ABSTRACT
In September 1919, at the height of intellectual debate and student protest that has come to be known as the May Fourth Movement (or in its wider cultural ramifications, the New Culture Movement), a female student by the name of Xie Wanying contributed an article to the Beijing newspaper, Chenbao (Morning Post), that provided a genealogy of the ‘modern’ Chinese female student.1
Arguing that attitudes towards the new phenomenon of the female student since the turn of the century had evolved in three stages, Xie noted that initially female students had been perceived as the hallmark of civilization, successfully emulating their Western counterparts and gaining society’s approval and respect. Then, as numbers grew, public attitudes became increasingly negative as the students’ attitude and actions diverged from that of their ‘responsible’ Western counterparts; with their inflammatory talk of gender equality and undisciplined behaviour, Xie claimed, the words ‘female student’ had become synonymous with everything ‘not good’ (buliang) about the ‘woman’s world’ and girls’ schools were regarded as ‘places to cultivate female vice’ (nüzi zui’e zaochengsuo). The result of such perceptions was that female students were reviled by society and parents became increasingly reluctant to send their daughters to school. However, Xie gleefully exclaimed, this second attitudinal stage had in recent years given way to one characterized by renewed respect for female students because they were less ‘undisciplined’( fangzong) and ‘disruptive’ in their behaviour and had learned to ‘regulate’ their outlook from one of ‘superficial flightiness’ to ‘firm steadfastness’ (wenjian).
