much more than formerly, sit at table with their husbands, attend
public functions and dinners, dress largely in foreign fashion,
and play tennis and other games, instead of being prisoners of the
'inner apartment' and household drudges little better than slaves.

One unexpected result of this increased freedom is certainly
remarkable, and is one not likely to have been predicted by the most
far-sighted sociologist. Many of the 'progressive' Chinese, now that
it is the fashion for Chinese wives to be seen in public with their
husbands, finding the uneducated, _gauche_, small-footed household
drudge unable to compete with the smarter foreign-educated wives
of their neighbours, have actually repudiated them and taken unto
themselves spouses whom they can exhibit in public without 'loss
of face'! It is, however, only fair to add that the total number
of these cases, though by no means inconsiderable, appears to be
proportionately small.


Parents and Children

As was the power of the husband over the wife, so was that of the
father over his children. Infanticide (due chiefly to poverty,
and varying with it) was frequent, especially in the case of female
children, who were but slightly esteemed; the practice prevailing
extensively in three or four provinces, less extensively in others,
and being practically absent in a large number. Beyond the fact that
some penalties were enacted against it by the Emperor Ch'ien Lung
(A.D. 1736-96), and that by statute it was a capital offence to murder
children in order to use parts of their bodies for medicine, it was
not legally prohibited. When the abuse became too scandalous in any