Brigitte Kwan
Encyclopedia
"Brigitte" Kwan.
Born in Canton
, China
, Kwan was one of the pioneer Chinese feminists
who advocated against the practice of foot binding
and feudal misogyny
in Imperial China. Of Manchu
aristocratic lineage, Kwan was born as the female baby of an aristocratic fraternal twin pair at the turn of the 20th century.
At a tender age, the young child received an education in Confucian Chinese classics, a rarity for women of the times, who were not traditionally allowed access to education.. Although women of the Han Chinese
aristocracy and upper bourgeoisie
were constrained by patriachal feudalism, and had their feet broken and bound as babies, the female Manchu aristocrats did not conform to this custom, as they exercised greater political power in the society than Han Chinese women did. Not only was Kwan's feet not bound, she started a movement and encouraged other Han Chinese women to do the same to later generations, and openly advocated against feet-binding in a male-dominated society, despite protests.
, many women with bound feet drowned, being unable to swim with minute, distorted feet, or even run to escape, many others remained trapped in deep waters. Kwan swam and rescued many women by placing them one after another on rooftops and nearly lost her own life in exhaustion. She was commended by many aristocratic Chinese women as a Feminist heroine, becoming a Joan of Arc
figure, and is often referred to as the first feminist of China.
and the increasing attacks against the Qing Manchu, she fell in love with a Han Chinese, a Sun Yat-sen
partisan and military commander Wong Sung-mong Huang Zhongwen (Chinese: 黄仲文) Huang Zhongwen born Y.S. Wong (Chinese: 黄玉书), rumored to be part of the Tongmenghui
, was tutored by an Imperial scholar - Jìnshì (進士), and a trained physician (daifu - 大夫), before fighting in Sun Yat-sen's army in the Northern Expedition. After the end of the war
, the pair found themselves stranded in a devastated, destroyed China. Following the Tongmenghui's history of raising relief funds for war efforts in China through the United States
and South-east Asia, the pair secretly eloped into British
zone through Hong Kong
, and set sail to Nanyang
(modern day South-east Asia), onto British Crown territories, stopping at Phoenix City (Traditional Chinese: 鳳城：Hanyu Pinyin Fengcheng) (modern day Kuala Lumpur
), Penang
and Singapore
. In a bid to raise funds for poverty relief in China, the pair set up a volunteer institution teaching Confucian Classics and the classical Chinese language, and accepted the poor and the rich alike into their school. Her husband also returned to his previous practice as a physician.
Before they could return to Canton
through Hong Kong from the British Crown colony of Singapore, they founded themselves amidst a sudden invasion by the Japan
ese soldiers at the outbreak of World War II
. Kwan, herself a male-female fraternal twin pair, gave birth to her last children, a pair of fraternal twins of different sexes. Under severe food rationing from Japanese kempeitai
marauding of civilian food supplies, both babies suffered from malnutrition
, malaria
and dysentery
. She was forced to leave a dead male baby near a refuse pile, after it expired its last breath. Her eldest daughter, not bearing it, brought the dead corpse back, and miraculously, it sprang to life again. However, the other female twin baby died not long after.
was sealed off from the outside world upon Soviet instigation and Kwan was not permitted to re-enter China. Kwan spent most of her life outside China, dreaming of a return and reunion with her twin brother to resurrect an Imperial China
that she would never again see. This heroine and first feminist of China died in the 1980s.
Born in Canton
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Kwan was one of the pioneer Chinese feminists
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
who advocated against the practice of foot binding
Foot binding
Foot binding was the custom of binding the feet of young girls painfully tight to prevent further growth. The practice probably originated among court dancers in the early Song dynasty, but spread to upper class families and eventually became common among all classes. The tiny narrow feet were...
and feudal misogyny
Misogyny
Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...
in Imperial China. Of Manchu
Manchu
The Manchu people or Man are an ethnic minority of China who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the 17th century, with the help of the Ming dynasty rebels , they came to power in China and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which...
aristocratic lineage, Kwan was born as the female baby of an aristocratic fraternal twin pair at the turn of the 20th century.
