The 'feminization of famine', the feminization of nationalism: Famine and social activism in treaty-port Shanghai, 1876-9

Social History

Volumn 30, Issue 4, 2005, Pages 421-443

  Edgerton Tarpley, Kathryn ^a  

^a SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 29244465823     PISSN: 03071022     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03071020500304593     Document Type: Article

References (87)

1. M. Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World (London, 2001), 71
2. S. C. Watkins and J. Menken, 'Famines in historical perspective', Population and Development Review, XI, 4 (December 1985), 650.
3. The Dingwu phrase refers to the imperial reign dates for 1877 and 1878, the worst years of the famine. Qihuang could also be translated as 'anomalously severe famine'.
4. For additional discussion of the catalysing effect of the famine, see A. Janku, 'The North-China Famine of 1876-1879: Performance and impact of a non-event' in Measuring Historical Heat: Event, Performance, and Impact in China and the West. Symposium in Honour of Rudolf G. Wagner on His 60th Birthday (Heidelberg, 3-4 November 2001, online publication), 127-34. The Jiangnan (literally 'south of the Yangzi River') region includes much of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, and was the most prosperous and urbanized area of China during the late imperial period.
5. See L. C. Johnson (ed.), Cities of Jiangnan in Late Imperial China (Albany, 1993), preface, 116, 189.
6. M. Kelleher, The Feminization of Famine: Expressions of the Inexpressible? (Cork, 1997), 2.
7. J. Z. Lee and Wang Feng, One Quarter of Humanity: Malthusian Mythology and Chinese Realities, 1700-2000 (Cambridge, MA, 1999), 7-8
8. S. Mann, Precious Records: Women in China's Long Eighteenth Century (Stanford, 1997), 12-14.
9. S. Gronewold, Beautiful Merchandise: Prostitution in China, 1860-1936 (New York, 1982), 45-50.
10. E. Ahern, 'The power and pollution of Chinese women' in M. Wolf and R. Witke (eds), Women in Chinese Society (Stanford, 1975), 210-14. Ahern argues that Chinese women were 'outsiders' who, through marriage, broke into the male-oriented kinship system and could threaten family stability.
11. Kelleher, op. cit., 6. For analysis of the notions of 'images' and of 'display' in famine literature, see Kelleher, Introduction and Postscript;
12. C. Morash, 'Literature, memory, atrocity' in C. Morash and R. Hayes (eds), 'Fearful Realities': New Perspectives on the Famine (Dublin, 1996), 110-18
13. and A. Kleinman and J. Kleinman, 'The appeal of experience; the dismay of images: Cultural appropriations of suffering in our times', Daedalus, CXXV, 1 (1996), 1-23. All the above works highlight the crisis in representation caused by a major famine. Kelleher argues that 'the "feminization of famine"
14. For a detailed analysis of local-level depictions of the sale of women during the famine, see K. Edgerton-Tarpley, 'Family and gender in famine: Cultural responses to disaster in north China', Journal of Women's History, XVI, 4 (2004), 119-47.
15. Liu Xing, 'Huangnian ge' ['Song of the famine years'], 1897. Edited version published in Yuncheng zaiyilu [Record of Disasters in Yuncheng ], ed. by Zhang Bowen and Wang Mancang, 1986. This passage was edited out of the 1986 publication. It is taken from page 18 of a more complete manuscript version of 'Huangnian ge' owned by Mr Nan Canghai (Gaotou Village, Linyi County). Permission to cite given by Mr. Nan.
16. Cited in Edgerton-Tarpley, op. cit., 128-35.
17. Han Zhonglin, 'Jiu jie li yang' ['Humble advice for rescuing people from disaster'], Qinyuan xianzhi (Taipei reprint 404, 1928), 8: 918-22.
18. Cited in Edgerton-Tarpley, op. cit., 128-9.
19. ibid., 8: 919-21.
