Girls in China | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 8, 1882

Girls in China.

Our young people may like to hear about the real condition of girls in China to-day. Perhaps they suppose that the heathenish customs, such as binding the feet of girls, and of mutilating or selling them, have passed away in the light of these latter days. But China still sits in great darkness.

A few months ago there lived near Swatow, a girl of thirteen, named A Na. Her father and two married sisters were Christians, while her mother remained a heathen. One sister was at the English Presbyterian Mission School at Swatow. She was taken sick there, and A Na was sent for to take care of her. So A Na came, and went about her duties with a pleasant, cheerful face, though the missionaries soon found that she had great trials. Her mother was determined to bind her feet, as nearly all the women in the village where she lives have the little misshapen feet produced by binding them tightly in early life. It is a torturing process, and the missionaries and Chinese converts set their faces against it as unchristian. Poor A Na declared that she would not submit to it, and that she wished to follow her father, and do as a Christian should. However, her mother consulted a fortune teller, and he fixed upon the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth moon as a lucky day to begin the binding. At that time she sent for A Na, who refused to go. The mother then came herself, but when A Na saw her, she threw herself into the matron's arms, and clung to her till she was pulled away by main force. Her mother dragged her down stairs, scolding and raving as only a heathen woman can. So the poor child was carried off, weeping bitterly as she went. Her last words to her sister, were, "My heart is fixed. I will be a Christian, and will not have my feet bound."

The Peking Gazette of March 15, in the year of grace, 1881, states that the Governor-General of Sze-chuen asks imperial honors for a girl of eighteen who starved herself to death, after the burial of her betrothed. He also asks honors for other females who have "displayed their filial piety by mutilating themselves." The honors were granted.

Miss Safford, of Foochow, writing for Woman's Work in China, says that parents do now sell their daughters, and husbands their wives. When a man sells his wife, the sale paper is stamped by the woman herself. The palm of her hand is smeared with ink, and makes on the paper a full, clear mark that could not be obtained without her consent. A paper thus attested proves that the woman was not stolen from her husband.

Chinese books for women are mostly stories of ancient discreet heroines, or "Rules of Propriety." In these books, industry and reverence for parents are commended, but so is suicide. Devotion to a husband's memory is enjoined, and widows are entreated to disfigure themselves by cutting off their ears and noses, rather than marry a second time.

As to the number who read, Miss Safford says that she kept for some months a carefully-written record of all the women who could read, within a given number. Out of eight hundred there were only eight who could read at all. Of the eight only two could read well, and of the two, the best reader did not understand the meaning of the classics, though she knew the characters very well. Of course Chinese girls differ in capacity as other girls do, but their standard of education has left them as a whole in a low and dull mental condition. In one of the Methodist mission schools the girls said that Moses created the world, Adam was the true God, and Pilate was an apostle. On the other hand, Miss Porter, who reports this, found in a tour through villages south of Pekin, a girl who had read the catechism and the whole New Testament. She had asked help of any one who could tell her the characters, and had studied her lessons by night, after the family had retired and the house was quiet. She had read the New Testament till she had become familiar with it, and above all had learned to love it and to treasure special portions. "She came to my room alone one night, and read passage after passage, giving with each selection some reason why she enjoyed it. Her eyes filled while reading the crucifixion, and she soon stopped, saying she could not read that without crying. Such progress on the part of the few," says Miss Porter, "strengthened hope for all and enlarged our vision of the whole work among the women."

Girls of the better classes are not expected to go beyond the doorway after they are ten years old. One lady is held up as a model, because she never even went near a window to look out. This custom is now observed to some extent in Foochow. The little daughters of wealthy families, who used to visit Miss Safford, come no longer, nor do they play around their front doors. She inquired for them, and was told, "They are too old to go out now, it is not proper." "I was not allowed to go to the front door during my husband's life-time," said a mandarin's widow.

The amusements of the wealthier women consist chiefly of smoking, gossiping, card-playing, and fancy work, while some few use musical instruments. They make occasional visits to female relatives. Perhaps an afternoon jaunt is allowed, once in a great while, to some pleasure garden. Of course they cannot walk thither with their deformed and weakened feet; they must ride in the palanquin, which has the merit of screening them from sight. Shall we not come to the rescue of these poor souls without God and without hope?—Missionary Herald.