During Gail Hershatter’s morning session, I was interested by her discussion on wife abuse in the old society. Although a serious topic, I appreciated how she used images to depict the story of one of the ladies in the village she examined. The images she displayed in her presentation would be good primary/secondary sources to show to students, and have them make inferences on what is going on. One could have students create their own story and ideas of what being depicted, and have them discuss why they think this is going on, and if it is similar/different to what women deal with in the US. Then as an application, students could use the readings given for this week and have them come up with their comic strip of the content read.

During Professor Kuo's morning lecture, I was interested by her discussion on the New Women versus the Modern Girl. I would have students do a reading that compares and contrast the two ideas, and then either have then do a Venn Diagram or some sort of graphic organizer that would compare/contrast the two. I would then show them images of women under the two lenses, and have students decide which images match with which idea and justify their explanations/opinions using white boards or some other method to CFU. I would also like to compare this notions to our world/society today, and see what students come up with on how these labels would fit into our society. One could have students either bring pictures from magazines, books, etc. and share out as well to add to the discussion on what labels women/girls are given or forced to take on today. Furthermore, the readings in "Women in Republican China" that Professor Kuo mentioned in her lecture also intrigued me, specifically Mao Zedong's commentaries on Miss Zhao and her suicide. Students could read the different chapters in literary circles, and have discussion questions to answer in their group regarding Mao's ideas and if they agree/disagree with them and their overall impressions of his ideas and the story.
edited by jenniferlopez on 4/11/2016

I meant to include this in my previous post about Mei Fong's discussion related specifically to the Marriage Market topic. Coincidentally, I watched Meet the Patel's on Netflix this past week which was remarkable in it's theme and treatment of marriage. Traditional Indian marriages arise out of arrangements made through family and community connections. Often partners are introduced by their parents although the ultimate decision to marry is left to the pair. Ravi's father talks about meeting 11 other women before agreeing to marry Ravi's mother. Although they spent a very brief time together, they eventually fell in love through shared values and experiences. The story revolves around an Indian family trying to make a marriage match for their son who has specific requirements. The tools used to find a marriage partner include marriage websites, conferences, and the weddings of others. It also examined what happens when you have a person who just doesn't fit the typical model others are looking for (or their expectations don't match the typical "other") in marriage as life partner. Ultimately these big topics affect humans on a personal scale. What happens if you're a "left-over" woman (or man)?This film could be shown in a classroom (or scenes) to help students understand different cultural customs regarding marriage. And again, I found that marriage and reproduction are important to government political and economic policies and without these partnerships, it can throw policies out of balance.
edited by cmccarty on 4/11/2016

I loved Mei Fong's lecture. Her words really helped contextually ether 1 child policy in some parts of China. I was extremely ignorant on this policy and her lecture help provide some clarity on the subject.

The part of her lecture that stood out the most was the "Leftover Women" clip. I have shown the video to 3 of my classrooms so far and it has sparked such a rich discussion on social norms and pressures for young women and men in China abd also the United States. We even began to have a discussion on homosexuality in the black community! I think that this video is such a powerful tool for building empathy for unknown cultures--it offered a bridge of understanding to work from. What was super interesting though was that some of my girls spoke about how it's the opposite in their households and how they are encouraged to have their career/college first and then look into long-term relationships. After the video I was bombarded with questions about the women shown in video-- if they've gotten married, if they're lesbian, if they don't believe in marriage, etc. I love when my kids ask questions because it makes me see that I hooked them on the subject.

The video made it easy for me to talk about Confucianist ideals such as respecting your parents. I was also able to bring up China's one child's policy and the fact that a lot of women abort female potential babies, the demographics of China and the such to this video.

Women in Republican China 1912-1949

Margaret Kuo, CSULB
The bookends of two major political revolutions/ high degree of fragmentation/regionalism –lack of unity. This became part of the “Century of Humiliation” – loss of political sovereignty, loss of identity for women. Victimhood is real during this time period – bound feet, mentally constrained by having less education, bought/sold, female seclusion. Furthermore, women held more strict standards than men (chastity) / chaste after husband’s death – the double standard is in effect here.

