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the following is part of Cornell Contemporary 
China Initiative Lecture Series 

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under the Cornell East Asia Program 

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the arguments and viewpoints of this talk belong solely to the speaker, we hope you enjoy 

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I think it's time to start 

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good afternoon everyone, welcome to Cornell Contemporary China Initiative Lecture Series 

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my name is Mara Yue Du and I'm an assistant professor teaching modern China

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at the history department here at 
Cornell University 

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I'm serving as director of the CCCI Series in the spring semester   

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with the theme Engendering China 

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founded in 2015, this lecture series has brought hundreds of leading scholars on China from multiple disciplines  

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to share their cutting-edge research with Cornell students, faculty, and the general public  

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this series is sponsored by the East Asia Program and here I would also like to express my sincere gratitude

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to our co-sponsors: the department of Asian Studies, Cornell Center for Social Sciences 

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The Family's Gender and Sexuality 
Studies Program, the Department of History

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ILR School's Global Labor Institute, The Levinson China under Asia Pacific Studies Program 

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and Pronounced Society for the Humanities 

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it's a great honor for me to introduce the first speaker of the Spring 2023 CCCI Series 

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Professor Lin Ma. Professor Ma received her PhD in history from the University at Buffalo in 2016

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she's currently an assistant professor of history at the State University of New York at Geneseo

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 Professor Ma has published 
multiple peer-reviewed articles

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on gender, law, and reproduction in early 20th century China 

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she is currently working on a book manuscript entitled

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Mortal Labor, Abortion, Childbirth, and Reproductive Diet in Early 20th Century China 

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she is also preparing for her second book project on the power of tears and the politics of laughter in modern China 

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today professor Ma is going to give a talk entitled  

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Men, Masculinity and Childbirth in Early 20th Century China, which is part of her current book project  

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since spring 2022, the CCCI Series has been held voting person on campus 

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and broadcasted online via Zoom 

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thanks the help and expertise provided by our incredible East Asia Program Event Coordinator

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 Ms Amala Lane 

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to those who are 
attending the lecture via Zoom today 

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please type your questions and comments into the chat box 

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anytime during the lecture or during the Q&A session

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we will cover them during the Q&A session with the speaker following her lecture

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 the recording of this lecture will 
be made available online following the lecture  

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please feel free to share, share the video with your colleagues, classmates and friends 

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if they cannot make it today due to schedule conflict 

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now let us give a warm applause to welcome professor Ma

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the floor and the screen are yours

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they will be mine for one hour 

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everyone, really my honor to be here 

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and this is some of my new research 
from the book manuscript 

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and I haven't presented this part of my research at all 

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so I will have the privilege to test them on you in many ways and share with you

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my one hour starts now and I will get started

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How were ordinary men historically involved in events such as child childbirth and abortion and  

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how and why did their involvement change over time and what can the lens of everyday reproduction  

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tell us about the moving fault lines of 
masculinity and how do we answer those questions  

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with the help of what kinds of sources? These are some of the questions essential to my talk today  

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it has been my observation that historians of reproduction have long placed 

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a woman and a female body at the center of inquiries about pregnancy, childbirth and abortion as well as  

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maternal deaths and health 

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such narratives often focus on women's negotiation with patriarchal demand 

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collective interests, gender norms as well as reproductive technologies and politics 

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they do recognize that men's also there, men did have input in it but usually in men's public and professional roles 

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as theorists, reformers, doctors, 
policymakers who commended institutions of

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childbirth and maternal care from a privileged and distant position, rarely did men come to us  

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as gendered everyday agents, as flawed, confused or caring partners and fathers 

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those personal and/or public lives could be deeply intertwined with similarly feminine reproductive events

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[ADJUSTING THE SLIDES]

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this presentation makes a deliberate intervention by exploring childbirth and labor pains 

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as a history and in his voice

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 I argue that childbirth served 
as a key site for defining and differentiating  

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masculinity and a male identity in late 19th century and early 20th century China 

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and the individual fathers and partners, far from being uniformly absent or aloof 

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demonstrated varied enthusiasm and attitudes and performed a diversity of responsibilities 

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and rose during times of reproductive crisis, so that's one of my arguments 

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by highlighting the vibrancy and plurality of gender innovations 

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and masculine performances surrounding childbirth during this critical period of Chinese history

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 I hope to enrich our understanding of the recent Chinese past 

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and hearten us with a wider range of 
analytical lenses and the masculine precedence  

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it's also my intention to steer the literature 
on abortion away from the over-emphasized 

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and try focus on nation, population 

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what I will do in the following is place men and masculinity and gender 

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at the center of everyday realities of 
child-bearing during this time 

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I'll offer many examples for you 

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and a preliminary taxonomy of 
male engagement but of course 

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my examples will be selective, and it's true the better we know discourse's rose and expressions 

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and the foreground practice as well as those more obscure and more thought-provoking interests and expressions  

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Is the sound effect okay, everyone? okay now let's move on to some stories  

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I'll give you examples. Orthodox moralist 
in 19th century China may have reiterated 

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the opinion of medical and moral classics from longer ago, insisting that feminine and ritual polluting matters

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 such as menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth were subjects inappropriate for open scrutinies

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that they should take place and be quietly handled in secluded women's quarters 

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insulated from the male gaze and the disease-causing wind but at least by the late 19th century 

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such rules, I argue, were frequently breached not only under the nose of elite men but sometimes catered precisely  

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to their gratification, the newly emergent 
commercial newspapers they're too exciting  

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for example, encouraged and preserved a playful, casual, and erotic sometimes male elite interaction  

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with purported women's business and this was a 
novel interest and experience quite dissimilar  

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from those captured in well-explored genres such as medical treatises and policy recommendations  

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so as the following examples will demonstrate, what these late Qing testimonies shared in common

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was an engagement of a predominantly male authorship and readership 

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with the so-called maternity matters  

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with a high level of social immediacy graphic details mounting scenes and the irreverence

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 for orthodox proprieties and gender boundaries, they suggested an ongoing erosion and loosening 

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 of mainstream restrictions that aim to both protect and confound the masculine  

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so we're going to talk about the slides, the 
pictures shown on the slides

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 for example, a highly visualized theme emerging in the nascent news media 

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concerned the occurrence of roadside childbirth

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a news story carried by the popular Dianshizhai Pictorial in 1885, for example, graphically illustrates

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 thanks to the new introduction 
of lithography technology in printing 

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details of a birth labor scene that allegedly occurred on a busy street in the city of Yangzhou  

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typical of the format and style of late Qing pictorial reportage, the new story as we can see 

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 including two parts: a written 
narrative and also the visual part as we can see

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 the visual that dominates a news page 
presents a large and a growing ground of spectators 

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gathering around a newborn and a fully 
dressed woman who sits on the side of the street  

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facing away from the news media, the news reader 
and the majority of the crowd

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outlookers are rendered as predominantly male and it was closing if you look carefully to the  

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you know to the right close up version one and the facial hair posture accessories and  

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then we can tell they suggest an assortment of male types varying in age, education, occupation  

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the only female onlooker is portrayed as a married woman or nursemaid carrying a small child who is  

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stealing a frontal view of the birthing woman in contrast to the vivid portrayal of the crowd 

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and the physical environment, directed depictions of the nude female body private body parts or  

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bloody byproducts of the labor were 
actually extruded, as we can tell  

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the skilled commercial illustrator Wei Youru likely found an overly sexual and realistic approach  

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artistically unappealing and therefore extruded, that's one of my theories but anyway instead  

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the artist preferred to titulate the reader's 
imagination by providing subtle visual cues and  

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suspenseful concealments 

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for example, the readers restricted the view of the birthing woman  

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is compensated by an open view of the onlookers' varied facial expressions and body language  

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whom are shown staring, peeking or whispering from various angles 

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while perhaps reacting to the smell  

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sight and sound of the birthing scene, standing right next to the exposed parturient

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some particularly bold and nosy onlookers as we can tell, they were including both scholarly scholar and  

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the liberal looking men are shown hunching over for a careful scrutiny of the, you know, the woman  

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and the baby, carefully mobilize the visual details such as the woman's unkempt long hair and  

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uncovered forearm which should otherwise be neatly arranged in this period for respect for women 

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remind the reader of the sexual 
undertone, the pity but the evocative caption  

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further abuse the excitement and/or sympathy by suggesting that 

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the woman's entire labor is laid bare to onlookers 

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the caption reads, the parturians started to moan and groan abruptly  

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and after a long time delivered a girl
whom she hastily wrapped in her own skirt  

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right and I'm going to show you another example 

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[ADJUSTING THE MIC]

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Another pictorial news story published in 1909

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 represented the occurrence of a curbside childbirth during a Lantern Festival 

