Thursday 8 January 2009

American [official] images of Chinese girls

Excerpts from War and Navy Departments, Washington, D.C., Pocket Guide to China (1943), prepared by Special Service Division, Army Service Forces, United States Army.

"The modern Chinese girl, in her long, closely fitting gown, her bare arms and short hair, is often very pretty. Yet it is well to remember that in China the attitude toward women is different from ours in America. Chinese women in some ways are more free than they are here in America - that is, they do some things which American women don't yet do. They are in the Army, for instance, and they fight side by side with the guerrillas. But in their relations with men they haven't the same freedeom as women have in America." (p. 15)
"There are Chinese girls in cabarets and places of amusement who may be used to free and easy ways. But the average Chinese girl will be insulted if you touch her, or will take you more seriously than you probably want to be taken. A mistake in this may cause a lot of trouble." (p. 15)

The lesson is be serious with modern Chinese women, they are either warriors (see traditional fairy tale Hua Mulan) or fair ladies. 

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