A Book by Ida Pruitt

Note: Yes, this is me re-purposing a school assignment after the semester ended, be prepared for a bunch of these lol

China has always been seen by the west as exotic and mysterious with political tensions in the majority of the last century only making that worse. Few Westerners have a grasp of Chinese history at all, and many that do only do it from the lens of Cold War hostilities that largely still exist. It’s interesting to note that one of the most noteworthy scholars that pulled the curtain back, so to say, on Chinese life in the countryside was a Chinese-born American social worker and missionary that strove to ease those aforementioned hostilities and show that the Chinese people were worth listening to and understanding.  

Ida Pruitt was the daughter of Baptist missionaries who had lived in Northern China since her birth in the 1880s. In China, she worked as a teacher, translator, social worker, and at several medical colleges, all while documenting her experiences through a number of books about life in pre-World War II rural China. She was seen as a diplomat in many instances and remained a prominent activist and beacon of understanding between China and the West as political relationships soured. Perhaps her most famous work as a writer was A Daughter of Han: The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman. Like her previous works, this book followed a familiar method: Ida would have extended conversations with a subject, which she would then use to construct an autobiography. In almost every case, the subjects, like Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai from Daughter of Han, were humble, illiterate peasants with a talent for storytelling.   

The central figure of A Daughter of Han is a woman “named” Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai, which is literally translated as “Old Mrs. Ning”, with her actual name being spoken of as it has been lost by the sands of time at various points in the book “The name she called me is known to no one alive” (Pruitt, Page 11). Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai lived a long life from the 1860’s to at least the Japanese occupation of P’englai in the late 1930’s. At that time Ida left P’englai and lost touch with Mrs. Ning and her family but suspected (if not hoped) that they lived on past those events. The life of Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai can be characterized as triumph in the face of misfortune, as much of her life has been plagued with many of the ills of the time.

Born to a mother that was said to be somewhat ill-suited for managing a household and a father that failed at being a scholar and jumped around from job to job, Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai was rather poor growing up. She became very ill as a child, surviving an outbreak of smallpox, endured traditional foot-binding, and was eventually married off to an opium addict that stripped their lives bare to fuel his addictions. One of her own children was even sold off to buy drugs, something that shook her to her absolute core. Her life was self-described as being one of misery, but if there is any way to really describe the life of Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai it is that of a survivor that never gave up no matter what happened. Overall, this is the central theme for much of the narrative of this book.

Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai always describes herself as somewhat of a rebel throughout the book (even if not explicitly saying such), even from a very young age. When describing her upbringing, she discussed the fact that she embraced her childhood longer than many girls in her village: “I was a difficult child to manage, I liked to play too much” (Pruitt, Page 20). Her father was very strict and did not want her to bring shame on their family and tried as he might to suppress her childish urges. She, however, often found herself at the mercy of her mother who would administer beatings to teach respect.

This was an era where Chinese society was very patriarchal, and women were mostly not to be seen by anyone outside of the men of the household. The book describes instances of women entertaining themselves by sneaking peeks at plays in nearby courtyards (rather than doing nothing but housework) avoiding the threat of rape by roaming soldiers that would pass by if a woman would just happen to be outside of the house. It was not until her older sister endured a failed marriage and subsequent mental health issues that she somewhat “grew up”, but never let herself fade into the overall system as many women did.

Despite the pressures of Nineteenth Century familial duties, and societal expectations placed on women, Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai worked tirelessly to support her growing family, often taking on menial jobs as a domestic servant, cook, and washerwoman when her deadbeat drug-addled husband did not provide. These were not things a dignified woman was supposed to do, but she rebelled against the norm and moved forward to keep her family fed.

Another theme often found in this book is an overwhelming tendency for Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai to give her own personal wisdom and tell stories, something that Chinese elders (or pretty much any elders for that matter) would undoubtedly do. Some of these stories are obviously folkloric in nature but are described in a way that one would think are honest and true. To a Chinese peasant, tales of magical powers and demons were just a part of life, it’s only with hundreds of years of hindsight that we can see these as quaint folktales. I appreciate Pruitt’s style as she recorded Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai’s life story and published it in an unembellished, straightforward style that brings authenticity to Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai’s voice and experiences. There are moments where Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai repeats herself and wanders off in tangents, but who has not spoken with a member of an older generation and experienced this? By having the book organized in this way, I can see myself sitting there talking to Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai myself.  

In my humble opinion, the story of Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai is especially important in studying China for a multitude of reasons. Not only was she around to see many broad social changes occurring in China, but she also witnessed the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the emergence of Chinese Nationalism and new social and political movements. In a society where the lives of ancient demigods were endlessly studied above all else for centuries, there was never much room for the documentation of normal everyday people, so the wishes, desires, and plights of the Chinese peasantry were largely ignored. One can argue that very fact is likely why so many rebellions scoured the Chinese countryside throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as it gave a voice to the voiceless. By looking at Chinese society from the eyes of an uneducated peasant that nearly had to resort to begging to survive, one gets a look at the “real China” that would often go overlooked.  

Overall, A Daughter of Han is a very important book to learn the history of China through, and I honestly feel that I should seek out some of the other books written by Pruitt throughout the years, because it would be interesting to compare some of the experiences of her subjects as well as herself. While it’s sad that Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai faded into historical obscurity after the Japanese invasion, I would love to think that she, as resiliently as ever, endured the worst parts of World War II and died at a very ripe old age. Aside from that, her story was every bit as important to history as the legends of ancient kings, and I am glad Ida Pruitt sought to highlight her experiences.