20. K. Edgerton, 'The Semiotics of Starvation in Late-Qing China: Cultural Responses to the "Incredible Famine" of 1876-1879' (Ph.D. dissertation, 2002), chap. 2.
21. H. Harrison, The Making of the Republican Citizen: Political Ceremonies and Symbols in China, 1911-1929 (Oxford, 2000), 7
22. J. Levenson, Confucian China and Its Modern Fate: A Trilogy (Berkeley, 1968), 98-103.
23. M. Elvin, 'The inner world of 1830' in Tu Wei-ming (ed.), The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today (Stanford, 1994), 44.
24. Levenson, op. cit., 103-8.
25. H. Harrison, 'Newspapers and nationalism in rural China, 1890-1929', Past and Present, CLXVI (2000), 182.
26. For discussions of the eighteenth-century Qing state's effective famine relief efforts, see P. E. Will, Bureaucracy and Famine in Eighteenth-Century China (Stanford, 1990)
27. and P. E. Will and R. B. Wong, Nourish the People: The State Civilian Granary System in China, 1650-1850 (Ann Arbor Michigan, 1991).
28. For representative examples of foreign critiques of Qing famine relief efforts, see 'Famine Relief in India and China', North China Herald, 15 March 1877, 'The Government and the Famine', North China Herald, 27 April 1878 or 'Famines and Neglectful Government', North China Herald, 6 May 1879.
29. R. Wagner, 'The role of the foreign community in the Chinese public sphere', The China Quarterly, CXLII (June 1995), 428.
30. F. Wakeman, Jnr and W. H. Yeh (eds), Shanghai Sojourners (Berkeley, 1992), 1-5.
31. M. B. Rankin, Elite Activism and Political Transformation in China: Zhejiang Province, 1865-1911 (Stanford, 1986), 141-7.
32. R. G. Wagner, 'The Shenbao in crisis: The international environment and the conflict between Guo Songtao and the Shenbao', Late Imperial China, XX, 1 (June 1999), 108.
33. B. Mittler, A Newspaper for China? Power, Identity, and Change in Shanghai's News Media, 1872-1912 (Cambridge, MA, 2004).
34. For more background on the history of the Shenbao, see R. Britton, The Chinese Periodical Press, 1800-1912 (Shanghai, 1933);
35. Ma Guangren, Shanghai xinwen shi, 1850-1949 (Shanghai, 1996), 57-71
36. Xu Zaiping and Xu Ruifang, Qingmo sishinian Shenbao shiliao (Beijing, 1988).
37. Shenbao, 11 April 1878, 1.
38. C. Beahan, 'The Women's Movement and Nationalism in Late Ch'ing China' (D. Phil., Columbia University, 1976), 51-3.
39. 'The Famine in the North', Celestial Empire, 14 December 1876.
40. Mann, op. cit., 41-3.
41. The North China Herald was the first foreign-language newspaper established in China. Founded in 1850 by the British auctioneer Henry Shearman, the Herald aimed to cover Shanghai business news, news about events in England and discussions of important world events (Ma Guangren, op. cit., 11-19).
42. 'The Famine in the North', North China Herald, 13 July 1878.
43. 'The Famine in the North', North China Herald, 15 November 1877.
44. J. Fitzgerald, Awakening China: Politics, Culture, and Class in the Nationalist Revolution (Stanford, 1996), 132.
45. ibid., 9, 132-3.
46. For representative examples of Shenbao's coverage of the sale of women and children in famine areas, see articles printed on: 11 April 1878; 30 May 1878; 27 June 1878; 6 August 1878; and 29 October 1878.
47. The dates in Pan Shaoan's diary (5/3/78 to 8/4/1878) correspond to the Chinese Lunar Calendar. I have replaced these dates with their western equivalents.
48. Pan Shaoan, 'Yu xing riji' ['Diary of a journey to Henan'], Shenbao, 27 June 1878, 3.
49. ibid.
50. ibid.
51. Shenbao, 29 October 1878, 3. The newspaper refers to Song Jun by his courtesy name, Song Shanshi.
52. ibid.
53. Min Erchang (comp.), Beizhuan jibu [Supplementary collection of stele biographies] (1923), in reprint, Qingdai zhuanji congkan, 123 (Taibei, 1985), 506-13. Xie Jiafu and the Taohuawa public hall he managed were based in Suzhou during the famine, but Xie was in close contact with relief organizers in nearby Shanghai.
