WEBVTT - Qiu Jin: Poet, Teacher, Revolutionary 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:05.320 Revolution is the stuff of extremists, people who know they're 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:08.200 right about the issue at hand and will stop at nothing, 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:13.840 not violence, not murder, to achieve drastic political or social change. 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:18.760 Only a moral people advocate for revolution. It's for people 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:22.800 who refuse to uphold the fundamentally human banner of cooperation, 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:27.360 or at least compromise and pursue a more reasonable goal. 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:32.320 Revolution is for people who don't understand that change doesn't 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:36.680 happen overnight. It's for attention seekers and want to be despots. 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:40.320 It's for people who act brashly and deny the virtues 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:45.199 of logic and patience. Revolution does not provide long term solutions. 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:48.840 It's a thoughtless and unrefined way for zealous to rest 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.760 power from the hands of those who truly deserve it. 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:58.440 Revolution is scary, it's dangerous. It does not work. Revolution 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:02.880 is wrong. Revolution is for people who are unwilling to settle. 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.440 It's for people who choose not to be silently subject 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:10.920 to the exploitation of authorities with unchecked power. Revolution is 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.280 really not that extreme when lives are at stake. It's 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.400 for people who's justified. Rage has reached a tipping point. 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.120 For people who rebel because complying has benefited others and 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:24.560 harmed them. Revolution is the action of people who have 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:28.200 realized that their silences will not protect them. As activists 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.080 and writer Audrey Lord put it, it's for people who 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:34.080 have hope, for those who are down to make sacrifices 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.760 to ensure a better future, people who don't care to 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:41.920 concede to lesser evils and pity based handouts. Revolution is 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:45.160 not for people who are arrogant and impulsive, but for 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:49.040 those who are selfless and far sighted. The heated emotions 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:51.880 that incite revolution are not a fault, but a call 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.960 to action and catalysts for significant shifts in thought and practice. 0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:00.280 Revolution is a response to problems so pervasive and so 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:04.520 long lasting that those who suffer recognize the need for 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:10.400 disruption and upheaval. It's easy to criticize the means and 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:15.600 end of revolution, and rightfully so, But what was the cause? 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.000 I'm e's deaf coote and this is unpopular a show 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.800 about people in history who did not let the threat 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:31.320 of persecution keep them from speaking truth to power. Today, 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:33.880 we'll take time to look at the life of Chio Jean, 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:37.120 who has been called the Chinese Joan of Arc for 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.880 her defiance of gender norms, her revolutionary spirit, and her 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:45.480 legendary status in China's history. But Chio Jean's story is 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:49.040 not Joan of ARC's story, nor is it necessary to 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.520 downplay Chio Jean's life and achievements by positioning her as 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:57.120 a woman already famously mythologized in white history, modified by 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:01.640 her nationality or ethnicity. If you can't tell already how 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.320 much this kind of phrasing bothers me, then I'm telling 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.560 you how much it bothers me, especially since it typically 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:10.600 operates so that a figure who's already mothered historically is 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:14.480 left unnamed, relegated to the shadow of a person deemed 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:19.200 more worthy of recognition or mythical status. Feelings aside, Joe 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:21.840 has mentioned Joan of Arc in her writing and drew 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:25.560 inspiration from the stories of heroins in history. My point 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:29.120 is Cho Jean's story is one that could have only 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:32.720 taken place once Cheo Jean was born, which may have 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.600 been on November eight, eight seventy five, or could have 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:42.360 been in the following years. It is known that Cho 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.360 Jean was born named Chio guard Jean during the Qing dynasty, 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:50.720 and Shaman Fuji a Province, China. She was part of 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:54.920 a genty family who were respected but declining. Her father 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.040 was a lower level civil servant, a job that required 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.080 the family to pick up and move a lot. In 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:04.400 the eighteen eighties and eighteen nineties. Chose Mom instilled in 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:08.080 her a love for learning, providing Show with private teachers 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:12.560 and books. Among the text Show read were Confucian classics, 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:19.440 texts about the French Revolution, Enlightenment works, and novels. But 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.600 the political climate that Show lived in also provided her 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:26.680 with a form of non academic education and provided her 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:30.840 with reason to challenge the Ching dynasty's rule. In Show's 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:34.599 early years, China was nearing the end of his traditional period, 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:38.360 and it was a hot bit of revolt and dramatic change. 