Ladies of Old Tsinghua - What a truly independent woman should look like

This article was adapted and translated from the book Recollections of Tsinghua's Past.

https://www.tsinghua.org.cn/info/1952/33096.htm

1

Tsinghua School Period

The predecessor of Tsinghua University was the Preparatory Class for Learning in the U.S.A. under the Gengzi Reparations Program, which was established in 1911 and later changed into Tsinghua School. The humiliating history of the Gengzi Reparations has always inspired all generations of Tsinghua to fight for the country's prosperity and national liberation. Mei Yiqi, the old principal of Tsinghua School, said, "What builds up the magnificent Tsinghua Campus is not only the Italian granite, American-made machinery and instruments, but also the flesh and blood of Chinese youth and the unyielding spirit and will to survive of the Chinese nation."

Since the third year of the Republic of China (1914), Tsinghua School began to send ten female students to the United States every year (sometimes not enough), decided by public examination. Because of the special Western background of the "Preparatory Class for Learning in the U.S.," Tsinghua was at the forefront of Chinese institutions of higher learning in recruiting women. However, all the girls went directly to the United States and did not receive one day of education at Tsinghua, so it could not be considered a "co-educational" school, and Tsinghua was still a purely male society.

Ni Fengji, the wife of Mei Yibao, the younger brother of Mei Yiqi, was one of the ten women admitted in 1921. Looking back on these youthful years, she said, "In retrospect, life was a dream. This dream of mine is based on the fact that in 1921, Tsinghua admitted ten women to study in the United States at public expense. Speaking of a lifetime of study, career, as well as marriage, family, all deduced from this."

Attributed to its special historical background, Tsinghua School attached much less importance to Chinese studies than to foreign studies. Male students, such as Liang Shiqiu, Wen Yiduo, and Pan Guangdan, were admitted to Tsinghua at the age of thirteen or fourteen, with the aim of "studying in the United States". The female students did not receive a single day of education at Tsinghua. However, with the development of the country, and the school construction in depth, this special education created by the special conditions of the country is declining. "The new school song, composed by the Tsinghua people themselves, gradually replaced the song written by Americans at the beginning of the school and spread all over the beautiful Tsinghua campus.

During this period in China, with the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement, the New Culture Movement began to develop widely, the call for women's liberation was also rising, and the goal of equal access to higher education for both men and women was gradually being realized, and girls were no longer the passing travelers of Tsinghua campus.

2

The Period of National Tsinghua University

The year 1928 was a very important year in the history of Tsinghua University. It was in this year that Tsinghua University entered a new stage of development by transforming itself from a single preparatory school for studying in the United States into a national high education institute, and at the same time, at the initiative of its president, Mr. Luo Jialun, the university was finally made co-educational. A thriving comprehensive university with a large number of masters was thus opened.

From then on, Tsinghua students no longer enrolled purely for the purpose of staying in the United States. They read undergraduate and graduate school in Tsinghua, receiving comprehensive guidance from masters and systematic education of both Eastern and Western cultures. After completing their studies, many of them went abroad for further education, and most of them came back to serve the education and cultural cause of their motherland.

The education of girls in Tsinghua resonated deeply with the restructuring of the school and a brand new chapter was written.

The first group of Tsinghua female students

In 1932, the school's enrollment began to swell, with a record number of 28 women, and in the fall of 1933, a new women's dormitory, Jingzhai, was built.

There was a serene place hidden among the trees, featuring a red bridge and clear water. The boys named it "Battery," signifying its easy-to-defend and hard-to-attack qualities. Before the war, Jingzhai had its own cafeteria that served a delicious snack known as "Goryeo steamed bread," which even the boys couldn't resist. The Laundry Bureau workers regularly picked up and washed clothes for the girls.

