Changing China 3/21

Todays post was on the documents written by the chinease after the first Opium War. The document that I believe I liked the best was that of the Editorial on China's Examination System. This document goes into great detail about the hardships students had to go through in order to obtain there robes and graduate. It really made me laugh when talking about their hair turning with, and them having to spend part of the year toiling in class and the other half struggling with their families. The most difficult they seem to say was the eight-legged essay, with emphasises the european influence through their country. Another document that I thought really tied into was Gender, Reform, and Revolution. In this section womens roles also seemed to crop up and have the people question where traditional marriages would still be the same or if yearly contracts would instead replace them. The most important womens rights activsit at the time was Qiu Jin. She left her family in the pursuit of education, and started some revolutionary circles. These to documents are just a simple part of the entire Chinease Revolution, much because of the Opuim War, as well as the dependance on the European governments, China found themselves with overpopulation, and large areas of poverty.