Girl Is Born Quotes

Script

For my ISP, I read the novel “When a Girl is Born” by Pamela Grant. Now, as you read the title, you might guess what the context of this novel will be. Well, you guessed it right, the novel is about a girl and by looking at the picture you can understand that the novel is about a Chinese girl. Ko-chin, the main protagonist of the novel is a shy, and obedient girl born to a middle-class family in ancient China. Being born in the olden times means that there are a lot of rules and regulations to obey, especially for women. As part of the rules Ko-chin was married to a reformer, Han Lao, at the young age of fourteen. Ko-chin expecting her life to be an overly submissive and controlled one, was depressed and afraid. But, later on she realized that her husband did not want her to live according to the laws of the society, instead, he wanted her to live a free life.
As I was reading through the novel, I was able to identify many of the discriminatory practices that the women of traditional China faced. One such practise that caught my attention was the discrimination that young
girls faced in their own families. Girls were thought as a burden to their parents as they were considered to be of no benefit to their parents at all. Therefore, parents disliked female children and treated them very badly. But it wasn’t just their families that disliked them, for the society also abominated them and mistreated them with disregard for their age.
Thus, girls being despised by both society and family were excluded from many of the common activities that we do in modern times. As a matter of fact, girls were prohibited from studying, for in the olden times it was considered to decrease their marriage value. Moreover, it was established to ease their parents’ burden, as many families do not wish to spend their money on things that will not provide them with reciprocated value in the future. Which is why, girls had to spend all their time at home and they were also expected to take responsibility of all the housework, from a young age. In the novel, Ko-chin was also expected the same, and experiencing a lot of inequality she said, “A boy that comes to a home drops to earth like a god that chooses to be born. No one is glad when a girl is born.” (Grant, 6). And, did you know that the discrimination of girls and the one-child policy has resulted in millions of abortions in China? Yes, parents had to sacrifice their young female children due to favouritism of males in China. But when you think about it, why would parents, when given to chance to only have one child, give birth to a female child who would bring them no fortune?
As earlier mentioned about boys, the preference of male offspring in China has created a huge gender imbalance; resulting with 32 million more boys under the age of 20 than girls. Well, this can only be expected when grandparents look at male offspring as gifts from their children. Moreover, this traditional practise still exists as many women are pressured to give birth to male children to please their parents. And this tradition is also present in the novel. Ko-chin, after being married to Han Lao was barren for many months; this caused her mother in law to pressure her to give birth to a male child, and she even went so far as to say, “ But if you bear many sons, it may be that in time I will forgive you” (Grant, 12). As you can see, women are considered as an instrument to make babies, specifically male babies. Experiencing the objectification of women, Ko-chin said confusedly, “Giver of life, yet hated by gods and men alike” (Grant, 125). Yes, facing all the inequalities, girls thought that God only loved men. So you can see how girls had no hope in life, and they were never allowed to decide for themselves. And even in the modern days, these traditions has influenced many men to abuse women.
As mentioned in the novel, the giver of life, women, are forced to detest baby girls due to the traditions which caused a huge gender imbalance.
Currently in the news, horrifying stories of mothers that are poisoned and are forcefully administered abortions, newborn babies who are abused, and infants that are left to die are read by many people across the world. When reading the novel, I was able to identify the same case in Ko-chin’s life. When Ko-chin discovered that her firstborn child was a girl, she said, “I do not care what is done with her, so long as she is taken away from me.” (Grant, 125). Now, Ko-chin made this decision because she didn’t want her child to experience what she felt. And this is also one the reasons why women abort their female offspring. Therefore, the favouritism of male children has caused many problems in China including the death of many female
children.
Another interesting practise that caught my eye was foot binding. Women in China had to bind their foot to prevent it from growing more than 3 inches. Mothers would bind their children’s feet using long strips of cloth. As the pieces of clothes are tightened, the bones inside are crushed making their feet 3 inches long. In the olden times, it was considered as an elite practise to beautify girls. And when embroidered shoes are worn over their feet, it is believed to resemble lilies. Also, this practise was only done by women who can afford servants, for women with bound feet are less mobile than women with natural feet. Besides, women without bound feet are judged as peasants. And this would also bring down their marriage value for, no wealthy man would want to marry women with feet that does not resemble lilies. Likewise in the story, Ko-chin also had to bind her feet, but after being married, her husband, expecting her to break free from the laws requested her to unbind her feet. Her response to this request surprised me as she straightaway rejected it and said, “Unbind [m]y lily feet, when having them bound cost me such pain? After that long agony to let them spread like a peasant’s? Never!” (Grant, 51). As shown here, girls had to endure a lot of pain to accomplish many things in life.
Now you just heard me talk a lot about favouritism of male children, the discrimination of girls, and the laws that women had in the past, but these weren’t the only conflicts this novel showed. Approaching to the conclusion of the novel, traders from Britain changed some of the laws in China which created a great feud between the traditional Chinese people and the western traders. This led to the rise of Boxers across China. Boxers are a notorious group of traditional Chinese men who racially discriminated the western traders from Britain. Their goals were to defeat the foreign powers which included guns, with their spells and rituals. They relied on rituals, spells, and trances to make themselves invincible before battle. With the imperial support, they were able to attack Beijing and kill many Chinese Christians, they also looted the city. As the Han Lao joined the Boxers to report news to his homeland, he heard them say, “burn, burn, burn, - kill, kill, kill!” He was scared as he smelt stench of local converts being burnt alive by the Boxers (Grant, 101). Thus, you can see that Boxers racially discriminated the westerns and also diminished every foreign influence in China. Therefore, racism was a major factor that lead to the death of many, who tried to make decisions for themselves.
As I finished this novel, it reminded me of a Chinese movie named “The Empress and the Warriors”. The protagonist of the movie, Feier is very similar to the protagonist of the novel, Ko-chin. In the beginning, both characters were similar to the damsel in distress archetype. This is the vulnerable character that is later on rescued by the hero. In the movie, Feier was vulnerable after her father’s death, she felt hopeless as there wasn’t anyone to help her. When the emperor (her father) died, all the responsibilities were passed onto her but many disagreed with it as she was a girl, and they wanted a male to take after the emperor. Being rejected and lonely she felt afraid. During that time the male protagonist enters and helps her to cope up with her difficulties and changes her into a brave girl. Similarly, in the novel, Ko-chin after being married to Han Lao, was very sacred and vulnerable. Being away from her parents, Ko-chin was shy and frightened, and since she was barren for many months, everyone in the household avoided her. During that time, the hero, her husband, Han Lao comforted her and gave her confidence. He changed her into a fearless girl, and thus towards the end of the novel, Ko-chin is characterized as a confident, and bold girl. Thus both characters have the same archetype in the beginning, and also in the end of the plot. As both of them are turned into the survivor archetype which allows them to withstand all the conflicts of the plot.
Overall, the novel “When a Girl is Born” is very suspenseful and realistic. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading historical novels. And I really enjoyed reading this book.