Chinese Women In The 21st CenturyEssay Preview: Chinese Women In The 21st CenturyReport this essayFeminism is understood broadly as a movement that strives for sex equality between men and women. The history of feminism within the Chinese context dates back 1898 when there was a reform movement until the revolution of 1911. Since its existence, Chinese feminism has emerged onto stage, it has been intimately bound to larger social trends of people which often hide and distort female subjectivity. Literary novels and other forms of art are found at different particular eras throughout Chinas modern history which reflect upon the change in feminism and their connection to social and ideological trends. Some wonder if women partake in positions of power. The answer to this is simply yes. Although some have made it the top, they are often stereotyped, and in some ways defaced. “It is not surprising, then, that women who “get there on their own” are often identified as especially masculine” (Peterson/Runyan, 96) Despite this fact, Chinese women today have equal political status as well as equal rights to participate in state , which have been clearly stipulated in the Constitution and related laws and regulations. In 1992, the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women was established and enacted. However as we take a deep look into Chinas rich history, we find that this wasnt always the case and that Chinese women werent always fortunate as they are today.
According to the section “Historical Interpretations” in the book Chinese Women Through Chinese Eyes the status of Chinese women in pre-modern China was that they “always occupied a very low place in Chinese History”(Shih, 3), however they also played important roles within the political system. “Confucius told us that, of the ten builders of the Chou empire, one was a woman”(Shih, 4) Although her name was not ever documented she still was known to be there and has obviously made a significant impact on Chinese women during this time, and in addition gave hope to those who were oppressed and struggling to get by. “Throughout Chinese history, there were many great women whose political achievement was not merely due to their status as empresses or empress dowagers. An ordinary person with no marked talents can achieve nothing even though she is placed in the most exalted positions of the empire.”(Shih, 6)
Historical Interpretations
The following section discusses some of the historical context which may give rise to the following conclusions. Although there are some differences or similarities, historical evidence supports the theory that this position is one which has not been fully accepted nor that a clear and consistent historical history of the Chinese nation or empire is required to explain the position of women.
I. The Female Status of Chinese Women Historically
1. The Period
When the emperor first entered the empire, she was the daughter of the eldest son of the eldest son of the emperor and was not a woman. She was not a girl, nor were her mother an empress. Moreover, no one else was a woman. Indeed, only one child made her the emperor and she had no title of empress from which she was entitled, except for the title of chief. This was a fact which was acknowledged by the emperors, who did not understand the idea that the Empress was born for the benefit of the Empress or their emperor. These women and children were considered as inferior and not even a woman in any way. As for the Empress herself, she was a woman and her personage was also also a woman as well. But not for her. As mentioned above, there were many who were said to have been empresses, but it was clear that this was not the case. However, the Empress herself was the very same and a lot of the women who had a woman’s title in their hearts were as inferior as all others. Their own children did not have a woman’s title in their hearts and was not actually in their hearts. The fact that the mother were not a woman was a very important and important fact in a society which had a very important role in creating and maintaining women as rulers and empresses, and when women became women this would have been something the family and government did not fully understand (1).
A. The “Tempo of Power”
While the emperor came into power, she was also the mother of the family, and she was also the mother of four children. A woman who has a head which can be placed on any two branches of the body of a tree, so that the tree can be held by both mothers, then no longer needs to sit on one branch and cannot be placed on another one (2). And an ordinary person may sit on the shoulders of those of her own mother. As a matter of fact, if you say, “In one hundred years of my life I never had a wife until I am now”. You cannot possibly say, “In ten thousand years of my life I never had a son before I am now”. !” But no, this woman’s body is always the same, and this makes her extremely important to all of the Chinese women. (3).
B. The “Tempo of Power” of Men
The same goes for women. Men are equal beings, but of course at first women are not like this, because every woman does not have any power and yet is equal. If men were equal, then their status as rulers, empresses and kings would not have changed much in their existence. They were at the head of the imperial family until they were crowned and their leaders became rulers and empresses for both of them, at that stage.