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:42.480 Missionaries and the Chinese were founding girls schools, and some 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:46.200 people were criticizing the practice of footbinding, a custom that 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.800 symbolized status and beauty for girls and women in China. 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.279 From the mid eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century, 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:58.080 Foreign nations like the British, French, Dutch, and Americans squeezed 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:00.120 a lot of concessions out of the Chinese government it 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:04.080 and operated with impunity in the country. After the Opium War. 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:08.120 More Chinese ports were open for foreign trade. Foreigners were 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.599 granted more travel in China. Foreigners were able to govern 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:15.920 themselves in China. Valuable natural resources were taken out of China, 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:19.920 and foreign nations could station warships and use military force 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:24.440 for their economic interests in the country. Meanwhile, many Chinese 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:28.120 people suffered from poverty and famine, and death tolls in 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:32.760 war and social conflicts ran high. People like revolutionary Soon 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:38.279 Yacht Sin expressed their anger with the Ching dynasty through rebellion, reform, 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:44.640 and revolution. Cho's families appreciation for poetry also influenced her, 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:47.920 as Cho began writing poetry when she was a child, 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:51.040 and it was an art form she used throughout her 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.320 life to express her personal feelings as well as her 0:05:54.360 --> 0:06:00.040 political beliefs and aspirations. Chinu or talented women contributed a 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.680 lot to literature and were admired in Chinese history, and 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:07.279 by the late Imperial era, they were exploring new methods 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:11.719 of expression. Many elite women wanted the label of China. 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:16.280 When Cho was young, she wrote poems and lyrics are 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:21.080 on subjects that women poets had traditionally written about throughout 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:27.520 Chinese history, like flowers, solitude, friendship, and domestic activities. Cho's 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:31.080 feet were most likely bound, as was customary for young 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.360 girls of many social classes in the Chain period, though 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:38.120 they may not have been found that tightly. Still, Cho 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:41.800 began training in the martial arts early on. She enjoyed 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:46.440 riding horses and brandishing swords. She studied Chinese martial folk 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:50.159 heroines like Hua Mulan, whom Cho viewed as a role model, 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:52.720 and she began to think of herself as a knight 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:55.640 errant who could save her country from the plague of 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:59.839 foreign domination. In her early poems on women heroes, she 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:04.080 critiques that accepted social orders that said women were inferior 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.920 to men. In one series of poems she wrote titled 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:13.200 on Ican Gi, she wrote, this, banished into this dusty world, 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:17.280 what a shame to be a man shouldering dagger axes. 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:21.000 Young beauties became generals. Now the names of the loyal 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:25.320 and filial belonged to women. History forever speaks shame of 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:30.720 Zuo Ning Nin, zualt Ning nine, or Zua long Yu 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:39.920 was a Ming dynasty general who was executed in Her 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:43.720 father arranged her marriage to Wong Tana, the son of 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.360 a wealthy merchant and philanthropist, and the couple eventually had 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:51.640 two children together, but Wong spent a lot of time 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:56.160 gambling and in brothels. He was described in contemporary accounts 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:59.920 as a talentless and cowardly guy, and Chow Jean was 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:04.120 not happy in her marriage. Her desire to become a 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:09.240 famous poet faltered. She described this distress in her poetry 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:12.840 alas they sent me off by fourth to be mere 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:18.320 rouge and powder. How I despise it, she wrote. But 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:21.560 while she was in this unhappy marriage, she continued to 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.960 dream of better times for China and denounced the intrusion 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:28.000 of foreigners. When the family moved to Beijing in the 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.200 early nineteen hundreds, in the wake of the Boxer Rebellion 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:35.320 and anti foreign and anti Christian uprising, Joe met other 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:38.760 women who were concerned about the socio political climate in China. 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.880 She became close with calligrapher woot s Ying, and she 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:48.760 delved deeper into ideas of women's liberation, democracy and revolution. 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:53.640 She read the works of Leon Chaw, a scholar and 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:56.520 reformist who said that the modern education of women in 0:08:56.600 --> 0:09:00.520 China should not be impractical, but should be Western and 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:04.200 politically conscious, as that was what would help build a 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:08.400 stronger nation. He and other writers calling for women's emancipation 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:12.640 still confined women to roles as good wives and good mothers, 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:16.520 and relied on the workings of patriarchy just under the 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:20.719 guise of nationalism. Wrestling with her longing to serve her 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:23.400 country and expectations for her to serve as a mother 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:28.360 and wife, she wrote this in a poem, war flames 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:31.559 in the north. When will it all end? I hear 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:35.880 the fighting at sea continues unabated, Like the woman of Chisha, 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:39.400 I worry about my country in vain. It's hard to 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:44.240 trade kerchief and dress for a helmet. In nineteen o four, 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.760 chose disdain for her family life and her yearning for education, 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.600 as well as social and political change in China led 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:55.280 her to move to Japan, where many Chinese intellectuals and 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:58.880 reformers were moving at the time. She sold her jury 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:00.880 to fund the trip. In hopped on a boat from 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:05.320 Tangin to Japan, leaving her son, daughter, and husband behind. 