Abstract
In 1933, Simmons, an American mattress company, placed a large advertisement in Shenbao declaring: ‘Modern women’s lives are very busy’ (see Figure 3.1). Beneath this was a horizontal line of text: ‘They had better sleep well every night, so they can keep their minds and bodies peaceful, healthy, and good-looking.’ On the left-hand side, there were three small square pictures, placed vertically. In the first picture, there was a clock on the wall showing five past nine in the morning. A housewife, wearing a modern, well-cut qipao with short sleeves and an apron, with her hair pinned up, was dealing with a pot on the stove. In the upper left corner of this picture, there was a caption saying: ‘Busy with housework as soon as she gets up in the morning’. In the second picture, two women, a customer and a shop assistant, were having a conversation. The caption was ‘Going out shopping in the afternoon’. In the last picture, the housewife was sleeping on the bed with her hair spread out over a soft pillow. She was lying on her side covered by a fresh quilt; her naked left shoulder and arm are visible. Next to her was a bedside table with a modern electric lamp. The caption was: ‘Having a good sleep at night’.
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References
’simmons Mattress’ advertisement, Shenbao, 6 May 1933.
In 1903 Jin Yi, editor of the magazine, Nuzi shijie (Women’s World), wrote a foreword to encourage women to participate in China’s revolution: ‘To refresh China, women must be renewed. To strengthen China, we first have to strengthen women.’ See Jin Yi, ‘Nüzi shijie fakanci’ (Foreword to Women’s World), Nüi shijie (Women’s World), no. 1 (1903) 1–4.
Chuwo, ‘Nüzi shijie songci’ (Praise for Women’s World), Nüzi shijie, no. 1 (1903) 5–8. See also Tani E. Barlow, ‘Theorizing Woman: Funü, Guojia, Jiating’, Body, Subject Power in China, ed. Angela Zito and Tani E. Barlow (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), p. 264.
Chen Duxiu, ‘Yijiu yiliu’ (1916), in Duxiu wencun (Selected Works of Chen Duxiu; Anhui: Xinhua shuju, 1986), pp. 32–6. The three principles were the rules governing the relations of emperor/subject, father/son, and husband/ wife.
Ching-kiu Stephen Chan, ‘The Language of Despair: Ideological Representations of the “New Women” by May Fourth Writers’, Modern Chinese Literature, no. 4 (1988) 19ü38.
Wang Zheng, Women in the Chinese Enlightenment (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), p. 58.
Tani E. Barlow, ‘Theorizing Woman’, pp. 267–9.
Peng Hsiao-yen, Haishang shuo qingyu, p. 68.
Peng Hsiao-yen, Haishang shuo qingyu, p.69.
Peng Hsiao-yen, Haishang shuo qingyu, p. 67. In this story, woman’s face is described as the ‘north’, her hair the ‘black forest area’, the forehead a ‘white marble plain’, the eyes ‘two lakes’, the mouth a ‘volcano’, the tongue the ‘fiery flame’, and the breasts ‘little twin mountains’. The protagonist dreams of a view of ‘the south’, which of course is hidden.
Miao Cheng Shuyi, ‘Yu zhe nüjie xiuyangtan’ (On the Self-Cultivation of Our Women), Funü zazhi (Ladies’ Journal), 5:8 (August 1919) 1–6.
See Yunfang, ‘Xinfunü suo yinggai changchu de jizhong liegenxing’ (The Few Deep-Rooted Bad Habits That Women Should Get Rid Of), Funü zazhi (Ladies’ Journal), 6:9 (September 1920) 3–8
Zhanquan, ‘Xiandai shehui de nüxing’ (Modern Society’s Women), Funü zazhi (Ladies’ Journal), 16:12 (December 1930) 15–23
Tao Xisheng, ‘Xinjiu shangping yu xinjiu funü’ (Old and New Commodities and Old and New Women), Funü zazhi (Ladies’ Journal), 17:2 (February 1931) 2–5.
Talal Asad, ‘Are There Histories of Peoples without Europe? A Review Article’, Comparative Study of History and Society, 29:3 (July 1987) 594–607.
