自行车与近代中国女性(1868-1949)

Bicycles and Modern Chinese Women(1868-1949)

交通工具现代化是工业革命以来重要的物质文明进步。新式交通工具自西徂东传入中土之后与中国女性发生了千丝万缕的联结,男女之别是同一器物在中国社会普及进程中一个非常重要的讨论议题与研究面向。中国女性群体中率先接触自行车的大概有两类:一是教会学校里的学生,二是青楼勾栏中的妓女,直到20世纪三四十年代,才有更多中国女性骑自行车。同为自行车,被男性驾驶或由女子踏行,社会反应天差地别。对"女子骑车"这一新生事物,中国的社会精英与底层民众在认知上存在相当差异。一个器物之社会应用,并非只取决于技术本身或被市场规则决定,而与其使用者之间存在更为深层的互动,受到不同文化语境的深刻影响。

There were probably two types of Chinese women who were the first to come into contact with bicycles:one was a church student,the other was the prostitutes in the brothel,and it wasn’t until the 1930 s that more Chinese women rode bicycles.The same bicycle,driven by men or treaded by women,had quite different social responses.There were considerable differences in cognition between China’s social elite and the underclass on"women’s cycling".