FINAL EXAMINATION

HUMA 2640 Unofficial China: Social History 1800s-1930s

4:30 pm-9:30 pm, 18th May, 2021

Read the following instructions carefully before you start.

1. You must submit your answers/essays via Canvas’ Assignments, and no later than
9:30 pm on 18th May, 2021.
2. Plagiarism will be penalised. Direct quoting from your reference materials must not
exceed 25% for each of your questions’ answer. Citations of sources of your reference
materials in footnotes are encouraged, but not mandatory.

Answer any two of the following questions: (2 x 30%)

1. A Chinese politician has once said: “In traditional Chinese orthodox culture (傳统中國
正統文化) and popular culture (普及文化), violence was strongly abhorred (被排斥). As
a result, Chinese people were largely non-violent and living in peace, and Chinese society
was harmonious for thousands of years”. Critically assess the historical accuracy of his
views, with special reference to China in the 1800s-1930s. Support your answer with
concrete historical evidence/examples.

2. According to many Chinese Marxist historians, Chinese workers in China were badly
exploited (剝削) and ruthlessly oppressed (壓迫) by their employers during the late-Qing
and Republican period (roughly between the 1890s and 1930s). Exploitation and
oppression against Chinese workers are particularly serious in workplaces or factories
managed by foreigners. Do you agree? Support your answer with concrete examples
drawn from the following texts: Ida Pruitt, Daughter of Han (漢家女); Emily Honig’s
“The Working Day”; 吳麗娥's 命運的雲沒有雨; 朱邦興, ‘英商公共汽車’, and any
other relevant materials.

3. Why the ideals (理想) of ‘3 followings’ (三從) and ‘4 virtues’ (四德), ‘illiteracy is a
woman’s virtue’ (女子無才便是德), chastity (貞節), “blinded/arranged marriages” (盲
婚), concubinage (納妾), “keeping women inside their bedrooms” (三步不出閨門), and
the “evil customs” of female infanticide (殺女嬰) and foot-binding (纏足) are not
unquestionably strong evidence of men’s oppression (壓迫) against women in traditional
China?

4. The Chinese author of a history textbook published in 1979 wrote that: “Between the
1840s and 1930s, the deterioration of the problems of opium addiction and prostitution in

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 China was mainly due to the foreign imperialist invasion (外國帝國主義者的侵畧) of
China. In this period, opium addiction led to China’s economic bankruptcy (經濟破產),
military and national collapse (軍事、國家崩潰), and social/cultural decline. Foreign
imperialist invasion of China destroyed China’s economy and brought serious
unemployment to the country. Forced by absolute poverty, many Chinese women were
forced to become prostitutes and survived only by selling their bodies to men at a small
price. These women were forced by their brothel (妓院) owners to work in terrible
conditions: receiving clients days and nights, all their income taken away, locked up and
forced to work until they became too old or too ill to continue”. Critically assess the
historical accuracy of these arguments. Support your answer with concrete historical
evidence/examples.

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