An Address To My 100 Million Woman

China was once the center of the world. Any other country in the world could not match China’s political prowess and economic strength. However, as time progressed China stagnated while other powers, especially those in Europe, were going through their industrial revolution were growing more powerful and were eager to break into the Chinese market. Great Britain was one European power that was eager to break into the Chinese market since China was one of the few if not only country that had a trade surplus with Great Britain. Great Britain then decided to sell non-textile products to China and started selling them opium. China was not pleased that their people were being exposed to addictive drugs that rendered their working class unable

Qiu Jin was a female revolutionary who died fighting the Qing Empire. In Qiu’s piece, An Address to My Two Hundred Million Women Compatriots in China, she addresses her 200 million strong female audience. Qiu tells her female audience that change is needed, “But I hope that from now on we sisters will do away with the state affairs from the past and exert ourselves to create new circumstances. It is as if we had died and been reborn as human beings.” . This message was progressive, as women in China at tis time did not have many rights. They were treated as second hand citizens in the eyes of most men. This call for equality that was coming from Qiu reached many women and recruited them to the communist cause. At the end of her piece, Qiu says something else that shows the importance of women in the communist revolution, “Men cannot be sure of their own survival, so how can we continue to rely on them? If we do not lift ourselves up now, it will be too late once the nation has perished” . Qiu made it clear that without the women’s help the fight for freedom would not be achieved. It was not only the female members of the communist party that were calling for equality for women. Mao Zedong wrote social reforms that explicitly gave women more rights. One that strands out is, “18. A women can dispose of her land the way she wishes when she is married” . The leader of the communist party made it clear that women need to have more rights. Hearing it from one of the major players of the communist movement reassured women that if this revolution were indeed to take place and succeed, then they would have more rights. If women were treated as equals they would be more willing to fight for Mao and the communist revolution. There were other factors that contributed in people joining the