The Heavenly Breasts Movement in the Republic of China: Women Running Naked to Free Their Breasts

In early 1927, the national government moved from Guangzhou to Wuhan, which became the center of the national revolutionary movement. The rapid development of the National Revolutionary Movement shook the hearts of women in the three towns of Wuhan.On March 8, the National Government organized more than 200,000 soldiers and civilians to hold a commemoration of the International Women's Conference in Hankou March 8 was the National Day. Then soldiers and civilians held a grand parade. Suddenly, Jin, a famous prostitute, and others were naked, waving colorful flags and chanting: Long live the liberation of Chinese women! like slogans, rushed into the parade. They all agreed that the most revolutionary form of women's liberation was the nude parade. on March 28th, the cavalry training ground at the southern foot of Snake Mountain was abuzz with activity as the Propaganda Group's Women's Soldiers' Association took to the streets to give speeches. They introduced themselves, rolled up their pants legs, and complained about their bare feet and foot binding. Gu Lingzhi, a member of the propaganda group, exclaimed that they should firmly put their feet down, cut their hair, and resolutely oppose the binding of their bellies! Chest binding is most inhumane! Belly binding is a poisonous snake! It haunts our women's bodies and souls. Speaking excitedly, she took off her jacket, cupped her hands around her ample breasts and said, "Look, this is true liberation. He cried out with tears in his eyes, Long live the liberation of all Chinese women! Association at the beck and call of women, women to get rid of the sale of marriage, hair cut, against the girdle of the abdomen, advocating free love. In July this year, at the 33rd meeting of the KMT Guangdong Provincial Government Committee, the case of banning women was passed by the Acting Civil Affairs Bureau Chief Zhu Jiahua's proposal of corsets. All women in the province were forbidden to wear corsets for three months. If there is still an exceedingly limited amount of corsetry, a fine of 50 dollars or more will be imposed upon conviction. If the offender was under 20 years of age, his parents would be penalized. Subsequently, the breast liberation movement spread throughout the country. Foot-binding and breast-binding were unbelievable things in the old society. However, women's liberation in China did start with the liberation of breasts by binding. In the classical aesthetic sense of fashionable China, beautiful breasts are like Sister You San, with a hint of snow preserved but not exposed; good breastmilk is small milk, also called clove milk in ancient times. Therefore, women are not augmenting their breasts, but binding them. Eileen Chang once described this classical beauty of breasts in Red Rose and White Rose: her undeveloped breasts were like sleeping birds in her hands, like her own slightly beating heart and pointed beak, pecking at his hands, which were hard and tender and tender. From the Song Dynasty until the Opium War, society gradually tightened its grip on women. Women were blindfolded, their breasts were tied, their feet were tied. One is not afraid of heat, the other is not afraid of suffering. In order to preserve the name of the festival, the breasts chose not to be healed, though they died with honor. That said, this was also a fashion before the Republic. These traditions were interrupted at the beginning of the 20th century, when Western breast worship came from the sea and took root. Even so, in the early years of the Republic, a woman his body could not be exposed. Even to sleep, she had to wear a long undershirt longer than her knees. An aesthetic that made flat chests beautiful made women tie up their breasts with silk. However, some women seeking individual liberation began to try on chambray vests instead of the cloth straps that bound their breasts. First popular among prostitutes, the chamois was gradually emulated by good women to the point where it became a social fashion. The front piece of the chamois's armor was adorned with rows of densely packed buttons that clasped tightly around the breasts. This is still a mode of tying the breasts. And women seeking openness could likewise show their style in a tight-fitting vest, which was attacked by conservatives for being made of light gauze, covered with gauze and exposing the arms and skin.In the summer of 1918, Jiang Bird Sheng, a member of the Shanghai Municipal Council, wrote to the Jiangsu Provincial Office: Women were popularizing a kind of lewd clothing, which was really ungainly and an eye-sore. The arms of the blouse were exposed for about a foot, while the pants hung over a foot. When it was hot, a red gauze undershirt was worn inside, and gauze with eyelets was put over it until the muscles were exposed. He thought that this this was a kind of obscenity and had its other side