Barlow quotes Asad’s statement that ‘Historical languages [of class] constitute classes, they do not merely justify groups already in place according to universal economic structures’ to support her view that Chinese intellectuals, by employing Western’ semicolloquial language’ term, nuxing, in their literature, successfully formed themselves into a new social group, and shortened their distance with European humanisim. Tani E. Barlow, ‘Theorizing Woman’, p. 266.
Huaying yinyun zidian jicheng (English and Chinese Pronouncing Dictionary; Shanghai: Commercial Press Ltd., 1903); An English and Chinese Standard Dictionary (Shanghai: The Commerical Press Ltd., 2 vols., 1908); Karl E. G. Hemeling, English-Chinese Dictionary of the Standard Chinese Spoken Language.
See the advertisement of the Co-Operative Company for the ‘O.K. Table Wringer’ in Woman’s Outlook, 2 January 1937. I would like to thank Ms. Linda Walkden for supplying a photocopy of this magazine.
Leo Ou-fan Lee, Shanghai Modern, p. 5.
Karl E. G. Hemeling, English-Chinese Dictionary of the Standard Chinese Spoken Language (Guanhua).
Zhang Mengzhao, ‘Ertong yu guohuo shizhuang’ (Children and Domestic Fashion), Shenbao, 18 May 1933.
Xunzi, ‘Modeng wuzui’ (The Modern Is Not Guilty), Shenbao, 1 May 1934.
Pan Wenan (Yangmang/Yangyao),’ shizhuang zhenyi’ (The True Meaning of Fashion), Shenbao, 11 May 1933.
The term ‘jiating zhufu’ was also used: see Xiaobai’s article ‘Expectations for “the Women’s Year of the National Product Movement”’, Shenbao, 11 January 1934.
This argument is also advanced by Paul Bailey, ‘Active Citizen or Efficient Housewife? The Debate over Women’s Education in Early-twentieth-century China’, in Education, Culture, and Identity in Twentieth-Century China, ed. Glen Peterson, Ruth Hayhoe, and Yongling Lu (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001), pp. 318–47.
Zhanquan, ‘Xiandai shehui de müxing’.
D. MacGillivray, Mandarin-Romanized Dictionary of Chinese, 7th edition, Shanghai, 1925; for ‘nülang’ see Hanying da cidian (A Complete Chinese-English Dictionary), ed. O. Z. Tsang (Shanghai: Linnan Middle School; 1920).
Ciyun, ‘Nüren yu guohuo’ (Women and Domestic Products), Shenbao, 16 November 1933.
Zhu Zhenmu, ‘Yinjia gaozhang yu fuyong guohuo’ (On the Increase in the Value of silver and the Use of Domestic Products), Shenbao, 3 May 1934.
Baling, ‘Gao taitai xiaojiemen (For the Information of Wives and Misses)’, Shenbao, 11 January 1934.
Pan Wenan (Yangmang/Yangyao), ‘Rang taitaimen lai tichang guohuo (Let Housewives Promote National Products)’, Shenbao, 23 November 1933.
‘Zhu’, in Zhongwen da cidian, ed. Zhongwen da cidian bianzuan weiyuanhui (The Great Chinese Dictionary; Taibei: Zhongguo wenhua yanjiusuo, 1962, 40 vols), i.
Pan Wenan (pen name Yangmang), ‘Rang taitaimen lai tichang guohuo (Let Wives Promote National Products)’, Shenbao, 23 November 1933.
Pan Wenan (pen name Yangmang), ‘Funü guohuonian xianci (The Congratulatory Speech to the Year of Women’s National Product Movement)’, Shenbao, 1 January 1934. See also Xiaobai’s article ‘Expectations for “the Women’s Year of the National Product Movement”’, Shenbao, 11 January 1934. Xiaobai said that ‘women, as the family housewives, are the main chargers of the home economics’.
Pan Wenan (pen name Yangmang), ‘Zhufu de zeren’ (Housewives’ Responsibilities), Shenbao, 2 February 1933.