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which as the caption states, attracted the large influx of men and women to the prefectural town again  

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Orthodox Confucian moral and medical advisors would undoubtedly consider the congestion noise  

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and mixing of the sexes inappropriate and unhealthy for respect for women 

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especially when they're expecting but it is also well known in China that festivals and fairs 

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they have a very strong appeal to women especially women who are expecting because, you know 

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they're looking for hoping for fertility, for safe delivery, for the birth of a son and so forth  

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those can all be attractions, as the news story testified, a group of women at varying ages  

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including a pregnant woman accompanied each other 

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to the festival when a pregnant woman unexpectedly  

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came in labor outside of a stranger's resident as the caption relates 

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her traveling companions midwifed her and formed a circle around her

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 to offer the privacy and the protection she needed 

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as soon as the umbilical cord was severed

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 the reporter didn't detail how that was achieved on the roadside   

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and the newborn has swaddled 

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these women hired a 
carrier and escorted the pregnant woman home  

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having a group of resourceful and caring female friends bending and advocating for her

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 this pregnant woman would be envied by the lone Yangzhou women

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in the first news story but those women have to cope with the ubiquitous male gaze and prying

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in the second case, the illustrator used the three male figures

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 to represent the possible onlookers 
gathering at the labor scene 

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they are stopped steps away from the parturient and the newborn 

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by the firm stares of the protective woman who outnumbered them

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 but the male onlookers' curiosity 
is clearly not easily thwarted 

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as the fixation of their gaze betrays 

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visual references to sexuality 
and the maternal body were again kept subtle but culpable 

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while details of the young mother and newborn's frontal features are visible 

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they're not represented in a disheveled condition 

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instead, the artist made use of small signs such as bolded legs  

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exhausted body posture, pointed bound feet, and the squatting posture 

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which was the recommended delivery position in this period

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 to subtly allude to the intimate process of labor, the labor process  

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omitted by the artist here

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 a variety of male voices and commentaries

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 accompanied the actual and imagined open gaze passed at the roadside birthing woman 

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the first news stories written narrative for example 

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underscored the biological 
and economic burden endured by the female sex and lower class families 

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in an very sympathetic and 
compassionate voice 

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the reporter presented Yangzhou women's outdoor labor as a poignant reminder 

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of the unfortunate and the seemingly inevitable fate of lower-class women in general 

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recognizing that sex and reproduction certainly burden women

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 the reporter lamented that "women's ordeal was 10 times more bitter than that of men

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 especially considering the precarious nature of childbirth" 

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and the reporter finds Yangzhou womem particularly pitiful

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 because "even eminent families who meticulously prepared for deliveries

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 cannot guarantee safe outcomes not to mention humble families 

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who cannot afford to ensure their pregnant women an ideal environment"

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 mindful of ingrained sexual and economic inequalities

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 the reporter placed no blame, 
quite remarkably in this period, right 

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no blame on the lessened ideal behavior of the pregnant individual, who "has to roam the street 

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to eke a living despite her approaching due date" 

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in comparison, the narrator of the other news story  

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didn't show as this kind of noble compassion for women in general or the working class 

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a tone of mild derision and disapproval lurked beneath the descriptive surface 

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instead of applauding female's  solidarity in the time of emergency

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 the reporter underscored women's embarrassment by describing comically 

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how they fled the scene in a fluster, in this context the untimely childbirth  

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reads like a punishment for reckless woman who set themselves up 

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for humiliation and danger when they could afford a seclusion 

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 here the male voice almost added a layer 
of righteous smear to the visualized male gaze  

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interestingly in fact, neither stories written narratives even explicitly acknowledge that

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 the existence of any onlookers 
at the scene, right 

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they actually didn't talk about onlookers

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 in addition, it is note-worthy that other than superficial references to groaning and moaning 

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both reports included very few empirical details about the physiology  

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or midwife rate, involved in the process of childbirth, but the fact that labor or postpartum scenes

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 and the predominantly male 
onlookers were portrayed with such a vigor 

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I contend, reflected at the very least, intense male interest in reproductive events

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 as well as in the mingling of the sexes during such events

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such news reports, many of which were equally graphic though not always involving actual drawings 

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also signified a shrinking distance, though still very distant 

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between man and these purported women-exclusive events

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pictures of storytelling also...constituted  

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a popular compute for elite male expression or elite male gossip in the late Qing period  

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they often...this genre often used the 
supernatural or karmic events as their main plot device

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 and a fantastic and supernatural elements were often blended with mundane social details and scenarios 

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in ways similar to the phenomenon 
of internet memes in current day digital culture  

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authorship appeared unimportant for those participating in this kind of culture of tidbits  

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storytelling and highly identical plot lines were very common tolerated and even sometimes expected  

216
00:20:11,580 --> 00:20:17,489
indeed, augmentation, subtle modification appeared to be a key feature and perhaps an attraction

217
00:20:17,489 --> 00:20:22,009
 of this type of networked social and literary games 

218
00:20:22,009 --> 00:20:25,740
it is not uncommon to find strange stories about  

219
00:20:25,740 --> 00:20:31,800
childbearing and childbirth in these casual sketches, okay, they are particularly useful  

220
00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:37,388
in my opinion, for revealing certain aspects of contemporaneous male knowledge 

221
00:20:37,388 --> 00:20:46,466
and anxieties and desires regarding reproduction, gender, sexuality, and social order 

222
00:20:47,040 --> 00:20:51,278
these moralistic, casual, and/or comical narratives 

223
00:20:51,278 --> 00:20:56,640
shared a few recurrent 
plot conflicts and the social marital settings

224
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:15,358
[ADJUSTING THE SLIDES]

225
00:21:15,358 --> 00:21:18,125
so they shared a few templates that's where we're left off 

226
00:21:18,125 --> 00:21:23,499
for example, events are often set in the elite 
polygamous household 

227
00:21:23,499 --> 00:21:31,046
where the jealous wife abuses a concubine and maids and deceives her aloof husband 

228
00:21:31,046 --> 00:21:35,686
who's either a rich merchant or from a merchant background, gentry background  

229
00:21:35,686 --> 00:21:39,300
childbearing and childbirths are represented as  

230
00:21:39,300 --> 00:21:47,809
both a kind of a major battlefield 
and the key weapon that can be deployed

231
00:21:47,809 --> 00:21:51,300
 to separate or restore domestic and gender orders 

232
00:21:51,300 --> 00:21:57,614
occurrences of female infertility, difficult labor, maternal mortality,  miscarriage, induced abortion 

233
00:21:57,614 --> 00:22:03,240
they all show up in this kind of stories and they're often presented as sources of tension and discord 

234
00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:07,140
 
as well as manifestations of divine justice  

235
00:22:07,740 --> 00:22:13,988
along with the cunning and ruthless wife, another favorite character in this kind of story is the midwife, abortionist

236
00:22:13,988 --> 00:22:20,648
I will talk about, I will give you guys a few examples of that kind of plotlines and stories 

237
00:22:20,648 --> 00:22:27,185
okay and then first 
example is a story published in 1878

238
00:22:27,185 --> 00:22:35,883
 and it's very representative, I told the 
tidbits from Suzhou, this short piece is about a hundred characters in length

239
00:22:35,883 --> 00:22:40,380
 so very short and 
it's packed with actions and dramatic twists  

240
00:22:40,380 --> 00:22:48,287
at the center of the story is the cruel and 
manipulative wife's self-inflicted demise 

241
00:22:48,287 --> 00:22:54,960
the unnamed protagonist is the wife of a middle-aged man and the daughter of a wealthy family  

242
00:22:55,920 --> 00:23:01,088
whose husband badly wants an heir but the wife 
seems unable to conceive 

243
00:23:01,088 --> 00:23:04,818
understanding that she must act as a generous, considerate wife 

244
00:23:04,818 --> 00:23:10,845
under such circumstances, the protagonist encourages her husband to take a concubine

245
00:23:10,845 --> 00:23:17,356
 but she secretly drugs the concubine with a purported abortifacient 

246
00:23:17,356 --> 00:23:22,609
as soon as the concubine becomes 
pregnant, which kills the concubine 

247
00:23:22,609 --> 00:23:31,899
instead of repenting or being punished, the wife goes on to acquire a maid for her husband whom she abuses daily

248
00:23:31,899 --> 00:23:36,561
 apparently the wife's plan is to force 
the pregnant maid to flee 

249
00:23:36,561 --> 00:23:43,449
hire an old woman to shelter the runaway and seize the child born by 
the midwife as her own 

250
00:23:43,449 --> 00:23:45,300
once the maid gives birth  

251
00:23:45,900 --> 00:23:51,360
so it's quite crazy, the plot, right, very sinister and she almost gets her way again  

