japan wrote an article entitled “Nüzi zhi tianzhi” (Women’s Heavenly Duty) in the magazine
Nü xue sheng女學生 (Female Students, 1910–1912) published in Shanghai.302 With the rise of female education, the author criticised the fact that women were now competing with men and argued
299 “Fuzhou chengnei funü yanjiuhui guizhang” 福州城內婦女研究會規章 (Regulations for Women’s Study
Group in Fuzhou), Nü duo (September 1912): 30.
300 Miss M. E. Faithfull-Davies, “The Daughters of New China,” India’s Women (September 1912): 170–1. 301 The original Chinese is “ 不為而成，不求而 得，夫是 之謂天職 。”《荀子 天論 》. For the English
translation, see Eric L. Hutton, Xunzi: The Complete Text (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016), 175.
302 Sun Shixiong 孫世雄, “Nüzi zhi tianzhi” 女子之天職 (Women’s Heavenly Duty), Nü xue sheng (October 1910):
89 instead, that they should concentrate on their heavenly duty of childrearing and household management. Women’s declining status in society was caused by a lack of knowledge rather than the restraint of Confucian moral ethics which advocated women’s obedience and modest manner in the home. Compared with progressive ideas in magazines such as Nü xue bao and Nüzi shijie, Nü xue sheng
promoted a traditional notion of womanhood.
Funü zazhi (The Ladies’ Journal, 1915–1932) was an influential woman’s magazine published by the Commercial Press in Shanghai, which aimed to promote the concept of ideal womanhood and its role in household management. In an article on women’s heavenly duty published in Funü zazhi in February 1915, women were discouraged from being active in society because men would lose a virtuous wife and mother. The article referred to the teachings of Mencius, “The birth of a son occasions the wish that he should have a wife; the birth of a daughter occasions the wish that she should have a marital home.”303 Thus, it argued that women’s heavenly duty focused on family while men focused on external society. It concluded with an appeal for women to fulfil their domestic duties to strengthen the nation.
The emphasis on women’s domestic role as a heavenly duty in these pro-Confucian articles resonated with the positions advocated in Nü duo. The differences lay in the two different belief systems. Nü duo
drew its authority from the Victorian notion of biblical teachings. Non-Christian Chinese magazines carried on the belief in Confucian doctrine. Thus, in regard to views on a woman’s role in early Republican China, religious women’s magazines were aligned with pro-Confucian intellectuals. At the beginning of the transition period, the Victorian notion of womanhood seemed to be less alien to local readers as they echoed long-cherished traditional ideas.
Motherhood: an Essential Virtue304
303 Wang San王三, “Funü zhi tianzhi” 婦女之天職, Funü zazhi婦女雑誌 (February 1915): 3. The original Chinese
is, “丈夫生而願為之有室，女子生而願為之有家。”《孟子 滕文公章句下》 For the English translation, see Irene Bloom (tr.), Mencius (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 63–4.
90 “Jinggao xin minguo nüzi” 敬告新民國女子 (Announcement to the New Republican Women), Nü
duo (April 1912): 4.
The picture above appeared in the editorial column of the first issue of Nü duo. It was inserted in an article entitled “Jinggao xin minguo nüzi” 敬告新民國女子 (Announcement to the New Republican Women) by Laura White. The Chinese mother with her baby in her arms illustrated the ideal image of a new Republican female citizen. As her early evangelical work demonstrated, White had been an active promotor of motherhood and a firm believer in feminine virtue.