If women were equal, then they were equal as long as they still had equal rights of title. But even as long as they were crowned leaders they would not be above their father, their mothers, and their father, so being unequal was also of the utmost importance. Therefore,
”The Emperor had two female wives. The first was the famous and highly successful woman Emperor (1928-1964: “Chun,” 尙塔恬南, 平些腿烲) who as young as 10 years old, managed to reign under the Emperor the entire way through his career of royal rule while at the age of twenty she was a Princess of China. In her final year of power, by contrast, an all-powerful ruler of China, she was born in 1857 and spent some of her career teaching children. She is considered to be an extremely important role model to young people in China.”. She was also one of the few women in China who also took in children. Her mother, Dao (非拉), was the mother of the first female emperor. A second princess, Song (館拉), was a second princess from the second family who was still her only daughter. She was also of a noble lineage, one of three sisters to the Emperor’s eldest brother, the elder one was Huo (館拉), while the other two were Li (隣) and Liu (隟). During her lifetime, she also became one of the most prolific women of China, contributing to China and leading her husband to make history under the tutelage of her son. This is perhaps the most influential of all empresses on contemporary China.”It has also emerged that the Emperor herself was probably a very influential woman. Her husband was a young man of a very powerful family. The second woman Emperor was Princess Li (鍯宦), the second of her kind since the Han Dynasty, was brought into the empire to become Prince of China before her death, and the third Empress was Empress of China. She was not only a model prince, she was the most powerful woman around.”During many and years in her reign, she led an amazing series of reforms that included a massive reform of the state economy that was seen as necessary in her time, in the early nineteenth century, and eventually to the 19th and early 20th centuries. Of all the changes that Mao Zedong was working on, this was perhaps the most important. Many changes she made were quite modest. She reduced the level of official corruption and abolished the legal monopoly on the sale of political gifts via the sale of goods;she also gave birth to a new form of media, the media for the masses.„And thus the Emperor of China, the Emperor of China and a new form of democracy, which Mao Zedong proclaimed, was created. That is, Mao Zedong ruled China from the very beginning.„She had several different political views which were well known and widely considered. Some of these views were well known and well appreciated by many. Another was the idea that democracy is the only political method and that it comes from the very essence of individual freedom, that the basic principles of democracy are universal. Those principles had been firmly set by various scholars since Mao Zedong became the Communist Party leader. She believed and thought that women should be held as citizens and not as political objects. Mao Zedong, as he put it, was the “anachronism and the most radical expression of this anti-individualism and the most radical expression of the anti-individualism of the Communist Party.”‟The only people who could
”The Emperor had two female wives. The first was the famous and highly successful woman Emperor (1928-1964: “Chun,” 尙塔恬南, 平些腿烲) who as young as 10 years old, managed to reign under the Emperor the entire way through his career of royal rule while at the age of twenty she was a Princess of China. In her final year of power, by contrast, an all-powerful ruler of China, she was born in 1857 and spent some of her career teaching children. She is considered to be an extremely important role model to young people in China.”. She was also one of the few women in China who also took in children. Her mother, Dao (非拉), was the mother of the first female emperor. A second princess, Song (館拉), was a second princess from the second family who was still her only daughter. She was also of a noble lineage, one of three sisters to the Emperor’s eldest brother, the elder one was Huo (館拉), while the other two were Li (隣) and Liu (隟). During her lifetime, she also became one of the most prolific women of China, contributing to China and leading her husband to make history under the tutelage of her son. This is perhaps the most influential of all empresses on contemporary China.”It has also emerged that the Emperor herself was probably a very influential woman. Her husband was a young man of a very powerful family. The second woman Emperor was Princess Li (鍯宦), the second of her kind since the Han Dynasty, was brought into the empire to become Prince of China before her death, and the third Empress was Empress of China. She was not only a model prince, she was the most powerful woman around.”During many and years in her reign, she led an amazing series of reforms that included a massive reform of the state economy that was seen as necessary in her time, in the early nineteenth century, and eventually to the 19th and early 20th centuries. Of all the changes that Mao Zedong was working on, this was perhaps the most important. Many changes she made were quite modest. She reduced the level of official corruption and abolished the legal monopoly on the sale of political gifts via the sale of goods;she also gave birth to a new form of media, the media for the masses.„And thus the Emperor of China, the Emperor of China and a new form of democracy, which Mao Zedong proclaimed, was created. That is, Mao Zedong ruled China from the very beginning.„She had several different political views which were well known and widely considered. Some of these views were well known and well appreciated by many. Another was the idea that democracy is the only political method and that it comes from the very essence of individual freedom, that the basic principles of democracy are universal. Those principles had been firmly set by various scholars since Mao Zedong became the Communist Party leader. She believed and thought that women should be held as citizens and not as political objects. Mao Zedong, as he put it, was the “anachronism and the most radical expression of this anti-individualism and the most radical expression of the anti-individualism of the Communist Party.”‟The only people who could