252
00:23:51,360 --> 00:23:59,058
when the unexpected occurrence interacted her intricate plans and the story goes

253
00:23:59,058 --> 00:24:05,760
the childless wife suddenly becomes pregnant when she awaits to claim the maid's child  

254
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:12,613
and then we wonder, right naturally, why does the 
bad woman not only get unpunished but also gets rewarded 

255
00:24:12,613 --> 00:24:17,001
when the reader has every reason to 
question the fairness of karma by this point   

256
00:24:17,001 --> 00:24:24,506
the wife starts to suffer severe pain in the stomach 
which "no doctor can alleviate" 

257
00:24:24,506 --> 00:24:31,466
what a turn of fortune full of irony, the wife becomes so sick that she decides to end her pregnancy 

258
00:24:31,466 --> 00:24:36,897
by taking the very abortifacient she has used on the other woman

259
00:24:36,897 --> 00:24:38,715
 in the end she bleeds to death 

260
00:24:38,715 --> 00:24:44,856
upon her death, the maid give birth to a child, a boy and the old woman confesses everything to the husband

261
00:24:44,856 --> 00:24:50,400
 and the maid and her son are 
restored to the family right so it's a good ending  

262
00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:54,772
and in a sense this wasn't exciting but very 
cliched story 

263
00:24:54,772 --> 00:24:57,871
it parodies the rich the jealous the willful 

264
00:24:57,871 --> 00:25:05,027
all of which threatened the ideal gender and the class order envisioned by the Confusian gentleman patriarch 

265
00:25:05,027 --> 00:25:10,562
and all of which had been 
condemned for many many centuries right 

266
00:25:10,562 --> 00:25:16,797
so it was didactic and cautionary with this clear narrative closure, the ending 

267
00:25:16,797 --> 00:25:20,000
patriarchal interests were safeguarded and the bad were punished 

268
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:23,280
and by 
the same fate that she forced on other people  

269
00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:30,874
and invoking popular Buddhist views of justice and underscore that karmic retribution could be delayed 

270
00:25:30,874 --> 00:25:35,206
but you know you will get punished right when it's time 

271
00:25:35,206 --> 00:25:39,493
so that's a kind of familiar side of the story 

272
00:25:39,493 --> 00:25:44,027
but the story in my opinion 
appears a lot more interesting when we put aside 

273
00:25:44,027 --> 00:25:51,021
the plot and the key didactic messages and bring male agency and reproductive reality into focus

274
00:25:51,021 --> 00:25:55,722
 contrary to the oblivious and passive 
male character in the story 

275
00:25:55,722 --> 00:26:01,568
the predominantly male producers and consumers of these stories in fact 

276
00:26:01,568 --> 00:26:07,967
 
I argue, demonstrate a significant knowledge about the childbearing and childbirth in daily settings 

277
00:26:07,967 --> 00:26:11,160
 
the story, for example, relatively realistically  

278
00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:16,967
captured the dangerous effects of certain 
contemporary abortifacient

279
00:26:16,967 --> 00:26:23,329
 it took good note of fertility and infertility, psychological and the social impact on women 

280
00:26:23,329 --> 00:26:30,000
and paid attention to the occurrence of severe illnesses during or associated with pregnancy 

281
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:37,338
it underscored the fact that fertility and motherhood were not always pleasant or universally desired 

282
00:26:37,338 --> 00:26:40,839
rather, death and complications often lurked closely 

283
00:26:40,839 --> 00:26:44,340
and aside from factors such as adultery or poverty  

284
00:26:44,340 --> 00:26:50,760
mental and physical distress during pregnancy 
could also cause a woman to resort to abortion  

285
00:26:51,660 --> 00:26:57,681
in addition, the story rightfully noted that female 
reproductive labor was valuable and marketable 

286
00:26:57,681 --> 00:27:03,331
but also exploitable and disposable, it didn't shun from the fact that 

287
00:27:03,331 --> 00:27:06,983
contemporary reproductive medicine was far from satisfactory and that 

288
00:27:06,983 --> 00:27:13,526
the diversity of a moral and a supernatural theories had to be enlisted oftentimes 

289
00:27:13,526 --> 00:27:18,480
to explain the perplexing ways that reproduction work like  

290
00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:22,672
why people get pregnant, why people die from 
pregnancies and so forth 

291
00:27:22,672 --> 00:27:29,940
even for better-to-do families, as the story suggested, childbearing and 
childbirth could still go wrong in so many ways  

292
00:27:29,940 --> 00:27:37,122
and these, as other parts of my research 
corroborated, were actually very realistic, right 

293
00:27:37,122 --> 00:27:43,487
even though it's a fictitious story, the 
precariousness, I want to give you guys another example 

294
00:27:43,487 --> 00:27:49,409
the precarious nature of reproduction and the shadow of death fear and the karmic law 

295
00:27:49,409 --> 00:27:57,600
was further elaborated in an 1883 story that shared a very similar plot,  very similar to the previous story

296
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:05,165
the cunning and wicked wife also suddenly becomes pregnant after committing all those crimes we have described

297
00:28:05,165 --> 00:28:11,236
 and the long-solved pregnancy again, turns out to be a curse and a penalty for the villain wife

298
00:28:11,236 --> 00:28:18,203
 but unlike the earlier story, the 
wife's initial joy of pregnancy is cut short 

299
00:28:18,203 --> 00:28:23,144
 by the return of the dead concubine's vengeful ghost 

300
00:28:23,144 --> 00:28:27,956
who exposes the wife's crimes and hypocrisy in front of the whole family 

301
00:28:27,956 --> 00:28:32,880
and announces that the 
pregnancy is her avenges approved by a high god  

302
00:28:33,540 --> 00:28:40,440
from that point on, the wife is described as being 
tormented by the ghost and her prophecy and  

303
00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:45,344
the wife tries to end her pregnancy with abortifacient drugs but of no avail 

304
00:28:45,344 --> 00:28:50,940
she tries to end her own life but getting nowhere, she couldn't even kill herself, right 

305
00:28:50,940 --> 00:28:54,091
and then Buddhist monks are invited and the money is wasted 

306
00:28:54,091 --> 00:28:58,166
in an effort 
to appease and the exorcise the ghost 

307
00:28:58,166 --> 00:29:02,541
eventually, the anguished wife has to face the final mystery

308
00:29:02,541 --> 00:29:10,748
which is her difficult and protracted and deadly labor which lasted "for three days

309
00:29:10,748 --> 00:29:16,038
and causes all kinds of horrors too painful to read"  

310
00:29:16,038 --> 00:29:23,351
again, if we view the story through the lens of man-made and men-consumed dramas of reproduction 

311
00:29:23,351 --> 00:29:29,097
beneath the theatrical moral coating, we find the acknowledgment of 

312
00:29:29,097 --> 00:29:35,152
a wide variety of common sufferings and crisis relating to reproduction in this period 

313
00:29:35,152 --> 00:29:38,807
for example, the concubine who is the daughter of the peasant family

314
00:29:38,807 --> 00:29:43,284
 is said to have died from the so-called blood coma 

315
00:29:43,284 --> 00:29:51,480
frequently mentioned symptom 
perhaps akin to puerperal infection during postpartum  

316
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:59,520
and the wife dies from difficult labor, a largely 
fatal situation in the medical context of late 19th century China 

317
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:05,426
which almost guaranteed a 
severe injuries or death for mother or child

318
00:30:05,426 --> 00:30:11,476
 and the experiences of the 
character also attest to and reinforce the stigma and the horror

319
00:30:11,476 --> 00:30:19,625
 attached to, what I'm showing on 
the screen, maternal mortality in folk beliefs and the popular religions

320
00:30:19,625 --> 00:30:26,906
according to some of these 
beliefs, all menstruating women and those dying from childbearing and childbirs in particular 

321
00:30:26,906 --> 00:30:30,240
would be doomed to the so-called Blood Pond Hell 

322
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:36,780
unless special rituals were 
sponsored by filial children to redeem the women  

323
00:30:36,780 --> 00:30:46,404
in other words, the story's dramatic effect, I argue, was achieved through a shared and reinforced familiarity

324
00:30:46,404 --> 00:30:51,269
 of the author and reader with everyday 
reproductive problems

325
00:30:51,269 --> 00:30:56,205
 even though these problems were presented as affecting primarily women 

326
00:30:56,205 --> 00:31:00,060
 it 
is important to bear in mind that it was these  

327
00:31:00,060 --> 00:31:07,286
invisible men who had considerable empirical 
knowledge and interest about childbearing 

328
00:31:07,286 --> 00:31:11,147
who fantasized and feminized reproduction 

329
00:31:11,147 --> 00:31:17,001
the same pattern is evident in stories centering on the bottom fate of the midwife 

