PROJECTNeeds and ChallengesFor this case, a regional clothing .docx

PROJECT
Needs and Challenges
For this case, a regional clothing line with eight locations shall
be considered. The business has lost quite a number of
customers which has been due to emergence of online shopping
and competition from other businesses who have been doing
better than them. This in turn has minimized profits. It has also
been a challenge to keep a track of all employees working in the
different locations due to lack of a centralized system. A lot of
time and resources have been wasted because managers have to
go from one outlet to another in person to deliver information in
person. These challenges can be addressed by adopting new
technological trends for instance, use of the Human Resource
Information System (HRIS) software, design a website and
incorporate it with Virtual Reality (VR) option and chat bots,
Machine Learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT), IT
outsourcing, use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and use of voice
technology to mention but a few.
For the business to stand a chance against other competitors in
the market, then they should adopt these innovative
technological trends. This will motivate both the employer and
employees due to interactions made possible by use of self-
service portals leading to a conducive working environment and
thus maximizing on profits. Adoption of AI facilitates wise
decision making and it’s easy to protect the company’s database
from cyber theft. Interactions with the customers is made
possible by a having a website where the business can get
feedback from the consumers and this has a positive impact on
what areas the company should maintain or improve.
Innovative Technologies
There are many new technological trends which the regional

clothing store chain can adapt and improve. However, we shall
only consider three of them which are, HRIS system, machine
learning, and a business website.
HRIS System
A Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is a software
which combines human resource activities and information
technology and enables data entry, recording information,
tracking of employees, payroll, and accounting among other
activities (Davis, 2018, para. 1). Some of its common features
include, applicant tracking, benefits administration, payroll,
self-service portals for employees, mobile applications,
performance management, and scheduling (Davis, 2018, para.
19). HRIS enables keeping a record of the employee details
which include; names, home address, and area of specialization
among other details. It also has the self-service portals which
can be used as mobile application. This portal enables passing
of information from the employer to the employees or vice
versa. The Bring Your Own Device Trend (BYOD) has been
accepted by many companies therefore improving workers’
productivity (Makela, 2012, para.2).Storing of information
using the HRIS system is more effective than keeping written
records which are prone to damages unlike softcopy which can
be backed up in case the system fails. This also helps reduce
costs of operation. The HRIS system also improves co-
ordination in an organization which has many outlets.
(Rietsema, n.d., para. 3).For instance, it is easier to co-ordinate
the 8 different outlets from a central point and this reduces
unnecessary expenses like travelling all the time when there is a
need to pass any important information throughout the
locations. Generally, the main purpose of HRIS is to reduce
expenses of the company, and therefore maximum profits are
attained.
Machine Learning
Machine Learning (ML) is an application of artificial
intelligence incorporated in a system to give it an ability to
learn automatically and improve from experience without human

intervention. It begins with observations, experience or
instruction, and then making of better decisions in the future
(“What is machine learning?,”2017, para.1) ML uses self-
teaching algorithms which learn about data and identify a
particular trend so as to make predictions (Kinnear, 2018, para.
9). Adoption of this trend by the clothing business will have a
major impact on efficiency and profitability. Due to its ability
to observe customer behaviors, it can be easy to identify the
best profitable opportunities and avoid unnecessary risks. Once
the company knows the customers tastes and preferences, it
easier to satisfy them by selling to them what they need. This
helps keep customers and even attract more therefore the
business continues making profit.
Business Website
It is a common trend for businesses nowadays to have a website
where they can interact with their consumers. This has been
made possible by use of chat bots. A chat bot is a computer
program that simulates human conversation through artificial
intelligence (”Chat bot,” n.d., para. 1). Integration of chat bots
into the website provides the customers with instant answers
unlike waiting for replies through email which takes some time.
Chat bots are available all the time making them efficient. It is
also to reach many customers at the same time (Singh, 2019,
para. 12). Another popular trend is incorporation of virtual
reality (VR) into the business websites to enhance data
visualization where the customers can be able to watch the
advertisement videos (Finch, 2018, para. 5). One limitation of
this virtual reality technology is one has to own a VR equipment
to watch these videos. VR enables the customer to experience a
virtual tour inside the store and this attracts many customers
therefore an advantage to the businesses to maximize on making
profits (Singh, 2019, para. 15-17). Although this technology has
not yet advanced so much, it is expected to be popular in days
to come.
Assessment
HRIS System

HRIS software vary in cost due to the different sizes of
companies. A small company cannot use the same type of HRIS
software as a large company due to difference in number of
employees and requirement of the company. The software is
integrated into the system of the company and does not require
additional equipment. Both the employer and the employee
benefit directly from this system while customers are not
affected directly by this system. HRIS system provides many
advantages but the shortcomings cannot be overlooked. It is an
expensive trend to adopt due to the initial cost of acquiring the
software, cost of operation, and may require training of
personnel on maintenance. This software is mostly ideal for
companies with twenty five employees and above (Davis, 2018,
para. 15). Despite these disadvantages, HRIS system generally
improves the performance of a business therefore increasing the
profits. Due to its organized nature, it can attract more
shareholders to invest in the business leading to even
expansion. It is a cost-effective solution though it might take
some time before it is fully incorporated into the business.
Machine Learning
Machine learning is not very expensive because it is an
application which is integrated into a computer. It is also easy
to acquire and does not need complex equipment to function.ML
mostly benefits the business and not the customers because
there is no direct interaction. Machine learning has advantages
such as; the ability to detect fraud before it happens, prediction
of customer behavior which helps the company to focus and
improve on those areas that might lead to loss of customers,
automation of business processes which helps save a lot of time
and resources, and making of good recommendations of
merchandise (Kinnear, 2018, para. 11). All these advantages
work for the benefit of the company and thus ensures profits.
However, ML has also a few disadvantages for instance; it
requires a lot of time and resources to make a good prediction

or decision, it requires experts to analyze the data correctly and
this could lead to increase in expenses for the company, and it
may not always give a correct prediction. Despite the few
disadvantages of using ML, it should be adopted for the
betterment of the business (Soffar, 2019, para. 16-21).
Stakeholders have invested in machining learning to help
maintain customers and even attract more.
Business Website
It is easy to set up a business website because it requires a
computer and a specialist. It benefits both the consumer and the
seller in different ways. The seller is able to reach as many
people as possible, therefore having a high chance of gaining
more customers. The customers have access to information
about the products they are interested in and can even order for
them and thus saving them a lot time and resources which would
have been wasted if they had gone to the store physically. It is a
platform which can attract stakeholders due to its ability to be
accessed by anyone from anywhere. It is a cost-effective
solution which should be adopted by the clothing store chain.
Selection
The company should adopt the business website other than the
other two trends. Creating a website is less expensive than
buying a HRIS software or adopting machine learning. A
business should select an innovative technological trend which
will not incur the business a lot of expenses. It also takes a
short time to design a website as compared to machine learning
which takes a lot of time before a valid prediction or decision is
made. HRIS system does not take longer time as compared to
machine learning. Also, the website helps maintain
communication with the existing customers and also the
potential ones and thus giving a direct feedback to the seller in
the shortest time possible. HRIS system is only used by the
employer and employee and does involve the customer directly.
Machine learning depends on observing the behavior of a
customer to make a decision which might be false. Through the
website, customers can also order for merchandise. A clothing