Influenced by the Scottish evangelist Henry Drummond (1851–1897), White viewed the world from the perspective of two great motivating factors, nutrition and reproduction. These two concepts were introduced in Drummond’s two essays entitled “The Struggle for Life” and “The Struggle for the Life of Others.”305 According to Drummond, the fundamental struggle for human beings, as well as all other living creatures, was the problem of nutrition. Its object was to secure the life of the individual. In contrast, reproduction was the struggle for the life of others and its object was to secure the life of the species. As Drummond argued, “The first has a purely personal end; its attention is turned inwards;
great emphasis on an educated mother who applied modern knowledge to raise children. Regarding the religious cultivation of children, Nü duo relied on the translations of religious novels. Compared with White, her colleague Elizabeth MacGillivrary (?–1936), the wife of Donald MacGillivray (secretary of the CLS from 1919–1930), concentrated more on religious literature for children. Mrs MacGillivrary was the editor of Fu you bao福幼報 (Happy Childhood) from 1917 to 1929, a monthly magazine for children published by the CLS. See Song Lihua 宋 莉华, “Cong wanqing dao ‘wusi’: chuanjiaoshi yu zhongguo xiandai ertong wenxue de mengnie” 从晚清到“五 四”:传教士与中国现代儿童文学的萌蘖, Wenxue yichan文学遗产 No.6 (2009): 90–1; Song Lihua宋莉华, Chuanjiaoshi hanwen xiaoshuo yanjiu传教士汉文小说研究 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2010), 159– 96.
91 it exists only for the present. The second in a greater or less degree is impersonal; its attention is turned outwards; it lives for the future.”306 For Drummond, man’s life was determined primarily by the struggle for nutrition and woman’s life by the struggle for reproduction. In this sense, the gender divisions followed the principle that:
Man satisfies the one by going out into the world, and in the rivalries of war and the ardours of the chase, in conflict with Nature, and amid the stress of industrial pursuits, fulfilling the law of Self-preservation; Woman completes her destiny by occupying herself with the industries and sanctities of the home, and paying the debt of Motherhood to her race.307
In agreement with Drummond, White believed the female principle was the nobler of the two motive factors and claimed that it was “the prototype of all motherhood, –yes, of love itself.”308 Motherhood in White’s view referred to both reproduction and a spirit of self-sacrifice, altruism, and love. Although White remained single throughout her life, she adopted the principle of self-sacrifice and advocated the concept of ideal motherhood in her evangelical work.
Under White’s editorship, Nü duo thus spilled much ink in promoting an ideal motherhood to local readers. In White’s mind, the new mother that China needed was an educated mother who was equipped with pedagogical methods. Compared with mothers in the past, new mothers surpassed the old ones in two ways.309 Firstly, a new mother would enlighten her child in a benevolent, gentle, and patient way. Instead of forcing her child to obey, a new mother would guide the child and infuse a willing heart in him or her to listen to mother. She would observe the child’s nature and encourage him or her to develop hobbies and habits as long as they were reasonable. Chinese mothers in the past used to forbid their children doing things on their own. Children’s unauthorised actions worried
306 Ibid., 283. 307 Ibid., 330.
308 Laura M. White, “Two Holy Wars,” Woman’s Missionary Friend (January 1915): 9.
309 Laura White, “Zhongguo jianglai zhi xin muqin” 中國將來之新母親 (The New Mother for China), Nü duo (July
92 traditional mothers as children lacked experience in new things. A new mother, however, would allow the child to try new things. Even when the child was unable to fulfil the task, or the task was inappropriate for the child, she would point out the problem and guide the child onto the right track. Secondly, an ideal mother would often read scientific and psychological research. She would gather other mothers together to discuss childrearing to learn from each other. Such an educated mother would understand children’s development better than those who did not read. For instance, when a child grew up and was not much like its parents, an educated mother would not be surprised and worried, as she knew the theory of heredity. According to the observations of Gregor Mendel (1822– 1884), the Austrian scientist and the founding father of the modern science of genetics, the skin pattern of a mouse was not found in its parents but its grandparents. Mendel then expanded the theory to human beings. By citing Mendel, White explained that a child might be more like its grandparents than its parents due to heredity. Knowing this, a new mother would then treat her child like a friend and keep it close to her.
One primary problem with Chinese mothers at that time, in White’s view, was hygiene. In an article on a mother’s duty to herself published in August 1912, White advised mothers to pay attention to their unkempt appearance.310 Housewives occupied with domestic chores often cared less about themselves. Seeing her bedraggled appearance, a husband might forget she was his wife and children would despise her as a household maid. An educated woman, however, would be able to preen herself as well as manage a great deal of housework in a neat and orderly way. In this way, her husband would love her, and her children would respect her. White then referred to the story of a female college graduate who married a poor man. As they could not afford to hire a household maid, the wife was in charge of all the domestic work. Seeing her doing the laundry one afternoon, White asked her whether