330
00:31:17,001 --> 00:31:21,000
in this period, uneducated lay midwives had almost  

331
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:27,728
exclusive access to the parturient and the hands-on segment of the obstetric market in China 

332
00:31:28,416 --> 00:31:35,314
her success, her lower-class background, and her popular image as an older, menopausal woman 

333
00:31:35,314 --> 00:31:41,940
made her a popular target for ridicule and offered the gentleman gagsters a perfect opportunity to show off 

334
00:31:41,940 --> 00:31:46,507
their command of satire, irony, and sometimes body humor 

335
00:31:46,507 --> 00:31:56,421
so the 1883 story we just discussed only mentions the role of the midwife in passing, 
who as wife's accomplice 

336
00:31:56,421 --> 00:32:03,944
ends up dying from unstoppable diarrhea, that's how mean the story was

337
00:32:03,944 --> 00:32:11,290
a plot detail likely chosen for the symptom's partial resemblance to emergency uterine 
bleeding

338
00:32:11,290 --> 00:32:14,604
 that's my interpretation during or after labor

339
00:32:14,604 --> 00:32:20,966
other stories enlarged on this theme with more and sometimes more horrifying details 

340
00:32:20,966 --> 00:32:25,693
for example, a caustic anecdote published in Shenbao in 1877 

341
00:32:25,693 --> 00:32:33,871
tells the story of a well-to-do midwife whose abdomen starts to bulge "like a 
pregnant woman" 

342
00:32:33,871 --> 00:32:36,962
so this is an older lady, right, older woman

343
00:32:36,962 --> 00:32:42,798
 after being bitten by a dog and 
the physicians are invited but to no avail 

344
00:32:42,798 --> 00:32:51,180
what's worse, the midwife starts to suffer from great pain in her stomach, which is accompanied by  

345
00:32:51,180 --> 00:32:59,272
soft barking from inside her belly, the midwife, however, dismisses the possibility of her being impregnated by a dog

346
00:32:59,272 --> 00:33:05,129
as the narrator explains, the midwife is confident that she knows everything about reproduction

347
00:33:05,129 --> 00:33:11,460
 because "she's a woman herself and an expert on maternal matters"

348
00:33:11,460 --> 00:33:16,881
but the midwife's perception of reality is crushed 
in no time by the author of the story, right 

349
00:33:16,881 --> 00:33:22,878
unable to bear the pains, she asked her daughter-in-law to bring her a secretive drug 

350
00:33:22,878 --> 00:33:32,288
that she has carefully locked away at home, after taking the medicine, 
the midwife discharges, "five puppies" right away

351
00:33:32,288 --> 00:33:37,980
 but her internal organs also begin 
to pour out as the story relates 

352
00:33:37,980 --> 00:33:45,660
and then it's described in gory detail that bearable pain drives the midwife to gnaw on her own hands  

353
00:33:45,660 --> 00:33:52,500
maiming every single finger, right before her 
death, the old woman ordered her daughter-in-law  

354
00:33:52,500 --> 00:33:55,688
to get away to discard the drug she has taken 

355
00:33:55,688 --> 00:33:59,172
the story ends with the dying woman's confession and repentance 

356
00:33:59,172 --> 00:34:05,027
who enjoins her daughter-in-law: not 
to repeat her mistake and her damned fate  

357
00:34:05,027 --> 00:34:09,754
even though the drug, the abortifacient has helped 
the family become very rich 

358
00:34:09,754 --> 00:34:16,145
such story certainly fits in the context of the well-documented local and worldwide marginalization 

359
00:34:16,145 --> 00:34:20,000
of uneducated  midwives and other lower-class handywomen 

360
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:25,318
in the process of professionalization and state building 

361
00:34:25,318 --> 00:34:32,844
the authors of our stories clearly 
contributed to this tradition with a traditional vivification

362
00:34:32,844 --> 00:34:36,493
with some humor, bad humor 
and ingenuity, right

363
00:34:36,493 --> 00:34:42,555
 but beneath this strange, exaggerated and stereotypical narrative surface 

364
00:34:42,555 --> 00:34:53,220
the elite male narrator, readers' quite nuanced grip on the social and practical details of reproduction is also discernible  

365
00:34:53,760 --> 00:35:00,120
for example, the seemingly casual placement of the daughter-in-law in the story as a key character  

366
00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:06,420
well captured the historical fact that midwife 
skills in this period were often transmitted  

367
00:35:06,420 --> 00:35:13,800
within the family from the mother-in-law to the daughter-in-law, also it can be argued that  

368
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:23,484
the story's depiction of dislocated and expelled 
internal organs was not merely just any horrifying embellishment

369
00:35:23,484 --> 00:35:31,020
 but was grounded in the author's 
awareness that prolapsed vagina, bladder, and rectum  

370
00:35:31,020 --> 00:35:36,109
as well as invasion of other organs or secretion 
into the birth canal 

371
00:35:36,109 --> 00:35:45,858
but some of the very common damage that repeated, were difficult vaginal deliverance left on the female body in the this period

372
00:35:45,858 --> 00:35:50,460
 so basically everyone audience so 
the C-section for example was not available  

373
00:35:50,460 --> 00:35:56,389
during this period, right, so the main form of delivery labor is vaginal delivery 

374
00:35:56,389 --> 00:36:04,578
so a lot of damage can basically be caused unto the vagina, so that's what I'm talking about here, okay move on

375
00:36:04,578 --> 00:36:12,120
in addition, the detail about the hand-gnawing wife, the hand-gnawing midwife is really interesting  

376
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:19,020
and I argue that that was also perhaps chosen 
deliberately as the object of self-mutilation  

377
00:36:19,020 --> 00:36:24,540
so instead of pinching your thigh, for example, stabbing the thigh, why gnawing on the hand, right  

378
00:36:25,260 --> 00:36:32,100
because they were tabooed and laden with meanings  

379
00:36:32,100 --> 00:36:37,842
both views in this period and even later, found the hands of the midwife 

380
00:36:37,842 --> 00:36:45,023
particularly offensive and ill-fated, they were viewed as an embodiment of debased occupation 

381
00:36:45,023 --> 00:36:51,720
for their frequent contact with reproductive organs, ritually polluting fluids as well as after-birth and dead bodies  

382
00:36:51,720 --> 00:36:59,408
for example, in some contemporaneous Chinese 
communities, it was believed that the hands of a deceased the midwife 

383
00:36:59,408 --> 00:37:06,060
must be gloved, covered up 
before she was buried so the rationale is that  

384
00:37:06,660 --> 00:37:14,820
because eventually, she will go to the Blood Pond Hell as well, so perhaps  

385
00:37:14,820 --> 00:37:21,863
the gloves were used to conceal the dead woman's former occupation by consuming her virtually stained hands

386
00:37:21,863 --> 00:37:25,680
 so that she would not 
be spotted and punished with extra severity  

387
00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:32,100
by the judges of the underworld, so the sin of the midwives self-mutilation clearly reflected  

388
00:37:32,100 --> 00:37:40,260
the author's ability, as I argue, to concoct or make justice and horror with a high precision  

389
00:37:41,700 --> 00:37:48,936
with these facts and details in mind I ask, can we posit that the elite male author and reader 

390
00:37:48,936 --> 00:37:55,260
had acquired a considerable empirical knowledge about these reproductive wounds,  complaints, and fears  

391
00:37:55,260 --> 00:38:01,140
was it possible that they obtained this level of 
practical knowledge by living and communicating  

392
00:38:01,140 --> 00:38:06,840
with their partners and female relatives or 
even by participating in deliveries in person  

393
00:38:07,380 --> 00:38:11,176
at the very least, these men didn't consider themselves a masculine 

394
00:38:11,176 --> 00:38:18,653
for being able to craft and understand detailed anecdotes about the seemingly feminine and domestic matters

395
00:38:20,940 --> 00:38:26,942
so granted these stories were often couched in moralistic or sexual languages

396
00:38:26,942 --> 00:38:36,347
which were conventional masculine territories, but I hope to demonstrate under the shell of conventional masculine discourses

397
00:38:36,347 --> 00:38:41,791
 considerable fresh and 
realistic empirical substance also existed and  

398
00:38:41,791 --> 00:38:47,961
this could of course be read as a manifestation of expanding male control, but I think there was  

399
00:38:47,961 --> 00:38:56,030
also genuine interest to collaborate, to learn, and to transgress the Orthodox gender and reproductive boundaries

400
00:38:56,030 --> 00:39:01,764
 and evidence of male partners accompanying the parturient during her labor 

401
00:39:01,764 --> 00:39:07,226
would actually become much more 
plentiful in China in the 1930s and 40s and  