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:11.880 Pretty soon, for Chio, the patriarchal family structure would come 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:17.800 to signify women's oppression and education. Women's emancipation and revolution 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.280 would take front and center in her life. We're going 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:23.560 to take a quick break, but when we get back, 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:38.439 will trace cho Jean's transformation into a revolutionary In situations 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:41.400 where there's a lot of social or political division or conflict, 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:45.320 when people are rebelling against the status quo, many people 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:50.160 will call for civility or respectability. Recent calls for civility 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.960 in the US often reinforce an intentionally oppressive standard of 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.960 appropriateness that makes people who are challenging a system look 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:03.280 like unruly agitators who are unworthy of support. They require 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.120 a person to water down or silence their descent and 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:08.440 favor of a method that has likely been used in 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:13.640 the past improved largely fruitless. So many people decry this 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:17.360 kind of policing, as it implies that people must maintain 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:20.480 the status quo in order to be respected and heard. 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:25.120 People calling for civility are often not just calling for politeness. 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:27.840 They are saying, in so many words, that it is 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:31.199 inappropriate for those who are speaking up to express themselves 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:34.800 in any way that they deem unacceptable. In the US, 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:38.319 the word civility can bring to mind histories of cultural assimilation, 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:44.320 discrimination and destruction, classism and racism, and political manipulation and 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:48.120 around the world, calls for order, tolerance cultures, of course, 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:52.240 silence and strict regulation of protest limit the effectiveness of 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.880 challenges to the status quo. A figure people like to 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.520 bring up often for his civil disobedience and calls for 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:04.080 peace and cooperation is Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Neither 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:08.559 King's intellect, nor his wide ranging appeal, nor his respectability 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:11.720 saved him from being assassinated when he was just thirty 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:16.199 nine years old. Uncivil or well mannered, either can be 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:19.600 dangerous when a person who has radical ideas opposes or 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:29.160 defies an established order. Sun and Moon have no more light. 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:33.040 Earth is dark. Our woman's world has sunk so deep. 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:36.280 Who can help us? Jewelry sold to pay for this 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:39.320 trip across the seas. Cut off from my family, I 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:43.280 leave my native land. I'm binding my feet. I clean 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.760 out a thousand years of poison with hot heart aroused 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:51.640 all women's spirits. Alas this delicate kerchief here is half 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:57.680 stained with blood and half with tears. Those are chose 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.360 words from her poem called Regrets Lines, written in route 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:05.080 to Japan. When Cho got to Japan, she changed her 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:08.640 name from Chio Guay Jean to just Cho Jean, removing 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:12.000 the guay, which meant boudoir and also was used to 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:15.560 refer to daughters and women in the inner chambers. She 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:19.160 began attending a Japanese language school in Tokyo and later 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.920 went to a vocational school that offered a teacher training 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:26.560 program for Chinese women. She frequently cross dressed, a practice 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:29.280 that some have said she did for attention for herself 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:33.120 and her revolutionary efforts, but that was also the embodiment 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:36.719 of her feelings of freedom and gender expression and defiance 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:41.079 of the role Chinese tradition had prescribed women. Feminist activism 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:44.680 in Japan had taken root, with people like Fukuda Hideko 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:48.760 leading the charge. In Japan, Cho found a community that 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:52.800 promoted radical thinking. She gave lectures on the oppression of 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:56.120 women under patriarchy and the oppression of the Chinese people 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.360 under man to rule, able to appeal to more women, 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:03.760 including those who could not read through public speaking. China 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:06.839 was failing, she said, subject to the whims of foreign 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:10.400 nations and to Manchu misrule, and it was a women's 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:14.240 duty to lift themselves out of oppression and ignorance, to 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:18.559 save the nation and establish a New Republic. She said 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:22.720 in a lecture addressed to Chinese women, Dear listeners, do 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:26.080 you realize that our nation is about to perish? Man 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.040 cannot be sure of their own survival, so how can 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:31.680 we continue to rely on them? If we do not 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:34.840 lift ourselves up now, it will truly be too late 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:39.760 once the nation has perished. Joe also learned to make bombs, 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:45.320 practice fencing and marksmanship, and she began writing journalistic pieces. 