Nin Lao

People of the generation of Ning Lao—about whom you read in Chapter 30—witnessed some of the most tumultuous changes in the history of China.  Born in 1867, Ning Lao lived through the final years of Qing Dynasty and was raised according to customs that had organized the lives of Chinese people for millennia.  However, Ning Lao also experienced the fall of the ancient monarchy and the rise of the modern Chinese state.  This state was created by intellectuals influenced by ideas ranging from nationalism to Western liberalism to Marxism.  Influential as these new ideas were, they did not immediately transform the lives of all Chinese.  For example, as you read in Chapter 30 Ning Lao interprets the Japanese occupation of Beijing as a shift of the "mandate of Heaven" from China to Japan.  This interpretation suggests that old ideas of cultural legitimacy did not vanish with the fall of the monarchy.  However, the story of Ning Lao's family amply demonstrates the influence of new ideas on traditional Chinese culture.  Use the links below to learn more about Ning Lao and her world.

1. For more information on the culture into which Ning Lao was born, go to Women in Traditional China.
2. Like many women of her generation, Ning Lao suffered foot binding.  To learn more about this custom visit One Thousand Years of Chinese Foot binding and Foot binding.  Consider as well these images of unbound feet and bound feet.
3. As you read in Chapter 30, nationalism and Marxism were two of the most important currents of thought in the New Culture Movement.  Consider two examples of each.  Read Sun Yat-sen's Fundamentals of National Reconstruction (1923) and Mao Zedong's Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society (1926).  What difference do you think Sun's program and the one implied by Mao's analysis had on the lives of women such as Ming Lao?