store can easily deliver products to the customers easily because
they are light in weight and can be easily transported.
Therefore, unlike HRIS system and machine learning, a business
website has many advantages to both the customer and the
seller, making it the preferable choice.
ASSIGNMENT
Evaluating Tools for Improving the New Product Development
Process
Five specific tools for improving the new product development
process are identified and explained in the textbook reading
for Chapter 11. Each of these tools has its advantages and
disadvantages, but not all of these five tools are appropriate for
all new product development processes. Consider the
technological innovation you are proposing for your final
project and evaluate each of these five tools relative to the new
product development that will be required for your innovation.
Analyze each tool and recommend whether the tool should be
used for improving the new product development process for
your product. Be sure to explain and justify your
recommendation.
Formatting guidelines: 2-3 pages, double spacing, and citations
in APA format
page 250
1. stage-gate processes
2. quality function deployment (“house of quality”)
3. design for manufacturing
4. failure modes and effects analysis
5. computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing
TOOLS FOR IMPROVING THE NEW PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Some of the most prominent tools used to improve the
development process include stage-gate processes, quality
function deployment (“house of quality”), design for
manufacturing, failure modes and effects analysis, and
computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing. Using
the available tools can greatly expedite the new product
development process and maximize the product's fit with
customer requirements.
Stage-Gate Processes
go/kill decision points
Gates established in the development process where managers
must evaluate whether or not to kill the project or allow it to
proceed.
As discussed in a previous section, escalating commitment can
lead managers to support projects long after their expected
value has turned negative, and the cost of pushing bad projects
forward can be very high. To help avoid this, many managers
and researchers suggest implementing tough go/kill decision
points in the product development process. The most widely
known development model incorporating such go/kill points is
the stage-gate process developed by Robert G. Cooper.25 The
stage-gate process provides a blueprint for moving projects
through different stages of development. Figure 11.2 shows a
typical stage-gate process.
At each stage, a cross-functional team of people (led by a
project team leader) undertakes parallel activities designed to
drive down the risk of a development project. At each stage of
the process, the team is required to gather vital technical,
market, and financial information to use in the decision to move
the project forward (go), abandon the project (kill), hold, or
recycle the project.
FIGURE 11.2
Typical Stage-Gate Process, from Idea to Launch
In Stage 1, the team does a quick investigation and
conceptualization of the project. In Stage 2, the team builds a

business case that includes a defined product, its business
justification, and a detailed plan of action for the next stages. In
Stage 3, the team begins the actual design and development of
the product, including mapping out the manufacturing process,
the market launch, and operating plans. In this stage, the team
also defines the test plans utilized in the next stage. In Stage 4,
the team conducts the verification and validation process for the
proposed new product, and its marketing and production. At
Stage 5, the product is ready for launch, and full commercial
production and selling commence.26
Preceding each stage is a go/kill gate. These gates are designed
to control the quality of the project and to ensure that the
project is being executed in an effective and efficient manner.
Gates act as the funnels that cull mediocre projects. Each gate
has three components: deliverables (these are the results of the
previous stage and are the inputs for the gate
review), criteria (these are the questions or metrics used to
make the go/kill decision), and outputs (these are the results of
the gate review process and may include a decision such as go,
kill, hold, or recycle; outputs should also include an action plan
for the dates and deliverables of the next gate).
Because each stage of a development project typically costs
more than the stage preceding it, breaking down the process into
stages deconstructs the development investment into a series of
incremental commitments. Expenditures increase only as
uncertainty decreases. Figure 11.3 shows the escalation costs
and cycle time for each stage of a typical development process
in a manufacturing industry.
Many companies have adapted the stage-gate process to more
specifically meet the needs of their firm or industry. For
example, while managers at Exxon were strong advocates of
using a stage-gate process to track and manage development
projects, they also felt that the standard five-stage system did
not adequately address the needs of a company in which basic
research was a primary component in generating innovations.
Exxon managers created their own extended stage-gate system

to include directed basic research. The resulting stage-gate
system included two basic research stages (Stages A and B
in Figure 11.4) and five applied research and development
stages. In Stage A, the company identifies the potential business
incentives and competitive advantages of an envisioned
technology. The company then develops a basic research plan
that establishes specific scientific deliverables, the methods of
achieving these deliverables, and the required resources. In
Stage B, Exxon's research division begins to execute the plan
developed in Stage A, using scientific methods to generate leads
for addressing the business opportunity. Stage 1 then identifies
the best leads, using “proof-of-principle” assessments to
establish whether the leads are feasible.27 Stages 2 through 5
proceed according to a typical stage-gate process.
FIGURE 11.3
Escalation of Development Time and Costs by Stage
Source: From Frederick D. Buggie, “Set the ‘Fuzzy Front End’
in Concrete,” Research Technology Management, vol. 45, no. 4,
July–August 2002. Reprinted with permission of Industrial
Research Institute.
page 252
FIGURE 11.4
Exxon Research and Engineering's Stage-Gate System
According to studies by the Product Development and
Management Association, nearly 60 percent of firms (including
IBM, Procter & Gamble, 3M, General Motors, and Corning) use
some type of stage-gate process to manage their new product
development process. Corning has made the process mandatory
for all information system development projects, and Corning
managers believe that the process enables them to better
estimate the potential payback of any project under
consideration. They also report that the stage-gate process has
reduced development time, allows them to identify projects that
should be killed, and increases the ratio of internally developed

products that result in commercial projects.28
Quality Function Deployment (QFD)—The House of Quality
QFD was developed in Japan as a comprehensive process for
improving the communication and coordination among
engineering, marketing, and manufacturing personnel.29 It
achieves this by taking managers through a problem-solving
process in a very structured fashion. The organizing framework
for QFD is the “house of quality” (see Figure 11.5). The house
of quality is a matrix that maps customer requirements against
product attributes. This matrix is completed in a series of steps.
page 253
1. The team must first identify customer requirements. In Figure
11.5, market research has identified five attributes that
customers value most in a car door: it is easy to open and close,
it stays open on a hill, it does not leak in the rain, it isolates the
occupant from road noise, and it protects the passengers in the
event of crashes.
FIGURE 11.5
Quality Function Deployment House of Quality for a Car Door
1. The team weights the customer requirements in terms of their
relative importance from a customer's perspective. This
information might be obtained from focus group sessions or
direct interaction with the customers. The weights are typically
entered as percentages, so that the complete list totals 100
percent.
2. The team identifies the engineering attributes that drive the
performance of the product—in this case the car door. In Figure
11.5, four attributes are highlighted: the weight of the door, the
stiffness of the door hinge (a stiff hinge helps the door stay
open on a hill), the tightness of the door seal, and the tightness
of the window seal.
3. The team enters the correlations between the different
engineering attributes to assess the degree to which one
characteristic may positively or negatively affect another. The

correlations are entered into the matrix that creates the peaked
roof of the house. In this case, the negative sign between door
weight and hinge stiffness indicates that a heavy door reduces
the stiffness of the hinge.
4. page 254The team fills in the body of the central matrix.
Each cell in the matrix indicates the relationship between an
engineering attribute and a customer requirement. A number (in
this example, one, three, or nine) is placed in the cell located at
the intersection of each row (customer requirements) with each
column (engineering attributes), which represents the strength
of relationship between them. A value of one indicates a weak
relationship, a three indicates a moderate relationship and a
nine indicates a strong relationship. The cell is left blank if
there is no relationship. The ease of opening the door, for
example, is strongly related to the weight of the door and
moderately related to the stiffness of the door hinge, but is not
related to the tightness of the door seal or window seal.
5. The team multiplies the customer importance rating of a
feature by its relationship to an engineering attribute (one,
three, or nine). These numbers are then summed for each
column, yielding a total for the relative importance of each
engineering attribute. For example, the stiffness of the hinge
influences how easy the door is to open, and whether the door
stays open on a hill. Thus to calculate the relative importance of
the stiffness of the hinge, the team multiplies the customer
importance rating of how easy the door is to open by its
relationship to the stiffness of the hinge (15 × 3 = 45), then
multiplies the customer importance rating of the door staying
open on a hill by its relationship to the stiffness of the hinge
(10 × 9 = 90), and then adds these together for the total relative
importance of the hinge stiffness (45 + 90 = 135). These scores
indicate that the tightness of the door and window seals is the
most important engineering attribute, followed by the weight of
the door.
6. The team evaluates the competition. A scale of one to seven
is used (one indicating a requirement is not addressed, and

