The Precious Raft of History: The Past, the West, and the Woman Question in China

摘要

In August 1900, 570 women in Tongzhou committed suicide to escape capture and rape by troops of the Joint Expeditionary Force, an international force formed to suppress the Boxer Rebellion. As noted by Joan Judge in part three of The Precious Raft of History, this mass tragedy could be viewed as an act of female virtue consistent with the tradition of "heroic chastity martyrdom." In fact, it was interpreted in a number of ways. Judge points to three different approaches, of which one was a frank repudiation of female suicide as anything to celebrate (He Xiangning), while another was an analysis of the suicides in terms of male valour rather than of female virtue (Jin Xia).