The Role of Women in China

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Within the next 2 years I hope to teach a Comparative Literature class that will focus on pivotal or culturally enlightening books and movies reflecting at least 5 countries. China will surely be one of them. I'm intrigued by the traditional roles of women in Chinese history as well as the only female emporer in Chinese history, Wu Zetian. I suppose an interesting comparison can be made between this situation in China and the traditional role of English women along side queens like Elizabeth.

[Anonymous]

MSNBC has an interesting article on the changing role of women in China.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12802089/

It talks about business women's contributions to China's economic success. Even how women may study outside China but are eager to return to live out the "Chinese dream". At its core, how different is it from the "American dream"?

[Anonymous]

Somewhere not too far away (1990's) and yet so far removed are articles describing women's role in China and the situation of divorce as being unfortunate for that population of the country. http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/chinwomn.html

If things have changed so much in 15 years, hopefully more will come in the near future. While China is evolving in terms of rights for women and the perception of the female, the US is doing the same. Certain parts of the country or within certain families we're struggling just as much as they are.

[Anonymous]

Really interesting website on the role of women in modern China:
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2005/07/introduction_to.html

Not only does it have a written synopsis, but it has video excerpts from the PBS Frontline special as well as a place for people to post reactions. There are comments from all over the globe. An interesting assignment would be to have students view the online videos and post their own commentaries after reading at least 3 others.

[Anonymous]

I just read a very interesting article by Xie Heng, Council Member of China's Family Planning Association. I thought there would be political bias in her article, but found it to be very enlightening and frank. She concludes that because of thousands of years of history and the state of the Chinese economy that women's equality is very far away.

Here is where I found the article http://www.1990institute.org/publications/pubs/ISUPAP8.html

[Anonymous]

This book is not only about Chinese women, but women in Asia.

Women in Asia: restoring women to history

http://books.google.com/books?id=CNi9Jc22OHsC&dq=women+in+china&pg=PP1&ots=U4HijGPlhT&source=citation&sig=8dDmUoZg_OuyqMxEH9fpicaqcos&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3Dwomen%2Bin%2Bchina&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=3&cad=bottom-3results#PPR1,M1

[Anonymous]

thanks for the information. China — like most of the world — reeks of patriarchy. The legacy of footbinding--like Indian suttee—is mindboggling. This is definitely an area in need of more research.

[Anonymous]

a website about Chinese women:

http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/cw/139080.htm
[Edit by="liliwang on May 8, 12:40:05 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-152633370.html
This is High Beam Encyclopedia website. There is an article about the role of rural women in China. The author gave several stories of rural women who were illiterate, but they took care of the family, and contributed to agriculture. They tried their best to help to bring some income. They wish they can read and write, so they work more and bring more income.[Edit by="ganderson on May 9, 2:09:13 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Field/8368/index.html

This is the website about Chinese American Literature by Women. You can use this website to find some literature written by Chinese American women. I read “The Women’s Role in Chinese History and Tradition.” Many of the literature showed that how unimportant women were in Chinese culture. The author used a Chinese proverb as an illustration. “A woman without talent is a woman of virtue.”
I was the third daughter in my family. My grandmother was not happy to have a girl again. My father chose my name Chuan Yuan. Yuan means member, but the pronunciation in Taiwanese means “over.” It meant “no more girl.” I have two brothers.

[Anonymous]

Consider the Tale of Genji which represents a pivotal moment in the history of the novel and a break because of the author Lady Murasaki. There is an excellent site related to the work here http://webworld.unesco.org/genji/en/part_1/2-6.shtml

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