Women's Schools In Late Qing Dynasty And The Female Student Body(1895-1911)

From 1895 to 1911,China went through huge changes.The female body also draw wide attention in the same period.This paper elaborates on the changes of ordinary women who became female students and analyzes the body conception at different stages in comparison through exploring the development path of women education in the late Qing Dynasty.At first,the paper discusses the control of foot-binding on female body and the features of female body conception during the foot-binding time.Next,the liberation of female body brought by the"anti-footbinding" movement is detailed.At the same time,traditional female body conception also gradually changed.The female body was brought into the focus with the appearance of appeals for reforming the female body.Not only did the"anti-footbingding" movement lead to the emancipation of female body,but it also initiated advocacy and recommendation of women education from men of insight and some women.The trend of thoughts in opening women education was based on freeing women's feet.People of the time started to combine the body of female students with national prosperity and strength.The female body became a significant part of modern nation-building.In the second and third chapters,the author divides the development process of women education in the late Qing Dynasty into two periods.The first period ranges from 1895 to 1906,when women's schools were mainly nongovernmental organizations with their directors as the subject that was in charge of the body of female students.At that time,the body of female students was constrained and transformed,which was reflected in the school building,time management,course arrangement and clothing in most regulations of the women schools.However,generally speaking,political undertones in the body of female students was weakened.Their activity space was expanded and the body consciousness of some female students was awakened with much progress made.It can be seen that there existed a certain relationship between education and the changes of the female student body.The second period covers 1906 to 1911.In 1907,the Qing government issued the Approved Regulations on Women's Schools,which marked that the women education of the late Qing Dynasty gained legal status.The author analyzes and investigates the changes of female student body and the attitudes of the society towards these changes based on the officially-published regulations and the mass media coverage.The author thinks that the greatest change the female student body experienced was that the body turned from the plaything for private admiration into the object of national and social public management.The country classified the transformation of female student body as one of the plans for powerful country.Meanwhile,it wanted to keep the female student body from overstepping the authority of traditional mores.Therefore,during the development process of women education,the female student body acquired certain liberation,and became the symbol of progress.In the meantime,the female student body was disciplined by the society and country so as to become the body of "national goddess" for powerful country and strong bread.