seven indicating a requirement is completely satisfied) to
evaluate the competing products (in this case A and B) on each
of the customer requirements. These scores go in the right-hand
“room” of the house of quality.
7. Using the relative importance ratings established for each
engineering attribute and the scores for competing products
(from step 7), the team determines target values for each of the
design requirements (for example, the door's optimal weight in
pounds).
8. A product design is then created based on the design targets
from step 8. The team then evaluates the new design that was
created. The team assesses the degree to which each of the
customer requirements has been met, entering a one to seven in
the far right column of the house of quality, permitting it to
compare the new design with the scores of the competing
products.
The great strength of the house of quality is that it provides a
common language and framework within which the members of
a project team may interact. The house of quality makes the
relationship between product attributes and customer
requirements very clear, it focuses on design trade-offs, it
highlights the competitive shortcomings of the company's
existing products, and it helps identify what steps need to be
taken to improve them. The house of quality is used in settings
as diverse as manufacturing, construction, police service, and
educational curriculum design.30 Advocates of QFD maintain
that one of its most valuable characteristics is its positive effect
upon cross-functional communication and, through that, upon
cycle time and the product/customer fit.31
page 255
Design for Manufacturing
Another method of facilitating integration between engineering
and manufacturing, and of bringing issues of manufacturability
into the design process as early as possible, is the use of design
for manufacturing methods (DFM). Like QFD, DFM is simply a
way of structuring the new product development process. Often

this involves articulating a series of design rules. Figure
11.6 summarizes a set of commonly used design rules, along
with their expected impact on performance.
FIGURE 11.6
Design Rules for Fabricated Assembly Products
Source: Adapted from M. A. Schilling and C. W. L. Hill, 1998,
“Managing the New Product Development Process,” Academy
of Management Executive, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 67–81.
As shown in Figure 11.6, the purpose of such design rules is
typically to reduce costs and boost product quality by ensuring
that product designs are easy to manufacture. The easier
products are to manufacture, the fewer the assembly steps
required, the higher labor productivity will be, resulting in
lower unit costs. DEKA Research makes a point of bringing
manufacturing into the design process early, because as founder
Dean Kamen points out, “It doesn't make sense to invent things
that ultimately are made of unobtanium or expensium.”32 In
addition, designing products to be easy to manufacture
decreases the likelihood of making mistakes in the assembly
process, resulting in higher product quality.
The benefits of adopting DFM rules can be dramatic.
Considering manufacturing at an early stage of the design
process can shorten development cycle time. In addition, by
lowering costs and increasing product quality, DFM can
increase the product's fit with customer requirements. For
example, when NCR used DFM techniques to redesign one of its
electronic cash registers, it reduced assembly time by 75
percent, reduced the parts required by 85 percent, utilized 65
percent fewer suppliers, and reduced direct labor time by 75
percent.33
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis
Failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) is a method by
which firms identify potential failures in a system, classify

them according to their severity, and put a plan into place to
prevent the failures from happening.34 First, potential failure
modes are identified. For example, a firm developing a
commercial aircraft might consider failure modes such as
“landing gear does not descend,” or “communication system
experiences interference”; a firm developing a new line of
luxury hotels might consider failure modes such as “a
reservation cannot be found” or “guest experiences poor service
by room service staff.” Potential failure modes are then
evaluated on three criteria of the risk they pose: severity,
likelihood of occurrence, and inability of controls to detect it.
Each criterion is given a score (e.g., one for lowest risk, five for
highest risk), and then a composite risk priority number is
created for each failure mode by multiplying its scores together
(i.e., risk priority number = severity × likelihood of occurrence
× inability of controls to detect). The firm can then prioritize its
development efforts to target potential failure modes that pose
the most composite risk. This means that rather than focus first
on the failure modes that have the highest scores for severity of
risk, the firm might find that it should focus first on failure
modes that have less severe impacts, but occur more often and
are less detectable.
FMEA was originally introduced in the 1940s by the U.S.
Armed Forces and was initially adopted primarily for
development projects in which the risks posed by failure were
potentially very severe. For example, FMEA was widely used in
the Apollo Space Program in its mission to put a man on the
moon, and was adopted by Ford after its extremely costly
experience with its Pinto model (the location of the gas tank in
the Pinto made it exceptionally vulnerable to collisions, leading
to fire-related deaths; Ford was forced to recall the Pintos to
modify the fuel tanks, and was forced to pay out record-
breaking sums in lawsuits that resulted from
accidents).35 Soon, however, FMEA was adopted by firms in a
wide range of industries, including many types of
manufacturing industries, service industries, and health care. A

recent PDMA study found that firms report using FMEA in 40
percent of the projects they undertake.36
Computer-Aided Design Computer-Aided
Engineering/Computer-Aided Manufacturing
Computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering
(CAE) is the use of computers to build and test product designs.
Rapid advances in computer technology have enabled the
development of low-priced and high-powered graphics-based
workstations. With these workstations, it is now possible to
achieve what could previously be done only on a
supercomputer: construct a three-dimensional “working” image
of a product or subassembly. CAD enables the creation of a
three-dimensional model; CAE makes it possible to virtually
test the characteristics (e.g., strength, fatigue, and reliability) of
this model. The combination enables product prototypes to be
developed and tested in virtual reality. Engineers can quickly
adjust prototype attributes by manipulating the three-
dimensional model, allowing them to compare the
characteristics of different product designs. Eliminating the
need to build physical prototypes can reduce cycle time and
lower costs as illustrated in the accompanying Theory in
Action. Visualization tools and 3-D software are even being
used to allow nonengineering customers to see and make minor
alterations to the design and materials.
Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) is the implementation of
machine-controlled processes in manufacturing. CAM is faster
and more flexible than traditional manufacturing. 37 Computers
can automate the change between different product variations
and allow for more variety and customization in the
manufacturing process.
A recent incarnation of computer-aided manufacturing is three-
dimensional printing (also known as additive manufacturing),
whereby a design developed in a computer aided design program
is literally printed by laying down thin horizontal cross sections
of material until the model is complete. Unlike traditional

methods of constructing a model, which typically involve
machining a mold that can take several days to complete, three-
dimensional printing can generate a model in a few hours. By
2015, three-dimensional printing was being used to create
products as diverse as food, clothing, jewelry, solid-state
batteries, and even titanium landing gear brackets for
supersonic jets.38 Biotechnology firms were even using three-
dimensional printing for use in creating organs by depositing
layers of living cells onto a gel medium.39 This method has
recently begun rapidly replacing injection molding for products
that are produced in relatively small quantities.
three-dimensional printing
A method whereby a design developed in a computer aided
design program is printed in three dimensions by laying down
thin strips of material until the model is complete.
page 257
Theory in Action Computer-Aided Design of an America's
Cup Yacht
Team New Zealand discovered the advantages of using
sophisticated computer-aided-design techniques in designing the
team's 1995 America's Cup yacht. The team had traditionally
relied on developing smaller-scale prototypes of the yacht and
testing the models in a water tank. However, such prototypes
took months to fabricate and test and cost about $50,000 per
prototype. This greatly limited the number of design options the
team could consider. However, by using computer-aided-design
technologies, the team could consider many more design
specifications more quickly and inexpensively. Once the basic
design is programmed, variations on that design can be run in a
matter of hours, at little cost, enabling more insight into design
trade-offs. Computer-aided design also avoided some of the
problems inherent in scaling up prototypes (some features of the
scaled-down prototype boats would affect the flow of water
differently from full-scale boats, resulting in inaccurate results
in prototype testing). The team would still build prototypes, but
only after considering a much wider range of design alternatives

using computer-aided-design methods. As noted by design team
member Dave Egan, “Instead of relying on a few big leaps, we
had the ability to continually design, test, and refine our ideas.
The team would often hold informal discussions on design
issues, sketch some schematics on the back of a beer mat, and
ask me to run the numbers. Using traditional design methods
would have meant waiting months for results, and by that time,
our thinking would have evolved so much that the reason for the
experiment would long since have been forgotten.”
Source: M. Iansiti and A. MacCormack, “Team New Zealand,”
Harvard Business School case no. 9-697-040, 1997.
Liang Qichao 梁啓超 (aka Liang Rengong 梁任公,
1873–1929) was the foremost modern intellectual of
China in the first two decades of the twentieth cen-
tury. He was born in Xinhui, Guangdong Province,
and became a disciple of the New Text Confucian
scholar Kang Youwei. Liang was involved in the Hun-
dred Days’ Reform led by the young Guangxu emperor
in 1898. Following a coup d’état by Empress Dowager
Cixi’s powerful conservative opponents, he and the
other leaders of the movement were forced into exile in
Japan, where his iconoclastic journalism and scholarly
searchings began to shape the minds of a whole genera-
tion of Chinese students.
Liang was the first modern intellectual in China to
achieve public stature through a systematic exploita-
tion of journalism. While still in China, he founded and
was editor of two prominent newspapers, Sino-Foreign
News (Zhongwai gongbao) and The Chinese Progress
(Shiwu bao), which advocated sweeping reforms to
China’s society and polity. While in exile, he was editor-
in-chief of Journal of Pure Critique (Qingyi bao) and

