typical feudal denigration of women and true filiality of an adopted daughter.
typical feudal denigration of women and true filiality of an adopted daughter.
Jook-liang’s thought about people has been affected by Poh-Poh’s traditional Chinese thinking that a girl is useless. First of all, it makes Jook-Liang have a negative view about the boys. “Baby Brother was sick again. Always sick. Always getting all the attention; always snoring because of his congested lungs, though he had no fever.”(Choy 26). In this quote, Jook-liang is complaining about her little brother. Because he is a boy, he is always getting all the attention from others, when he was sick, he would be taken care of by all the family members. Even Jook-Liang has to wash the diapers for him. That is not fair in Jook-Liang’s view; she never receives such good treatment. So she has some contradiction about boys, because they are treated much better then her. Moreover, this traditional Chinese thinking makes her dislike her grandmother.…
“No sex. No meat. No talk. No company. You do everything alone… Nobody wants to play Kwan Kung. Too risky. What if they accidentally forget and eat a hot dog… Kwan Kung does not accept the mess up of responsibility allowed by Western psychology. Real men, real actors, real soldiers of the art don’t lose control,” (Chin 67-8).…
In Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, Hong Kingston shares a tragic story involving one of her aunts. Originally the story was told to Hong Kingston by her mother, but a lot of the information was withheld so Hong Kingston includes a lot of what she thinks could have happened. Regardless of what is true and what is not, this piece of writing was extremely engaging and interesting. Hong Kingston dives into the norms held in Chinese culture and how they affect different people.…
The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan Spence is a historical novel pertaining to average people living in northeastern China. Spence’s book is unlike the “typical” social Confucian society China was thought to resemble during the seventeenth century. In this book, ideas of a Confucian family are challenged and can be seen as alternative but non-the-less, Confucian throughout human interaction and specifically in individual behavior. The Confucian ideas of filial piety, suicide, and being subservient are present, yet not as prominent as historians might think in a small town known as T’an-ch’eng.…
The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan D. Spence, paints a vivid picture of provincial China in the seventeenth century. Manly the life in the northeastern country of T’an-ch’eng. T’an-ch’eng has been through a lot including: an endless cycle of floods, plagues, crop failures, banditry, and heavy taxation. Chinese society in Confucian terms was a patriarchal society with strict rules of conduct. The role at this time of women, however, has historically been one of repression. The traditional ideal woman was a dependent being whose behavior was governed by the "three obedience’s and four virtues". The three obedience’s were obedience to father before marriage, the husband after marriage, and the son in case of widows. The four virtues were propriety in behavior, speech, demeanor and employment. The laws of the land and fear of shame in society dictated that men were allowed to rule over their household leaving women in a powerless state as almost a slave of the home. In P’u’s stories women are portrayed as complex characters who hold important roles in the family, but are treated with little to no respect by authority figures, and other men of higher class. In The Death of Woman Wang, Spence portrays…
In the Primary Source Ban Zhao’s Lessons for Women, Zhao’s writings reinforce patriarchy and Confucianism. Her writing conforms to the standards of the society and allows her to become a product by educating women on…
Fortunate to be born into a family that supported education, Wu Zhou, in her travels with her father, gained a loving parent-child bond that drove her to exceed boundaries and achieve great things. Since her father did not have the chance to become a man of status, she wanted to make him proud and prove society’s standards wrong by outcompeting her opponents—males. Being well versed in education, politics, and discovering her own beauty, she gained position of Talent Wu, or fifth- ranked concubine to Emperor Taizong.…
The Woman Warrior begins with a talk story about Kingston’s aunt who died in the family well after getting pregnant and giving birth while her husband was in America. From this particular talk story, the reader is introduced to several Chinese traditions such as an “outcast table” and how marriage in Chinese is also known as “taking a daughter-in-law in.” The second chapter, “White Tigers,” begins with a talk story about a woman warrior named Fa Mu Lan. This talk story relates to the topic of heroism, a common topic used in the scops’ poems. Kingston not only writes about the Chinese culture through her and her mother’s talk stories, but also relates these talk stories to describe her Chinese-American life and the struggles she faced. In The Woman Warrior, Kingston presents the differences between the American and Chinese culture, but also expresses the importance of storytelling and talk story, which played an important role in her…
