Study Of The Issue Of Women In A Review Of The Times

In the late Qing dynasty, magazine was a significant means widely used by the Protestant missionaries to express their opinions about the Modern Chinese society. This thesis makes a research on the articles about Chinese women written in A Review of the Times, which had the longest history, the largest number of publications and the most far-reaching influence in all magazines founded by the Western missionaries. And the research is intended to explore why and how A Review of the Times paid attention to the physical and social condition of the Chinese women and the influence of the act. The predecessor of A Review of the Times was the Chinese Globe Magazine founded by Young J. Allen, an American Protestant in Shanghai in1868.It lasted till 1874 and was renamed A Review of the Times. In 1883 it closed down. In 1889 it resumed publication and gradually became the organ of the Society of Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese. The founder and other editors were the Liberals Protestants. With the conceptions of capitalistic liberty and freedom, the attribute of the Liberals made the missionaries show the great interest to the Modern Chinese women. They wrote a great deal of articles. And the magazine is separated into two periods: a Review of the Times in the early period(1874-1883) and the one in the period of the Society of Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese(1889-1907). In the early period, missionaries introduced the life style and social status of Western women. At the same time they began to take and criticize chasteness, foot-binding, women education in the real life of the Modern Chinese women. In the period of the Society of Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese, the number of articles about Chinese women exceeded that in the early period. The introduction of the Western women's social status is more systemic. And the criticisms were focused on foot-binding and women education. The missionaries not only criticized, but put their innovative propositions into practice. They made great efforts to found the society of anti-foot-binding and run Christian girls' school. The activities dissociated the orthodox idea of women in China and stimulated the emergence of the new idea. The publication of A Review of the Times helped to spread the missionaries' attention about Chinese women. The powerful strategy of the Society of Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese enlarged the publication range of A Review of the Times. Many new reform-minded intellectual groups benefited from the ideas of the missionaries through reading A Review of the Times. The missionaries' latent criterion and authority were based on the Western civilization and Christianity. It is the aim to convert China to the Christianity and the western society with the practice of Missionaries. Their preaching activities, therefore, were utilitarian.