System of arranged Marriage- women leaves home to live in husband’s home town and family. When I lived in Japan, there is currently the same arrangement. I knew of only one couple that the man moved to the wife's hometown, and he even took her surname after they were married. Provisions for divorce are unequal (favoring the husband / The 7 Conditions to divorce your wife). During the Republican period the law reformed to make divorce more gender equal.

“Wrapped and Unwrapped” by Margaret Kuo is a short essay with visuals regarding the practice of female foot-binding. The Chinese custom became under attack by Western missionaries which led to an anti-binding movement. This would be an excellent source to read for high school students within a women’s studies unit, but also an interesting reading within a cultural imperialism unit / where Western views are considered better and local customs are viewed as savage.

Rural Women and Gendered Memories of the Early PRC- Professor Gail Hershatter, UC Santa Cruz

1950s The mobilization of women for labor purposes. Professor Hershatter spent much of the presentation discussing the research for a book that she co-wrote. The amount of interviews that went into the research (lost art of research, in my opinion). I can only imagine the amount of recordings and transcription that goes into the ground level of research for the book. Much of the theme was that rural China had a different form in the countryside. Rural women had a different and overlapping revolution to rural men, and this became prevalent during the interviews (points of view). The role of the midwife and women as labor model. I found Professor Hershatter's research interesting for my own take away, but I will find it difficult to incorporate the readings into my own lesson planning.
edited by aschleicher on 5/1/2016
edited by aschleicher on 5/1/2016

The video Leftover Park was shown during the Saturday session, and the Outline of the Future video with Professor Dube introducing the conference uses some of the Leftover Park video. What I find interesting is the amount of marketing by parents who act as matchmakers. Some of the parents will go to Zhong Shan Park in Beijing in order to walk around and offer leaflets as marketing to match up their children who are "past the age of marriage" in China. A lot of the pressure seems to come from parents more so than from the Millennial population themselves. There are also some of the "leftovers" who go to the park on Sundays to market themselves. What we discussed in Session #7/8 was whether the family planning policies of China is currently adding to this change in Chinese society. Mei Fong stated that it can have some impact (there are over 30 million more men in that specific generation), but there are other factors when it comes to women wanting to marry at a later age. The patterns show that Millennials are focused on their education and career more so than marriage, and the average age for marriage has increased since the 1990s. I am curious to know if the parents will eventually back off and accept the change of the Millennials? Will parents accept the fact that young people do not want to get married too early, and would rather focus on other matters?

First, I would like to thank Professor Dube, Catherine, and everyone one else who is behind the scenes for constantly providing such a quality program throughout these weeks we have been in school. Sessions 7 and 8 were AMAZING! The speakers you have chosen truly exemplify the high quality of this educational program. Please know that we are very grateful for all the hard work you put into in providing engaging lectures every week. Thank you!

Professor Kuo was so humble by just showing us that she was somewhat nervous. I definitely related to how she was feeling. All speakers really made an impact on me and allowed me to reflect more on the reality on how fortunate we are here in America, and that we shouldn't take our freedom for granted.

Professor Kuo's lecture on divorce asserted women's right in getting a divorce. At first, I thought wow women during this period were really making progress. However, in my opinion, the stipulations seemed still a bit unfair to women. The grounds for a divorce required a woman to experience intolerable cruelty for grounds in getting a divorce, not being considered the fact that maybe a women wanted to get a divorce because she didn't love her husband as she was sold to a family as a young child and raised to be a good wife and daughter-in-law and that she did not have a say in the matter of who she wanted to marry. I also was engaged in her lecture on the Republican Period (ending of a dynastic system) where a women's role began to strengthen and enabled feminism. However, the provisions for a divorce were still unequal, and it favored the husbands. The "seven conditions" law clearly shows how unfair it was to women and how it favored men. "Talking too much," really! Whereas women had to "demonstrate" a broken bone or a broken tooth.

In the end, Professor Kuo mentioned a movie, Small Happiness: Women of a Chinese Village. I have been trying to see where I can access this film, but I have not had any success. Has anyone tried looking for this film? Has anyone seen it? If so, will you please share where I can access it. I tried Youtube, but it only takes me to the soundtrack. Thanks!