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Full referenceA Returned Woman Student, A Girl Student Addresses Her Sisters (1922)
TypeJournal article
Author(s)A Returned Woman Student
TitleA Girl Student Addresses Her Sisters
Year1922
JournalCanton Times
Date publication1922
LanguageEnglish
Keywordsdefense; editor; letter; reader; returned student; women; generation; tension; rivalry; home economics; health; hygiene; children; food; missionary; Guangdong; Shanghai; China;
Abstract

Letter sent to the editor of the China Press by a women returned students to defend her fellow women returned students before non-returned Chinese women (especially Miss Kwei) who blamed their foreign education for bringing troubles into Chinese homes 

Miss Kwei mostly blames them for adopting foreign "mores" (clothing, language) and betryaing Chinese customs (filial piety, duties to parents and homes). Claims that they live in a "transitional age" and need to adapt. Also praises returned women for awakening China to the absudity of such  evil customs as bound-feet and idol worship, childhood marriage engagements. 

Acknowledges that there may be some selfish returned students who think themselves superior to their fellow countrymen because they secured diplomas from colleges in China or abroad, and that other had failed and became idle and disappointed upon their return, but there are very few and we shall beware of taking their examples as an excuse to blame foreign education entirely. She invites ther fellow countrywomen to learn good house-keeping and responsibilities as wives and mothers (make the home sanitary and comfortable, watch that the food is clean and digestible, care for her children and the health of the family, etc). Most of "traditional" Chinese women left the management of their home to their servants. Points out the limits of missionary education for girls - since it fails to teach Chinese girls home economics and domestic science

Note

Published in the Canton Times, August 10, 1922. 

NB the letter is signed "A Returned Woman Student"

Clearly she belongs to the second generaiton of returned women (geared toward home economics and domestic science, in constrast to the first generation of women educators and physicians)

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