Have you ever heard of “favoring girls over boys”?

You are right, but nearly a hundred years ago, in Yuanli, Miaoli, everyone hoped to have a daughter. Because at that time the garden produced straw mats and straw hats woven with rush, these weaving jobs were all done by girls, who could earn a lot of money and improve their family's life.

Well, at that time there was a poet named Cai Zhenfeng who wrote a poem called "Yuanli Xige", which fully illustrates the situation at that time. The poem begins by saying that the women in Yuanli are not like the girls in traditional society who all learn needlework and embroidery. The women here weave rush mats and rush hats with their own hands.

Poem/Cai Zhenfeng
The woman in the garden is so skilled, she doesn't work on silkworms or sew.
With her slender fingers, she worked hard every day to earn money to support her aunt.
Food has no taste and dreams are not sweet; people give birth to girls instead of boys.
If a boy is born, he will be sent to Fuliang. If a girl is born, she will be obeyed by the emperor every morning.
If you can’t finish it today, you’ll weave it tomorrow. If you can’t finish it tomorrow, you’ll continue to weave it tonight.
Don’t you see, thousands of threads form patterns, which are so beautiful that it takes so much labor to create them!

explain:
　The women in the garden did not have to plant mulberry trees and raise silkworms, nor did they have to do needlework and embroidery. Instead, they toiled day and night using their ten fingers to weave rushes, making straw hats and straw mats to earn money to support their parents-in-law. The women weaving rush were so busy that they couldn't taste the food they ate and couldn't sleep well. People all hoped to have girls rather than boys. The boys did not work seriously, but the girls made money by weaving mats and hats to feed their elders well. If you can’t finish it during the day, continue doing it tomorrow. If you can’t finish it tomorrow, continue doing it in the evening. You have to know that these intricately woven mats and hats took the painstaking efforts of many women.

It turns out that it’s no wonder that everyone wants to have a daughter!

The weaving of rush grass in Yuanli favors girls over boys, subverting tradition

This trend was also published in the Taiwan Daily News. The article pointed out that Taiwanese women had three great fortunes: "First, the trend of unbinding feet is becoming more popular. First, the law stipulates that those who keep straw hats as wives should report to their cohabiting partners. First, the hat and straw hat industry is becoming more and more popular." The hat and straw hat industry allows women to go out of the house, work, and even take on the responsibility of supporting the family, leading to a shift in gender roles in the family. At the same time, reform proposals intended to speed up the production of straw hats also pointed out that foot binding brought constraints to female workers and should therefore be abolished. These things simply subverted logic and violated tradition at the time.