Zheng Xiu, a law student who enrolled in 1932, fell in love with Cao Yu, a famous writer and foreign language student, while on the Tsinghua campus. Jingzhai served as an excellent place for her to consolidate and digest what she learned in class, as well as to study challenging subjects after school. Zheng Xiu was fortunate enough to have a smaller room situated on the second floor, opposite the stairway. From her window, she could take in the view of the green trees and spring flowers, or the winter pines and cypresses whenever she felt tired. When thirsty, she would go to the corridor's small magnetic spray pool to drink a few mouthfuls of cool spring water, which always left her feeling refreshed and relaxed.

During the 1920s and 1930s, there was a saying among the academic circles in Peiping regarding the conditions for a girl to choose her spouse. The saying went: "Peking University old, Shidai poor, Tsinghua Yanjing can be accommodated." Tsinghua and Yanjing had a Western background, and most of the students came from favorable family conditions, so they dressed in a slightly "foreign style." However, the old Tsinghua girls were known for their simplicity. They hardly ever permed their hair and instead pushed it up from the back to save time, which looked both convenient and sharp. He Yingqin, the second most powerful man after Chiang Kai-shek, once visited Tsinghua to give a speech and was amazed by the simplicity of the female students. Compared to other universities in the city and church universities, the old Tsinghua girls were notorious for their lack of grooming.

Prior to the war, it was commonly believed that this particular group was solely focused on their academic pursuits, with little to no interest in foreign affairs. They were also thought to be chaste and peaceful, much like the river beside Jingzhai. In terms of their choice of majors, the majority of them were pursuing liberal arts. Some of the notable leaders within the group included Yang Jiang from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature (the translator of Don Quixote), Zheng Xiu from the Department of Law, Wei Junyi from the Department of Philosophy, Lu Cui from the Department of Sociology, and He Zehui from the Department of Physics, who was a notable representative of female who studied science and technology.

After getting married, many women became the wives of professors and were referred to as "senior intellectual housewives". However, most of them were not content with spending the best years of their lives in a comfortable family life. They were independent and ambitious, with a desire to pursue their personal values and contribute to society. Despite this, suitable job opportunities were often limited to educational positions and a few government agencies. As they entered society, they realized that achieving this ideal came at a high cost. Kuang Pi Cheng, a successful educator, has remained unmarried all her life to dedicate herself to her career.

3

Discussions and Practices on the Social Positioning of Female Students

During the time when university girls were a rare social resource and had limited employment opportunities, male students became highly interested in their lives. The old Tsinghua girls were eventually forced to speak out in the school magazine, proclaiming, "Women should not be regarded as anything other than women. There is no need to make a fuss about it."

But this was not the climax of the free debate. A male student under the pseudonym "Junshi" published an article in the school magazine titled "Gender Issues in the University," sharply mocking girls:

From recognized slaves, dolls, and decorations to default efforts, dolls, and decorations.

and lamenting the fact that:

Higher education has done its part to elevate the status of women. However, higher education does not elevate women's personhood, but merely takes the garment of knowledge and glorifies it so that women enjoy some sort of convenience and priority in the marketplace of the 'sex trade'.

Four rebuttals to this article immediately sprang up. A girl who signed her name "Gudong" expressed her opinion with a full flavor of gunpowder:

Why do women have to be the same as men? ...... higher education is to elevate the personality of women and increase their self-consciousness. They have their own lives and no longer need to be judged by others just by their ordinary daily lives. ..... Tsinghua female students are not different from boys in any way.

The person who signed "Banchi" even pointed out that those who trample on women's personalities are the majority of men - the defenders of the old social system. She said:

There should be no 'hatred' between the two sexes, but women can't help but 'hate' those hypocrites who 'cling to the old corpse'. We should not only 'hate' those men negatively, but also need to aggressively attack them. 'Love' cannot heal this rift; can you call for pure love among sheep and wolves?

This free debate became more and more serious and in-depth, refreshing not only to the Tsinghua people at that time, but also to the readers of the new century more than seventy years later. It is difficult for us to read such good and serious articles on women's position in society from various newspapers and magazines that are available today.