54. An Essay Discussing Henan qihuang tielei tu, Shenbao, 15 March 1878, 1. The illustrations proved to be a successful method of raising relief money in foreign as well as Chinese communities. The original booklet was translated into English by James Legge and published in London in 1878, where it played a role in convincing British citizens to send donations to China. J. Legge (trans.), The Famine in China: Illustrations by a Native Artist with a Translation of the Chinese Text (London, 1878), 12-13.
55. The Qi, Yu, Jin, Zhi zhenjuan zhengxin lu is in the Shanghai Library's collection. As a public library, the Shanghai Library welcomes readers whose purpose is research to use the Library's collection. 'Shou juan: si sheng gaozai tuqi', Qi, Yu, Jin, Zhi zhenjuan zhengxinlu ['Volume 1: Pictures reporting the disaster in the four provinces' in Statement of accounts for relief contributions for Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, and Zhili, vols 1-11] (n.p., 1879), 29b-30a; 31b-32a. The volume of illustrations was published in 1879, and the entire eleven-volume compilation came out in 1881.
56. Mittler, op. cit., 290.
57. ibid., 290-3.
58. For a similar argument, see also M. Yue Dong, 'Communities and communication: A study of the case of Yang Naiwu, 1873-1877', Late Imperial China, XVI, 1 (June 1995), 99.
59. ibid., 25b-26a.
60. Kleinman and Kleinman, op. cit., 8.
61. Shenbao, 15 March 1878, 1.
62. Min Erchang (comp.), op. cit., 506-13.
63. P. Duara, 'The regime of authenticity: Timelessness, gender, and national history in modern China', History and Theory XXXVII, 3 (October 1998), 296.
64. Shenbao, 5 April 1877, 1. See also Janku, op. cit., 130-3.
65. Zhu Hu, 'Wanqing yizhen de xingqi guocheng zai yanjiu' ['Further Research on the Origins of Private Charitable Relief in the Late Qing Period'] (Postdoctoral thesis, Beijing Normal University, 2004), 41. This excerpt came from the 2 June 1877 entry of Xie Jiafu's unpublished diary, Qidong riji. My sincere thanks to Zhu Hu for alerting me to this source.
66. ibid., 41.
67. Shenbao, 4 June 1877, 2-3.
68. Rankin, op. cit., 136-47.
69. For examples of how relief efforts could in some cases strengthen local as well as national identities, see B. Goodman, Native Place, City, and Nation: Regional Networks and Identities in Shanghai, 1853-1937 (Berkeley, 1995), 122-4.
70. Shenbao, 21 July 1879, 3.
71. See also Shenbao, 20 July 1879, 1.
72. J. Handlin Smith, 'Benevolent societies: The reshaping of charity during the Late Ming and Early Ch'ing', Journal of Asian Studies, XLVI, 2 (May 1987), 329.
73. Shenbao, 6 August 1878, 3.
74. Qi, Yu, Jin, Zhi zhenjuan, op. cit., vol. 7, part 8, 'Qingjiang dai shu zi qian ju', 2-3.
75. ibid., 4-6.
76. ibid., 7-9.
77. For a more accessible though slightly edited version of these regulations, see Zheng Guanying, 'Su, Zhe, Hu, Yang chouzhen tongren ni dai shu zaimin yi mai zinu zhangcheng' ['Regulations for redeeming the already-sold women and children of disaster victims, planned by the relief colleagues of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Yangzhou'] in Xia Dongyuan (ed.), Zheng Guanying ji (Shanghai, 1982), 1081-2.
78. Shenbao, 27 October 1878, 3.
79. Shenbao, 29 April 1878, 3.
80. Shenbao, 11 April 1878, 1.
81. ibid.
82. ibid.
83. Shenbao, 2 August 1879, 1.
84. Fitzgerald, op. cit., 133-4.
85. Mittler, op. cit., 285.
86. B. Hershatter, 'Modernizing sex, sexing modernity: Prostitution in early twentieth-century Shanghai' in S. Brownell and J. Wasserstrom (eds), Chinese Femininities, Chinese Masculinities: A Reader (Berkeley, 2002), 206-10.
87. ibid., 211.