This memoir of Ma Bo’s sent shock waves throughout China when it was published and was even first banned by the Communist Government. This passionate story paints a clear picture for what the Great Chinese Cultural Revolution was really like. Many Chinese living today can attest to similar if not identical ordeals as expressed in Ma Bo’s story. The toils of being a young Red Guard in inner China were experienced by many if not millions. The horrors and atrocities were wide spread throughout the country, not just in Inner Mongolia. The experiences illustrated in Blood Red Sunset uniquely belong to Ma Bo’s entire generation of mislead Chinese. As expressed in the books dedication the Cultural Revolution produced victims, people who suffered from unspeakable wrongs, not limited by any criteria but all segments of society. All parts of China were turned completely upside down. Along with the turmoil came more than just suffering, but pure tragedy. Even the strongest unit throughout all of China’s millennia’s of history, the tight knit family unit, was broken. Particularly profound is the exhibited brutality, victimizing, and sheer loss of humanity that the common people of China subjected each other to during this tumultuous period. This sad theme was seen over and over again throughout the memoir. The devastation Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution inflicted on China has the country still in recovery today. The oldest still standing civilization in history became lawless and un-secure for an entire decade. This resulted in millions of atrocities and injustices taking place throughout the country. Injustice ran rampant everywhere and humanity itself struggled to survive. It awakened the most malicious side of mankind ever seen on such a large scale. To truly appreciate the Communist China 1966-1976 national aberration known as the Great Cultural revolution it is necessary to read an account of a person who actually lived in…
Gender equality has long been an issue all over the world. Though the issue is not that nasty in current society, problems still exist. Woman status rises a lot to a much higher-level compared to before. Feminism develops and spreads out at a rapid rate and more and more women now a day express their thoughts of being independent. Christina Larsen and Leila Ahmed both talk about the changing of women status in modern society, but in two different countries. In her essay “The Startling Plight of China’s Leftover Ladies”, Larsen points out that Chinese women now have a higher social status than compare to the past. Ahmed, in her essay “Reinventing the Veil”, also mentions that Muslin women now advocate their independent status and have much more…
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…
Women were expected to serve the men in the house, either husband or father. Gender-expectations such as purity, piety, submissiveness, and domesticity became only tasks for women to maintain and fulfill in their lives. While tasks for being born as a woman were already set by society, the right to control of her own life had already been snatched by the man of her house, her father or her husband. Later, the respect between a man toward a woman had been disappeared and men’s greed for complete authority inside his house had overflown. However, the main victims, women, in this matter, are also the accomplices of the problem because women from 1800s and earlier period had also believed and accepted their fate as being supporters of their men.…
Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro's "Son of the Revolution" is a comprehensive story of Liang Heng's life on growing up during the chaotic times of the Chinese revolution. The purpose of this novel was to depict the horrors and hardships of life during the revolution period in china during Mao Zedong's reign. In the beginning of the book, the author portrays that news and ideologies always stated that the government was working for the good of the people of the country. However, as the book unfolds the author reveals that the government is actually exploiting the people through misuse of people's trust. The book also provides insights into the Chinese life during the period of 1954-1978. This 24 year period saw major political movement and aspects of Mao Zedong's thoughts and its influence on people. The personal effects of these historical movements coincide directly with the Liang family providing stirring details through the eyes of a person that went through the actual horrific events. This essay will focus on some historical central issues of the book from the period when the first campaign against rightist occurred in 1957 to the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" in 1966. The role of family, influence of relationships in marriage and divorce, the power of Mao Thought, and the major political reforms that took place in the period depicted in the novel will be discussed.…
A young Chinese American woman, Jing-Mei “June” Woo, recalls, after her mother's death, her mother's sadness at having left her twin baby girls in China in 1949. June has used her mother's regret as a weapon in a battle of wills focusing on what her mother wants her to be and what she wants. June wins, leaving her mother, Suyuan, stunned when she says she wishes she were dead like the twins. Although this scene characterizes the common struggle for power between mother and daughter, the story also illustrates…
Human beings exhibit little reverence for the sanctity of their flesh. In our eternal quest for aesthetic perfection, bodies are twisted, molded, plucked and burned in order to live up to unobtainable ideals. Unfortunately, though human desires can be appeased, they are never satisfied, and beauty is no exception. To quote Legal Professor Deborah L. Rhode: “Desires, expectations, and standards of comparison increase as rapidly as they are satisfied.” (Rhode 30) Undeniably, the female body is overwhelmingly and disproportionately subjected to such modifications, due in no small part to the pervasive desires of patriarchies perpetuated through history. This beauty mandate has left innumerable women aching for perfection in an era where the feminine…
