The Burial of Qiu Jin (and of Wu Zhiying) In February of 1908, two women took the initiative to give a proper burial to their friend Qiu Jin (1875Jin ( ?-1907, beheaded six months earlier for attempted insurrection against the Qing empire. 1 The ensuing memorial service, which drew a crowd of several hundred, became a forum for public protest and was duly registered as such by the government. Within the year, Qiu Jin's tomb by the West Lake was razed and the two chief mourners, Wu Zhiying and Xu Zihua, found themselves on the government's wanted list. After the success of the Republican Revolution four years later, Qiu Jin quickly became a celebrated revolutionary martyr. Today, her story still appears in patriotic educational texts for young readers, her image often visible on stage and in films. 2 So much symbolic significance is invested in the singular figure of Qiu Jin that in historical accounts of Chinese women's progress, she often functions as a "transitional figure" par excellence: a history of women of traditional China typically ends with her while a study of modern women begins with her. It is as if alongside her the last of "talented women" (cainü) was buried and through her the New Woman (xin nüxing) was heralded in.