User:Boyu Jin/"Miss Zhao's Suicide"

"Miss Zhao's Suicide"
"Miss Zhao's Suicide" was an incident happened in Changsha, Hunan, China on November 14th, 1919. Zhao Wuzhen, or "Miss Zhao," was found committed suicide in her “bridal sedan chair” to her arranged marriage (Gail Hershatter, 93). Zhao utilized her suicide as to protest against her arranged marriage which she detested. "Miss Zhao's suicide" attracted wide attentions from the Chinese society and raised concerns and criticisms against the traditional marriage system. Many social critics and editorialists in the New Culture Movement used this incident to sponsor conversations advocating for women's rights liberation and emphasizing the importance of love within marriages. Many regarded Zhao Wuzhen, along with many other woman who lost their lives due to traditional sexual subordinations and discriminations at the time, as "the important martyrs in history of Chinese feminism" (Ling Yunlan, 79).

China in 1919
The Xinhai Revolution in 1911 seemingly ended the long history of imperial rule in China, contributing to the establishment of the Republic of China. Many at the time regarded this revolution as a successful attempt for political reform in China, but it turned out to be a false hope. In only a few years after its establishment, Yuan Shikai, who was a leading figure in the Xinhai Revolution, became the executive leader of this republic. After his inauguration, Yuan started to suspending the Chinese Parliament, rewriting the constitution, and sponsoring assassinations against his political enemies, all of which were aiming to help his own coronation as the Chinese emperor. However, he failed to establish effective control and died in 1916. From his death until 1928 when Jiang Jieshi "nominally unified China," political power was distributed to local military leaders and warlords, albeit the central government "nominally remained in place." The Chinese people suffered greatly during this period of instability and chaos. The warlord armies were mostly "undisciplined and inclined to steal and rape." Moreover, there were banditry problems within the rural areas (Gail Hershatter, 94).

The New Culture Movement
Witnessing and disappointed by the failure of the political revolution in China, many writers and activists came to the conclusion that merely political revolution was not enough to foster changes in China, there also needed to be a cultural revolution. They advocated for reforms to the family traditions which they believed were the source of subordination in China that prevented the Chinese people from "becoming autonomous individuals and free citizens." They regarded the traditional family system as a system of oppression, both from elders to youths and from men to women (Gail Hershatter, 94). Some viewed the liberation of women as a necessary and essential step toward this goal. Chen Duxiu, for instance, argued that "most women did not participate in politics, as modern civilization required, because they were bound by the Confucian teaching that to be a woman means to submit, that the wife’s words should not travel beyond her own apartment, and that a woman does not discuss affairs outside the home" (Gail Hershatter, 95). Such a narrative of women and family quickly became popular among young individuals in the New Culture Movement. People began to widely advocate for women to get education, jobs, and freedom with marriages as means hoping for strengthening and unifying China. (Gail Hershatter, 96) The Chinese feminism of the period was sophistically entangled with the surging Chinese nationalism resulted from the May Fourth Movement, which could explain the far-reaching attention raised later by "Miss Zhao's Suicide."

Description
Zhao Wuzhen was twenty two years old when she was arranged for marriage by her parents. She was an educated woman whose father owned a glass workshop. Zhao's parents arranged a marriage between her and the son of the Wu family. Initially, she did not complain about her arranged marriage, however, she later asked to delay the marriage after realizing that her arranged husband had an unpleasant look. Her request for delaying the marriage was rejected. On the day of the arranged marriage, Zhao was supposed to sit on her bridal sedan chair and be carried by the bearers into her husband's house. Yet, half way through the journey, the bearers noticed that blood started leaking out from the sedan chair. The bearers decided to speed up their process and ask the groom's family on further instructions. The groom's family debated on whether they should still carry the bride into their house and ended up deciding that they should. They unveiled the sedan chair and found Zhao, the bride, being unconscious due to excessive bleeding but still not dead. They sent her to the hospital but were unable to save her from death. People found out that Zhao committed suicide using a razor. (Ling Yunlan, 76-7)