You Jianming’s recent conference paper also addresses the importance of scientific knowledge in home economics discourse in modern China. See You Jianming, ‘Cong “Funü zazhi” kan xiandai jiazheng zhishi de jiangou — yi shi yi zhu weili’ (From Ladies’ Journal to the Construction of Modern Home Economics — Examples of Food, Clothes, and Housing), read at the international conference on ‘Modern China as Represented in Ladies’ Journal 1915–1931’, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica Taibei, [December 2003]. For a comparison between the development of home economics in China and the West, see Rethinking Home Economics, Women and the History of a Profession, ed. Sarah Stage and Virginia B. Vincenti (USA: Cornell University Press, 1997).
Chen Zhengyuan, ‘Jianjie jindai Yazhoude “xianqi lianmu” sixiang—cong huigu Riben, Hanguo, Zhongguo de yanjiu chengguo tanqi’, p. 201.
See Paul Bailey, ‘Active Citizen or Efficient Housewife?’; Constance Orliski, ‘The Bourgeois Housewife as Labourer in Late Qing and Early Republican Shanghai’, Nan nü: Men, Women and Gender in Early and Imperial China, 5 (April 2003) 43–68, argues that middle class women’s productive activities at home were gradually receiving more attention during that time in Shanghai.
Baling, ‘Zhufu zenyang quandao zhanggu guyong guohuo’ (How Can Housewives Persuade Husbands to Use Domestic Products), Shenbao, 3 May 1934.
Quanjia (an unidentified author) ‘Wode muqin yu guohuo’ (My Mother and National Products), Shenbao, 27 May 1936.
Tianxue, ‘Zhu Wang Wanqing nüshi’ (Mrs. Zhu Wang Wanqing), Shenbao, 25 January 1934.
Judge, ‘Citizens or Mothers of Citizens?’, p. 37. Judge’s observation applies to male as well as female citizenship.
Judge, ‘Citizens or Mothers of Citizens?’, p. 41.
Judge, ‘Citizens or Mothers of Citizens?’, pp. 26–7.
Chen Dongyuan, Zhongguo funü shenghuoshi (The History of Chinese Women’s Lives. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1937), pp. 377–8. This busy domestic life paralleled the European model: see
Yaffa Claire Draznin, Victorian London’s Middle-Class Housewife, What She Did All Day (USA: Greenwood Press, 2001).
Zheng Yimei, Nanshe congtan: lishi yu renwu (Talking about Southern Society: History and People; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2006), p. 212.
Sarah Stage, ‘Introduction/Home Economics: What’s in a Name?’, in Rethinking Home Economics — Women and the History of a Profession, Sarah Stage and Virginia B. Vincenti, (USA: Cornell University Press, 1997), p. 5. As the term was the creation of ‘American Home Economics Association’ in 1909, the disagreements over this term can still be heard from time to time.
The weekly magazine Ling Lung (or Linloon as it called itself) was first published in 1930: see Columbia University Libraries, Academic Information Systems, http://www.columbia.edu/dlc/linglung/ (accessed 09 March 2003).
Liqiu, ‘Guohuo yu modeng funü (National Products and Modern Women)’, Shenbao, 18 January 1934.
Jingying, ‘Changshi yu rensheng’ (Common Sense and Life), Funü zazhi (Ladies’ Journal), 15:1 (January 1929) 95–7.
See ‘hygiene’, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, ed. Sir James A. H. Murray (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1901), vol. v. See also Ruth Rogaski, Hygienic Modernity, pp. 104–6.
See’ sanitation’, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. 1914), vol. viii.
Wu Xizhai, ‘Weisheng jia’ (The Hygiene Expert), Shenbao, 28 June 1920.
Shanghai linong minju, ed. Shen Hua and Shanghaishi fangchan guanliju (Shanghai Alleyway Residences; Beijing: Zhongguo jianzhu gongye chubanshe, 1993), p. 100.