New Citizen Miscellany (Xinmin congbao), where he
published many of his influential political essays and
translations and inspired young Chinese with progres-
sive new ideas in the last decade of the Qing dynasty
(1644–1911).
Liang’s essay “On Women’s Education” was first
published in The Chinese Progress in Shanghai in 1897.
It was one of a dozen essays Liang wrote in response
to China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War (1895). He
called for revamping the country’s education system
and the need to enlighten women and children. These
The Birth of Chinese Feminism : Essential Texts in
Transnational Theory, edited by Lydia Liu, et al., Columbia
University
Press, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucsc/detail.action?docID=1
103412.
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essays form a single collection called “On Institutional Reform”
(Bianfa
tongyi), which spearheaded the country’s school reform, modern
education
programs, and national self-strengthening. An important
historical docu-
ment, “On Women’s Education” represents the voice of
progressive male
intellectuals who sought to put women on the agenda of national
salvation.
It is translated in this volume for the first time.
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I
t was said in Mencius, “[But men possess a moral nature; and if
they are
well fed, warmly clad, and comfortably lodged,] without being
taught at
the same time, they become almost like the beasts.”1 Such pithy
and truth-
ful words! If any man were treated like an animal, we would
certainly expect
him to be enraged. Yet if what Ziyushi [Mencius] said above is
true, then
there are innumerable people today who are like beasts.
In this great wide world, there are some four hundred million
people
who have round heads and square toes [and are thus Chinese].2
Among
them, nearly one hundred and ninety million are peasants,

artisans, mer-
chants, and soldiers, who have lived their entire lives without
being edu-
cated. Among those who are called officials or scholars, several
million
actually have no learning although they claim to have. And in
China,
there are also nearly two hundred million who have round heads
but bent
toes [i.e., women],3 among whom there are no officials,
scholars, peas-
ants, artisans, merchants, or soldiers; since ancient times, they
have never
been educated. What is more, those officials, scholars, peasants,
artisans,
“On Women’s Education”
Liang Qichao (1897)
All notes are translator’s notes.
1The passage is an apology for the establishment of Confucian
moral education by the sage
King Shun. “Teng Wen Gong I,” Mencius, trans. James Legge,
http://ctext.org/mengzi/teng-
wen-gong-i/zh?en=on (accessed August 17, 2012).
2In Chinese mythology, heaven is a dome-shaped canopy over
the square earth. Embodying
this perfect cosmic pattern, a human being is said to have a
round head and square toes.
3By “round heads but bent toes,” Liang refers to the harm that
footbinding inflicted on the
natural bodies of Chinese women.

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Liang Qichao
190
and merchants whose lives are almost like those of beasts are
nevertheless
ashamed of that fact; but women who are not officials, scholars,

peasants,
artisans, or merchants and are almost like beasts feel no such
shame! Not
only is this so, but all of humanity simply takes this state of
affairs to be the
natural, fixed order of things. Alas! How painful it is! How
painful it is!
Liang Qichao says that if one were to bring up the problem of
women’s
education in China today, the reply would certainly be that there
are innu-
merable issues that are of greater urgency now.4 The listener
would respond
that with so many other important reforms having yet to be
implemented,
the discussion of women’s education is a distraction from the
most pressing
and fundamental problems. However, when I seek out the root
causes of
national weakness, I find that they inevitably lie in women’s
lack of educa-
tion. Please allow me to offer [four] reasons why I believe this
to be true.
The first reason is that philosophers (gonglijia5 公理家) say that
it is nec-
essary that everyone in a country have his own occupation and
be able to
support himself. Only then will the country prosper. Indeed, the
strength
of a nation is directly related to the proportion of its people who
are with-
out work. Why is this so? People without work must be
supported by peo-
ple with work. If they are not supported, then people without

work are
endangered; yet if they are supported, then those with work are
themselves
imperiled. Translated Western texts have referred to this idea as
the prin-
ciple of profit making and profit sharing (生利, 分利), which is
similar to
the principle found in our [classic] The Great Learning (Daxue):
“[T]hose
who produce should be many, while those who consume should
be few” [to
consume is to eat and to deplete]. It is said in Guanzi that “if a
man fails to
plough, someone will starve; if a woman fails to spin, someone
will freeze.”
These are not empty words; instead, it is the practical
conclusion reached
by considering the nation’s labor force and material production
as a whole
and as they relate proportionally to national profit. In China,
even if we
consider only the men, the number of those who only consume
comes to
roughly half of those who produce. According to the
philosophers, this
situation alone already makes a stable national government
impossible, let
4A convention of the time was to write in the third person. The
author, Liang Qichao, does so
here.
5This term’s individual components are as follows: gong (公),
typically translated as “public”;
li (理), variously meaning “reason,” “principle,” or “logic”; and
jia (家), literally, “expert” but
in this context meaning “philosopher.” The most direct

translation might render this term
“experts of public principle”; we translate it here simply as
“philosopher.”
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191

alone when we consider the nation’s two hundred million
women, among
whom all are consumers and none are producers. Owing to
women’s inabil-
ity to support themselves and their dependence on other people,
men raise
women as livestock or slaves. Thus women live harsh lives.
Since women are
wholly dependent and men have no choice but to support them,
even those
men who work for the entire year cannot afford to care for their
wives and
children. Men [thus] also live harsh lives. Based on what I have
observed,
regardless of social status, neither upper-class officials, nor
middle-class
scholars, nor lower-class peasants, artisans, merchants, or
soldiers can
ever enjoy a time without panic and anxiety. And it is even
more difficult
to count the number of those who suffer from poverty—those
who endure
cold and hunger and whose dead bodies are discarded in ditches.
In fact,
based simply on the aforementioned principle of proportion,
there would
be no possibility of poverty if everyone worked with his own
body to pro-
vide for his own sustenance.
Today, everyone worries about poverty in China. Poverty is
caused when
one person is forced to support several people. Although there
are indeed

several factors that have caused multiple people to become
dependent upon
one person, I would argue that the lack of employment of
women is the origi-
nal factor. Men and women are equally human—how is it that
one works and
the other does not? For all professions, there are necessary
principles and
practices that cannot be acquired without learning. We can see
this clearly in
the experience of men—an educated man who is conversant with
the nature
of things can easily find a job, whereas the less learned have
much greater
difficulty seeking employment. We might conclude, then, that
education is
the mother of occupations. The reason for women’s lack of
employment is
not rooted in any natural principles or reason. Instead, it is a
relic from the
chaotic time in our past when humans struggled for power and
to dominate
each other by force. These values accorded with the natural
abilities of men;
women were unable to compete. As a result, women were seen
as insignifi-
cant and were not to be educated. And without education, it was
not possible
for women to have occupations. After such a long time, the
origins of wom-
en’s lack of employment have gradually been forgotten by most
people. It is
now taken for granted that women are born without occupation
and that they
should depend on other people. Hence, men have become
superior while