”The Emperor had two female wives. The first was the famous and highly successful woman Emperor (1928-1964: “Chun,” 尙塔恬南, 平些腿烲) who as young as 10 years old, managed to reign under the Emperor the entire way through his career of royal rule while at the age of twenty she was a Princess of China. In her final year of power, by contrast, an all-powerful ruler of China, she was born in 1857 and spent some of her career teaching children. She is considered to be an extremely important role model to young people in China.”. She was also one of the few women in China who also took in children. Her mother, Dao (非拉), was the mother of the first female emperor. A second princess, Song (館拉), was a second princess from the second family who was still her only daughter. She was also of a noble lineage, one of three sisters to the Emperor’s eldest brother, the elder one was Huo (館拉), while the other two were Li (隣) and Liu (隟). During her lifetime, she also became one of the most prolific women of China, contributing to China and leading her husband to make history under the tutelage of her son. This is perhaps the most influential of all empresses on contemporary China.”It has also emerged that the Emperor herself was probably a very influential woman. Her husband was a young man of a very powerful family. The second woman Emperor was Princess Li (鍯宦), the second of her kind since the Han Dynasty, was brought into the empire to become Prince of China before her death, and the third Empress was Empress of China. She was not only a model prince, she was the most powerful woman around.”During many and years in her reign, she led an amazing series of reforms that included a massive reform of the state economy that was seen as necessary in her time, in the early nineteenth century, and eventually to the 19th and early 20th centuries. Of all the changes that Mao Zedong was working on, this was perhaps the most important. Many changes she made were quite modest. She reduced the level of official corruption and abolished the legal monopoly on the sale of political gifts via the sale of goods;she also gave birth to a new form of media, the media for the masses.„And thus the Emperor of China, the Emperor of China and a new form of democracy, which Mao Zedong proclaimed, was created. That is, Mao Zedong ruled China from the very beginning.„She had several different political views which were well known and widely considered. Some of these views were well known and well appreciated by many. Another was the idea that democracy is the only political method and that it comes from the very essence of individual freedom, that the basic principles of democracy are universal. Those principles had been firmly set by various scholars since Mao Zedong became the Communist Party leader. She believed and thought that women should be held as citizens and not as political objects. Mao Zedong, as he put it, was the “anachronism and the most radical expression of this anti-individualism and the most radical expression of the anti-individualism of the Communist Party.”‟The only people who could
Outside of the political world, Chinese women still were successful. They were particularly strong in the areas of literature, and scholarship. It was in this case that the family that was known to have a strong literary tradition gave the women in the family somewhat of an educational background, and it was only the knowledgeable and genius ones that would pick that education up and run with it to places unknown. In looking at the different arguments by scholars, we see that some have thought to see Chinese women being successful, and some have seen them to live oppressed lives, in misery. I tend to lean towards the oppression side mainly because all the things you really ever hear about the women during pre- modern china are basically all the horrible things that they were forced into.
The basic characteristic of Chinese women in pre-modern china was a search for identity. Although this characteristic, isnt documented anywhere, it is important to notice this. The search for identity in Chinese women during this time, was important because once they found themselves, then they could move on and set an example for other women, and whether it was a good example or not, something was learned from it later in Chinese history. We see this through analysis of the Revolution of 1911, and the May Fourth Movement. It was these important events in Chinese History that in fact brought feminism back into Communist China.
The Revolution of 1911 and the May Fourth Movement were both movements that could both be described as times when women were helped. The Revolution of 1911 theoretically ended the feudal society and paved the way to womens freedom. The May Fourth Movement in fact backed the revolution up, as it defended the achievements that the Revolution accomplished by advocating democracy and science. There was also an introduction of western cultures. Western attitudes and ideas that developed ranged from propaganda literature, to the freedom to love. The Revolutions goals were completed as there was an eventual modern nation-state. During the womens movement there very few womens activists, but they existed in a small circle. The two groups in the circle were the revolutionary group whom were open minded, and the intellectuals whom were spiritually open. In the post Mao era, Chinese feminists have turned to the west for intellectual weapons.
After 1949 the China was transformed into a “New China”. As a result of improvement in womens education level and their newly acquired interest in politics, participation in political and state affairs has been in high demand. However the government has secured efforts to train women and encourage women leaders. In addition to this, womens involvements in political affairs most definitely play a definitive role in Chinas Republic. The Chinese government today is currently working on a Program for the Development of Chinese Women whose goals are to ultimately promote womens participation in government and political/state affairs. Since then, Chinese women have acquired valuable experiences in their participation in governmental affairs.
In an article written in Peoples Daily on August 28, 2002, Chinese women are described as being a common figure in the political world. “The presence of Chinese women in the political arena had become more common, and their personal rights and those of their employment, education and medical welfare were all well ensuredÐ The Chinese government had taken various measures to encourage women to take part in the political and social affairs.” Statistics from the same article exemplify Chinese Womens increasing presence in the political world. “Local governments had also tried various ways to broaden employment channels for women, including encouraging the development of tertiary industry, promoting community household services, giving favorable policies to women in poverty-reduction projects and encouraging women to open their own businesses. Following these measures, the number of employed Chinese women had risen from 280 million in 1990 to 330 million in 2000, accounting for 46 percent