402
00:39:07,226 --> 00:39:13,800
I have written about that in some other occasions, but even for this earlier period, it is possible  

403
00:39:13,800 --> 00:39:20,716
to posit that Chinese men may have been more involved in this kind of assuming polluting and feminine events 

404
00:39:20,716 --> 00:39:26,760
more so than we previously 
assumed, and then we move on to the next section

405
00:39:31,200 --> 00:39:37,698
so indeed, the late Qing male examination and the ridicule targeting the midwife

406
00:39:37,698 --> 00:39:42,960
and mother-in-law signified an elite male resentment  

407
00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:50,387
at unwanted interference in their intimate 
relationships and the desire for a truly personal life

408
00:39:50,387 --> 00:39:54,780
 their frustration 
and longing didn't stop at discourses

409
00:39:56,880 --> 00:40:02,011
their involvement appeared particularly 
pronounced and crucial 

410
00:40:02,011 --> 00:40:06,976
when there was a strong possibility that a pregnancy or labor would go wrong 

411
00:40:06,976 --> 00:40:10,936
or when they actually went wrong as we have touched on previously 

412
00:40:10,936 --> 00:40:17,100
worries about pregnancy, labor, perinatal safety were real and well-founded  

413
00:40:17,100 --> 00:40:20,687
childbearing and childbirth remained a highly precarious 

414
00:40:20,687 --> 00:40:26,997
whenever physiological conditions deviated from the most usual, normal, end up complicated 

415
00:40:26,997 --> 00:40:37,362
uneducated, lay midwives had been in charge of normal vaginal deliveries in China and they have done so reasonably well 

416
00:40:37,362 --> 00:40:46,970
when the labor was normal, but this class of caregivers was overall unprepared for detecting and addressing emergencies 

417
00:40:46,970 --> 00:40:52,085
for example you have twins, for example the position, the presentation is not normal

418
00:40:52,085 --> 00:41:00,000
then they have trouble, and so 
later on in the Republican period there was more substantial improvements

419
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:05,700
 in advanced midwifery 
and obstetrical care in China but still overall  

420
00:41:05,700 --> 00:41:10,617
it was gradual, the improvement, and the socially regionally uneven during this period 

421
00:41:10,617 --> 00:41:19,025
also globally speaking, fetal imaging technologies and the development of  mass production of antibiotics 

422
00:41:19,025 --> 00:41:25,581
still awaited breakthroughs, so 
really in general, before WWII overall  

423
00:41:25,581 --> 00:41:30,407
childbirth were much much more dangerous and a lot of people died from childbirth

424
00:41:30,407 --> 00:41:36,824
all these factors limited childbirths for the majority of Chinese in this period to at-home vaginal deliveries

425
00:41:36,824 --> 00:41:42,777
attended by midwives, lay midwives 
without prenatal examinations

426
00:41:42,777 --> 00:41:49,012
 some educated, urbanized and those with means were increasingly 
supplementing this birthing model 

427
00:41:49,012 --> 00:41:57,459
with advanced care and interventions such as obstetrical, a C-section, first-step craniotomy etc.  

428
00:41:57,459 --> 00:42:04,406
offered by professional obstetricians and modern schooled midwives either at home or in the hospital 

429
00:42:04,406 --> 00:42:11,640
they nonetheless remained the privileged minority and even these advanced interventions  

430
00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:17,400
still came with high risk in this period such as cross-infection and other issues  

431
00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:24,767
so all in all, the point is that maternity 
and childbearing, childbirth remained very dangerous and unpredictable

432
00:42:24,767 --> 00:42:33,467
for most Chinese in this period, the occurrence of abnorma fetal placenta presentations, a multiple birth 

433
00:42:33,467 --> 00:42:40,000
and the premature incomplete or failed separation of the placenta from the wall of the uterus 

434
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:43,881
which basically will cause unstoppable bleeding during delivery

435
00:42:43,881 --> 00:42:51,519
 all of these among other complications could lead to the sudden loss of one or more lives for a family

436
00:42:51,519 --> 00:42:55,442
so there's a lot of stake at child 
birth during this period

437
00:42:55,442 --> 00:43:01,782
 in a time when family limitation, also was technologically challenging 
and the frequent childbearing in childbirth 

438
00:43:01,782 --> 00:43:08,799
were a built-in reality for most women and men, the specter of reproductive death and its impact  

439
00:43:08,799 --> 00:43:13,260
on everyday life, I argue, must not be underestimated

440
00:43:14,611 --> 00:43:21,624
so therefore male members' or fellow members' actions and emotions must also be understood 

441
00:43:21,624 --> 00:43:27,840
against this overall context, as we know, oftentimes when we think about  

442
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:34,847
people praying, right, especially like praying for a safe delivery, we often think of women praying for themselves 

443
00:43:34,847 --> 00:43:41,640
or praying for other women, but some men actually also did precisely so in the late Qing period 

444
00:43:41,640 --> 00:43:48,720
and the Republican period, a public 
announcement posted in Shenbao in 1890, for example  

445
00:43:48,720 --> 00:43:57,720
captured the moving wish of a 12-year-old boy named Liu Houan who donated to relief effort in hopes of 

446
00:43:57,720 --> 00:44:03,031
accumulating good karma to ensure his mother's safe delivery 

447
00:44:03,031 --> 00:44:13,938
similarly, a man named Bao Huiqin vowed in 1918 that he would donate 50 silver dollars, a quite 
substantial amount, to a famous charity 

448
00:44:13,938 --> 00:44:20,460
that specialized at rescuing kidnapped women 
children, should his daughter-in-law delivers safely  

449
00:44:21,540 --> 00:44:30,342
and we also know that wishes and vows were made by men from a much more humble,  modest background as well 

450
00:44:30,342 --> 00:44:37,247
on the same donation slip along 
with the 12-year-old boy, an anonymous man was recorded

451
00:44:37,247 --> 00:44:42,780
 to have donated five silver dollars for 
the longevity and the safe labor of his mother  

452
00:44:43,380 --> 00:44:50,716
and I believe a systematic combing of charity records will bring to light more actions of similar nature

453
00:44:50,716 --> 00:44:55,137
I don't think it's really exceptional 

454
00:44:55,137 --> 00:45:05,327
when complications, death, and disputes occur, some husbands and male relatives appeared 
to have played a crucial roles

455
00:45:05,327 --> 00:45:13,463
 in advocating on behalf of the parturient, such support was particularly important for the birthing woman in the context of  

456
00:45:13,463 --> 00:45:17,979
late 19th and early 20th century China for 
a few reasons 

457
00:45:17,979 --> 00:45:25,620
on the one hand, the parturient and her family were faced the ways of a 
medical field and market in major flux

458
00:45:25,620 --> 00:45:34,649
the medical market in this period was really easy to enter, and therefore furiously competitive and confusing

459
00:45:34,649 --> 00:45:42,780
 no qualifying examinations, licensing, or diplomats existed or were required and technically  

460
00:45:42,780 --> 00:45:48,644
everyone could accept his medicine, the unregulated situation started to change 

461
00:45:48,644 --> 00:45:56,017
during the first years of the 20th century but the political and institutional instability characteristic of this period

462
00:45:56,017 --> 00:46:03,960
 limited the efficacy of these regulatory efforts, the chaos was also an epistemological one 

463
00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:11,444
the sudden influx of diverse biomedical ideas, practices, and institutions within a few decades 

464
00:46:11,444 --> 00:46:17,797
around the turn of the century, as well as their melding and colliding with existing norms

465
00:46:17,797 --> 00:46:24,900
 created both excitement and confusion, medical disputes frequently arose because  

466
00:46:24,900 --> 00:46:32,640
patients and practitioners had a vastly different understandings about the cause of complications or disease 

467
00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:40,970
or the appropriate treatment needed 
for occasion, the fact that authoritative standards of care 

468
00:46:40,970 --> 00:46:46,894
were either in short supply were 
not well-received further complicated clinical encounters

469
00:46:46,894 --> 00:46:52,881
 as a result, when it came to health 
care including maternity care 

470
00:46:52,881 --> 00:47:01,779
patients and their family members often felt that they had a personal 
responsibility to be particularly vigilant 

471
00:47:01,779 --> 00:47:06,858
so as to keep charlatans and profiteers at bay

472
00:47:06,858 --> 00:47:12,359
certainly from the perspective of many phonified medical practitioners 

473
00:47:12,359 --> 00:47:16,435
they could feel that it was the family of the birthing woman who were ignorant 

474
00:47:16,435 --> 00:47:19,709
and profiteering, right, so that's a perspective issue 

475
00:47:19,709 --> 00:47:27,000
in this context we find many male partners and the family members at least tried to be attentive, vigilant  