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:48.960 She became involved in anti Manchoo secret society's like the 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:53.640 Restoration Society and the Revolutionary Alliance. The Manchoos were the 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:57.760 ethnic group that ruled in the Chain dynasty. Joe founded 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:02.160 the Baihuapao, or vernacular journal, in which she published articles 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:06.040 and support of women's education and in opposition to footbinding 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:10.080 and the patriarchal system that kept women powerless. Joe advocated 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:13.400 for publishing her work in a common Chinese vernacular that 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.880 was easy to understand, as many people in China did 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:21.360 not have access to much education. Through the journal, she 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:27.240 sought to encourage revolution. In nineteen o five, Joe returned 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:29.960 to China briefly, where she linked up with her cousin 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:34.400 she she Lean, who was also involved in anteaching organizations, 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:37.520 but she did go back to Japan for a little while, 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:41.200 where she completed her teacher training course, did military drills 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:44.720 and target practice, and protested the Japanese government along with 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:48.400 other Chinese students. As the government had been pressured by 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:51.640 the Ching dynasty to shut down the revolutionary activity of 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:55.640 Chinese students in Japan. Activists and writer Chin Tien Hua 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:59.080 drowned himself in protest of the regulations that the Japanese 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.600 Ministry of Education Nation had imposed, an act that had 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:06.680 a profound effect on Chio. She decided to take Chen's 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.000 advice and go back to China to fight against the 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:12.160 Ching dynasty. She wrote in a poem on her way 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:15.240 back to China, there is no wine that can dissolve 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.920 my sorrow for the nation. The current crisis demands persons 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:22.360 of extraordinary talents. Even if it takes the blood of 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.680 hundreds of thousands of people, We will have to turn 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:34.680 the whole world around by our efforts. We're going to 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:37.200 pause here for a quick break, and when we return, 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:42.760 we'll look at Cho's last days in her home country. 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:54.200 H Cho returned to China for good in late nineteen 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:57.840 oh five or early nineteen oh six. There she published 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:01.000 a short lived Chinese Women's Journal, which she wrote more 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:04.679 vernacular articles exhorting women to fight for their freedom and 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:08.240 save China from the Manchu government. She taught in a 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:12.280 girls school, encouraging other teachers to become politically active and 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:17.520 take up the causes of nationalism and women's emancipation. After 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:21.280 the Chinese government encouraged the creation of schools teaching traditional 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:25.000 and modern subjects, she she Leane founded a school for 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.800 young women called the Da Tong Normal School in Chiao Shin, 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:33.960 Jayjiang Province, which was really a headquarters for training revolutionaries. 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:38.240 In February of nineteen oh seven, when she she Lean 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:42.119 left for the Ahoi Province to lead the police academy, 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.320 she became director of the school as y'all led the 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:49.200 revolutionaries and military drills at the school. She also connected 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:53.720 many revolutionary organizations and recruited activists to join the anti 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:59.320 Manchu fight. Cho and she she Lean began planning and 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:04.879 uprising against the dynasty scheduled for July, but authorities quickly 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:08.480 got word that a rebellion would happen soon. In early July, 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.119 she she Lean was executed after murdering the governor of 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:17.280 Anhoi Province, on Ming, who was a Manchu. Cho learned 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:20.240 of his death days later in a newspaper, but she 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:23.720 refused to flee to safety. When she found out troops 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:26.919 were being sent to Datong School, she told teachers and 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:31.159 students to hide themselves in their weapons. Still, she stayed 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:34.680 at the school. Only a week after she she Lean died, 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:39.560 a Ching militia unit arrested Cho and other revolutionaries, interrogated 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:43.479 her about her anti Ching activities and tortured her. She 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:46.720 refused to give up any info or confess, but the 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:50.800 authorities gathered evidence of her revolutionary thought and activities, including 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:54.720 her writing. As proof of her criminality, she was beheaded 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:59.040 