women have become inferior. Women sit in idleness while men
toil. But lead-
ing a life of leisure and being despised as inferior is by no
means a naturally
happy life, nor is being taken as superior while leading a life of
toil.
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Liang Qichao
192
How, then, would it be if we were to balance out this
relationship of
superiority and inferiority between men and women? How
would it be if
we were to make equal their proportions of work and leisure?
This solu-
tion is consistent with principle but contrary to reality in
current practice.
One might ask: How can a country become strong? It is strong
when its
people are wealthy. How can a country’s people become
wealthy? They will
be wealthy when everyone can support himself or herself and
only him-
self or herself rather than several people. If the number of
employed peo-
ple doubles in a country, then the amount of the local products
and goods
produced will quickly double as well. This increased quantity is
exactly that
which had previously gone wasted or unrealized. It is very
appropriate and
profitable indeed to take what was once wasted property and to
use it to
enrich the people. Hence, there is no reason to reject women’s
education.
The second reason is that what has commonly been said of
women’s virtue—
namely, that “in women, lack of talent is a virtue”—is entirely
untrue. Our

shortsighted scholars have held fast to this notion and have
dedicated
untold efforts toward keeping all women illiterate and
unschooled. These
scholars claim that such ignorance is the very foundation of
women’s virtue,
when it is in fact the path to national disaster. In ancient times
there were
so-called talented women whose best achievements were
nothing more
than several stanzas of ditties upon the beauty of the wind and
moon, verses
describing the flowers and the grasses, or poems lamenting the
passage of
spring or the loss of a friend. Such activities cannot be called
learning. Even
a man would be despised as frivolous and trifling if he knew
nothing else
and were to pursue fame in this kind of writing, let alone a
woman.
What I mean by education is twofold: it should open one’s inner
mind
while also teaching a person skills to earn his or her livelihood
(shengji).
In this one pursuit, multiple good results are achieved, and I see
in it no
harm posed to women’s virtue. If one says that ignorance is
women’s vir-
tue, then why do illiterate women in the remote villages, of
whom there
are no fewer than several million, never become more virtuous
because
of their ignorance? Instead, all that we see is their quibbles and
quarrels,
which surely make them less virtuous than women from the

official-
scholar families. What do you say to this? Common people’s
quibbles
and quarrels inevitably come from the narrow scope of their
minds. In
their daily lives, they are trapped within this extremely small
and limited
world. If they are made to know the ten thousand years of
history, the five
continents of the world, the way people get along with each
other, and
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193
the way countries become prosperous or weak, their minds will
be busy
attending to the needs of all the people under heaven and will
have no
time for quibbling over family chores or affairs of women and
children.
Today most women are disadvantaged because they know
nothing about
the world and therefore devote all their energy to fighting daily
over triv-
ial matters. As a result, women all cultivate the same ugly
habits without
even having to learn them or having to consult one another.
Because of
this, among hundreds of millions of people and tens of millions
of fami-
lies throughout the land, there is not one family that is at peace
inside and
out, and where the conduct and speech of its members reflect
harmony.
And all these family conflicts begin with women—the mothers-
in-law,
daughters-in-law, and sisters-in-law. Some cynics have even
gone as far as
to suggest that all women should be killed.

Are women evil by nature? If you throw together a bunch of
untamed,
uncivilized hollow bodies and lock them up in one room, do you
expect
them to get along with each other? Unable to provide for
themselves, these
women become men’s burden by wearing men down bodily and
physi-
cally. Even worse, if the family is in chaos all day, causing a
man to become
agitated and upset as soon as he enters the room, the degree to
which this
undermines and exhausts his spirit and aspirations cannot be
underesti-
mated. Hence, even for an outstanding and charismatic hero, the
mundane
trivialities of domestic life can scarcely fail in a short time to
confine and to
undermine his ambition and talent. If so, women really are
poison and men
should not be united with them. Instead of ingesting and
enjoying this poi-
son, perhaps men should pay some attention to finding the
antidote.
The third proof [for my claim that women’s education is
necessary for
national survival] is that for Westerners, out of a hundred tasks
involved in
educating young children, over seventy are borne by the mother.
A small
infant is naturally closer to the mother than to the father, [and]
therefore
only the mother can take advantage of this propensity to guide
him. Con-
sequently, if the mother is a good teacher, it is easy for the

child to grow
upright; if the mother is a bad teacher, then the child is not
likely to turn out
well. According to The Family Instructions of Master Yan
(Yanshi Jiaxun):6
“[C]hildren’s education should begin at infancy. Before [the
children begin]
going to school and studying under a mentor, the children’s
character and
6Refers to a sixth-century text compiled by Yan Zhitui (531–
591). It became an influential and
commonly referenced source of Confucian perspectives on the
family and education.
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Liang Qichao
194
ambition have generally been established. The future
development of the
children’s character will follow the one that is formed at a very
young age.”
This is indeed the foundation of pedagogy. If the mother
understands the
fundamentals of education and is skilled in applying them, then
even before
ten years of age, her children will be able to comprehend the
rudimentary
principles of scholarship, and they will already have established
their ambi-
tions and aspirations.
Today, children’s primary education is not established in China.
When
a child studies under a tutor outside the family, the teachers are
shallow,
ignorant, and careless, having nothing valuable to teach the
pupil. Such
tutelage is no different from the experiences of early childhood;
[the child]
is used to feeling satisfied at home in the care of the wet nurse,

immersed
daily in nothing but the most tedious and scandalous domestic
trifles. Even
a better teacher merely educates the child to admire success in
the impe-
rial examination and the accumulation of wealth, while
admonishing the
child to safeguard family property and to produce more
progeny. This is
the best education these teachers can muster. Therefore, in the
child’s mind
as he grows up, there is nothing in the world more important
than these
achievements. In thousands of homes in all places, people
commiserate in
their ignorance, which results in the shallow, shameless,
ignorant, and sav-
age world in which people vie to pursue their private interests.
Although
people complain about the barbaric and degenerate ways of the
world, they
have no idea how it came to be this way; and even worse,
people seem con-
tent with this state of affairs just as it is. If we were to have a
small schoolboy
from the West walk side by side with our majestic and aged
official-scholars,
the boy’s varied knowledge and ambitions would certainly
exhibit features
with which our scholars could not compete. Is this because the
Westerners
belong to a special species or race (zhong 种), different from us
entirely? No,
the difference is that when young, our people grow accustomed
to our erro-
neous methods of education.

In short, it has been said that there are two fundamental
principles
of governance: the first is to instill an upright heart, and the
second is
to recruit talented people from far and wide. Children’s
education estab-
lishes the foundation of both principles. Children’s education
begins
with the mother’s teaching, which is itself rooted in women’s
educa-
tion. Therefore women’s education fundamentally determines
whether a
nation will survive or be destroyed and whether it will prosper
or lan-
guish in weakness.
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195
The fourth reason is that prenatal education, discussed
thoroughly in
[the ancient texts] Rites of Dai Senior (Da Dai Li)7 and
Discursive Weighing
(Lun Heng),8 has long been forgotten by later generations.
Nowadays, West-
erners certainly pay a lot attention to the issue. In their
investigation of the
principle of the transformation and evolution of animals and
human spe-
cies, Western philosophers think that inside any living organism
(human
beings, birds, insects, fishes, and grasses and trees are living
organisms;
metal, stone, water, and soil are inorganic substances), some
parts are dead,
whereas others are not dead. For example, the root, trunk, fruit,
flower, and
leaf are all dying parts of a plant. Those parts that do not die
leave the mother
and cling to the seed, thereby continuing the life of the species

to the next
generation. This is called propagation. The same process is true
for human
beings. Even so, there are gradual changes that occur between
the two kinds
of changes that can cause the species to develop from monkeys
to human
beings, from a savage and backward species to a civilized and
noble one. The
changes are slight and imperceptible in the beginning, but they
will be enor-
mous by the end of the process. It is for this reason that
Western scholars
who study the science of race have taken prenatal education as a
top priority.
They have given much thought to the various ways of improving
their own
species. Countries intending to strengthen their military power
also order
their women to practice physical exercises. They recognize that
only in this
way will their children have plush skin and strong, powerful
tendons and
muscles. This is also a fundamental concern in girls’ schools.
Nowadays, for people who have foresight and who are
concerned about
the world, there are three important matters: to protect the
nation, to pro-
tect the species, and to protect education. How are we to protect
the nation?
Only by strengthening it can it be protected. How are we to
protect the
species? Only by improving it can it be protected. To advance
from deceit
to loyalty, from selfishness to public spirit, from division to

