Source: Guangzhou Daily, 2013-03-08, AII01

Written by: Huang Tianji (Professor of Department of Chinese at Sun Yat-sen University)

Translated by: Bai Yang

My family has been living in Xiguan, Guangzhou for many generations. As the International Women’s Day is coming, someone asked me whether I had ever seen a “Xiguan Lady”, and whether all the ladies living in Xiguan could be called “Xiguan Ladies”. In fact, my mother and my aunt were “Xiguan Ladies”. It was a title with special meaning in a particular historical period, and it had nothing to do with beauty

Some time ago, certain institutions held “Miss Xiguan” contests where young and pretty girls dressed up and minced their steps. These were just beauty contests for fun. However, they had nothing in common with the real “Xiguan Lady”.

The so-called “Xiguan” used to be the west outskirts of Guangzhou since the middle of Qing Dynasty. At that time, the area of Guangfu Road was called up-Xiguan where handicraft workshops were located. The down-Xiguan was the center, which referred to the streets and alleys around Fengyuan, Baoyuan and Duobao.

In the early years of the 20th century, the rich gentlemen in the Pearl River Delta were fond of living in Xiguan, because it was close to the downtown and convenient to return home in the countryside as well. Therefore, rows upon rows of grey-brick mansions made Xiguan a rich and famous area in Guangzhou. The gentry wanted to hand down the Confucian tradition to future generations, so their children were deeply influenced by Confucianism. In addition, as the door to the outside world gradually opened, Western culture was brought in. Some open-minded gentlemen in Xiguan gradually changed the idea of “innocence is the virtue for women”, and sent the girls to the newly established schools to study science and culture. Therefore, “Xiguan Lady” was not a synonym for pretty ladies in Guangzhou; it referred to the young ladies born in the middle or upper class family, who were influenced by traditional ethics, exposed to new thoughts and a bit open-minded in the 1920s and 1930s.

As the Chinese saying goes, “The duck knows first when the river becomes warm in spring”. Young women’s dressing style is often a barometer of social trend. For example, after the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, many women began to have their hair curled and wear short-sleeve cheongsams. Since the founding of New China, girls seldom got their hair permed; they wore Lenin coats or a kind of Russian dress. During the Cultural Revolution, all women regarded the blue and grey Chinese tunic suits as fashion and sometimes cautiously showed some bright colors around the neck as an ornament. After the reform and opening up, some women started to wear jeans or flared trousers, and gradually developed into low-cut; some even wore odd make-up to be eye-catching, similar to what the poet Bai Juyi had said, “black lipstick makes the lips look like mud, two eyebrows are drawn in a figure of eight”. Anyway, these are later stories.

The superior status of “Xiguan Lady” determined that the group had strong characteristics of their social class. There was a popular folk saying among old Cantonese to make fun of their particular way of talking, “A si a si (one’s nickname), wen tiu so si (find a key), da hoi ga man (open the purse), lo cheung en ji (take out a banknote), mai gen lei ji (buy half a kilo of litchi), tai hou um hou mi (to see whether they are delicious).” The saying vividly showed the Xiguan Lady’s manner of sticking to their status while purposely opening their cherry lips to make a show.

The “Xiguan Lady” was educated with knowledge and culture and was well-mannered. They could talk actively while dressing properly. When they went out, the sleeves must be at least long enough to cover the elbow. They did not braid or perm their hair, but had short hair with a fringe. They could go shopping with their boyfriend, but when it came to marriage, a matchmaker was still necessary. They were open-minded but also had the long tail of the old tradition. Around 1932, some of them devoted to the revolution and fought against the Japanese invasion, while some dedicated to science such as the famous doctor Liang Yiwen. Of course, most of them floated on the current of time, or spent their lives in their families quietly.

Today, women hold up “half the sky” in social construction. Way back then, “Xiguan Lady” was just the result of the fusion of old tradition and new trend. However, we could still more or less witness the zigzag of women’s liberation from their half-new-half-old thinking, and further cherish the reform and opening up and respect women’s status and role.