Both nationality and feminism are closely related movements. They are designed to make their members feel they are equal if not better than members of other groups. Members are united by a common characteristic that they all have. It is further emphasized that this aspect is their strength and if properly put to work; it will put them in a better position than they were. This comes down to change which members are encouraged to initiate. Nationalism invokes a feeling of pride in being a citizen of a given country, feminism does the same thing only in this case, and it makes one feel proud to be a woman.
Deng Yingchao's "The Spirit of the May 4th Movement" is based on an event that took place on the fourth of May (1919). A group of three thousand university students from Beijing gathered outside Tiananmen in protest against a treaty that made China feel shortchanged by Japan. This marked the start of the May 4th movement. It began as a cultural movement with the aim of bringing change to the largely conservative Chinese culture. Yingchao's interest in the movement is quite easy to understand from this perspective. In the Chinese society, women were not considered equal to men. That made it very difficult for them to get leadership positions. The idea of championing for equality within this movement was very attractive, and China experienced robust social changes that reshaped the relationships between individuals of different gender; this mass awakening was termed as the May Fourth era. More Chinese intellectuals continued to adopt the ideas of the May 4th movement and the theme gradually shifted towards democracy. This prompted the movement to go in the direction of national renewal. Both the rightwing and leftists adopted its ideas in politics. It was intended to show that change was necessary in the Chinese society. Therefore, this movement led to the elevation of Chinese women who used the platform to correct public attitudes towards the estranged relations that the society had against women. The May 4th movement succeeded in combining the previously mentioned characteristics by bringing the people together as citizens, showing them the need for change and encouraging them to initiate it.
Qui Jin was a Chinese feminist. She also grew up in a time when women did not get the opportunity to make important decisions, even personal ones. She championed women's rights as a revolutionary militant. In her address to two hundred million fellow countrymen, she voices her displeasure towards the Quing dynasty and its oppressive ways. She also found offense in how women were treated at the time and she encouraged them to take up arms and challenge the discriminative government of the time. She was also part of the triads which were working to overthrow the government. During that address, she encourages unity among the Chinese people as they faced a common enemy, the Qing Dynasty. There was need to treat women as equals in these fights as she was also a woman and had proven herself a worthy warrior. Women needed to have the freedom to choose who to marry get educated and not get bound at the feet. Two of those laments were from personal experience as she had been forced to marry a man she did not want to by her father, and her feet had been bound as was customary for wealthy Chinese women. All these practices felt demeaning to her. These aspects of her speech got her a lot of support from the Chinese women. The present system of government had not sufficiently provided for the rights of the women of China and so a European system of government was according to her, the best solution to this problem. Her work gained support because she endeared herself to the other women by relation to their situation and showing that she was ready to initiate change as should the rest of the women. It also made the women believe that they deserved better rights than the current ones.
Aparna Basu in the work regarding "feminism and nationalism in India" indicates that women need to be given the same rights as men. Thus, feminism is construed on the ideology of and doctrines of creating equal rights for women. However, this can only be achieved in the country if a movement with a particular set of ideologies is put in place to initiate and oversee the transition from the current system to a new one. She goes on to say that being a woman is the key source of suffering for women in India like discrimination. These ideas brought together women of different religions, castes and ethnicities. It endeared Aparna to them for realizing their struggle despite their differences. Not only did she explicitly state the problem, she also showed the women a way out of it and the need to use it. This movement would later grow to a national level.
A convergence point of feminism in both countries relates to the similar problems that women had endured in both India and China, thus leading to a massive revolution. In India, girls are married off at a very tender age whereas widows are at times forced to remarry. Another widow was burned and was helpless to stop this. The Same case has been observed in China. Both of these aspects were demeaning to women and needed to be stopped. Women of a certain stature also receive favoritism in getting help from men, and this did not help their case. The frequency of forced marriages was also different from castes, higher in upper castes than in lower ones which further underlined the level of inequality in the country. In both cases, men played a role in helping women in this country to overcome the discrimination. It would be tough for women to accomplish equality if they got no support from the men. To make things worse, men from the upper caste pushed for issues that would work for only their right, they did not care about the rest of society. Nationality is a solution to this problem as it will involve all people in the country working towards the common good of everybody. It would eliminate the individualism that was so rampant in the country and it is through this that women could gain equal rights.