unity, from
ignorance to intelligence, from savagery to civilization, this is
the way [to
improve the species]. Men’s education constitutes half [of the
nation] and
women’s education the other, but the education of men
necessarily begins
with that of women. As such, the protection of the species
necessarily
begins with and pivots on the education of women.
7Da Dai Liji refers to a set of descriptions of Zhou dynasty
rituals.
8Lun Heng is a Han dynasty text (ca. 80 c.e.) comprising a set
of philosophical essays by Wang
Chong.
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Liang Qichao
196
Nowadays, when I discuss the necessity of women’s education
with peo-
ple, they hardly take it as a practical and appropriate step to
save the species.
They think it is like saving people from starvation by teaching
them how
to plow or rescuing people from thirst by teaching them how to
dig a well.
They do not realize that the necessity of women’s education has
been care-
fully discussed, thoroughly interrogated, and avidly pursued by
both our
own ancient sages and the learned scholars of the West.
(According to The Treatise on Fetal Education [Taijiao Pian],
“[I]t is said
in the Book of Changes that ‘[when one] grasps the
fundamentals, the myr-
iad things would naturally fall into place. Even a minor lapse
can lead to a
major mistake. A learned man is therefore conscientious of the

repercus-
sions of his actions.’ When he selects for his children the
spouse who will
carry his descendents, he will choose a family known for its
benevolence
and uprightness for generations. In this way, their offspring will
be benevo-
lent and filial, and they will not fall into debauchery and
violence. Everyone
they associate with will be benevolent, and the members of their
three clans
[the clans of the father, mother, and wife] will assist them.
Therefore people
say that the offspring of the phoenix are born with kindness,
whereas those
of the tiger and the wolf are born to be greedy and ruthless. The
difference
between the two stems from the characters of their mothers.
There is in
this statement a profound and obvious truth.” It is also said that
“the ways
of prenatal education should be carved on the jade board,
hidden in the
golden casket, and placed in the ancestral temple as admonition
for later
generations. The seriousness with which the ancients treat this
issue is not
without reason.”9 Mr. Yan Youling [Yan Fu] translated
Evolution and Ethics
[Tian Yan Lun],10 in which it is said that “inorganic substances
cannot die
because it never had life to begin with. The living organism,
however, has
some dead parts and also some live parts in its body. The live
parts are not
the so-called spirit or soul, and the parts that will die and those

that will not
9This text from the Tang dynasty (7th century c.e.) laid out the
argument that women’s behav-
ior while pregnant would affect their child, so that quarreling,
food and drink, and so on, were
all to be monitored strictly. For more on this issue, see the
introduction to Tina Phillips John-
son, Childbirth in Republican China: Delivering Modernity
(New York: Lexington Books, 2011).
10Yan Fu (1854–1921), was a reformer and translator during the
late-Qing and republican pe-
riods. In particular, he was known for his translations of Adam
Smith’s The Wealth of Nations
and Herbert Spencer’s social evolutionary text Evolution and
Ethics 天演论. For Yan Fu’s im-
portance at the time, see Benjamin Schwartz, In Search of
Wealth and Power: Yan Fu and the
West (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1964).
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197
die are two absolutely different things. The root or the trunk of
the plants
is the part that will die. The part that remains alive leaves the
mother and
clings to the filial generation. It may undergo slight
modification, but it will
not die; or part of it may die, but it will not die entirely.
Animals and plants
all follow this principle.” Thus, one person will carry with him
the immor-
tal aspect that is transferred to him from his grandfather. When
one is
endowed with life and form, the immortal part of his forebears
is passed on
in evolved form to today; this is the reason for the need for
prenatal educa-
tion. In his correspondence with me, Mr. Yan has said that “the
principles of

biology [shengxue]11 hold that when a person is born, his mind,
talent, phys-
ical figure, disposition, and character are inherited within the
body. He is
born with the mind and life experiences that were accumulated
and stored
by the grandparents from tens of hundreds of generations ago,
and these
experiences will change according to his own exposures, the
influence from
his teachers and friends, and his life experiences in the future.”
This insight
is very profound. If one is concerned about the protection of the
human
species, one has to pay attention to the two above factors. The
first factor
explains the root of the advantage of prenatal education,
whereas the sec-
ond factor elucidates the even deeper basis for that truth. This
theory will
certainly be understood by everyone within a few decades, but
now hardly
anyone believes it to be practical or useful.)
A Western scientist (gezhi jia)12 has said that “women are
generally not
as good as men in comprehending abstract knowledge such as
arithmetic
and science. But when these theories are rendered into such
practical spe-
cializations as medicine and manufacture, men are generally not
as good
as women.” In terms of learning and education, men and women
each have
their strengths, but neither is inherently superior or inferior.
People may

claim that for thousands of years, men have brought forth
significant schol-
arship and accomplished great tasks, so much so that our
ancient annals are
full of records of them, but none whatsoever about women. This
may lead
them to conclude that even if women were educated, their
achievements
would amount to very little.
11Shengxue is generally termed shengwu xue today.
12Gezhi can be rendered as “natural studies”; it was accepted at
the time as equivalent to “sci-
ence.” Today, kexue is the accepted term for “science.” For a
recent study of the shifting mean-
ings of gezhi and the introduction of modern Western science to
China, see Benjamin Elman,
A Cultural History of Modern Science in China (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press,
2006).
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Liang Qichao
198
Let us consider these arguments in light of the principles of
biology. In
the hierarchy of living things, plants which grow upward from
the earth
are utterly lacking in intelligence. Animals that crawl about the
surface of
the earth are more intelligent than plants. But if these creatures
could walk
upright and perceive the world through our eyes, there would be
no major
differences among the various intelligences. Whatever
difference in intel-
ligence there might be is determined solely by the degree of
enlightenment
in living creatures. Let us consider two illustrations of this
principle. Dur-
ing the reigns of Qianlong and Jiaqing emperors (1735–1820),

Han Learning
scholars of the Jiangzhe [Jiangsu-Zhejiang] region were both
accomplished
and numerous, whereas in my Yue [Guangdong] region there
was not even
one.13 Since the reigns of Xianfeng and Tongzhi emperors
(1850–1875),
however, the Yue region witnessed a sudden proliferation of
scholars who
could not stop discussing Ma Rong and Zheng Xuan or clinging
to their
copies of Analysis and Explication of Written Characters
(Shuowen Jiezi),
and they were as numerous as carp in the river.14 The reason
for this change
is not that people in the Yue region were dumb in the eighteenth
century
but became intelligent in the nineteenth century. Similarly,
before the Meiji
13Liang is sketching out a history of the geographical shifts in
Confucian schools of learning
here. Jiangzhe (encompassing present-day Shanghai and parts
south of there in Jiangsu and
Zhejiang Provinces) was a traditional stronghold of Song
Learning prior to the eighteenth
century, when Han Learning was rediscovered and elevated to a
form of critique of the Qing
imperial state. The differences between the schools are
technical, but also political. What Liang
is pointing to here, in the first place, is the spread of Han
Learning (also known as New Text
Confucianism) to Guangdong in the south from its birthplace in
Suzhou. Second, he is point-
ing to the political import of Han Learning as a critique of the
imperial state and the state’s

