Title
Three, Four and Five-character books for Women and Children (妇孺三四五字书) by Jin Zhang Tu Shu Ju (锦章图书局)
Year/Period
Early Republican period
Region
Singapore and Shanghai
Object Type
Material
Technique
Dimension
Object size: 19.1 x 13.2 x 0.2 cm
Accession No.
2021-00322
Collection of
The characters gonghe shiyong (共和适用, “suitable for the Republic”) on the cover indicate that this book was most likely printed in the early Republican period. The original author of this book was Chen Zibao (陈子褒), a student of reformer Kang Youwei and classmate of Liang Qichao. A proponent of female education, Chen set up schools and accepted female students as early as 1903.The book contain three, four and five-character phrases on a variety of subjects. Such books were commonly used to inculcate what was thought to be the ideal behaviour for women in the late Qing and early Republican period.
