Old Photographs of Qing Dynasty Women

Photo: Library of Congress

Yohani Kamarudin and Michele Collet at Environmental Graffiti have composed a collection of photographs of Chinese women in the 19th century, documenting the impact of foot-binding and Manchu influence.

In the words of Yohani,

"At home or abroad, in holiday robes or in plain clothing, the heart of a Chinese female seems to be at all times ready to overflow with mirth and good humor.” This description comes from a Western observer’s account of life in China, and the character of its people, during the 19th century. Its focus: the painful process of foot binding. 

Such a quote may suggest a positive take on womanhood during the 1800s, and the account positions itself as compassionate towards those it describes. However, the author presumes to see women as the helpless victims of Chinese males and Confucianism in general. He has a clear bias against many of the cultural practices observed by the women he seems to praise. 

Westerners' letters and stories from this era appear to paint a rather negative picture of life for Chinese women. Many of those who wrote them were, after all, missionaries, doubtless hoping to convince others of the necessity of ‘saving’ these women from the perceived barbaric practices of their culture. 

Looking back at Chinese culture with the eyes of people living in a completely different time, it’s hard to know exactly what life would have been like for women during those years. However, perhaps by examining these vintage photographs, we can gain a glimmer of insight.

See the entire gallery here, as well as the one on foot-binding here.

I thought she had iPod headphones on at first.

They Say History Repeats Itself

Most readers of this blog are probably aware of the history of Taiwan and its role in the Chinese civil war. As Chang Kai-shek and the Nationalist Army lost more and more ground to the Communists, they retreated to the island of Taiwan where the government of the ROC rests to this day. Since then, it has been sort of a cold war over the Taiwan strait.

But what if I told you that almost the exact same thing happened 400 years ago? Well it did. In 1661 Zheng Chenggong or “Koxinga” a loyalist to the Ming Dynasty and Arch Commander of the Ming Army, wanted to do whatever necessary to resist the Manchu invaders that would later establish the Qing Dynasty. Even after the Manchu took Beijing, the Ming Emperor retreated to Fuzhou. However, his army was unable to resist the Qing forces, he was captured and executed in 1646. The last member of the Ming Imperial family, Zhu Youlang had fled to the southwest. Koxinga and the remaining Ming troops were cornered in Fujian Province and unable to help Zhu. By 1661, the Ming Emperor sought asylum in Burma. At first the Burmese king gave him refuge, but after numerous threats from the Qing, he was rejected and eventually killed by Qing forces. Meanwhile, Kongxia, seeing defeat as inevitable, evacuated his forces and other Ming loyalists to Formosa (Taiwan). At the time, Taiwan was under control of the Dutch East India Company. Despite being in the face of westerners, Koxinga was quickly able to annex the island as it was nothing more than a trading post with few military personal. After booting the Dutch from the island, he established the Kingdom of Dongning with the goal of reorganizing his forces to eventually recapture the mainland.

Chiang Kai-shek Kongxia died in 1662 of malaria. His son Jing then took over as leader. Jing had attempted several times to launch an assault on Fujian but failed miserably. He entered a depression, indulging in liquor and women until his death. After his death, the generals debated his successor, but eventually Zheng Keshuang took the throne. After losing the island of Penghu to a Qing invasion, Keshuang surrendered Taiwan to Qing rule.

The similarities are startling aren’t they? Koxinga is revered as a hero in Mainland China because he ousted the Dutch “imperialists” and brought the island into Chinese rule. He is also regarded by the Kuomintang as a patriot who went to every last length to protect the Ming throne and repel the invading Qing. They also frequently compare him to Chiang Kai-shek. There is also a shrine dedicated to him in Tainan city.

If history does indeed repeat itself, it is only a matter of time before Taiwan is annexed by the PRC. However, Koxinga did not have the potential backing of a military power (The United States) to act as a significant deterrent. Then again, it is a rule of thumb in Chinese history that eventually a dynasty loses the Mandate of Heaven and comes to an end. And eventually, the Communist dynasty (or as I call it the ‘Mao’ Dynasty) will also come to an end like all those before it.

China’s Lost Kingdom: The Xia Dynasty

Historian’s widely agree the the earliest civilization in China was the Shang Dynasty, founded in 1600 BC. This is as far as written records go, as evidenced by oracle bone scripts that have been found. However there is some debate as to weather the Shang is truly where it starts. According to Chinese tradition, the first Kingdom after the reign of the three sovereigns was the Xia Dynasty, supposedly founded after the death of the last sovereign in 2070 BC. The existence of the Xia Dynasty is debated because there is no reliable written records, only legends mostly passed down from word of mouth. However there is archeological evidence of tombs, bronze instruments and building foundations that have been carbon dated between 2100 and 1800 BC. Falling precisely into the supposed period of the Xia.

In 1996, the Chinese government commissioned the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project, to determine the linage between China’s prehistory and the unifying Qin Dynasty. The project concluded the last pre-civilization society of the Huang He river valley was Longshan culture. A primitive, tribal, neolithic society. It was then however the three sovereigns and the five emperors came about and ruled the first Chinese civilization. Keep note the three sovereigns is mythological and not based in historical fact. Historical evidence says in late Longshan times, two tribes, the Xia and the Chiyou were at war where the Xia prevailed and began a small kingdom in the Huang He river valley. It is then when the three sovereigns and the five emperors came to rule. The story of the Xia Dynasty begins during the reign of a king named ‘Yao’ the second to last of the five emperors.

Legend has that “Yao” appointed “Gun”, an engineer, to stop a series of terrible floods that have always plagued the Huang He river valley. After nine years of continuous failure, the new king “Shun”, last of the five emperors, ordered Gun to be executed for his failures. Gun had a son ‘Yu’. Yu was highly trusted by Emperor Shun. So Shun appointed him to finish his father’s work which was to make the flooding stop. Yu’s method was different from his father’s; he united all the people of every tribe and ordered them to help him build canals in all the major rivers that were flooding and lead it out to the sea. He did this for 13 years, without going back to his home village. Legend says in those 13 years, he passed by his house three times without going in which is a sign of his perseverance in his work. The people who noticed him praised his perseverance and were so inspired by him that other tribes joined in his work as well. In the end, after 13 years, he was successful in stopping the floods and was greatly praised by his people.

Yu’s unification of the tribes in the goal of stopping the floods made him a legend, and was named Emperor of the new Xia Kingdom of China. The Xia Kingdom was the first Chinese society to have a unified army, mass irrigation for crops, and the use of many Bronze tools.

On another note, thanks to all of our readers for 20,000 hits!