Zheng Yuxiu: modern China’s ‘xia nu’ assassin and first female PhD who fought for justice
Independent spirit who resisted grandmother’s bid to bind her feet, worked in intelligence, transported bombs, championed women’s rights
A revolutionary who once declared she was “no bird in a cage” became both an assassin and China’s first female doctor of law.
Born in 1891, Zheng Yuxiu grew up in an influential household. Her father served the Qing (1644–1912) government, her grandfather was a Hong Kong merchant, and her well-educated mother came from a military family.
From childhood, Zheng showed a defiant independence rare for her time.
After moving to Guangzhou in southern China, she attended a local school and successfully resisted her grandmother’s attempt to bind her feet, a painful practice rooted in the old belief that tiny feet were a mark of feminine beauty.
In 1903, Zheng moved to Beijing with her mother and received a modern education at a girls’ school.