Christian Women and the Making of a Modern Chinese Family: an Exploration of Nu duo, 1912-1951

Abstract

This thesis examines the Christian attempt to transform the institution of the Chinese family by investigating the ideal Christian domesticity portrayed by Nu 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, Nu 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 Nu 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 Nu 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 Nu 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 Nu duo reflects the interplay between the Western notion of a Christian domesticity and the local perception of a Chinese Christian domesticity. A study of Nu 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.