Autumn Gem.
Sep. 22nd, 2010 11:36This post is dedicated to ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wistfuljane, who just finished running the Most Awesome Asian Characters & Celebrities Fest (and is announcing the winners starting today) and to troisroyaumes, whose birthday was yesterday and who has a great post on Chuseok, and is in honor of 中秋節/추석/Trung Thu/中秋の名月/the Lantern Festival/the Mid-autumn Festival--may all of you who celebrate have a happy one! I will spend it wishing I were in Kyoto eating a 月見バーガー。And mooncakes. But I will make a point of going out to look at the moon.
Autumn Gem. Dir. Rae Chang & Adam Tow, 2009.
So, I totally would have entered Qiu Jin in the fest, except that I only heard of her for the first time this week, when I attended a free screening of this documentary. You all should go see it! Qiu Jin was awesome!
Qiu Jin (1875-1907) was a radical feminist and anti-Qing revolutionary who was executed by the dynasty for her part in a failed rebellion. She grew up the educated and indulged daughter and granddaughter of scholars in Xiaoshing, and continued her martial arts training to at least some extent even after her feet were bound in girlhood. She married unhappily into a very wealthy family, but after moving to Beijing in 1901 could no longer contain her dismay at her country's subjugation to foreign powers or her conviction that women's rights were the key to solving its problems. Soon she had unbound her feet and started dressing in western men's clothes, as well as writing patriotic feminist essays and giving speeches, and in 1904 she left her husband and children to join Sun Yat-sen and other Chinese nationalists, men and women, who were based in Tokyo. In 1906 she returned to the continent and started a women's journal as well as jointed the radical Restoration Society, becoming principal of one of its front-schools in Xiaoshing and one of the Society's principal leaders; after the failure of their rebellion (they had 50,000 supporters, but their plans were intercepted) she was arrested, and was executed in man's dress for woman's cause, by her own choice, on July 15, 1907. Sun Yat-sen led a state funeral for her in 1912.
The documentary is very vivid, and while its reenactment scenes make perhaps too much of Qiu Jin's sword training (though her seal did read "read books, practice sword"), there's no denying that she was a fiery, inspiring figure, and it's no surprise that she's accounted a revolutionary hero in China. Because she was awesome! And she deserves to be better known. There are many free screenings of the documentary planned in the States and in Australia; you should check it out!
Placeholder icon until I can find some wuxia women icons.
wistfuljane, who just finished running the Most Awesome Asian Characters & Celebrities Fest (and is announcing the winners starting today) and to troisroyaumes, whose birthday was yesterday and who has a great post on Chuseok, and is in honor of 中秋節/추석/Trung Thu/中秋の名月/the Lantern Festival/the Mid-autumn Festival--may all of you who celebrate have a happy one! I will spend it wishing I were in Kyoto eating a 月見バーガー。And mooncakes. But I will make a point of going out to look at the moon. Autumn Gem. Dir. Rae Chang & Adam Tow, 2009.
So, I totally would have entered Qiu Jin in the fest, except that I only heard of her for the first time this week, when I attended a free screening of this documentary. You all should go see it! Qiu Jin was awesome!
Qiu Jin (1875-1907) was a radical feminist and anti-Qing revolutionary who was executed by the dynasty for her part in a failed rebellion. She grew up the educated and indulged daughter and granddaughter of scholars in Xiaoshing, and continued her martial arts training to at least some extent even after her feet were bound in girlhood. She married unhappily into a very wealthy family, but after moving to Beijing in 1901 could no longer contain her dismay at her country's subjugation to foreign powers or her conviction that women's rights were the key to solving its problems. Soon she had unbound her feet and started dressing in western men's clothes, as well as writing patriotic feminist essays and giving speeches, and in 1904 she left her husband and children to join Sun Yat-sen and other Chinese nationalists, men and women, who were based in Tokyo. In 1906 she returned to the continent and started a women's journal as well as jointed the radical Restoration Society, becoming principal of one of its front-schools in Xiaoshing and one of the Society's principal leaders; after the failure of their rebellion (they had 50,000 supporters, but their plans were intercepted) she was arrested, and was executed in man's dress for woman's cause, by her own choice, on July 15, 1907. Sun Yat-sen led a state funeral for her in 1912.
The documentary is very vivid, and while its reenactment scenes make perhaps too much of Qiu Jin's sword training (though her seal did read "read books, practice sword"), there's no denying that she was a fiery, inspiring figure, and it's no surprise that she's accounted a revolutionary hero in China. Because she was awesome! And she deserves to be better known. There are many free screenings of the documentary planned in the States and in Australia; you should check it out!
Placeholder icon until I can find some wuxia women icons.