The young intellectuals are all chanting, "Revolution, Revolution," but I say the revolution will have to start in our homes, by achieving equal rights for women.
Qiu JinRead
Today the two hundred million men in our country are entering into a civilized new world...but we, the two hundred million women, are still kept down in the dungeon.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the disparity between men's progress in society and the oppression women continue to face.
Qiu Jin's quote serves as a powerful indictment of the societal structures that have historically marginalized women. It contrasts the advancements made by men in living a civilized life while women remain confined and oppressed, metaphorically referred to as being in a 'dungeon.' This speaks to the broader theme of gender equality and the need for change in societal attitudes towards women.
In practice
During a women's rights rally to inspire action and awareness.
The young intellectuals are all chanting, "Revolution, Revolution," but I say the revolution will have to start in our homes, by achieving equal rights for women.
There is nothing on earth that I would not give up, excepting of course, two things and two things only, truth and nonviolence.
Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul, and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.
There's a curious knot that binds novelists and terrorists...Years ago I used to think it was possible for a novelist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory. They make raids on human consciousness. What writers used to do before we were all incorporated.
I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality.
And what sort of lives do these people, who pose as being moral, lead themselves? My dear fellow, you forget that we are in the native land of the hypocrite.
Like a blazing comet, I've traversed infinite nights, interstellar spaces of the imagination, voluptuousness and fear. I've been a man, a woman, an old person, a little girl, I've been the crowds on the grand boulevards of the capital cities of the West, I've been the serene Buddha of the East, whose calm and wisdom we envy. I've known honor and dishonor, enthusiasm and exhaustion. ...I've been the sun and the moon, and everything because life is not enough.
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