Session 1 - August 5, Yunxiang Yan, UCLA

[Jonathan Tam]

Despite the fact that the seminar this morning presented a lot of hope for individualism and improvization in the future, I was left with the notion that in some ways, it seems like there hasn't as much progress at all. The quote that resonated the most with me was when Dr. Yan shared that "the possibility of mobility seems to encourage people to participate in the system." This seems really clear in the case of Ban Zhao - but what if Eleanor just gave Nick the ring to propose to Rachel in order to give the illusion that she accepted Rachel. When in actuality, this was just so Eleanor could maintain the patriarchal values of her family. It seems to be in some ways that we have changed the players, but the game seems the same. As I read, "Being the Right Woman for Mr. Right" and the account of Wang Rui, this idea seemed to be reinforced - especially in Wang Rui's account of western culture. In her eyes, the west was the key to a society that was more liberated from the patriarchy - only to find that patriarchy existed in a different form.

[Zoey McKinney]

I was thinking the same thing - I definitely see how the status of women has improved in the modern era, as it seems like their work is valued more highly and they wield power within the family. But at the same time, the idea of "super mom" still bases the woman's value on the fact that she has had a child. I would be interested in learning more about women in China who choose not to have children - how often does this happen currently? What is the perception of this choice? It seems that women may have been "liberated" from the home - as in, it is more acceptable to have a career and develop individuality outside of the domestic sphere - but they are still heavily bound to the idea of family and raising the next generation. Before, a woman needed to raise her child with filial piety so that they would honor the ancestors. Now, I feel like there is a similar amount of pressure to raise the child correctly, but "correctly" today means more along the lines of high-achieving and accomplished.

[Jonathan Tam]

I love the question that you posed at the end of your post because as we learned from Dr. Yan about all the things that traditional chinese women had to face, it's so important to remember that young people and in particular young women today are ungoing the same levels of oppression. I don't quite have an answer... but I had a conversation on a hike with a friend recently about how in these oppressive states, it's important to leave aspects of your culture behind and also take aspects of your culture with you - but it's not rare for new cultures to form. We look at Asian Americans, for example, who like Rachel in Crazy Rich Asians don't really fit within all Asian customs nor do in American customs. And in this void, a new culture forms with values of its own which can leave folks with a sense of empowerment.

[Xiaowei Hunt]

Today in Dr. Yan's class, I asked a question about possibility of remaining single for a woman with  "What if a girl/daughter remained unmarried?" The answer was stunning. In ancient China a girl/daughter has to get married; otherwise she would not be considered a person. In parents’ eyes, a daughter is not a family member because she will sooner or later become a man's wife’ thus, become a person in another household. Once she is married she is like water poured out on ground and you (parent) would not be able to get her back to your household. In feudal China, a daughter who is married is considered spilled water. She has no value to her own family; hence totally worthless. Fortunately women in China nowadays can choose to be either single or get married. 

[Anthony Pollard]

     Remarkably, Professor Yunxiang Yun vividly illustrated the role "mom" had in the family heirarchy. Our students will understand a 21st century interpretation about gender and generation evolution we provide for them, especially as it pertains to mom. Mostly, we can understand our 20th to early 21st century acquistion of gender and generation knowledge because we have experienced this evolution. Professor Yunxiang Yun has exposed us to historical documentation of gender and generations study and exposures older than the societal teachings about family we experienced collectively in our young United States. It is not much different than what we already know about the beginning of teaching about the family unit in these United States. Our subject title "Post-Patriarchal Intergenerationality and the Remaking of Motherhood: The Interplay of Generation and Gender in Chinese Neo-Familism" suggests the evolution of the role of a woman in the family, which started a long time ago, illustrated through Chinese beliefs, which again is not much different than what has been experienced here in these young United States. 

     Professor Yunxiang Yun explained familial heirarchy as it relates to the woman's position in the family. Clearly, we adore our mothers, and our students do to. Throughout the centuries, our mothers performed the familial duties of taking care of children, working a job, working in the home, and obviously studying higher learning because moms needed to understand the subject matter in order to provide the needed support for the childrens' learning.

     Professor Yunxiang Yun used Ban Zhao's teaching for the background of guidelines for the woman's role in the family and society, illustrating the depth of gender realization and generational perpetuation, as far back in time as BCE. His exposition pointed out Zhao committed her guidance as a basis for the woman's respect in the familial heirarchy; and it evolved. We may even deduce Mao was positively influenced by women in the family because he propagated women needed a greater role in society (not just for child-rearing), not much different than what has happened in our 19th through 21st century America. 

