The Image of Canton Women in a Westerner’s Eyes in the Late Qing Dynasty: Take Fourteen Months in Canton as a Case Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/ehss.v8i.4633Keywords:
Canton, Women, Fourteen Months in Canton, Everyday Life.Abstract
The image of women in the late Qing Dynasty has always been enigmatic due to the custom in Canton that virtuous women rarely left their chambers. The book Fourteen Months in Canton, however, contains Mrs. Gray’s insights during her residence in Canton, including her extensive records of both upper-class and ordinary women in Canton at the time. Her accounts are valuable historical sources for the study of women in Canton in the late Qing Dynasty. At present, there are few academic studies on the topic of women in Canton in the late Qing Dynasty and the works by Mrs. Gray. Through a textual analysis of Mrs. Gray’s Fourteen Months in Canton, and supported by relevant historical sources from the same period, the paper aims to collate and analyse the images of upper-class and ordinary women in Canton, and thus explores the daily life, survival, and inner world of women in Canton in the late Qing Dynasty.
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Huang Zuo. Canton Annals [M] and Chen Jianhua, Canton Encyclopedia [M]. Guangzhou: Guangzhou Publishing House, 2015
Mrs. Gray, Fourteen Months in Canton [M]. London: Macmillan and co, 1880: 168, 35-36, 200, 165, 147, 419-420, 82, 136-137, 184.
Sarah Pike Conger, Letters from China, with Particular Reference to the Empress Dowager and the Women of China [M]. Chicago: A. C. McCLURG & CO, 1909: 203.
Mrs. Grey’s ‘amahs’ refers to the ‘jin shen’ maids that were popular among the wealthy families of Canton at the time. ‘Most of wealthy families hired a kind of person, called jin shen, who also provided intimate service for them. There were many of them, and most of amahs grathered in Xiguan. They were mostly from Shunde, Rongqi’. See ‘Guizhou or Other Countryside. Their Neat Clothes and Sharp Words Are Really Captivating’ (Xu Ke, Qing bai lei chao – attendant class – jin shen).
Dr. Yvan, Inside Canton [M]. London: Henry Vizetelly, Gough Square, 1858: 211.
E. A. Rose, E.A. Ross in the Eyes of Chinese (Chinese Edition) [M]. Chongqing Publishing House, 2004.
John Henry Gray, Walks in the City of Canton [M]. Victoria, Hong Kong: De souza & co, 1875: 166, 578.
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