alleged addiction to abstract rather than concrete, “statecraft”
learning. For more on these is-
sues, see Benjamin Elman, Classicism, Politics and Kinship:
The Ch’ang-chou School of New Text
Confucianism in Late Imperial China (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1990).
14Han Learning relied upon a philological authentification of
which Confucian texts were
the actual ancient texts. Thus, the philological dictionary was of
primary importance to this
school of thought.
Ma Rong (79–166) was a classicist and writer of the Eastern
(Later) Han dynasty. He was
born in Fufeng Maoling (now Guangping in Shaanxi Province).
Scholars in the Ming dynasty
(14th–17th century c.e.) edited The Anthology of Ma Jichang,
thus contributing to the revival
of his form of learning. Zheng Xuan (127–200), a classicist of
the Eastern (Later) Han dynasty,
was born in Beihai gaomi (now it is Gaomi in Shaanxi
Province).
Shuowen Jiezi was written by Xu Shen in the Eastern (Later)
Han dynasty. It sums up six
categories of Chinese character construction and is the most
famous work of philology in
China. It is the basis of the New Text (Han Learning) school of
Confucianism.
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period (1868–1911) in Japan, people were unenlightened and
the quality of
their manufacture was poor. Since the vast and rapid change
brought about
by the Meiji Restoration, the achievements of the Japanese have
been aston-
ishing.15 This is not because they were stupid in the past and
smart at pres-

ent. When the mind is stiff and unexercised, the intelligence is
blocked. But
if properly instructed and guided, the mind is activated just like
flipping a
switch, when all the strings will start to move. Through
thousands of years,
women did not acquire fame in learning because they were
never guided
to that path. If women were to begin learning, they would have
two advan-
tages over men: first, they have fewer social entanglements and
obligations;
second, they are spared the difficulty of the official
examination.16 Women
live quiet lives and have meticulous minds. Therefore, women
can often
perceive principles that men cannot, and they can invent new
methods that
could elude men.
According to an account in Western historiography,
Mohammed’s
mother, who was the daughter of Muttalib and the aunt of
Zaynab bint
Jahsh, attained scholarly achievement that held its own in
comparison to
that of the men of her time. There are also young Chinese
women, such as
Kang Aide or Shi Meiyu,17 who went abroad to study and then
returned to
China after they completed their studies. Such women are
praised even by
prestigious scholars in the West. In light of all this, how can we
possibly say
that women are born without the ability to learn? These are two
hundred

million human beings who walk upright and perceive the world
with their
15The Meiji Restoration refers to the period around 1868, when
Tokugawa rule was deposed
and a new emperor and reign, named Meiji, was established.
Under the Meiji regime and
the compulsion of threatened Euro-American invasion, Japan
quickly modernized and within
several decades became an Asian imperialist power, defeating
China in the 1894–1895 Sino-
Japanese War, through which Japan acquired Taiwan, and
defeating Russia in the 1904–1905
Russo-Japanese War, thus proceeding toward the annexation of
Korea. Such Chinese intellec-
tuals as Liang were both admiring of and threatened by Japan’s
rise.
16The official examination refers to the civil service exams,
established in the tenth century and
abolished in 1905, which were restricted to men only and served
to recruit educated people for
the dynastic bureaucracy. These were highly competitive, and
men whose families could spare
their labor prepared for decades to take them, with little hope of
success.
17Kang Aide (aka Ida Kang, 1873–1931) and Shi Meiyu (aka
Mary Stone, 1873–1954) were among
the first four Chinese female students to study abroad. Shi
received an MD at the University
of Michigan in 1896, and Kang received her MD there in the
same year. For more on Liang’s
version of Kang and Shi, see Hu Ying, “Naming the First ‘New
Woman,’” in Rethinking the 1898
Reform Period: Political and Cultural Change in Late Qing
China, ed. Rebecca E. Karl and Peter
Zarrow, 180–211 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,

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Liang Qichao
200

eyes, yet they are treated as though they were barbarians and
discarded as
though they were plants and beasts. There is no denying that
such treatment
is cruel and contrary to benevolence.18
It is certainly a good thing that all schools of thought have
come to be
concerned about the problem of equality! (Mr. Nanhai [Kang
Youwei], in
fact, claims that Confucian doctrine already contains the basic
principle
of equality.19) Where does inequality come from? It stems from
the wor-
ship of power. Where does equality come from? It comes from
the love for
benevolence. Although all belong to the same species of human
beings,
those who are named “the people” [min] are made to obey the
ruler like
servants and concubines; those who are named women [nü] are
made to
obey men like slaves. They are not just called servants,
concubines, and
slaves, but their ears and eyes are sealed, their hands and feet
are bound,
their minds are frozen, their path toward learning is blocked,
their liveli-
hood is cut off, and so they have no choice but to be totally
subservient to
those with power. As millennia passed, they grew accustomed to
being
servants, concubines, and slaves, taking their status as natural
without any
self-awareness. If anyone expressed the slightest doubt and
questioned

his or her unfair treatment as servant, concubine, or slave,
others would
rise up and ridicule him or her. For several thousands of years,
there-
fore, no man has articulated the necessity of women’s education
for the
proper governance of the empire. Nor has there been any woman
who has
endeavored to rally her own kind to fight for the cause. It is not
because
women are inherently lacking in talent but because they are
faced with
formidable forces of oppression.
Today if you tell people that “education is necessary to
strengthen the
nation,” most are convinced. Yet, if you tell them that
“women’s education
is necessary to strengthen the nation,” most will be skeptical.
[Besides what
I have already argued,] there is another reason for this deluded
view. In
China today, people wave their arms and waggle their tongues
with talk of
“strengthening the nation”; they are stunned by Westerners and
desire to
18Liang is shaming his fellow men by drawing upon one of the
cardinal principles of Confucian
social behavior: benevolence.
19Kang Youwei (1858–1927), Liang’s teacher, a Confucian
scholar and the leader of the reform-
ers, led the petition movement and the Hundred Days’ Reform
(1898). His works includes
Xinxue weijing kao [A study of the “New Text” forgeries],
Kongzi gaizhi kao [A study of the re-

forms of Confucius], and Datong shu [The book of great unity].
See “The Historical Context,”
in this volume, for more on the 1898 reforms.
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201

emulate their successes—the grandness of their ships, the
sharpness of their
weapons, the speed of their railways, and the spectacular growth
of their
mining industries. Of these pursuits, there is not one in which
women are
of any consequence. Hence, those who are concerned with the
nation claim
that “to educate women is not urgent.” They are not aware that
though the
strengths of Westerners are manifested in the manners listed
above, the root
of Western strengths resides somewhere else altogether. Men
can succeed in
agriculture, handicrafts, medicine, business, science, law, and
academia, but
so can women. Men and women are the same in that education
can make
them useful to the nation. Today, education is considered the
foundation of
successful governance. Is it not because the nation rests on the
foundations
of its talented people? Is it not because the talents with which
the people
of China are already endowed can be developed only through
education?
Why, then, should we assume that at most only two hundred
million peo-
ple have talent and dismiss the other two hundred million as
being without
talent?
Of all the nations of the West, America is by far the most
prosperous.

Of all the ascendant nations in the East, Japan is the strongest.
The idea of
equality between men and women was first advocated in
America and was
gradually practiced in Japan. Women’s education in Japan
generally con-
sists of thirteen subjects: first, moral cultivation; second,
education (i.e.,
how to teach and raise children); third, national language (i.e.,
Japanese);
fourth, Kanbun [classical Chinese writing]; fifth, history
(including foreign
history); sixth, geography; seventh, mathematics; eighth,
science; ninth,
household management; tenth, calligraphy; eleventh, painting;
twelfth,
music; and thirteenth, physical education. Only a few of these
subjects
differ at all from the curricula used in men’s education. They
diverge only
when it comes to military affairs and politics, which remain
central con-
cerns for men in a world obsessed with power.
Even as Westerners have set about building their nations, they
have yet
to make the world peaceful. In a peaceful world, no matter
whether big or
small, far or near, all places under heaven would be the same.
There would
exist no borders between nations or races; nor would there be
any wars,
weapons, or military conscription. For the true progress of
nations to occur,
only such occupations as agriculture, commercial business,
medicine, law,

