Chinese Women.

Item Details

London, Jonathan Cape, [1938], Cloth

First U.K. edition, Very good+ in clipped dust jacket

Octavo. xiv, 324 pp. Numerous illustrations throughout. Two black and white plates (including frontispiece). Index and bibliographical references.

Red publisher’s cloth. Gilt-stamped spine. Top edge stained red. Mild shelfwear to board extremities. With illustrated dust-jacket. Minor shelfwear and soiling, predominantly to spine. Dust jacket corners clipped. A very good copy in a very good dust jacket, from the library of David Kohl (1946-2025), former art teacher at the Hong Kong International School, musician, artist, and historian.

First UK edition. A Boston, Houghton Mifflin edition was published in 1937.

Florence Ayscough (1875 or 1878-1942) was born in Shanghai to American / Canadian parentage. As a translator, editor, poet, photographer, and librarian, she worked diligently to promote and elucidate Chinese language, history, and culture throughout the West. She co-authored her first book, Fir Flower Tablets (1921), with her longtime friend, the American poet Amy Lowell. She was the honorary librarian of the Royal Asiatic Society in Shanghai for fifteen years, and a permanent lecturer at the University of Chicago at the end of her life. Her birthdate is variously listed as 1875 and 1878. The date on her gravestone is 1875, while OCLC and poets.org list it as 1878.

 As its title suggests, the present work examines the role and impact of women, both general and specific, throughout Chinese history. Notable figures discussed include Chi’iu Chin [Qiu Jin], a martyr in a failed uprising against the Qing Dynasty; Hua Mu Lan, the sixth century folk heroine upon whom the Disney character Mulan is based; and the three Soong Sisters, major power-brokers in 20th century China, along with their husbands H. H. Kung, Sun Yat-sen, and Chiang Kai-shek. Generously illustrated, the text weaves literature, visual art, and history together.

See poets.org.