'The Woman Question' was one of the core themes of debate during the New Culture Movement. While there was nothing new in employing issues directly related to women as a reform strategy and a battle-cry, one thing marked the New Culture period1 as a point of departure in terms of the Chinese women's movement: the idea that only those who played an active social role could be considered a worthy individual. Since such pre-requisites of entrance to the public arena as physical fitness, education, and family and social connections were denied the majority of adult women at that time, the New Culture discourse on women was not only male-led but city-based and highly exclusive. When the image of the New Woman which emerged as a result of this became the dominant norm, the lives and trials of a whole generation of ordinary women were either ignored or redefined to suit the new discourse. |
Through an examination of the May Fourth and subsequent perception of footbinding and unbinding, a seemingly uncontroversial issue, this paper investigates the biases of the women's movement in China. Such biases are then set against the larger context of 20th century Chinese discourse on progress and reform. |
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