476
00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:33,420
and protective even though their interventions 
could appear ineffective related or misplaced  

477
00:47:34,620 --> 00:47:42,394
for example, as reported by a major Chinese Daily in 1920, labor complications occurred during a home delivery 

478
00:47:42,394 --> 00:47:48,600
in a suburban village nearby Shanghai, the labor went down for two days and two nights 

479
00:47:48,600 --> 00:47:55,020
the fetus's arm emerged first and the lay midwife at work tried everything but couldn't push the hand back

480
00:47:55,020 --> 00:47:59,384
 and the reports put it quite sympathetically 
to the midwife's predicament 

481
00:47:59,384 --> 00:48:07,560
considering the parturient's dangerous condition, the midwife decided to dismember the fetus to ease the delivery

482
00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:11,872
 don't be scared by dismembering, that was a common practice actually 

483
00:48:11,872 --> 00:48:20,000
even professional, well-trained obstetricians had to resort during this period as well and globally, okay

484
00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:30,000
not only in China, but the midwife's  method appeared crude and reckless who "severed the arm with a forceful pull"  

485
00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:34,127
the parturient was said to have 
collapsed and died right away 

486
00:48:34,127 --> 00:48:42,292
the report didn't describe the husband's involvement during the labor but highlighted his reaction after the death, tragic death

487
00:48:42,292 --> 00:48:49,158
sudden and outraged, the husband 
punched the midwife and dragged her to a nearby river 

488
00:48:49,158 --> 00:48:56,116
to drown together, crying that he 
could live no more and that the midwife must pay a life for a life

489
00:48:56,116 --> 00:49:04,242
 the husband was stopped by other villagers with whose mediation the husband decided not to report this midwife to the police 

490
00:49:04,242 --> 00:49:07,758
but to settle privately, to atone for her fault 

491
00:49:07,758 --> 00:49:15,623
the midwife pledged to help the village build a bridge by offering donations who also agreed  

492
00:49:15,623 --> 00:49:22,440
to kowtow to the dead woman in front of the whole community and the swear to heaven  

493
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:28,740
that he would never harm anybody anymore or practice midwifery, right,  that's how they  

494
00:49:28,740 --> 00:49:35,460
settled this event, in the medical dispute reported in 1931 another working class husband  

495
00:49:35,460 --> 00:49:42,840
who was a boatman lost his wife due to labor complications, the wife was in her early 30s  

496
00:49:42,840 --> 00:49:49,080
and already a mother of three children a similar limb presentation,  meaning hands coming down first  

497
00:49:49,080 --> 00:49:55,114
also occurred in labor which the lay midwife engaged but the family couldn't handle 

498
00:49:55,114 --> 00:50:02,953
the husband sent his wife to a hospital rescue and they paid there a sum equivalent to two or three times of his monthly income

499
00:50:02,953 --> 00:50:08,160
 doctors at the hospital managed 
to extract the dead child through the birth canal  

500
00:50:08,160 --> 00:50:16,800
heavy bleeding was reported to have occurred during during this process and  

501
00:50:16,800 --> 00:50:25,980
after the delivery and the labor, the parturient, the woman died a day later, the husband was enraged  

502
00:50:25,980 --> 00:50:31,980
not only for losing two family members within a 
few days but also because the death of his wife  

503
00:50:31,980 --> 00:50:38,118
took place when he was away from the hospital as a hospital required him to, because you know 

504
00:50:38,118 --> 00:50:43,090
half an hour, you need to go and then he was not expecting hospital to do that 

505
00:50:43,090 --> 00:50:51,741
and he brought the matter to the court to testify at an investigative hearing and the permitted forensic autopsy to be done on his wife

506
00:50:51,741 --> 00:50:59,309
 even though the prosecutor found 
the hospital not guilty, the husband's active involvement in this entire event

507
00:50:59,309 --> 00:51:04,210
 was unmistakable, in my opinion

508
00:51:04,210 --> 00:51:10,883
 a tentative men not only had to stay on guard against hired medical practitioners 

509
00:51:10,883 --> 00:51:17,976
but sometimes also need to protect the parturient from dangerous and 
pressure from within the family 

510
00:51:17,976 --> 00:51:23,405
and this was the case because a lot of women didn't have jobs in this period or they had jobs 

511
00:51:23,405 --> 00:51:31,534
but their income was not under their solid control and therefore sometimes you cannot yourself decide 

512
00:51:31,534 --> 00:51:40,000
which doctor you want to go to and when you go to use what medical means and therefore in this context 

513
00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:45,300
usually the mother-in-law traditionally had a lot of sway over this kind of decision  

514
00:51:45,300 --> 00:51:50,640
and then I argue, and not just I argue but I discovered this from a lot of sources that  

515
00:51:50,640 --> 00:51:57,480
during this kind of condition, if a husband can be involved, it can be very proactive  

516
00:51:57,480 --> 00:52:05,027
and advocate for the perturient and then things can be very different and I have to skip the examples

517
00:52:05,027 --> 00:52:11,100
but there are many examples of things 
went good or bad because of their involvement  

518
00:52:12,180 --> 00:52:18,240
so the point is that male family members' participation in the sphere of childbirth perhaps  

519
00:52:18,240 --> 00:52:28,273
varied widely, but as I argue, they were not always 
or uniformly marginal or absent from reproductive events 

520
00:52:28,273 --> 00:52:35,298
and as we have seen, the labor and care associated with childbirth also didn't always end

521
00:52:35,298 --> 00:52:42,500
 at the moment of delivery and limited itself to the birthing woman or the confines of the birth chamber

522
00:52:42,500 --> 00:52:49,717
the after-birth, dead children, and deceased partners need to be buried and are mourned 

523
00:52:49,717 --> 00:52:56,489
and the disputes need to be launched or settled especially in a time when they frequently occurred 

524
00:52:56,489 --> 00:53:04,284
and men in this kind of context clearly played an important role in providing this kind of special perinatal care

525
00:53:04,284 --> 00:53:07,521
I argue, right, so that's an argument 

526
00:53:07,521 --> 00:53:13,993
so now I would like to wrap up this talk with an unusual obituary 

527
00:53:13,993 --> 00:53:19,240
authored by a husband, a Chinese husband in 1920s okay  

528
00:53:21,420 --> 00:53:28,560
so this obituary was published on the front pages, the front pages of a Shanghai-based  

529
00:53:28,560 --> 00:53:33,827
newspaper called Republican Daily News, a major Chinese language newspaper well known 

530
00:53:33,827 --> 00:53:41,494
in the heyday of the new culture and the May 4th years for its progressive editorials and supplements

531
00:53:41,494 --> 00:53:49,920
 the announcement was posted by 
a man by the name of Xiao Wentai about the  

532
00:53:49,920 --> 00:53:52,930
upcoming funeral of his wife Tu Yuyin 

533
00:53:52,930 --> 00:53:58,440
unlike the average 
public notice or editorial that one will find  

534
00:53:58,440 --> 00:54:04,320
in a newspaper, common average newspaper in this period, the obituary was exceptionally long  

535
00:54:04,860 --> 00:54:11,100
so the this part is the arbitrary, right, and those are the other pages of the same newspaper  

536
00:54:11,640 --> 00:54:16,860
as we can see it's very long, number 
one, and also it almost covers, takes up  

537
00:54:16,860 --> 00:54:18,928
half of an entire news page 

538
00:54:18,928 --> 00:54:22,602
besides a short and a standard notice about the funeral   

539
00:54:22,602 --> 00:54:31,440
the announcement included a lengthy biography about the deceased that includes about 2,400 characters  

540
00:54:32,400 --> 00:54:37,403
and it was composed in elegant and terse classical prose 

541
00:54:37,403 --> 00:54:43,085
so meaning just a lot, really very long for Chinese classical prose

542
00:54:43,085 --> 00:54:46,740
instead of the vernacular style that became popular increasingly  

543
00:54:46,740 --> 00:54:51,780
embraced by progressive intellect first in this period, right, when they write something  

544
00:54:51,780 --> 00:54:58,920
to publish on newspapers, its archaic flavor was also manifested in its unpunctuated sentences  

545
00:54:58,920 --> 00:55:06,120
no punctuations used, right, entire the lines and arranged in vertical lines each containing about  

546
00:55:06,120 --> 00:55:13,521
64 characters, right, so the point is it's really hard to read on this and in comparison 

547
00:55:13,521 --> 00:55:20,000
most of the textual content in the same newspaper in this period was typeset for optimal readability 

548
00:55:20,000 --> 00:55:27,060
in punctuated lines and each containing merely 
20 characters so it's not that punctuation is  

549
00:55:27,060 --> 00:55:32,640
not invented but he didn't use punctuation,  
in other words the authors seemed to have  