See the housing advertisements in Shenbao, 17 May 1937. See also Luo Suwen, Da Shanghai shikumen — sunchang renjia (The Great Shanghai Stone Portals — the Ordinary People; Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1991), p. 24. The design of sanitary rooms in the house normally fell into the following categories. One two-piece toilet (with sink and toilet) on the ground floor for servants, visitors, and families; sometimes a flushing toilet (tianjing, literally ‘heavenly well’) located outdoors at the back of the house or near the square courtyard for servants and other labourers; a three-piece bathroom on the second floor and next to the master room; and another two-piece sanitary room on the third floor for the use of children or family guests: see Shanghai linong minju, pp. 37–9.
The first generation of stone portals was largely built in Shanghai during the period of the Taiping Rebellion and Little Sword Rebellion in the 1860s. Many Chinese people moved into the International Settlement for protection, so a new kind of building was created to accommodate them. This was a combination of the traditional Chinese square courtyard component structure with the Western style of terraced house. The material of the house was of stone and brick, with wooden doors. Each house itself was of two or three storeys, and each building was normally occupied by more than one family. See Hanchao Lu, ‘Away from Nanking Road: Small Stores and Neighborhood Life in Modern Shanghai’.
However, this does not mean Shenbao only attracted middle class female readers. Readership composition is discussed in detail in the final chapter.
See Shanghai linong minju, pp. 6–7.
Zhang Xichang, Nongtang huaijiu (Remember the Past Time in Alleyways; Tianjin: Baihua wenyi chubanshe, 2002), p. 45.
According to the records of the Shanghai Municipal Council in 1935, there were many notifiable diseases in Shanghai: Typhoid Fever, Paratyphoid Fever, Typhus Fever, Smallpox, Measles, Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria, Influenza, Plague, Tuberculosis, Malaria, Cholera, Dysentery, Relapsing Fever, Epidemic Cerebrospinal Meningitis, Anthrax, Rabies, Schistosomiasis, Beri-beri, Encephalitis Lethargica, Choleraic Diarrhoea and Leprosy: see Report of the Year 1935, and Budget for the year 1936, Shanghai Municipal Council (Shanghai: North-China Daily News and Herald, 1936), p. 137. The Shanghai Municipal Council organised many campaigns to improve the environment, for example, reducing the prevalence of mosquitos, see Report of the Year 1935, and Budget for the year 1936, pp. 187–8. The Council also inspected licensed premises, including ice cream and ice drink shops, milk shops, market shops, fruit shops, laundry services, open food stalls, bakeries and confectioneries, tailors’ shops, public swimming pools, and water supplies. Notices, booklets, and posters released by the Municipal Council warn of the dangers of the diseases. There were six poster pictures in the year book for 1936 (five in Chinese and one in Japanese), and at that time the posters were often multilingual. See Report of the Year 1936, and Budget for the year 1937, Shanghai Municipal Council (Shanghai: North-China Daily News and Herald, 1937). The Municipal Council also made an effort to collect domestic refuse, but it was still unable to prevent the spread of disease, because people often left their garbage outdoors and this attracted all sorts of animals and flies. The Council also admitted that sanitation was very difficult to achieve in alleyway houses, where the housewives we are study-ing lived. In the Chinese section of Shanghai, the Chinese Government also paid attention to public sanitation. For example, at the 14th Sanitation Games (weisheng yundonghui) at the Nanshi public gymnastic ground, the leaflets released by the China Airways Company suggested to the public that ‘Diseases get into [us] through the mouth, so the kitchen should be cleaned first... Mad dogs bite people, it’s horrible! Quick everybody, seize and kill wild dogs... Swat one fly a day, in ten days you will have killed a swarm.’ Report for the Year 1935, and Budget for the year 1936, p. 186.
Zhongying Dispensary, advertisement, Shenbao, 12 May 1919.
Telephone interview with Ms. Yuan Bizhen, Essex, 14 June 2002.
’shanghai jizhi guohuo gongchang lianhehui (Shanghai Association of Mechanized National Products Manufacturers)’, advertisement, ‘Biaozhun zhufu riji (The Diary of the Standard Housewife)’, Shenbao, 7 May 1936.
