The Living Situation Of Chinese Women In Western Perspective In Late Qing Dynasty

This paper mainly studies the living conditions of Chinese women in the view of western people coming to China in the late Qing Dynasty.When China was opened,more and more westerners came to China.They wrote a lot of articles to describe Chinese history,culture,natural geography and customs according to the perspective of western values.The issue of Chinese women is a matter of great concern to the westerners who came to China,and there were a lot of discussions about Chinese women in their articles.In their view,Chinese women were very unfortunate.Infanticide,foot binding,sale of women,sexual isolation,female education,polygamy and other conditions reflected the fate of Chinese women.With the development of modernization,some positive changes have taken place in the living conditions of Chinese women.Although there were a big differences in the identity and education of the Westerners in China,their concerns were focused,the views and opinions expressed were mostly similar.Most people can treat the problems of Chinese women objectively and fairly.Their related discussions described the survival of the women in the old Chinese society truly and entirely.They criticized the traditional oppressions of women in Chinese society.The reason why these Westerners were so concerned about women in China is that the plight of Chinese women had caused them to feel pity and gain national superiority.It is also a reflection of the clash and fusion of Chinese and Western cultures to a certain extent.But it should be pointed out that some western people took the "western centraltheory" as the keynote to examine Chinese women’s problems.Some of their views were full of obvious discrimination and prejudice,and overstated the role of western civilization,especially Christian civilization,in promoting the emancipation of Chinese women.Therefore,we should look at the relevant discourse of these westerners in a comprehensive and rational way.