The Women of the East

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 122, 13 August 1927, Page 24

The Women of the East

■HE human race cannot move forward if its womanhood lags behind. Woman has carved for herself a new place in

The British “Miss 1927” is in many ways different from “Miss 1890,” and even from “Miss 1910”; but in many other respects she is the same. Even where she differs from her predecessors, it is seldom to her disadvantage. She is more self-reliant than they, and better able to take care of herself. It is in the countries of the Orient that the greatest advance toward emancipation is to be seen. Old customs die hard, particularly in the East; but “purdah” is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, and the Chinese lady of to-day has been emancipated ’from the tiny shoe that pinched her mother’s foot and must have made her life almost unendurable.

There is a long way to go, however, before woman comes into her own, even in some of the most enlightened countries of the East. In Japan, among the well-to-do, marriages are still usually arranged by the parents. In India, widowhood has for long been regarded more or less as a disgrace. The widow always wears a distinctive dress of sombre white, and is forbidden by her religion to remarry. The position of the child widow is one of the tragedies of India. From the latest figures I have seen, there are 20,000 lfttle girl widows under the age of five, and a million under the age of 10 (writes Sir Arthur Yapp in “The World To-day”). There are said to be no fewer than 47 million widows altogether in India, all of whom are condemned to widowhood for life, many of them to a life of pove -*y and

MODERN JAPANESE BEAUTY — Th, the LiU in and Dorothy Gish, whichev shame. But womanhood in India Is ? moving forward, and I am convinced ! will soon put an end to this great \ reproach. Tlie women of the Orient have not : been slow to avail themselves of the I

opportunities afforded by education, and many of them are brilliantly clever. One of our young Indian Y.M.C.A. secretaries came over during the Great War to serve in the association centres for the Indian troops in France. During the two years he was away, his wife, in addition to the care of her home and two small children, sutdied at the Madras University and qualified as a doctor. Coming to England last year whilst he was in the United States, she took the M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. degrees at London University. Not only in India, but equally in China and Japan, the girls of the present generation realise the importance of education and are crowding into the schools and colleges that have opened their doors to them. There was a tendency at one time for the women of the East to imitate their sisters of the West in the matter of dress, and some do so still. I was glad, however, to observe the contrary tendency, and I believe it is all to the good. Nothing could be more beautiful than the many-coloured saris that adorn the graceful figures of the ladies of India. No one, again, can fail to admire the costume of a Japanese lady, with the picturesque and characteristic obi, or sash, that is only seen in that country. A woman’s figure is the most beautiful thing the Creator has made. As far as our own country is concerned, the fashions of bygone days seemed to aim at disguising or exaggerating that figure; modern fashions at their best seem to strike the happy medium —though it must be confessed they sometimes go too far in a return to the simplicity of the Garden of Eden. The ladies of Japan have very long hair, and have it made up carefully and elaborately dressed and decorated with wonderful ornaments.

le Constance and Norma Talmadge (or ier way you prefer it) of -Japan, j I am told that on their peeping mats [ they have special block bolsters that | fit into the back of the neck so that j their hair is not interfered with. ! In almost every country I have J visited, one sees the women working

on the land. In British Malaya, Tar.: girls do a great deal of work on tas rubber plantations, such as tapping tit trees for the precious lactic Cuid—a highly skilled operation. At Nagasaki, the great Japan® naval port, I was very much impress*. in watching the women taking ther part in coaling the ship—very hear work for a woman. At Hong Kong GO,OOO people live in houseboats e sampans, and many are very poc; When the P. and O. liner on which! was travelling was lying at the laming stage at Kowloon, I watched lit! interest the women in one of thee sampans that floated close to us The held long poles with a net at the * of each. Any offal, fishbones, or wasfood thrown overboard from our gaUep was instantly caught up by thee human scavengers and salved ■ food. The, -great game for women in * Far East is tennis. Mah Jong airplaying cards also have their plain woman’s life in China. The to-do can be seen in the cool of tfc evening in sumptuous motor-cars, n* of them manufactured in the Unit* States. As education advances, woßfare turning more and more to literture or music or sport. I was ina ested to find that no women take 0 theatrical life as a profession in Cteor Japan, female parts always he» taken by males who have been train* from infancy to that end. At Hangchow, one of the old-* 01 : cities of China, I visited the Tefflt of the Goddess of Mercy. The wdess was represented by a huge Map in brass, with a thousand hands trout symbolically to help human new The ancients had thus symbol* their ideal of the prerogative ; womanhpod. How powerless thai m* really was to give help to any A few doors away, I visited on* the wonderful Missionary" and saw many hands held out actually helping to meet the nrfneeds of suffering humanity, h hospital, Chinese women were splendid work as nurses. In the same city, I saw the Te®l of the God of War, Ya Se one ot - heroes of modern youth in Com*- ■ had been fighting against the momin the north, and on returning I was raised to a position o authority in the State. H> s e - plotted against him. and. a^ er trial, he was condemned and se to death. His clothes were tom I and there were revealed. bra? his back, the words. “Tsocg Koh”—“With Fidelity Pro “f .L< y. try.” The words had been bra his mother before he sbar ~“ ~T j? | the war. The populace ms • ( manded his release; they le man with such a mother was I to be a traitor to the country. The trend of the worlds hood as a whole is, I believe. , dceand upward. The modern not always wear herself on n -jjr* In all material ways. she ~r*nd not unfavourably with n oS ? mother when she was a gir " ‘ reC l»ie had more reason than I to P the value of woman’s wor fte . cr Great War. If the need ana til i portunity should arise aga • 6e r find her equally ready to .® an d b f " cards and dancing, her brl - ’ jt *itl tennis parties, and. rougb ‘ the men. to settle down : business of life.