Along with the increase in outside influences, the gender roles among the !Kung began to change. The society became less egalitarian and a hierarchy began to form. At first it was difficult for me to find any positives in this change to the !Kung culture. I had to think about the difficulties that the !Kung faced every day and that some of these changes brought certainty of food and modern medical care.…
It has been suggested that the new imperial system introduced in China by the Qin and the Han produced a “misogynistic ideology” that became evermore embedded in aristocratic…
Although, Chairman Mao and the Chinese Communist Party put forth the idea that women hold up the sky and how they should be more important, China still undermined women. Cuiqiao’s brief moment of happiness was shattered when she went home and saw her future mother-in-law. Cuiqiao was forced to marry an older man in order to have enough money to bury her mother as well as provide her brother with future endowment money for his wedding. In Jessica Fulton’s article, “Holding up Half the Heavens: The Effect of Communist Rule on China’s Women,” she explains that during the worst famines in Chinese history when peasants had to eat bark and leaves in order to live, the peasants would choose to let their daughter starve to save their sons (Fulton 36). This relates to Yellow Earth because Hanhan’s needs come before Cuiqiao’s needs. Hanhan is still a young boy and he is not going to marry anytime soon, but Cuiqiao already had to find resources for his future endowment money. Cuiqiao sings with a sad tone, “I’d like to say what is on my mind, but I don’t know how.” On the one hand, Chairman Mao says that women are important too, but on the other hand, women are still scarified. Director Chen pinpoints the ironic relationship between Cuiqiao’s role in the film and the idealization of Chinese feminism brought out through Chinese…
The two texts similarly present ideas about women’s independence and show that regardless of marital status, women face gender prejudice. Albert, Celie’s husband, states that ‘wives is like children. You let ‘em know who got the upper hand.’ By likening a married woman to a child, Walker removes adult qualities from Celie such as patience, intelligence and respect. In doing this Walker demonstrates that empowerment was harder for Celie to achieve, as she is considered powerless and childlike by men. Furthermore, we identify with Celie’s marital struggles and inability to persevere, as Celie is constantly made to feel disempowered. This is evident when Celie suggests Harpo should ‘beat [Sofia]’ even though ‘… three years pass and he still whistle and sing’. By discounting relevant facts such as Sofia and Harpo maintaining their happiness for three years, we are shown that Celie is jealous of functional marriages that allow partners to act independently. Through this Walker highlights that women knowingly reinforce gender prejudice by encouraging men to exercise control using physical force. Golden also takes a similar stance to Walker on women’s independence through his depiction of a self-sufficient Geisha. Mameha informs Sayuri that ‘following [her] debut… [she’ll] need a danna if [she’s] to…
“The derivative of f(x)=ln|x| is 1/x, therefore women are inferior to men!” may seem like an outlandish, absurd statement, yet it mirrors the mentality of male chauvinists throughout history. In The Good Earth, a gripping novel by Pearl S. Buck, women such as the narrator’s wife, O-lan, experience a harsh reality of ancient China. They are faced with difficult challenges, simply due to their gender, and the culture of their society. Wang Lung, the narrator, buys his wife, who at the time is a slave, from a great rich house, and the two embark on a journey through life. The novel makes it clear that women are viewed as workers for their husbands and as sexual toys for men.…
Opinions differ on which sex of dogs are easier to train. Some dog owners will argue the case of male dogs being too agressive when housed indoors. A case for female dogs being the right choice is that female dogs show more affection and that they are more trainable.…
Liu “suffered a bruising adolescent education” with his “looks, loves, and manners.” Liu refers to the styling of his “Chinese hair” as being “one of the most consuming crises” of his teenage life, as well as his “greatest social burden.” Liu was so self-conscious of his “straight, rigid, and wiry” hair that he shaved it all off in order to fit in with the other boys. In addition, Liu tried to begin serious relationships with many girls, but his race was the “sole obstacle to his advancement.” Liu was also seen as “impolite” when he ate dinner at a friend’s house, since Liu’s practices differed from those of his friend. Liu’s personal experiences help him build his credibility. His experiences with acculturation allows the audience to have confidence that he knows what he is talking about since he has encountered it first-hand.…