PREFACE

By 1995 the 100-year-long century has only five more years left. Standing on the threshold of two centuries meeting each other and casting a meditative backward glance, I find that the group that has undergone the greatest changes among the Chinese masses of people in the present century is that of women. The word "earthshaking" may be used to describe these changes, wherein I see us ourselves, women and our servicewomen. The Chinese servicewomen are the vanguard and the epitome of the Chinese women's struggle for independence and emancipation. While examining the history of this period, we cannot evade the tearful and helpless looks of the child brides; we cannot evade the plaintive and hopeless cries of the young girls suffering from phalanxes being broken through foot-binding; at the same time we hear the bugle call for-in in the military academies; we hear the Company Anthem of the Women's Detachment sung from the bottom of their hearts; we see the servicewomen laying aside their babies to catch up with the troops; and we see the heroines writing "The revolution is

bound to succeed!" even behind prison bars......

When first established, the force of the Chinese servicewomen did not mean a new occupation or any forced enlistment. Rather it was the outcome of the awakening of the Chinese women who, long oppressed by the feudal system, were now determined to be their own masters, to gather their strength, and to mobilize more of their sisters to rise up and overthrow the dark society that had always kept them at the bottom.

They formed a unique formation. The twentieth century gazed at them with amazed looks, for it was a kind of gesture and color never before shown by the Chinese women.