Spring Pearl: The Last Flower

Then and Now: China

Discusses what life was like in China in the 1850s. Topics include:

• The traditions that bound China for thousands of years, and how families’ record books would go on for centuries of history
• What Chinese women wore, from their clothes to their purses and jewelry
• How Chinese women and girls would bind their feet, and how the Han, the largest ethnic group in China, thought small, bound feet were beautiful
• Foot-binding showed a family’s wealth, as servants, poor families, and other ethnic groups, such as the Manchus and Hakkas, wouldn’t bind their feet
• The skills, such as sewing and embroidery, girls would learn; girls were typically less valued in a family than boys
• The foods that the Chinese ate, such as the mooncakes and rice-flour pastries for celebrations
• Canton, now called Guangzhou, was the biggest city on the south coast
• Chinese rulers had limited contact with the foreigners
  • For years, Europeans weren’t allowed to mingle with the Chinese citizens
• The war in the 1840s, in which Great Britain forced China to open up trade and allow the British to sell opium, an addictive drug, in China
  • This is now called the First Opium War
• In 1857, the British and French attacked China again, starting the Second Opium War
• These wars, and influence from those moving to America to mine gold, brought new ways into China
• Now, China’s ancient traditions have changed
  • Girls have more choices in activities and education
  • Foot-binding was outlawed in 1911
• But girls in China still face prejudice
  • From 1979-2015, families in China were only allowed to have one child, and most families hoped for a boy
  • Some families would “abandon” their infant daughters to try again for a boy
  • Many of the girls were adopted by international families, and never meet their biological families