Media Reactions
Immediately after this incident had occurred, "Da Gong Bao" first reported it in an article titled "The Tragedy of a Bride Committing Suicide in Her Bridal Sedan Chair." This incident created discussions and debates among Changsha newspapers. Intellectuals and activists including Mao Zedong and Long Yi all wrote and participated in the conversation. "Da Gong Bao," being the first to report the incident, sponsored follow-up investigations searching for the cause of this incident. Since the litigant had passed away, there was not a consensus among why "Miss Zhao" committed the suicide. In order to maintain subjectiveness, the newspaper collected three different rumors regarding to the suicide of Zhao and reported all three together. (Wu Runkai, 64)

The first rumor claimed that the bride was concerned with the ongoing gossip that the groom was caught for illegal activities in Hankou, Hubei and was hence sentenced to jail. As a result, the bride asked to delay the marriage and wanted to make the final decision after the truth was revealed. However, the groom ended up returning to Changsha, Hunan the day before marriage, so the groom family decided to reject the bride's request, making the bride thought of using her suicide to protest. The second rumor said that the bride refused to being married and thus committed suicide because she wanted to preserve her chastity. The rumor said that the bride was initially married to a member of the Xu family, but the marriage was not processed because the Xu groom died before the date of the marriage. As a result, the bride made a swear that she would never remarry. The third rumor focused on the unwillingness of the bride to marry because of the age difference. The rumor said the bride was only twenty years old while the groom was already over forty years old. The groom was also claimed by the rumor to have a marriage history and unpleasant appearance. The bride family agreed to this marriage solely because of the luxurious betrothal presents that the groom's family provided for the marriage. The rumor said that on the day of marriage, the bride refused to wake up, wear make-up, and attend the wedding. As a result, her father violently slapped her and forced her to get on the bridal sedan chair, which contributed to her final decision of committing suicide. (Wu Runkai, 64-5)

These three rumors revealed three different perspectives and voices within the Chinese society at the time. The first rumor was most focused by investigators, who aimed to discover the truth in the most enthusiastic way. The second rumor embraced the traditional views of women's virtues whose biggest goal in life was to protect her chastity. In contrast, the third rumor was the complete opposite of the second; it was explained under the principles advocated by the New Culture Movement, which promoted rejections against the traditional views of family and women. (Wu Runkai, 65)

It was unfortunate that "Da Gong Bao" did not sponsor further investigations to evaluate the accuracy of these three rumors. In fact, in the period after incident (from November 15th, 1919 to December 2nd of 1919), "Da Gong Bao" published nearly forty articles, but only four of them centered around the investigative report on the cause and process of this incident, and many more focused on commenting, discussing, and debating. The reason for such a phenomenon to occur was partially because the media were not part of the judiciary institution. The more important reason being that they cared more about the significance of the incident instead of the incident itself. As a result, the quest for truth behind the incident became irrelevant and the discussion about the incident quickly turned into a platform for discussing the Chinese marriage problem, allowing the incident to grow influential. The New Cultural discourse put the blame of "Miss Zhao's suicide" on the traditional marriage system and made Zhao Wuzhen both the victim of traditional marriage system and the martyr of Chinese women's liberation. (Huang Pengying, 120)

Individual Reactions
As mentioned above, "Miss Zhao's Suicide" had incentivized widespread social discussion and debate regarding to women's rights and marital relationships. This social conversation was largely driven by intellectuals and activists from the New Culture Movement who were hoping to utilize this incident as a symbol to call for women’s liberation. The discussion and debate took in forms of individual writings and the main platforms for conversation were newspaper agencies including "Da Gong Bao" and "Nv Jie Zhong." (Wu Runkai, 64)

Mao Zedong
Mao was at Changsha when this incident occurred. Mao immediately reckoned the importance of this event. From the third day after the incident, Mao drafted numerous articles that were published in "Da Gong Bao" to comment on this incident. (Tang Yahui, 54)