science, and manufacture are to be encouraged. No matter
whether one is a
man or a woman, all people in the nation should engage in their
own line of
work and be able to support themselves, eliminating the
division between
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Liang Qichao
202
those who can provide for themselves and those who cannot.
Toward this
end, men and women must receive comparable education.
Today, America
is closest to this ideal. We may therefore conclude that a
country with the
best women’s education is also the strongest. Such a nation can
“win a war
without a fight,” such as America has done. Next in strength are
those coun-
tries where women’s education is less developed [than that of
America],
such as England, France, Germany, and Japan. Finally, in those
countries
where women’s education has declined and where even the
education of
mothers has been lost, the unemployed are numerous and
intelligent people
are rare, having survived only by luck. Among such unfortunate
nations are
India, Persia, and Turkey.
It is for all the above reasons that I claim that women’s
education is truly
an urgent matter in China today.
Although “women’s education” has not yet come into existence
in China,
[what we mean by] education cannot be attained by hunching
over one’s
desk and studying from dawn to dusk; nor does it come from

mumbling
a text aloud to oneself. One’s intelligence should be inspired by
studying
with teachers and friends; one’s talent should be increased
through travel
in China and abroad. Only through these complementary
experiences can
one’s education be said to be complete. In China today, women
live secluded
in their inner chambers, never going out; for their entire lives
they never
encounter one single wise person nor visit one metropolitan
city. They
study alone without any friends, ignorant of any news of the
world beyond
their chambers. This manner of study cannot even allow them to
learn how
to write the frivolous poetry that entertained women of previous
genera-
tions much less master the practical studies that are useful to
the nation.20
I recognize that that this is really a tall order even for the most
extraordi-
narily talented few.
Beyond this, I am aware of another form of hardship to which
woman is
subjected—a hardship by which her limbs are broken and her
flesh made to
fester. By this means of torture her body is crippled merely for
the pleasure
of another. As long as footbinding remains in practice, women’s
education
can never flourish. When the rule of the Qing began, the
emperor ordered

20These are stereotypes of women that became popularized at
the time. For a more historically
complete view of nineteenth-century women’s lives, see Susan
Mann, Talented Women of the
Zhang Family (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).
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203
all men to shave their foreheads and grow the Manchu queue.21
As soon as
order was restored in the nation toward the end of the reign of
the Shun-
zhi emperor (1644–1661), footbinding was publicly banned; but
alas, the
ban has not been enforced for a long enough time, so the old
habit remains
unchanged.22 The power of one ruler cannot change the hearts
of the igno-
rant masses, and the heads of our strongest men are no match
for the feet
of our most vulnerable women. And so this terrible practice
persisted and
spread for hundreds of years, becoming more entrenched by the
day, such
that it now endures even under the opprobrium of the emperor
and the
scorn of foreign nations. Women suffer in plain sight from the
bitterness
of this terrible poison, but in truth it is our entire race that is
left with the
greatest injury.
Is it as punishment that Heaven has left our four hundred
million people
saddled with this terrible sin, or does it persist because our
rulers have for
so long averted their eyes to it?
This essay was first published in the late-Qing journal Liang
Qichao him-

self edited, Shiwu Bao [The Chinese progress] 23 (March 11,
1897): 1a–4a,
and Shiwu Bao 25 (April 11, 1897): 2b–4a. Reprinted in Jindai
Zhongguo
nüquan yundong shiliao, ed. Li Yu-ning and Chang Yu-fa, 549–
555. Trans-
lated by Robert Cole and Wei Peng; edited by Dorothy Ko from
the Chinese
original “Lun nüxue 論女學.”
21One way the Manchu Qing dynasty enforced visible fealty to
their rule was through the sarto-
rial requirement of a male queue. By 1911, with the revolution
against the dynasty, many elite
men began to cut their queues; during the high Qing, the
absence of a queue was taken as sedi-
tious and punishable by death. For the Shunzhi edicts on
footbinding, see Dorothy Ko, “The
Body as Attire: The Shifting Meanings of Footbinding in
Seventeenth-Century China,” Journal
of Women’s History 8, 4 (Winter 1997): 8–27.
22For the Shunzhi edicts on footbinding, see Dorothy Ko, “The
Body as Attire: The Shifting
Meanings of Footbinding in Seventeenth-Century China,”
Journal of Women’s History 8, 4
(Winter 1997): 8–27.
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Jin Tianhe, 1914, from Tianfanglou shi wen ji [Collected poems
and essays of the Freedom
Tower], ed. Zhou Luxiang, vol. 1. Shanghai: Shanghai guji
chubanshe, 2007.
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Problem Set 3
Linguistics 53
Due October 18, 2019
PROBLEM 1: BUILD-AN-IMPLICATURE
Part A Give an example of a sentence in a particular context
that gives rise to a conversa-
tional implicature. The example should be your own, not one
discussed in section/class.
Part B Show that the implicature in question is indeed an
implicature and not an entail-

ment.
Part C Explain, as precisely as you can, how the implicature
arises. Try to refer to con-
versational maxims as much as is relevant.
PROBLEM 2: THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE
Compare the conversations in (1) and (2), with background
contexts in italics.
(1) Context: Visitors from another planet crash-land in
Stevenson College in
front of the linguistics department.
Alien: Where are we?
Stephanie: Earth.
(2) Context: Semantics 1 student asking their TA about course
logistics.
Student: Where is section going to be held today?
Stephanie: Earth.
Although Stephanie’s response is identical in both situations, in
(1), Stephanie seems to
be obeying the Cooperative Principle, but in (2), she does not.
Part A Identify which Gricean maxim Stephanie is violating in
(2), and explain briefly
how she is doing so.
Part B Explain why in (1) Stephanie is not violating the maxim
described in Part A, even
though she is giving the same response as in (2).
1

PROBLEM 3: BELIEVE IT OR NOT
Part A Generally speaking, a person who utters (3a)
conversationally implicates (3b):
(3) a. I believe that it’s raining.
b. I’m not 100% certain that it’s raining.
Explain, in terms of Gricean maxims, how this implicature
arises. (Hint: Think about
what a speaker might choose to say if they don’t intend to
implicate (3b).)
Part B There is nothing strange in principle about a speaker
saying that someone believes
something that isn’t actually true. This can be seen in the fact
that sentences like (4) and
(5) are perfectly natural:
(4) The library is closed but Yuki doesn’t believe it.
(5) The library is closed, even though you don’t believe it.
And yet, (6) is ‘infelicitous’ (as indicated by #)–that is,
generally speaking, it is some-
thing very odd for someone to say.
(6) #The library is closed, but I don’t believe that it is closed.
Your task is to explain what makes (6) so odd. Your explanation
does not need to be highly
technical; focus instead on being as clear and precise as you
can.

2
Surname 1
Name:
Instructor:
Course:
Date:
Mao Zedong’s vision of a revolutionary movement
A revolution is something usually assumed to be an event where
a personality pursues to overthrow a given radical order and
swap it with his or her own. After critically reading and
analyzing the three articles, it is clear that Mao Zedong had the
intention of overthrowing the reign of Kuomintang by
establishing a new political order that believed in Communism.
Zedong’s political rule was to be under the control of the
Chinese Communist Party. Mao Zedong had a unique vision of
a revolutionary movement. He believed that support from
masses and violence were the most necessary aspects for him to
achieve a peaceful socialist political order. However, he faced
one critical challenge in his bid to achieve this. Mao had
difficulties with establishing a strong military force that could
support his vision. He also wanted to prevent the Chinese armed
forces from becoming too powerful. Mao’ had fascinating
concerns. In most of his arguments, he always aimed at
illustrating that political powers cannot be conquered without
the use of force. Mao Zedong believed that political supremacy
becomes a reality as a result military force. In his quest for a
revolution, Mao Zedong also believed that the party was a
factor in achieving a peaceful revolution. During his pursuit of
a revolution, Mao hoped that his movement would eventually
transform China into an inspiration for Communism. However,
decades later, many see that it had an opposite effect because it
led to China’s embrace of capitalism. Even after his death, the
Communist party still wanted to carry on with his vision of the

revolutionary movement. However, the government was too
strong for such attempts to overthrowing it.
Works Cited
Johnson, Matthew D. "China under Mao: A Revolution
Derailed. By Andrew G. Walder." Pacific Affairs 89.3 (2016):
645-647.
Solinger, Dorothy J. Three visions of Chinese socialism.
Routledge, 2019.

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