Harriet Zurndorfer: The History Of Women In Chinese History

The article written by Harriet Zurndorfer talks largely about the history of the role of women in Chinese history. Harriet discusses how the problem with labelling Chinese woman as “victims” of tradition takes away from the complexity of ideological and cultural forces that shaped the learned culture. Harriet talks about how both men and women were not allowed to learn the written medium of wenyan, which is the classical Chinese. Harriet also talks about many famous Chinese women who were the complete opposite of what the typical Chinese woman should be. She also talks about how many of these woman’s accomplishments were still viewed as being tools for propagating self-sacrificing patrilineal values that oppress women. Harriet furthers her