Nancy Tomes, ‘Spreading the Germ Theory: Sanitary Science and Home Economics, 1880–1930’, Rethinking Home Economics, Women and the History of a Profession, ed. Sarah Stage and Virginia B. Vincenti (USA: Cornell University Press, 1997), p. 35.
Guben soap was a very popular soap of Xiang Maosong’s Wuzhou Pharmacy Company. See Jieying, ‘Guanyu guochang feizao’ (About Domestically Produced Soap), Shenbao, 30 March 1933. Guben soap was one of China’s famous exports at that time: see’ shenshi jingji qingbao’ (The Shanghai Times Economic Information) in Shanghai Municipal Archives Q 275–1–1970; See Ruth Rogaski, Hygienic Modernity, pp. 231–3.
Meg Luxton, More Than a Labour of Love, Three Generations of Women’s Work in the Home (Toronto: the Women’s Educational Press, 1980), pp. 83–4.
Liye, ‘Yinger jinshi shijianbiao’ (The Time Table for Baby Feeding), Shenbao, 2 May 1921. The home economist also pointed out that the way mothers feed babies affects the baby’s crying: see Xu Naili, ‘Yinger weishime ku?’ (Why Do Infants Cry?), Kuaile jiating (Happy Family), 1:1 (January 1936), p. 84.
‘Ruer ticao’ (Baby’s Exercises), Funi zazhi (Ladies’ Journal), 17:1 (January 1931).
‘Yingyang’ is a Sino-Japanese-European loanword: see Lydia Liu, Translingual Practice, p. 292. As a translation, ‘ailment’ was used more than ‘nutrition’ in English for yingyang in the beginning.
Tianshewong,’ shipin de huaxue’ (Food’s Chemistry), Shenbao, 18 April 1935.
Liu Wang Liming, ‘Yingyang yu jiankang’ (Nutrition and Health), Kuaile jiating (Happy Family), 1:6 (1936), 88–9.
‘Jidan’ (Egg), Kuaile jiating (Happy Family), 2:1 (1937) 49. Liu Shuofu, ‘Sanmingzhi de xinchifa’ (Sandwich’s New Eating Methods), Kuaile jiating (Happy Family), 2:1 (1937) 53.
Yang Yunfang, ‘Naifen de xuanze ji qita’ (Choose Powdered Milk), 1:1 (1936) 94.
Lu Jinghua, ‘Haizi de xianshi’ (Children’s Snacks), Kuaile jiating (Happy Family), 1:3 (1936) 45.
Lin Lung, No. 241 (1936) 1788.
Lin Lung, various authors, No. 228 (1936) 758.
Lin Lung, No. 229 (1936) 829.
Lin Lung, No. 242 (1936) 1870.
Lu Hanchao, Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), pp. 280–1.
Yaffa Claire Draznin, Victorian London’s Middle-Class Housewife, p. 166.
Yaffa Claire Draznin, Victorian London’s Middle-Class Housewife, p. 164.
Rosemary Pringle, ‘Women and Consumer Capitalism’, Defining Women: Social Institutions and Gender Division, ed. Linda McDowell and Rosemary Pringle (UK: Open University, 1992), p. 151, attributes the first use of the phrase ‘the emotionalization of housework’ to
Ruth Schwartz Cowan, ‘The “Industrial Revolution” in the home: Household techonology and social change in the twentieth century’, Technology and Culture, 17:1 (January 1976) 1–23.
Rosemary Pringle, ‘Women and Consumer Capitalism’, p. 151.
Meg Luxton, More Than a Labour of Love, p. 118.
Zhongguo neiyi gongsi (China Underwear Company), advertisement, Shenbao, 20 April 1935.
Wuzhou Pharmacy, advertisement, Kuaile jiating (Happy Family), 1:1 (1936) 50.
‘Fa-re-fo Ice-Cream Company’, advertisement, Shenbao, 9 May 1926.
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© 2010 Weipin Tsai
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Tsai, W. (2010). The Modern Housewife — A New Kind of Shanghai Woman. In: Reading Shenbao. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230246713_4
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