Professor speaks in Reno to promote book
By Sadie Jo Smokey, Outpost contributor
Dr. Victoria Cass, a guest speaker in Reno March 30 and 31, has given voice to thousands of women who for centuries were deemed politically insignificant in China. Her book, Dangerous Women: Warriors, Grannies, and Geishas of the Ming; was formed from the private language of women during the Ming Dynasty, 1368 to 1644. Mountain recluses, "jian" (sword) wielding warriors and well-known geishas of Shanghai are given a voice, a realistic identity and are recognized for their contributions to China's broad cultural landscape.
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Victoria Cass speaks with Nevada student, Eileen Mehmedali, following her presentation March 30 in the Jot Travis Studen Union auditorium. Photo by Sadie Jo Smokey |
Professor Hugh Shapiro, friend and colleague of Cass, said her work on this book was "very ambitious."
"She's given a voice to women in China," Shapiro said. "It's a very important work, meticulously researched and beautifully written."
The social conditions of geishas (a Japanese word that best describes their Chinese counterparts, "ji"), their role and their importance in Chinese society was the primary topic March 30 when Cass spoke in the Jot Travis Student Union.
"I'm going to take us on a journey," Cass began, projector remote control in hand. "I'm going to talk about entertainers and women who were courtesans, and not just in the period I am familiar with."
Cass, an associate professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Colorado, Boulder, used slides of illustrations from her book to show the many images of Chinese women.
"It starts with what China is during the Ming dynasty," Cass said. "What started out as a street waif could move up to an aristocratic, isolated lady."
Cass said "The Great Ming, " (1368-1644, respectively) had millions of cities and there were innumerable women in the geisha class.
"Women were defined in the Ming legal code. One side was 12 or 13 year-old waifs hanging out on the street corners. The opposite was the chaste women."
Cass explained that it was during this time in history that a majority of the silver extracted from the Americas went directly to China because Europeans wanted Chinese goods such as tea, silk, spices, and tobacco.
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The cover of Dr. Victoria Cass' book, Dangerous Women. Cass spent a decade researching and writing this book on women in China. Photo by Sadie Jo Smokey |
"An immense amount of income was coming in and a huge merchant class grew in the late Ming," Cass said. "There was money to burn for entertainment. A father made millions and the sons spent the money ... that's where women came in. They became a focus of this entertainment."
Cass said in time, the merchant's sons wanted to define themselves as a new, emotional, independent and artistic class. These younger men with money could stand against orthodox and elevate a bag lady to an aristocrat.
"A new class of people with new ideologies and a new set of values decided they were disgusted with historical texts," Cass said. "They worshipped the new, the things that made men speak from their soul."
Cass said the geisha became the queen of this world, the brave, in-your-face focus of fan magazines and operas. But at the same time, the queens could fall from favor, and die in poverty.
"They could fall through the cracks very easy, " Cass said. "They had very little support. One geisha, who was a great fund raiser, was able to get a cemetery for impoverished geisha."
During the slide show, Cass pointed out details in paintings and woodblock prints that gave clues to the role of the subjects. One showed a woman standing on a hillside path.
"This is not a woman who is looking flirtatious or advertises her sexuality," Cass said of the aristocratic geisha. "She is a woman who grew up with whatever her art is, was rigorously trained and held up to a high standard."
Cass said surviving artwork by these geisha is scattered all over the world.
"There's not as many as produced by male artists, but they share the stage equally."
Unfortunately, as times changed, so did the value of these women.
"Feminism and Marxism was really unfair to them," Cass said of the sanctioned geisha and women warrior classes. "The Empress Dowager and her advisors were very harsh on the whole class. But we still find these roles recirculating.
"(Chairman) Mao's fourth wife, Jiang Qing, was an actress. Mao loved actresses. To be a leader was to have a woman of the public realm. He was an old fashioned leader rather than a pure Marxist."
Although a majority of the audience Thursday night are students in one of Professor Hugh Shapiro's two history classes, members from the surrounding community also attended the Hilliard Humanities lecture sponsored by the Department of History. A question and answer session at the end of the presentation verified that the audience wanted to learn more about the subject.
"I was impressed by the sophistication of the questions raised by audience members," Shapiro said. "So was Professor Cass. I am very pleased when members of the community outside the university attend UNR functions. Exchange between the university and the community is important, and enriches the university."
International Affairs student Allison Biastock said she now has a deeper understanding of courtesan-artists in Chinese culture.
"It was interesting to learn about a culture that has been suppressed for so long," Biastock said. "I thought she was a very dynamic speaker ... the subject is fascinating. (Her presentation) eliminated a lot of stereotypes I had about the geisha class."
Posted April 7, 2000
Copyright 2000 Nevada Outpost
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