The Image of Canton Women in a Westerner’s Eyes in the Late Qing Dynasty: Take Fourteen Months in Canton as a Case Study

Abstract

The image of women in the late Qing Dynasty has always been enigmatic due to the custom in Canton that virtuous women rarely left their chambers. The book Fourteen Months in Canton, however, contains Mrs. Gray’s insights during her residence in Canton, including her extensive records of both upper-class and ordinary women in Canton at the time. Her accounts are valuable historical sources for the study of women in Canton in the late Qing Dynasty. At present, there are few academic studies on the topic of women in Canton in the late Qing Dynasty and the works by Mrs. Gray. Through a textual analysis of Mrs. Gray’s Fourteen Months in Canton, and supported by relevant historical sources from the same period, the paper aims to collate and analyse the images of upper-class and ordinary women in Canton, and thus explores the daily life, survival, and inner world of women in Canton in the late Qing Dynasty.