In his writing "Criticisms of Miss Zhao's Suicide," Mao wrote that people should not "underestimate" this incident. He claimed that Miss Zhao's decision to commit suicide was fostered entirely by her environment. Mao pointed out that there were three "iron webs" that confined Miss Zhao: the Chinese society, her own family, and her groom's family. Mao argued if any one of these three "iron webs" was opened, Miss Zhao would not commit suicide. In the end, Mao paraded Miss Zhao as a female youth who sacrificed her life for liberty and love and he asked the entire society to call out the injustice that she faced. (Mao, 11/16/1919) In an article he wrote two days later titled “The Personality Problem of Miss Zhao,” Mao claimed that Miss Zhao’s personality was suppressed for the first twenty-one years of her life by her parents, nevertheless, at the moment where she turned twenty-two, her personality “suddenly came forth” and making her to believe that “death is preferable to the absence of freedom.” Mao urged his readers to cry out “long live Miss Zhao” and argued that “all parents who are like the parents of Miss Zhao should be put in prison.” (Mao, 11/18/1919)

In his another writing "Concerning the Incident of Miss Zhao's Suicide," Mao tackled on explaining the biological 'deficiency' of women that contributed to women's subordination and dependence to men, the importance of free love within marital relationships, and he proposed a future where women could become free and independent. Mao pointed out that women were not weaker mentally nor physically compared to men; these differences that were witnessed were man-made. Mao argued that the only so-called 'deficiency' of women's biological nature was their reproductive responsibility, which made them unable to work for a certain period and hence needed to rely on and subordinate to someone, most likely their husbands. Mao claimed that such 'deficiency' should never be considered a deficiency because giving birth and childbearing were "supreme acts of benevolence" and the "indispensable element in the survival of humanity." He argued that men should never take advantage of this so-called 'deficiency' to "wantonly and unscrupulously oppress women." Mao believed that the key to achieving women's own independence was embedded in the presence of love instead of money within marriage. Mao argued that "the relationship between men and women should... centered on love and... must not be governed by economics" because then both men and women would rely on each other for love instead of only women would rely on men for money. In the end of his essay, Mao proposed a list of "methods" to help women to be free and independent: "a woman must never marry before she is physically mature"; "a woman must be adequately prepared in knowledge and skills to live her own life" before marriage; and "a woman must prepare herself for living expenses after childbirth." In addition, Mao noted that the society should pay "close attention" to conditioning "public child support, which could contribute to having marital relationships centered on love. (Mao, 11/21/1919)

Tao Yi
Tao Yi published her writings regarding to "Miss Zhao's Suicide" on "Nv Jie Zhong," or "Women's Bell," under the pseudonym Si Yong. In her writing "Commentary on Miss Zhao's Suicide," Tao saw the hidden unfairness behind Miss Zhao's decide and cried out for the painfulness of her death. She blamed that the "vile marriage system" had "smothered countless other young women to death." Tao emphasized the lack of decision power owned by women in determining their own life, which made many of them "rather die" than facing the cruelty of a life that they did not choose. Tao believed that Miss Zhao was never the only case where women were forced to end their life because of being betrothed by their parents. Instead, she saw Miss Zhao as only an epitome of the wicked practices of the traditional marriage system. Compared to Mao's argument, Tao believed that the significance of "Miss Zhao's Suicide" should have been more centered on reforming the marriage system instead of loving for freedom. Tao argued that if Miss Zhao "were just a passive person trying to protect her own freedom, then why did she not commit suicide at the time she hid the knife, or while she rode in the sedan with her family to her sister's home? Why did she wait till she was in her bridal clothes, and sitting in her bridal sedan, to commit suicide?" Tao argued that her action of committing suicide on her trip to her groom's house should be interpreted as her deliberate attempt to protest against the vile marriage system. (Tao, 11/21/1919)