In China, gender inequality still exists between husbands and wives; however, ever since 1950, the tendency of gender positions shared in a marriage is increasing. Both traditional and modern marriages require dowries and bride prices from both families, whereas the economic grows, either one side of the family has to disburse more to the other family. Moreover, the one who has higher education or earn the most has the authority in household. Working inequality is still present in some cities of China, however, the unfairness has improved distinctly from the past. The divorce rate is increasing, since women have the right to divorce and freedom to choose. In ancient China, due to women had overwhelmed by domination of men in marriages, marriages…
“How sad it is to be a woman! Nothing on earth is held so cheap. Boys stand leaning at the door Like Gods fallen out of Heaven.”( Fu Xuan, 263) The Chinese culture held women in the lowest regards while placing all men above the. But in the text “A Chinese Woman’s Instructions to Her Daughters” Ban Zhao was able to have a life of her own without a husband. She was married had children, but then widowed. Even through this she was able to be successful, and become and author to help other women. “Ban Zhao had a significant career as a court historian and as an adviser to the empress- dowager ( the widow of a deceased emperor). Her most famous work, Lessons for Women, was an effort to apply the principles of Confucianism to the lives and behavior of women.” (Waley, 264) Ban Zhao was the few exceptions to this most women were expected to do choirs and housework without complaint and complete obedience. “ Let a woman retire late to bed, but rise early to duties;…
Research Question : What reasons explain why female farmers in the United States and in Ireland created movements between 1870-1913? Which one was more successful?…
America was built on the idea of freedom and equality. So why it is that some are more equal than others? This comes from white supremacist groups wanting more rights and other improvements over people who are not white. America may claim to be equal to all but some are more equal for these rights than others.…
To create a society where everyone was equal, women played more of a role. They spoke their mind and thought for themselves. However, they still were controlled by men. For example, in the film Bed and Sofa, Liuda falls in love with another man who was living with them due to the housing shortage at the time. Whichever man was not the “husband” at the time, had to sleep on the sofa. This control by a woman was especially radically for the day. However, men still had control. Women, while making progress outside of the home, were still expected to do all the housework because that is a woman’s place. When Liuda became pregnant, both men insisted she gets an abortion. After arriving at the clinic, she decided not to and left them both to become an independent…
rights leave the society the problem with gender inequality. Not only is Inez Milholland left alone in the photo, but also those brave feminists are left alone in the long history. Nevertheless, a fight for equal rights will never stop until it arrives at real equality. More and more women from the contemporary and next generation will stand up and fight for gender equality to accomplish predecessors’ unfinished aspiration.…
With the protestant work ethic and faith in capitalism that we experience in society, it is no longer questioned that a person can advance socially as well as economically according to their skills and the output that is placed on developing these skills. As children we are taught that when we grow up we can be doctors, lawyers and even prime ministers; however, the myth that there are no barriers or social factors that of these barriers is the notion of gender, as restrict the mobility of certain groups as well as their ability to advance economically and socially, is exactly that, a myth. The most significant males have dominated history and to this day continue to occupy most of the key roles in society. Women have been viewed as being submissive as well as powerless to their male counterparts, which in turn has put them in a situation of greater economic, political and social exploitation. Society has created images and formed perspectives as to what is considered a “role” for a woman, and this image has evolved from the vantage point of male-centred thinking. Marxist theorists view women as being oppressed in the bourgeoisie family and demonstrate that family creates inequality between men and women; it demonstrates that the entire structure of society, including the nuclear family, must be reshaped in order for there to be real equality in gender relationships (Hooks, 1984). The partnership between patriarchy and capitalism has dominated women’s labour and sexuality by reinforcing and developing the ideologies that rationalize the oppression of women. This paper will examine how Marxist Feminism defines and identifies the source of discrimination, oppression and inequality.…
In traditional Chinese society each person’s role in life is assigned to them based on social class, gender, and hierarchical position within their family. Because of this constricting belief that a person’s assigned roles were more important than their individuality many young individuals during the May-Fourth era sought after the freedom of individuality to break free from roles that traditional Chinese society had imposed upon them. An example of this desire to break free from defined societal roles occurs in Ba Jin’s "Family", "He felt he was being cut off from her by an invisible high wall, and this wall was his gentry family. It prevented him from attaining the object of his desire; therefore he hated it (Ba Jin 22).” Chueh-hui expresses his contempt for being defined by the role assigned to him as a member of the gentry class, because this role causes Chueh-hui to be unable to express his individual desires of love. This desire for freedom to be their own individual self, left the younger generation determined to decide their own role rather than simply accept the role that traditional society had decided for them and spurred the May-Fourth era forward.…