On April 29, 1923, Zhang Jingsheng published an article on the study of the fixed rules of love and Ms. Chen Shujun's affairs in the supplement of the Beijing Morning Post, which triggered the first major discussion on love in Chinese history and attracted the attendance of Liang Qichao, Lu Xun and other famous figures. During the two-month discussion, he was criticized by most people, but his fame spread from then on. In 1924, Zhang Jingsheng's lecture on the beauty of life was printed at Peking University. It was a lecture full of petty-bourgeois ideas. In the part of beautiful sex education, he advocated nudity: walking naked, swimming naked, sleeping naked and so on. and considered sex education as a kind of entertainment. Like today on the Husbands and Wives talk show in the U.S., he detailed the meaning of sexual intercourse and the role of sacred sexual intercourse. This made the China shivering shrouded by rationalization, Zhang Jing Sheng became the opinion leader of breast liberation: tie breasts to achieve the woman her virtues and sexual characteristics are impossible to show, and her breasts are as flat as a man's, which not only makes her unattractive, but also makes the community lose a lot of interest. At one time, well-to-do families began to quietly let their breasts breathe freely and grow independently. At the time, the news media called it the Heavenly Breast Movement. 1926 saw two sensational peach news stories in Beijing and Shanghai. First, Zhang Jingsheng published the book History of Sex, which talked about the beauty of sex. Secondly, Liu Haisu, director of the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, urged the 17th Western Painting Department to adopt nude models and publicize these nude pornographic paintings in exhibitions. Society was in an uproar and the press denounced it. As a result, the history of sex was blocked and Liu Haisu was almost arrested by Sun, the warlord who occupied Shanghai at the time. They were indeed several steps ahead of their time. Lin Yutang once described the heyday of the sale of the History of Sexuality: book buyers and sellers were so busy that the police had to use water hoses to disperse the crowds. After it was banned, there were countless pirated copies on the market. The supplements also began to introduce the beauty of curves.The Naked Mile of 1927 Any break in moral restraints always follows a break in the political structure.1927 was destined to be an extraordinary year in Chinese history! At the beginning of the year, the National Government moved from Guangzhou to Wuhan, which became the center of the National Revolutionary Movement. The rapid development of the National Revolutionary Movement shook the hearts of women in the three towns of Wuhan. on March 8, the National Government organized more than 200,000 soldiers and civilians to hold a commemorative International Women's Conference in Hankou March 8 was the National Day. Then soldiers and civilians held a grand parade. Suddenly, Jin, a famous prostitute, and others were naked, waving colorful flags and chanting: Long live the liberation of Chinese women! like slogans, rushed into the parade. They all agreed that the most revolutionary form of women's liberation was the nude parade.On March 28, the cavalry training ground at the southern foot of Snake Mountain was abuzz with activity as the Propaganda Group's Women Soldiers' Association took to the streets to give speeches. They introduced themselves, rolled up their pants legs, and complained about their bare feet and foot binding. Gu Lingzhi, a member of the propaganda group, exclaimed that they should firmly put their feet down, cut their hair, and resolutely oppose the binding of their bellies! Chest binding is most inhumane! Belly binding is a poisonous snake! It haunts our women's bodies and souls. Speaking excitedly, she took off her jacket, cupped her hands around her ample breasts and said, "Look, this is true liberation. With tears in her eyes, she shouted, Long live the liberation of all Chinese women! Association at the beck and call of women, women get rid of the sale of marriage, cut hair, against the corset, advocating free love. In July of this year, the 33rd meeting of the KMT Guangdong Provincial Government Committee passed a proposal by Acting Civil Affairs Director Zhu Jiahua to ban corsets for women. Within three months, all women in the province were banned from girdling their bellies. Once caught, the fine was 50 yuan or more. If the offender was under 20 years old, his parents would be punished. The breast liberation movement then spread throughout the country. The ban was put in place, and the millennial trend could not be changed overnight. When Ms. Wei Qingfen was 90 years old, she still vividly remembered her experience of binding and loosening her breasts: I developed earlier than other girls, and my breasts were particularly large. Since I was fifteen years old, my mother has been to tie my chest

