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Songs of Youth （2）
Marriage Revolution |
| CCTV.COM 2002-11-24 17:11:07 |
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 Many chastity arches remain in Shexian County, Anhui Province. They were symbols of Chinese women's cruel fate for thousands of years. The cold stone arches silently showed the taboos like the “three obedience and four virtues.” A woman had to be obedient to her father before marriage, to her husband after marriage and to her son after her husband's death； and she had to keep morality, proper speech, modest manner and diligent work.
Losing one's chastity was believed to be much more serious than starving to death. The status of women was extremely low in traditional families. The women who were chaste and undefiled had a history written in blood and tears.
From the photos taken at the beginning of the 20th century, we can see the true features of many wealthy families. It was a common sight that a man took a wife and one or more concubines. A commoner might lease his wife to another man by signing a contract.
In the rural areas, it was nothing new for a man to lease his wife to another man. When the feminist movement was rising vigorously in the Western countries, the fate of women in China began to change in a real sense.
On November 14, 1919, a tragedy took place in the ancient city of Changsha. Twenty－three－year－old Zhao Wuzhen took her own life in the bridal sedan chair because she hated the arranged marriage.
The case evoked strong repercussions. Twenty－six－year－old Mao Zedong was then in Changsha. In the following 12 days, he published 10 commentaries attacking the traditional customs that caused the tragedy. It was for the first time in his life that Mao Zedong published so many essays successively to comment on a single case. He was the man who uttered the strongest voice against the tragedy.
As son of a peasant family, he had a painful lesson of the traditional marriage system. Five years earlier, he had left his home angrily to resist the marriage arranged by his parents.
 The May 4th Movement took place as a political protest in Beijing six months ago. It gradually spread to other social domains. Around the May 4th Movement, many intellectuals began to sharply criticize certain social phenomena.
Publications represented by the "New Youth" and enlightenment thinkers represented by Chen Duxiu and Lu Xun published articles to attack the cannibalistic feudal ethics. They called imperatively for liberation of individual personality.
Around 1917, the name of a foreign woman was known to many Chinese. She was Nora, the heroine of the drama A Doll's House. Henrik Ibsen, a Norwegian dramatist, became a figure who produced a great influence on the literary world in China. In a short span of two years, the modern drama was popular in many large and medium－sized cities. Nora became an idol admired by many Chinese girls.
Following the example of "A Doll's House", Hu Shi wrote An Event of Lifelong Significance, the first one－act drama in China.
The customs of marriage which had been prevailing for thousands of years were doubted and attacked. In 1917, a young girl in a village in Hebei Province left her home to resist the marriage arranged by her parents and headed for Tianjin to attend a school. Her name was Guo Longzhen. Two years later, she appeared in the demonstrators of the May 4th Movement. According to the Shanghai newspaper Shen Bao, many girls fled their homes to avoid arranged marriages in the early 1920s. "I am myself" was a pet phrase used by many girls in those days.
Marriage was believed to be an event of lifelong significance in China. Civilized marriage was introduced. Some young people even got married without betrothal gifts. Western practices were accepted by more and more educated young people in cities.
In 1929, Wenxiu, a concubine of Puyi who had given up the throne, left home and made a statement in the newspaper, announcing a divorce from the former emperor. The divorce was called "an imperial concubine's revolution". The case was of historical significance. It signified the imminent end of the traditional marriage system which had reigned in China for thousands of years.
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Editor: Inner Wu CCTV.com
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