Reconstructing the Chinese Female Image of the Other: A 16th-Century Spanish and Portuguese Missionary Ethnographic Perspective

Abstract

This paper provides a thorough examination of the depiction of Chinese women in the book The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China, a work by the distinguished Spanish scholar and missionary Juan González de Mendoza. Despite never having visited China, Mendoza managed to compile a thorough depiction of the nation and its people by leveraging the accounts of those who had. This article meticulously examines Mendoza’s representations of Chinese women, an aspect overlooked by previous scholars, aiming to define the specific image he constructed and explore the underlying incentives. Mendoza’s portrayal of Chinese women as opulent, refined, conservative and chaste was influenced by missionaries such as Gaspar da Cruz and Martín de Rada. However, his narrative was distinctively idealised and selective in its representation of Chinese society. A key insight is its “first oppress, then exalt” structure, which first depicts the hardships of lower-class women, before highlighting the social welfare systems of the Ming dynasty. This approach minimised their suffering and emphasised the superiority of Chinese society. It reflects Mendoza’s broader idealisation of China, which served his missionary aims and Europe’s desire for an idealised “other” during times of social and religious upheaval.