At first, my father-in-law's mouth is still hard: I can if I punish him, I can not afford the money? One day, a woman came to the door for a checkup and found she was still tied up and fined 50 bucks. Now, my father-in-law is heartbroken about the money, so he doesn't don't let his daughter-in-law tie her breasts anymore. It binding the breasts is a traditional Chinese custom that is good for women. Under the attack of radical cultural masters, under the influence of Western thinking, and under the surging wave of revolution, it was gradually and completely subverted and became the biggest revolution for women Since the banning of foot-binding, the United States has been liberated. At this time, Hu Shih had just returned to China and delivered his famous grandmother speech at the graduation ceremony of the Chinese and Western girls' school. He suggested that without healthy grandmothers, you could do without raising healthy children! The National Daily, a newly founded fashion magazine in Shanghai, published a feature on bras, introducing European women's style and usage of bras. It it was popular among fashionable women. Department stores in Shanghai introduced these imported goods and placed them in the most prominent positions in their windows. Miss, new women and socialites clamored for them and sold out. Bras were then known as artificial breasts. in 1914, an American woman, Caresy Crosby, made the first bra from two handkerchiefs and a narrow ribbon, which highlighted the breasts by tying them without compressing them. Ruan, a famous movie star of the Republic of China from Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, wore a cheongsam and left a stunning moment for posterity. Ruan was one of the first women in China to wear artificial breasts, which were round and combined with the curves of the cheongsam in a near-perfect way. This curvaceous appeal is highly sought after by trendsetters. In Shanghai, women's clothing pursues a sexy flavor and is keen on design styles that show a three-dimensional figure. Bare breasts and bare arms have become the fashionable and trendy clothing for women. Eileen Chang liked to strut around in fancy clothes, always giving people the feeling of not falling into the ordinary. Mao Dun's book Liangyou describes in more detail the open atmosphere of Shanghai at that time. Swimsuits showered the public **** pools of Shanghai, Tianjin, and Beijing, and some modern women in swimsuits had already appeared on the beaches of Beidaihe. 1930, Hongjun, the daughter of Zhu Guishen, the chief of internal affairs of the Republic of China, caused a public outcry when she swam in Beidaihe in a Western-style bathing suit. Movie stars were on the cusp. One by one, Hu Die, Park Yang and others changed into bathing suits and went into the swimming pool to show off their healthy and fit bodies in the sunshine, flaunting their figures and ideas. This small step taken by a great lady and professional woman who accepted western ideas was also a big step in declaring war on feudal rites.In 1937, the mermaid Yang Xiuqiong risked her life and swam across the river during the Battle of Songhu, sending a blue sky and white flag to the 800 strong men guarding the four lines of warehouses, inspiring the 800 strong men to fight against the enemy.In 1935, Yang Xiuqiong caught up with the international fashion of swimsuits and wore a two-piece bathing suit. Her swimsuit photo was published in the magazine Midnight. A native of Dongguan, Guangdong, she won two freestyle championships at the age of 12. In 1933, she won all the gold medals in the women's events Chiang Kai-shek's wife, Soong Mei-ling, recognized her as her adopted daughter as she watched the battle. Advertisements were always the first to reflect the aesthetic trends of the times. This was the time when posters and monthly cards featured semi-naked beauties with tulle and fabric covering their breasts, displaying a voluptuous and sexy aesthetic sensibility. Many advertisers even used the nude women in famous Western paintings as a basis and replaced them with avatars of Chinese beauties to solicit business. Lin Yutang at the time marveled in the Chinese year: the confinement of women is gone. Its speed surprised those who had just returned from China ten years earlier. Habits are always created slowly in one surprise after another, so much so that today, people are no longer surprised by women's sexy clothing. Such are the times! This article is from The Chinese, September 18, 2010, page B06, originally titled: Yangcheng Evening News.