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Shanghai is a small city on the sea coast, where trade between China and Western sailors begun. Its history reflects complicated relationships between Chinese culture and Western influence. Shanghai has been open to people from different European countries and, at the same time, has maintained Chinese ways of life and preserved its traditions. Shanghai has become a mixture of both East and West, taking something from Western cultures and incorporating it into its culture and society, thus changing the country itself. From the beginning of the 19th century, Shanghai was growing and gaining more and more influence. In its Golden Age, it has become one of the greatest Asian cities, known as the Paris of the East and the New York of the West. The development of Shanghai was seen not only in the technical innovations such as telephone, tram, or plumbing but also in great changes that took place in the lives of Chinese women. Since late 19th century, the role and image of woman has changed greatly, and this process is easily observed through the development of Shanghai culture in lots of problem solution essays.
A woman’s role in traditional Chinese society during Qing Dynasty rule and before it was very far from being equal to man’s. Based on Confucianism and its ideas, the life of Chinese woman was ruled by Three Obediences, which meant that she must obey her father as a daughter, her husband as a wife, and her son as a widow. Women were prevented from participating in many spheres of social and economic life (Ebrey). They had no legal rights for property or opportunities to learn trade, except for those they could do within their homes. The whole woman’s life depended on men. A father had a right to kill his daughter for severe disobedience. For a family, a birth of a girl was less desirable as after marriage, she would leave the family to become a member of her husband’s family. Therefore, the girl’s education and upbringing were purely aimed at arranging a better marriage. The woman’s life was judged by the success of her sons, and her main value was an ability to give birth to children. If a wife could not bear children, her husband would take a concubine. In such a case, the sons of the concubine would treat both women as mothers. Concubines, though being of a lower social status than wives, were different from numerous prostitutes, who had their own differentiation and classes (Herstatter 463). All intersexual relations were strictly regulated in Imperial China with the aim of dividing men and women’s worlds. One of the practical ways to enhance this division was the practice of foot binding. All girls from families of high and often middle social status had their feet bound since childhood. This tradition made it almost impossible for a woman to walk freely and was another way to keep her within a household. Foot binding was prohibited after emperor’s abdication, and since then, the practice slowly vanished.
At the beginning of the 20th century, great changes started to take place in Chinese society. The revolution of 1911 has not only changed the China’s political order but also started the modernization of the country and its ways. The strictly patriarchal and feudal country started to change rapidly. It was enchanted by prosperous, diverse, and modern Shanghai, which included International Settlement, French Concession, and the Chinese city itself. Even though most of its residents were Chinese, the Western influence was great and vast. Among the examples of the mixture of traditional Chinese ways and Western influence are the three Soong sisters. All of them were born in a family of a former minister Charlie Soong in Shanghai. Their family was prosperous and high rank. They got education in the USA and further on played a great role in the history of China. Soong Quingling married the leader of 1911 revolution Sun Yat-sen, and later she became a chairwoman for a number of organizations and a Vice Chairperson of the Central People’s Government of China. She supported the Communist movement even to the point of breaking up with her family: something that was absolutely impossible in the previous era. Through the turmoil, taking place in China in the 20th century, Soong Quingling was respected and praised in the Communist China. Her younger sister Soong Meiling was also a well-known figure but in the opposite political camp. She was married to Chiang Kai-shek, a leader of the Republic of China; she was an advocate for China in the world (Donovan 31). Both Soong Meiling and Soong Quingling were gathering funds, aimed at helping in Chinese war against Japan with Quingling being focused on helping Communists and Meiling on helping the forces of Nationalist party. Like all the members of their family, Soong sisters got good education, spoke English freely, and became role models for women of the new era. They represented different political views and were separated for most of their lives. However, both of them are the best images of the renewed Chinese woman that appeared in Shanghai.
This new woman appeared after the 1911 revolution, and she refused to have her feet bound (see fig. 1). She was educated or, at least, tried to get education she could access. This woman changed the usual shoes, clothes, and hairdos, and created a new unique and recognizable style. She started wearing body fitting qipao and high heels. This woman was following a mixture of Western fashion and local traditional clothes. The Shanghai woman had the same interests as that in European countries or the USA. She had a great variety of entertainments and occupations. She visited dancing studios, various shops, theatres, and dancing halls. The Shanghai woman read fashion magazines and newly printed books from local and fashionable Western writers. Moreover, she created new beauty and style icons and took part in cultural process as singer, actress, and writer. The whole world was open for this woman, and it took just two decades for her to move from the solitude of her household to the world with its both benefits of quick technological progress and disadvantages of a city with a powerful criminal world.
Fig. 1. Young women in Shanghai. 1920s.
If the Soong sisters are representatives of prosperous Shanghai women with good education from wealthy families with strong connections, then Jiang Qing is an image of another type of Shanghai women. She is one of the most controversial figures in the history of China in the 20th century. Jiang Qing was a daughter of a carpenter and his concubine; in other words, she was an illegitimate child. Her education was rather limited, and her whole childhood was rather difficult. She started her career as an actress, where her connection with Shanghai started. She made numerous appearances in the films produced by Shanghai studious up until Japanese invasion in 1937. Shanghai of that period was the center of cinema in China. Nevertheless, the representatives of all political schools of thought could be found there, among which the Communist party. Jiang Qing was a member of this party since 1933, and after her marriage to Mao Zedong in 1938, her political career began. She occupied different positions in the government, mostly being interested in cultural life and arts. However, she had the main influence during the Cultural revolution. Jiang Qing was its face and one of its drivers. She declared eight works of performance art to be the new models of proletarian literature and art. She started a campaign against those who refused to follow her route as well as against the remnants of the imperial history. On the other hand, her legacy not only had the devastating effect on the Chinese culture but also was an image of the powerful high rank woman. She represented a new woman that emerged after the horrors of Japanese invasion, World War II, and the Civil war. She was a communist with equal to man’s rights. As her life was very hard and full of work, her clothes became more practical (see fig. 2). This renewed woman had her own history behind her, and she took responsibility for her own actions. No matter how controversial the period of Chinese history before Deng Xiaoping’s reforms was, it cemented the rights, given to women.
Fig. 2. Women on political meeting. 1950s.
In conclusion, Soong sisters and Jiang Qing were the role models of their times. As for now, Chinese women have equal rights to men. They are free to make life choices. They occupy high positions in the government, corporations, and social life. If compare their position in the society at the beginning of the 20th and 21st centuries, the progress is outstanding. For Shanghai with its powerful Western influence and more opportunities for people, the process started a little earlier. Here the process of women’s transformation was the most colorful and fast. Doubtless, there were ups and downs as there were brothels alongside with schools for girls. However, Shanghai’s variety and openness provided women with an opportunity to earn their living as well as to express themselves, and thus, become equal members of the Chinese society.