550
00:55:32,640 --> 00:55:38,689
adopted a deliberate style and the formatting and style alone already lend the piece

551
00:55:38,689 --> 00:55:43,567
 a striking visual prominence, seriousness, and boldness

552
00:55:43,567 --> 00:55:47,117
it was not published, in other words, to hide  

553
00:55:47,460 --> 00:55:54,579
the elegant yet old-fashioned the classical prose proved apt for conveying a republican Chinese man's

554
00:55:54,579 --> 00:55:59,076
 intimate feelings and unconventional 
confessions 

555
00:55:59,076 --> 00:56:08,520
the genre of funeral writing by nature expected the omission of the unpleasant and 
the controversial and the representation of  

556
00:56:08,520 --> 00:56:15,024
the disease along the lines of a moral paragon, so it's kind of similar to recommendation letters nowadays, right 

557
00:56:15,024 --> 00:56:20,549
you emphasize the good things, but by late Ming 

558
00:56:20,549 --> 00:56:28,169
private funeral writings increasingly challenged this generic and moral restriction by expressing open grief and affection

559
00:56:28,169 --> 00:56:34,020
 for unconventional subjects such 
as disease the conjugal partners or even infants  

560
00:56:34,020 --> 00:56:42,389
right, so it's already a new tradition coming up but it remained rare and  radical for the biographer 

561
00:56:42,389 --> 00:56:50,270
to disclose potentially scandalous or even criminal occurrences within the family in an epitaph

562
00:56:50,270 --> 00:56:53,932
 so in the republican period, abortion was criminalized, right

563
00:56:53,932 --> 00:57:00,000
 so this could be potentially criminal if you disclose an induced abortion occurred in your home 

564
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:07,748
in this context, Xiao Wentai's commemoration of his wife reads particularly striking and unusual 

565
00:57:07,748 --> 00:57:15,960
because it not only meticulously detailed his wife's death from an induced abortion but also presented her choice

566
00:57:15,960 --> 00:57:24,600
 as in harmony with her other feminine virtues, as a husband's poignant descriptions of his life relates

567
00:57:24,600 --> 00:57:31,696
 so Tu Yiyin was a native of 
Shaoxing, born into a scholarly family in the 1880s 

568
00:57:31,696 --> 00:57:38,129
even in her earlier years, she demonstrated extraordinary perseverance, virtue, and ability   

569
00:57:38,129 --> 00:57:44,436
as she lost one after another immediate family 
members even before reaching 16 

570
00:57:44,436 --> 00:57:53,173
but she handled the devastation and maintained her natal family in a fashion "even an adult male couldn't compare"  

571
00:57:53,173 --> 00:58:02,139
she not only mastered all the skills expected of a talented ladies in the early modern Confucian 
context

572
00:58:02,139 --> 00:58:06,029
but also briefly attended a new style women's schools

573
00:58:06,029 --> 00:58:13,328
 and kept herself abreast of the spirit and learning of the late Qing and early Republican age

574
00:58:13,328 --> 00:58:19,224
 as a school-educated wife,  she also lived in harmony with her husband's extended family

575
00:58:19,224 --> 00:58:23,820
and supported her family, her 
husband's career and political activities  

576
00:58:23,820 --> 00:58:30,733
which frequently took him away from home like five years away from home for example 

577
00:58:30,733 --> 00:58:35,880
she gave birth to five children, breastfed of them, and managed to raise four of them to school age  

578
00:58:35,880 --> 00:58:41,963
she lost one child when that one died,  she judiciously managed family finances 

579
00:58:41,963 --> 00:58:50,692
frugal on herself yet generous to those in need, all in all the point is that Tu Yiyin appeared as an outstanding model woman 

580
00:58:50,692 --> 00:58:54,240
whether measured 
by Confucian or Republican Chinese standard  

581
00:58:54,900 --> 00:59:03,736
why did such a good mother and wise wife choose an abortion? How could, how would her husband reconcile these facts?

582
00:59:03,736 --> 00:59:07,860
 and how would the husband preserve her integrity and legacy?

583
00:59:08,400 --> 00:59:10,000
right, that's something curious 

584
00:59:10,000 --> 00:59:17,825
in the main, Xiao Wentai justified that his wife's decision to procure and induce abortion as a last resort 

585
00:59:17,825 --> 00:59:23,971
to an insoluble recurring health issue that she endured over her sixth pregnancies

586
00:59:23,971 --> 00:59:29,100
and dreaded over her 15 years of miscarriage, as her husband explained  

587
00:59:30,000 --> 00:59:40,302
where is it, as a husband explained right here, she pernicious vomiting occurred during every pregnancy

588
00:59:40,302 --> 00:59:45,840
 which progressively damaged the 
wife's health during her last pregnancy

589
00:59:45,840 --> 00:59:51,986
"she vomited dozens of times every day which perpetuated even when her stomach had nothing to bring up"

590
00:59:51,986 --> 00:59:59,538
as her husband admitted, even before the complications set in, the pregnant wife already considered

591
00:59:59,538 --> 01:00:04,312
 the option of induced abortion at the onset of her last pregnancy 

592
01:00:04,312 --> 01:00:06,725
and shared her thought with her husband 

593
01:00:06,725 --> 01:00:15,506
he allegedly advised her against 
abortion because "abortion is unnatural and it will damage your health"

594
01:00:15,506 --> 01:00:20,807
but unable to take food, the wife became emaciated and on the verge of dying

595
01:00:20,807 --> 01:00:28,164
 the author implied that an induced abortion became therapeutic necessity as a wife's condition deteriorated 

596
01:00:28,164 --> 01:00:34,602
and they consulted, and the wife plighted with them, the doctors invited to help end her pregnancy 

597
01:00:34,602 --> 01:00:41,812
or fix her pregnancy, but all the doctors invited shrugged basically their shoulders and said 

598
01:00:41,812 --> 01:00:45,480
we have no means, or so we were told by the husband  

599
01:00:46,380 --> 01:00:48,636
and then they induced abortion happened 

600
01:00:48,636 --> 01:00:54,089
Xiao Wentai euphemized and glossed over the occurrence of induced abortion as

601
01:00:54,089 --> 01:01:02,692
"a sudden resumption of the menses" which came in a menacing fashion with

602
01:01:02,692 --> 01:01:10,000
"large clots of blood rushing 
down" the wife seemed to have been relieved 

603
01:01:10,000 --> 01:01:17,573
and the optimistically anticipating 
recovery, the husband who was more cautious noted closely 

604
01:01:17,573 --> 01:01:24,728
that the patient's pulse became 
exceedingly weak and that she raved deliriously at night

605
01:01:24,728 --> 01:01:27,860
 all about mundane matters 
and everyday living 

606
01:01:27,860 --> 01:01:30,271
sensing and ominous end was imminent 

607
01:01:30,271 --> 01:01:34,124
the husband called their children 
to return home from boarding school 

608
01:01:34,124 --> 01:01:42,191
though the selfless wife still insisted that she was fine and the worried instead about the children will be missing classes

609
01:01:42,191 --> 01:01:48,971
 but soon "her eyes and tongue became sluggish" indicating the approaching deaths 

610
01:01:48,971 --> 01:01:53,024
the otherwise restrained 
husband broke down, overwhelmed by grief

611
01:01:53,024 --> 01:02:02,152
he included in the biography the final conversation between the couple when the husband asked his wife's wish and will

612
01:02:02,152 --> 01:02:07,380
the wife only mustered her last strength to comfort the husband, telling him once again not to worry

613
01:02:07,380 --> 01:02:10,746
 not to grief, I will be fine soon

614
01:02:10,746 --> 01:02:17,656
when the husband confessed his sense of guilt for not being able to reciprocate her sacrifice and love 

615
01:02:17,656 --> 01:02:25,216
and asked for her forgiveness, she merely encouraged him to live on to take care of himself 

616
01:02:25,216 --> 01:02:31,594
surrounded by her children and husband, the wife has passed away at five o'clock 

617
01:02:31,594 --> 01:02:37,169
on the afternoon of November 
the 4th 1919, after 42 days of struggle 

618
01:02:37,169 --> 01:02:43,589
and I'm recounting these details because the husband meticulously recorded all these details  

619
01:02:43,589 --> 01:02:47,436
and publicized them with the readers of the newspaper 

620
01:02:47,436 --> 01:02:54,381
for those expecting to find an iconoclastic attack on the gender inequalities 

621
01:02:54,381 --> 01:02:59,082
embedded in the sexual 
reproductive and medical system of the day

622
01:02:59,082 --> 01:03:07,398
 Xiao Wentai's commemoration and the confession seemed rather uncritical, stoic, and disappointing 