As if to provide a physical demonstration of the girls' growing sense of autonomy and self-awareness, in 1935, during the January 29th Movement, this isolated "battery" in the school with a strong tradition of studying in the U.S. emerged with several heroines who were not to be outdone by the rest of the world: Wei Junyi, Ji Yuxiu, Wei Yumei, Lu Cui....... After the July 7 Incident, they joined the military. Ji Yuxiu died on the battlefield and was known as one of the three leaders of the women's movement in Shanxi province.

Wei Junyi later recalled how thousands of them, singing songs of exile, left Peiping. She couldn't forget the events of 1937 before leaving, just like she couldn't forget her mother in the same year. On the day before the July 7th Incident, Wei had to attend a meeting in the city. The setting sun shone on the window of the Jingzhai, turning the afterglow into a beautiful sight. She leaned out of the window, thinking of taking the school bus to the city. She was too lazy to clean up the cheongsam on the bed, thinking she would do it when she came back to school. However, she didn't know that she wouldn't be able to return to school until 1949, when she was already an alumnus of the school.

4

National Southwestern Associated University

In 1937, the July 7th Incident broke out, putting North China in danger and starting a tough war of resistance. To escape the dangers of the conflict, teachers and students from Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Nankai University left their hometowns and founded the National Southwestern Associated University （NSAU）in Kunming. This institution played a vital role in cultivating a large number of talented individuals.

During this period, students can be associated with different universities. They can be regarded as students of Tsinghua or Peking University, and they can also be considered alumni of Nankai University. Each student has a unique student number, which indicates where they came from. Those with a "P" in their student number represent Peking University, those with a "T" represent Tsinghua, and those with an "N" represent Nankai. Despite their different backgrounds, all students are mixed together in one large class.

Hao Yichun was a geologist who graduated from the Department of Geology of NSAU in 1943. Originally, she was a student of the Department of History, but due to the national crisis, she resolutely changed her major to study geology. She was determined to take the path of scientific salvation and made significant contributions to the cause of geological exploration in China. In the documentary "Revelation of the Southwest United University" made in 2001, writer Zhang Manling praised this legendary woman who came from the mountains and forests as "the eternal flower of the Southwestern Associated University."

Li Minhua, a young woman from Suzhou, was one of the remarkable students at NSAU. In 1944, she went to the United States to pursue higher education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), accompanied by her husband, Wu Zhonghua. During her stay in the U.S., she gave birth to two sons and earned two degrees, which made headlines in local newspapers. Despite the challenges she faced, Li Minhua remained committed to her country and its people. She believed that returning to China to serve was her duty, and she and her husband always adhered to this principle. After coming back to China, Li Minhua went on to become a scientist of great merit in the aerospace industry.

"No matter how hard life was, there was always an aura of purity" - is an apt description of the group of female students at NSAU.

The best way to gain a sense of this group is to read literature written by those who experienced it. The Taiwanese writer Luqiao is famous for his novel "A Song Never Ended". In this beautiful long novel, the female students of NSAU are deeply cultivated by both Chinese and Western cultures, all of them are well educated in poetry and books and have a heart of fraternity, which is both courageous and traditional, pouring out the writer's best ideals of life.

All in all, during the eight years of war, relying on the special mode of operation of NSAU, and following the rapid development of the times, the number of female students at Tsinghua University also grew, and their backgrounds were more extensive and diversified.

Despite facing increasingly difficult material conditions, the majority of girls were able to persevere in their studies and maintain a sense of self-respect and independence. They became more worldly-minded and well-rounded in their personal development. The collapse of the country, rising prices, ideological conflicts, and the democratic movement were the primary factors contributing to these changes.

Many generations of Tsinghua girls, including those from the National Southwestern Associated University, witnessed China's transformation into a modernized nation. However, due to environmental, cultural, and professional limitations at that time, many highly educated women ended up as housewives. Nevertheless, they were not entirely cut off from society and often actively participated in social activities after marriage.