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as a “monstrous” creature, puffing
Women experts in industrial pursuits are also increasing in numbers. Of late, more than 40 women have been appointed as secretaries, ticked collectors, and inspectors on the Canton-Samsui railway. In treaty ports, female stenographers, bookkeepers, and telephone operators are much in evidence.
Social Change
The changing customs of Chinese society influence the social behavior of the working woman in multifarious ways. Thus, Grundyism, which also standardizes or condemns public morals elsewhere, seems in full sway in China. It mourns the passing of the old-fashioned girl, the symbol of modesty and chastity. It mocks the modern girl as a “monstrous” creature. Puffing a cigarette, the working girl of to-day takes delight in “puttering away” her leisure in a cozy tea house with a fellow worker of the male sex. Her dress is not made of homespun such as her mother used to wear, but of a a cheap grade of “imported” material. Not infrequently she uses superficially a few words which belong to the vocabulary of Young China, such as “free love,” “votes for women,” and “sacredness of labor.” In all probability, the modern “flapper” in the rising generation of China has come to stay...
ex Ta Chen, “Woman and Child Labor. Working Women in China,” in Monthly Labor Review 15:6 (December 1922) : 142-149
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Chen, Da (1892-1975), sociologist, author of Population in Modern China (Chicago, 1946), Japanese Emigration to China (1921) — critical of Japan, its aims, &c., here — and many other works.
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