623
01:03:07,398 --> 01:03:15,344
while demonstrating and encouraging compassion for his wife's choice of abortion in the context of gestational illness

624
01:03:15,344 --> 01:03:20,940
Xiao Wentai never made 
an universal claim about reproductive rights  

625
01:03:20,940 --> 01:03:27,955
although he vaguely mentions his sense of guilt, he also didn't explicitly question the role of his sexuality 

626
01:03:27,955 --> 01:03:32,100
in leading to the many pregnancies that tormented his wife  

627
01:03:33,120 --> 01:03:40,461
furthermore, he carefully left his own agency in procuring the induced abortion obscure 

628
01:03:40,461 --> 01:03:47,820
and he emerged in his own narrative as a rational, as a quite rational here, almost done

629
01:03:47,820 --> 01:03:55,763
as a quite rational loyal, loving, and the loved husband, but as a personal statement 

630
01:03:55,763 --> 01:04:01,709
and the historical text, Xiao's commemoration was 
precious and revealing for a few reasons 

631
01:04:01,709 --> 01:04:09,060
on the one hand, still allowed us a rare access to a 
publicized and the richly contextualized account  

632
01:04:09,060 --> 01:04:16,889
of a reproductive crisis as a family experienced it, although the the account was filtered 

633
01:04:16,889 --> 01:04:24,000
through the lens of the husband and it is difficult to verify its accuracy, it allowed the examination  

634
01:04:24,000 --> 01:04:31,589
of the gendered participation of the male partner in reproductive crisis by detailing on the front pages

635
01:04:31,589 --> 01:04:37,636
of a major newspaper, the actions, and the thoughts of a caring and attentive husband who  

636
01:04:37,636 --> 01:04:43,800
left his public duties to accompany his conjugal 
partner through her troubled pregnancy and illness  

637
01:04:44,640 --> 01:04:51,780
public publications like these normalized a 
certain masculine model and the husband's place  

638
01:04:51,780 --> 01:04:59,019
in the sphere of childbirth, joining the late Ming cult of the sensitive gentleman, capable of "Qing"

639
01:04:59,019 --> 01:05:06,480
or private authentic feelings, his account further reinforced the role of the husband, educated husband

640
01:05:06,480 --> 01:05:13,260
 as a chief mourner and the chronicler of 
infantile and maternal mentality in the family  

641
01:05:13,260 --> 01:05:20,254
two more minutes okay, now this document becomes even more intriguing if we delve into  

642
01:05:20,254 --> 01:05:25,223
its authorship and think about what the husband may have deliberately astrued 

643
01:05:25,223 --> 01:05:33,344
the authors Xiao Wentai was actually very famous in China, but not under this name Xiao Wentai

644
01:05:33,344 --> 01:05:36,962
he was better known as Xiao Lizi, that's his pen name 

645
01:05:36,962 --> 01:05:44,194
he was born in Shaoxing in 1882 and he had a solid classical education

646
01:05:44,194 --> 01:05:48,276
 and passed the professional examination, Civil Service Examination 

647
01:05:48,276 --> 01:05:57,235
and he also studied in Shanghai, in treaty port Shanghai, therefore exposed to modern western learning as well

648
01:05:57,235 --> 01:06:03,456
in terms of political activism he's a busy man, right, he was a member of the Revolutionary Alliance 

649
01:06:03,456 --> 01:06:09,569
which was the forerunner of the Nationalist party who ruled China later on, and then he was also early member 

650
01:06:09,569 --> 01:06:16,696
of the Chinese Communist Party and this well connected veteran political activist was  

651
01:06:16,696 --> 01:06:23,820
also a newspaper man, he's a journalist, he helped launch and edit several influential newspapers  

652
01:06:23,820 --> 01:06:31,080
including this newspaper the very newspaper Republican Daily News, where the obituary appeared  

653
01:06:31,800 --> 01:06:37,257
in terms of his involvement in women's movement 
and birth control movement 

654
01:06:37,257 --> 01:06:45,743
he was best known as one of the first person who endorsed family planning in the 1950s

655
01:06:45,743 --> 01:06:55,320
during the Communist rule, but in fact as early as 1922, Republican uses supplement named Awakening  

656
01:06:55,320 --> 01:07:03,300
which was edited by nobody other than Xiao Lizi, was already one of the most important platforms that supported  

657
01:07:03,300 --> 01:07:09,480
discussions about birth control and published the translations of related Euro-American, Japanese  

658
01:07:09,480 --> 01:07:17,191
feminist demographic eugenic theories in the aftermath of American birth control activist  

659
01:07:17,191 --> 01:07:24,749
Margaret senger's visit to China in 1922, in other words Xiao Wentai definitely put right 

660
01:07:24,749 --> 01:07:33,120
in the more May-4th style argumentative okay I'll bring this back, this is a more typical May-4 style argumentative  

661
01:07:33,120 --> 01:07:44,100
vernacular prose, but he didn't use this one, so he actually published quite a few pieces

662
01:07:44,100 --> 01:07:47,887
 on sangerism and 
birth control using this kind of style and under  

663
01:07:47,887 --> 01:07:55,142
the name of Xiao Lizi and just like many other intellectuals, male intellectuals also did in 1922 and thereafter

664
01:07:55,142 --> 01:08:01,680
 but few such writings, this 
type of writing actually mentioned any personal  

665
01:08:01,680 --> 01:08:09,000
involvement in a depth comparable to the arbitrary 
show and I wrote in 1920 and in explaining  

666
01:08:09,000 --> 01:08:16,500
Xiao Lizi and others birth control activism, real researchers also have factored in the impact of  

667
01:08:16,500 --> 01:08:24,720
first-hand experiences and personal crisis such as Xiao's witnessing of her his wife's deaths in  

668
01:08:24,720 --> 01:08:29,760
explaining why they were promoting birth control movement in China, they didn't talk about those, right 

669
01:08:29,760 --> 01:08:40,000
so my purpose of retrieving this episode is not merely to extend, you know, history, Xiao Lizi's activism further back 

670
01:08:40,000 --> 01:08:44,640
rather, I think show Xiao Wentai's 
mourning testified an important personal link  

671
01:08:44,640 --> 01:08:53,356
that is often overlooked and underestimated in 
our comprehension of modern China's reforms and revolutions 

672
01:08:53,356 --> 01:09:00,300
we still have the tendency 
to privilege translated texts, editorials and clinical writings

673
01:09:00,300 --> 01:09:05,640
 when we trace the birthing excitement of an idea or movement in modern China  

674
01:09:05,640 --> 01:09:13,740
and these texts genres and sources tend to again 
direct our attention to the grand narratives and  

675
01:09:13,740 --> 01:09:23,802
neologisms that populated them as well as the image of the almost always righteous, eloquent, and this clear-minded public intellectuals

676
01:09:23,802 --> 01:09:25,435
 that emerge in these genres 

677
01:09:25,435 --> 01:09:33,840
well, messy domestic and reproductive scenes did sometimes appear in such genres and debates they usually serve as a 

678
01:09:33,840 --> 01:09:40,402
narrower purpose, oftentimes they were invoked in a way to prove women's ignorance or victimhood  

679
01:09:40,402 --> 01:09:47,942
to justify the need for enlightenment or action, such narratives tend to reduce the women 

680
01:09:47,942 --> 01:09:57,000
to an isolated moment of birth or death who served as a footnote or raw materials for theorists, claims and, actions  

681
01:09:58,500 --> 01:10:08,027
and this kind of genre and intellectual fashion also pushed the kinds of voyeuristic, ambivalent, guilt-ridden 

682
01:10:08,027 --> 01:10:14,431
and mentally-shaken intellectuals men or many in general out of the picture

683
01:10:14,431 --> 01:10:19,612
 and therefore of course this 
kind of man continued to exist 

684
01:10:19,612 --> 01:10:27,861
but they do risk being drowned out in historical memories of reproduction and reproductive activism 

685
01:10:27,861 --> 01:10:35,559
should we not listen more carefully, 
creatively and intentionally 

686
01:10:35,559 --> 01:10:45,240
we risk overstating the significance of Margaret Sanger the year 1922 and the Xiao Lizi rather than those like  

687
01:10:45,240 --> 01:10:52,320
the low Yangzhou woman, the praying father-in-law, the husband who punched the midwife and Tu Yiying

688
01:10:52,320 --> 01:11:00,968
and Xiao Wentai and in this sense, lending an ear, I argue, to the quieter voices like everything I said today 

689
01:11:00,968 --> 01:11:06,540
I argue, can enrich our 
understanding of not only everyday masculinities  

690
01:11:06,540 --> 01:11:15,000
but also manifested reality and the potential of reproductive awakening then and now, thank you