Christian Women and the Making of a Modern Chinese Family: an Exploration of Nü Duo 女鐸, 1912–1951
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Christian Women and the Making of a Modern Chinese Family: an Exploration of Nü duo 女鐸, 1912–1951 Zhou Yun A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University February 2019 © Copyright by Zhou Yun 2019 All Rights Reserved Except where otherwise acknowledged, this thesis is my own original work. Acknowledgements I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Benjamin Penny for his valuable suggestions and constant patience throughout my five years at The Australian National University (ANU). His invitation to study for a Doctorate at Australian Centre on China in the World (CIW) not only made this project possible but also kindled my academic pursuit of the history of Christianity. Coming from a research background of contemporary Christian movements among diaspora Chinese, I realise that an appreciation of the present cannot be fully achieved without a thorough study of the past. I was very grateful to be given the opportunity to research the Republican era and in particular the development of Christianity among Chinese women. I wish to thank my two co-advisers—Dr. Wei Shuge and Dr. Zhu Yujie—for their time and guidance. Shuge’s advice has been especially helpful in the development of my thesis. Her honest critiques and insightful suggestions demonstrated how to conduct conscientious scholarship. I would also like to extend my thanks to friends and colleagues who helped me with my research in various ways. Special thanks to Dr. Caroline Stevenson for her great proof reading skills and Dr. Paul Farrelly for his time in checking the revised parts of my thesis. I am also grateful to members at my church who remembered my study in their prayers. Kelly Liu and Wenju Wu especially for their generous help for technical assistance. My study would have been less smooth without the kind support of the staff at CIW. The working environment at CIW could not be more ideal for PhD students: well-equipped facilities, sufficient research funding, spacious offices, and most importantly, a space for friendship. Colleagues I met at academic conferences also enriched my research and academic life. I wish to thank for their comments and support that assisted the development of my thesis. The list of names includes but is not limited to: Prof. Lian Xi, Prof. Kwok Pui-lan, Prof. Joseph Tse-hei Lee, Dr. Li Ji, Dr. Wong Wai- yin Christina, and Dr. Wang Zhixi. My archival research was greatly assisted by the following institutions: Shanghai Municipal Archive, the United Methodist Archives Center at Drew University, Special Collections and Archives at Hong Kong Baptist University Library, the National Library of Australia, School of Theology Library at Boston University, Burke Library at Columbia University, Tōyō Bunko, and the British Library. Finally, I wish to thank my husband, my parents and parents-in-law for their support and encouragement throughout my study. Abstract This thesis examines the Christian attempt to transform the institution of the Chinese family by investigating the ideal Christian domesticity portrayed by Nü duo. The religious nature of this magazine together with its reliance on Western financial and literary sources made it a modernising force with different ideas on the family from that promoted by the non-Christian intelligentsia. Unlike the reformist ambitions of prominent Chinese intellectuals and politicians, Nü duo advocated a family model founded on a religious vision as the basis for modern life. It addressed questions of contemporary life and galvanised the domestic sphere with Christian ideals, ranging from a theological rationale for women’s household obligations to modern ways of childrearing and domestic management. An exploration of Nü duo adds to the existing knowledge on modernising attempts in the domestic sphere. As the notion of an ideal womanhood penetrated the secular family-reform discourse, this thesis pays special attention to the advocacy of the ideal woman’s role put forward by Nü duo, which targeted educated Chinese women. With China embarking on the building of a modern nation-state, notions of gender equality and an escalating national crisis demanded that female citizens, either directly or indirectly, join the nation-building process. Traditional social and cultural restrictions on women were greatly challenged in the Republican era. Amidst the changing perceptions of women’s social and domestic roles, I look at relevant discussions recorded in Nü duo to understand its uniqueness in reconfiguring an ideal womanhood when compared with the non-Christian community. This research centres on the primary question of how Nü duo reflects the interplay between the Western notion of a Christian domesticity and the local perception of a Chinese Christian domesticity. A study of Nü duo, I argue, reveals the self-awakening process of educated Chinese Christian women who were at the same time confined by the missionary legacy, wittingly or unwittingly. Chinese Christian women, unlike their male counterparts, experienced a two-fold struggle as a result of a conflict between the Victorian notion of womanhood, with that of traditional patriarchal gender ethics in the nation-building process. In the wake of Chinese nationalism, a shift occurred from relying on Western notions of Christian womanhood to the formation of a Chinese Christian notion of womanhood among local female converts. This thesis will show that this Chinese notion of an ideal Christian womanhood, however, is a contested concept that differs from individual to individual. The plural understandings of women’s relationship with the nation reflect a lack of theological, historical, and cultural models for women’s political and national roles. Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 Family: a Contested Space for a Modern Nation .............................................................................. 3 Reconfiguring a Domesticated Womanhood: a Male-dominated Narrative ................................... 6 Transforming China: an Evangelical Zeal ........................................................................................... 8 Nü duo............................................................................................................................................... 11 A Christian Family for China ............................................................................................................. 12 Research Aim and Questions ........................................................................................................... 15 Methodology and Chapter Outline .................................................................................................. 20 Chapter 2 The Birth of Nü duo ............................................................................................................. 24 The General Historical Context of Nü duo ....................................................................................... 24 Proselytising China: Gendered Missiology, Missionary Women, and the Late Qing Period ......... 26 Evangelical Literature for Chinese Women ..................................................................................... 29 Gender in Late Qing Reform: Nationalism and Beyond .................................................................. 30 Towards a Christian Woman’s Magazine ........................................................................................ 36 Nü duo: a Detailed Sketch ................................................................................................................ 41 The Publisher ................................................................................................................................ 41 Purpose ......................................................................................................................................... 44 Editorial Policy, Editors, and Contributors ................................................................................... 48 Financial Support and Distribution .............................................................................................. 52 Readership .................................................................................................................................... 56 A Radical Nature, a Moderate Approach ........................................................................................ 61 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 63 Chapter 3 Adapting Victorian Domesticity: 1912–1915 ...................................................................... 64 A Kingdom at Home: Laura M. White and her Evangelical Vision .................................................. 66 Victorian Virtues in Nineteenth-century America and their Impact on American Missionary Activity .......................................................................................................................................... 68 The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church ......................... 70 Laura White and the WFMS ......................................................................................................... 72 White’s Evangelical Views of the Role of Women: Domesticity and Mothercraft ..................... 73 White as Editor