Wei Ming's daughter, Xiao Hong, is shown to be suffering from pneumonia and after arriving in Shanghai her condition begins to deteriorate.

Due to the association of a woman's qualifications with her ability to raise the future generation, women's education was also heavily promoted, giving them a path towards integrating in the workforce.

Zhang Xiuzhen is a college graduate (undoubtedly the daughter of a capitalist family), but she is willing to be a man's plaything all her life as Mrs. Wang of the comprador class.

The Journalists' Union loudly protested the film's characterization of their trade and the spectre of negative publicity pressured Lianhua studio into making an open apology.

In her final note, she stated, "Gossip is a fearful thing", attributing her suicide to the same kind of media harassment her character Wei Ming experienced.

[13] It provoked much debate in the Shanghai news media on the controversy over the representation and status of women in popular culture and shed a light on the increasing feminist problems of modernity.

Much discussion surrounded the similarities between Ai Xia, Ruan, and her character Wei Ming, all sources of scrutiny in 'the woman question' of urban China in the 1930s.

However, before the May Fourth Movement, women in China were described by the term funü which emphasized familial and gender roles rather than biological sex.

Nonetheless, the "new woman" icon found its way into popular media in the forms of film, photographs, magazines, fashion advertisements and calendar posters.

They argued that the fundamental reason why women had lost their independence for thousands of years lay in their financial attachment to men and the denial of property rights.

[18] Director Cai Chusheng and scriptwriter Sun Shiyi based the plot of New Women on the life and death of actress Ai Xia.

[19] While Wei Ming, played by Ruan Lingyu was a teacher, Ai Xia was an actress that committed suicide in 1934 at the age of 21 after starring in a movie that she wrote herself called "A Modern Woman".

[19] Ai Xia was condemned by the popular press when they found out about a single act of prostitution to raise money in order to afford medicine for her sick daughter.

During these times, female suicide was not an uncommon occurrence with Confucian and patriarchal pressures for women to be mothers and wives while not expressing their true selves.

[21] Ai Xia represented this ideology of new women being a young intellectual woman that reflected the need for modernity of fashion, customs and emancipation from men.

Even China's preeminent intellectual Lu Xun was appalled at the details surrounding Ruan's death and wrote an essay entitled "Gossip is a Fearful Thing", denouncing the tabloids.

The hardships experienced by women such as Ai Xia and Ruan Lingyu could be attributed to this cultural change in regards to “the woman question” at the time.

As stated in Christopher Rhea's “Chinese Film Classics 1922-1949”; “Ruan Lingyu has become a symbol of the glamor, romance, and unfulfilled potential of Republican China, and her story has been endlessly retold”[24] At that time, female writers were respected in Shanghai.

Under the crisis of national subjugation and the urgency of Anti Japanese salvation It fortifies the ideal image of “new women as social workers and vanguard of building a new society.”[29] The iconic left wing movement music presented in “New Women” explains that when “national crisis is imminent, national identity and class identity become the new direction of the development of film and film music.”[29] The year 1935 was the time when Chinese left-wing cinema was emerging and gradually developing, and as one of its important masterpieces, New Woman was also considered "a significant milestone in modern Chinese feminist cinema"[source1] and “laid the foundation for future "new women" films.”[30] Director Cai Chusheng was thus seen as a “sign of the move to the left-wing.”[31] Today, the film's reputation has become firmly established as one of the classic examples of 1930s Chinese film.

The organizers of the 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial on Contemporary Art referred to the film, in their retrospective of Ruan Lingyu's work, as a "Masterpiece in the spirit of the May 4th tradition.

The story is allegedly based on the talented actress Ai Xia who committed suicide under the dual pressure of survival and spirit of being the spotlight.

As a make-up version of Ai Xia's tragic fate, the actress Ruan Lingyu starred as the main protagonist in "New Women".

"[33] However, it was impossible for her to escape the fate of suicide as in reality, females were mere playthings of male desires and a gimmick in the commercial operation of the publishing industry.

When Wei was forced into prostitution to earn enough money to pay for the deposit of the hospital fee, she was shock that Madam Xu told her to sell her body.

However, Madam Xu counters that “but if we women want to make a little money in this world, what other path is open to us?” Compared to Cai Chusheng's previous films, New Women, by its title and content, is a film that focuses on the “modern transformation of Chinese women.”[36] In Cai Chusheng's New Woman, we see several motifs that support the central idea of the narrative.

[36] Although the female protagonist Wei Ming does not get a perfect ending, she is a new generation woman who is brave enough to pursue a career, a new life and even a relationship, compared to a traditional wife like Mrs. Wang.