Early life
She is of the ruling Manchu class with Mandarin official ancestors including Guan Peiyuan, a peer of Kang Youwei.At a tender age, the young child received an education in Confucian Chinese classics, a rarity for women of the times, who were not traditionally allowed access to education.. Although women of the Han Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
aristocracy and upper bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
were constrained by patriachal feudalism, and had their feet broken and bound as babies, the female Manchu aristocrats did not conform to this custom, as they exercised greater political power in the society than Han Chinese women did. Not only was Kwan's feet not bound, she started a movement and encouraged other Han Chinese women to do the same to later generations, and openly advocated against feet-binding in a male-dominated society, despite protests.
First feminist of China
In the great flood of NanhaiNanhai
Nanhai District , historically known as Namhoi, is a district of Foshan prefecture-level city, in Guangdong province, southern China. It is the first city to have developed e-government informatization at the county level in China.-Administration:...
, many women with bound feet drowned, being unable to swim with minute, distorted feet, or even run to escape, many others remained trapped in deep waters. Kwan swam and rescued many women by placing them one after another on rooftops and nearly lost her own life in exhaustion. She was commended by many aristocratic Chinese women as a Feminist heroine, becoming a Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
figure, and is often referred to as the first feminist of China.
Later life
After the fall of the Qing dynastyQing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
and the increasing attacks against the Qing Manchu, she fell in love with a Han Chinese, a Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
partisan and military commander Wong Sung-mong Huang Zhongwen (Chinese: 黄仲文) Huang Zhongwen born Y.S. Wong (Chinese: 黄玉书), rumored to be part of the Tongmenghui
Tongmenghui
The Tongmenghui, also known as the Chinese United League, United League, Chinese Revolutionary Alliance, Chinese Alliance and United Allegiance Society, was a secret society and underground resistance movement formed when merging many Chinese revolutionary groups together by Sun Yat-sen, Song...
, was tutored by an Imperial scholar - Jìnshì (進士), and a trained physician (daifu - 大夫), before fighting in Sun Yat-sen's army in the Northern Expedition. After the end of the war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
, the pair found themselves stranded in a devastated, destroyed China. Following the Tongmenghui's history of raising relief funds for war efforts in China through the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and South-east Asia, the pair secretly eloped into British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
zone through Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, and set sail to Nanyang
Nanyang (geographical region)
Nanyang is the Chinese name for the geographical region south of China, particularly Southeast Asia. Literally meaning "Southern Ocean", it came into common usage in self-reference to the large ethnic Chinese migrant population in Southeast Asia, to be more precise, in Singapore, the Philippines,...
(modern day South-east Asia), onto British Crown territories, stopping at Phoenix City (Traditional Chinese: 鳳城：Hanyu Pinyin Fengcheng) (modern day Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
), Penang
Penang
Penang is a state in Malaysia and the name of its constituent island, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. It is bordered by Kedah in the north and east, and Perak in the south. Penang is the second smallest Malaysian state in area after Perlis, and the...
and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. In a bid to raise funds for poverty relief in China, the pair set up a volunteer institution teaching Confucian Classics and the classical Chinese language, and accepted the poor and the rich alike into their school. Her husband also returned to his previous practice as a physician.
Before they could return to Canton
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
through Hong Kong from the British Crown colony of Singapore, they founded themselves amidst a sudden invasion by the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese soldiers at the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Kwan, herself a male-female fraternal twin pair, gave birth to her last children, a pair of fraternal twins of different sexes. Under severe food rationing from Japanese kempeitai
Kempeitai
The was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945. It was not an English-style military police, but a French-style gendarmerie...
marauding of civilian food supplies, both babies suffered from malnutrition
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
, malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
and dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
. She was forced to leave a dead male baby near a refuse pile, after it expired its last breath. Her eldest daughter, not bearing it, brought the dead corpse back, and miraculously, it sprang to life again. However, the other female twin baby died not long after.
Separation and death
After the World War II ended, the People's Republic of ChinaPeople's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
was sealed off from the outside world upon Soviet instigation and Kwan was not permitted to re-enter China. Kwan spent most of her life outside China, dreaming of a return and reunion with her twin brother to resurrect an Imperial China
Late Imperial China
Late Imperial China refers to the period between the end of Mongol rule in 1368 and the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912 and includes the Ming and Qing Dynasties...
that she would never again see. This heroine and first feminist of China died in the 1980s.
External links
- Chinese dress in the Qing Dynasty, Powerhouse Museum
- Chinese Foot Binding, h2g2, BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...