In all the previously mentioned events, feminism rode on a nationalistic wave to achieve its objective. More and more people in both China and India were not satisfied with the happenings in their respective countries, be it lack of transparency of democracy. For example, the women in India used the platforms of civil society in order to press forward to their demands in defining positive gender relations in the society. The people felt strong in their numbers and saw the need for change. They also saw avenues through which their motives could be achieved. Inclusivity was necessary for the national movements if they were to exploit the strength from numbers. This meant that women who had for long not been considered as equals to the men now had an equal say in matters. It is when this situation arose that the feminists aired their concerns. Things that had previously been considered the norm and gone unquestioned were now receiving criticism. If the nationalists felt that some issues had to change then they also had to consider the areas that the feminists wanted to be transformed. However, this is not to say that the feminists were masquerading as nationalists with their own hidden agenda, they also pushed for the nationalist cause.
Another similarity is that the suffering that the feminists petitioned against affected the women in both India and China in the same way. Forced marriages were the norm in China and the case was the same in India. Women could hardly get into leadership positions in India and the case was even worse in China. Discrimination was rampant in both countries with women in both being treated as lesser beings; and the fight was staged against these afflictions ranging from women education to customary predisposition on marriage to women. Nationality brought with it the prospect of cultural transformation. This meant that the women in both countries would see their situation improve greatly if the transformations occurred. Feminists thus saw a need to push for the nationalist agenda.
The methods used to invoke the necessity of change in both situations was also the same? Those championing for change showed some aspect of inequality or something that was wrong in both situations. They then endeared themselves by showing how the also suffered from the same then showed the need for change. A movement was the initiated to oversee the change. In bringing out the difference at the national level, they made the people feel united attempting to end that inequality. The feminist movements would then present their woes indicating that they were suffering on a personal level as well as on the larger scale that everybody was experiencing; and in most cases women were inspired to join freedom movements as thy had the inspiration of nationalism, and the determination to fight feminisms in the society.
For these movements to succeed in initiating change, they had to convince the people that there was some route to the intended destination. They also had to convince them that doing that was bound to end in success. Diane M Jones indicates that for women to attain equal rights, they need the support of the men, without which it would be tough for them. Aparna Basu on her part believes that developing systems to ensure equal rights for women is the solution, and those systems are to come using legislation. Qiu Jin on her part sees strength in numbers and that if women were to unite to fight discrimination they could achieve this. Yingchao sees women in power as a solution to the woes that were facing them. All these paths indicated the need for the revolution which seemed a very viable option for the people.
It is important to note that both the nationalist and feminist agendas need each other, though not in equal amount. The nationalists required seeing reforms take place in the systems of government of both India and China, and as such women had to champion gtheir interest by joining political movements. They also needed the numbers to push for these changes and the feminists provided this in bulk. Feminists on their part wanted reform in a cultural perspective; however, pushing this agenda on their own would be tough. Revolution in the system worked for their benefit entirely. It is here that they also got a platform to make specific requests. Revolution was beneficial to both sides; it was also important that everybody worked together to succeed in their objectives.
Nationalism and feminism were not static entities. They grew by the day. During Yingchao's time, she describes the 4th of May movement as starting in Beijing and gradually being picked up by other intellectuals and finally reaching a national level whereby both the leftists and right-wing organizations adopted its policies. Feminists also imparted their agenda on fellow unenlightened women and even the men with who they intended to work. It ended up in the numbers of both nationalist and feminist movements growing by the day. They were also not static in that the ideas at the beginning of a movement develop gradually. For instance, the 4th of May movement began with the intention of bringing Cultural Revolution to China, but as more people adopted its ideas, the people started to want to see a change in the system of governance.
Bibliography
Aparna Basu, “Feminism and Nationalism in India, 1917-1947,” Journal of Women’s History, 7, no. 4 (Winter): 95-107 *
Basu, Aparna. "Feminism and Nationalism in India, 1917-1947." Journal Of Women's History 7, no. 4 (Winter96 1996): 95. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 21, 2016).
Berglund, Henrik. "Hindu Nationalism and Gender in the Indian Civil Society." International Feminist Journal Of Politics 13, no. 1 (March 2011): 83-99. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 21, 2016).
Diane M. Jones, “Nationalism and Women’s Liberation: the Cases of India and China,” The History Teacher, 29, no. 2, (February, 1996): 145-154 *
Yuxin, Ma. 2005. "Women Journalists in the Chinese Enlightenment, 1915-1923." Gender Issues 22, no. 1: 56-87. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 21, 2016).