on July fift nineteen oh seven. Exactly what crime she 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:01.760 was accused of is I'm clear, but it was judged 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:05.800 to be punishable as treason. She was buried and moved 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:08.240 a couple of times before her remains were buried in 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:14.800 their final location near Westlake in Hanzo. Despite Cho's death, 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:19.439 anti Ching sentiment was still strong in China. Other revolutionaries 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:23.280 continued the work of overthrowing the government. In nineteen twelve, 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:27.320 the last Emperor of China, Poui, was forced to abdicate 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.600 the throne, though this did not in any way read 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:34.359 the country of political turmoil. In that same year, the 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:38.480 new government banned footbinding, though the band wasn't wholly enforced, 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:42.360 and the practice continued in some areas of China. Some 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:45.840 critics say her belief in her ability to drastically change 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:49.879 Chinese society and politics by overthrowing the Ching dynasty was 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:54.040 foolish and bright eyed. Some consider her death a pointless 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:58.320 sacrifice and that she could have saved herself. Some view 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:00.320 her as a martyr who was not a fraid to 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:02.879 put her life on the line to secure the future 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:07.200 of China and ensure women's liberation. Cho's friend Woods Ying 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.960 wrote the following about Chow after her death. Although this 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:14.760 lady scholar was always fond of acting impulsively, she did 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:18.120 not die because she was a criminal. The officials may 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.159 have been violent and rapacious, but they would not have 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:24.840 gone to such cruel lengths. It must be that there 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:28.199 was someone who held a private grudge against her and 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:32.119 plotted her downfall by availing himself of this case against 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:36.480 some revolutionaries in order to ingratiate himself with his superiors. 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:39.439 So it is not just the officials who are to 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:43.000 be blamed alas, and this is called the period of 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:56.360 preparation for constitutional government. Revolutions and revolutionaries are not always 0:20:56.359 --> 0:21:01.560 bastions of moral decency and collective progress. Revolutions can be 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:05.840 carried out in service of racist, classist, and prejudice causes 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:10.160 and perpetuate abuses that they did not seek to abolish. 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.359 Just because someone or some group is fighting for revolution 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:16.280 for a cause they believe is moral does not mean 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:20.240 it is without fault or universally just. Attempts at revolution 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:23.600 are not guaranteed to succeed in the outcome of revolution 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:28.040 is not predictable or guaranteed to meet expectations. As with 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:32.600 any other attempt to change established values, procedures, people, and institutions, 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:37.400 the effects of revolution are pliable and require constant attention 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:41.280 and care. The Manchu suppression of Han culture and anti 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:46.560 Manchu sentiment fueld rebellion and eventual revolution. Revolution is not 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:49.040 as cut and dry as a victory of the good 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:52.639 over the bad, the right over the wrong. ChIL Jean's 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:56.760 influences and ideals were also complex. She championed issues of 0:21:56.800 --> 0:22:00.720 women's liberation, challenge the boundaries, and expectations of ender and 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:05.640 opposed Western imperialism and seeing rulership while promoting a Western 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:10.199 style constitutional government, and her writing, full of allusions to 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:13.800 stories in world history and evidence of her struggle in 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.840 parsing her gender expression and gender norms, showed just how 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:20.919 heavily the issues of the world weighed on her and 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:24.960 how she believed change was necessary to end suffering. So 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:28.399 she worked with conviction and trying to advance Chinese women's 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:33.000 rights and tearing down an incompetent, cruel, and illegitimate government. 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:36.840 For that, her writings and well the mythologizing of the 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:41.639 circumstances of her execution, Cho's life is amplified in Chinese 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:49.679 and to a lesser extent, world history. There is no master, 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:53.119 moral compass, or crystal ball that can tell us whether 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:57.439 our revolutionary goals are right in the grand scheme of history. 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:00.720 We can look to Cheo Jean's story for guidance and 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:05.879 using meaningful education and analysis, language and direct action to 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:10.800 envision and implement thoughtful change that wants. Seemed impossible. To 0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:14.560 be a revolutionary is to wade into uncharted orders with 0:23:14.720 --> 0:23:18.159 no life jacket. But when a place you're leaving behind 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:22.199 is a place of gratuitous personal and societal hardship. The 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:27.200 expanse ahead seems more promising than frightening. We'll see you 0:23:27.240 --> 0:23:43.000 again next week with another episode of Unpopular. Our producer 0:23:43.280 --> 0:23:47.439 is Andrew Howard. Holly Fry and Christopher Hasiotis are our 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:50.639 executive producers, and you can subscribe to the show on 0:23:50.800 --> 0:23:54.600 Apple Podcasts, the iHeart Radio app, or wherever you get 0:23:54.640 --> 0:24:03.800 your podcasts. Two League Tween two