     In Professor Yunxiang Yun's excerpt from his book, in the very beginning, he begans to expose the role parents and grandparents had for the growth of their children, their family (even though it may also have a religious motivation.) Respect and zouren can be attributed to the familial model, and the rise of the woman's role in modernistic society. We can mention these terms to our students because it is an aged old concept and a part of the American society too. A respect that may be loss because of the changing gender role of the woman in the family, is the idea the adult children should do more to take care of their aging parents. Professor Yunxiang reiterates a Chinese perspective "the most noteworthy is the state’s promotion of filial piety as a cultural asset...[important to passing] elderly care to adult children. In public discourse, some Chinese intellectuals have begun to invoke traditional familism as an indigenous value system to counter Western individualism...," implying individualism affects the familial unit, but only if "mom" allows it to happen becasue dads are still only concerned with earing money. In many cultural societies in America, mom doesn't let parents be neglected, whether her parents or his parents, thereby, strengthening the evolution of gender and generation.

     Overall, when teaching about gender and generationality, we can gather evidence from further back in time. It requires some interpretation on our part as teachers. Additionally, the synthesis of this information we choose to share helps students to learn to synthesize information from other sources, but common to our societal views.

 

[David Ojeda]

This is the first seminar/course I take pertaining to the study of the Chinese culture; I had not heard about Ban Zhao prior to this seminar. Like Eva and Nichole, I think Ban Zhao communicated the ideas that shaped her identity. I believe Dr. Yan stated that the views of the time came living in a time where there was a devotion to patriarchal roles. Therefore, her thoughts and those of others were influenced by these men, like Confucius. 

 

I teach 6th-grade English and Social Studies (ancient civilizations) and we cover Confucius. At first glance, his teachings seem great. Today’s first session, though, have made me reflect on the female role within the five relationships/bonds Confucius discusses that have shaped China. I wonder how I’d properly introduce this into discussion.

[Marcos Garrido]

Familialism has been challenged by modernization in China in the last century, especially after the establishment of communism. It seems that the centralized government of China has broken up this cultural way of life by creating and enforcing policy that directly affects the household. I was especially interested in the comment that Professor Yan made about Chinese citizens from rural areas not being able to move to the cities without some kind of permit, and that they are essentially treated as second class citizens in their own country. I find this very interesting because most people in the world now live in cities, and it seems that the Chinese government wants to control demographics in certain areas. I wanted to ask Professor Yan about some reports coming from the XUAR region where Chinese muslims are being forced to re-educate in this mass internment camps, but due to the lack of time I wasn't able to. 

 

[Eva Morales]

Neo-Familism 

I connected to this reading and lecture, because as a Latina from Mexican descent I grew up also with the familism or collective ideology. I have memory of an event that tangibly showed the idea that together we are stronger in terms of a family unit. I was shown a stick and I was told to break it. So I did then, I was asked if I found it was easy, and I said "Yes." Then, I was shown a 10 sticks and was told to break them. I struggled at first, but I still broken them. Moral of the story together we stand stronger than divided. This had to be explained to me in this way, because I was a child. This is one of those experiences that sticks with one. This is a concept that exists in most cultures, except in Western society.

 

[Joel Jimenez]

This seminar on generation and gender in Chinese Neo-familim is very complex and has a long history.  I find it fascinating how the neo familism has evolved in China, from traditional gender roles with the patriarch at the helm of the family, to the 20th century where women played a more prominent role in the family.  According to Yunxiang, "clearly, the single most important state regulation affecting the Chinese family was the one-child policy that was first implemented in cities in 1979 and extended to rural areas in the early 1980s" (2018).  However there were unintended consequences such as a righer birth rate of males compared to females and a lower fertility rate.  These are just some of the effects of the government having a finger in the cookie jar...

[Kathrin Simmons]

I very much enjoyed Professor Yans lecture, learning about traditional familism from ancient China to this time and the meaning familism had for chinese society. The lecture gave me an inside of the huge changes chinese people went through since the cultural revolution. The rules that strengthened familism like respecting, seniors for wisdom and life experience, where turned around, as described in Prof. Yan's article" Neo- familism in the state of China" . Grandparents where left behind in the countryside while younger generations had to work hard to make a living in the cities. The one-child policy reversed old principals and destroyed values of familism.

In his article he explains how often seniors merely had to babysitt grandchildren, without being able to secure their own future. I enjoyed reading about the Dancing Grannies, where grandmothers simply refused to baby-sit but instead taking care of their own social life and well being by meeting in large group in public to excercise and dance.

I would like to research more about the health excercises that are practised in China to widen my horizon in the traditions of Qi Gong, Thai Chi etc. to include into my Physical Education program for special education students.

 

 

 

 

[Joel Jimenez]

Hi Zoey,

You bring up a very important concept on culture and being able to balance one's culture and traditions to contemporary traditions here in the U.S.  This is a discussion that I have with my students almost every day as I teach ESL to students of very diverse backgrounds and countries and they each have different thoughts on family and culture.  I find that Koreans have a deep respect for their culture and probably do some of the best culture preservation compared to other cultures.  With Saturday Korean school, heavy emphasis on family, food and language, Korean youth are doing their due diligence to carry on the traditions of past.

[Eva Morales]

The idea of familism is prevalent in Spanish-speaking countries. I think I could use this in my class during the family unit. I can have students analyze the family unit in a spanish-speaking film, and compare it to their own families to bring to light their personal stories. I would start by sharing the dynamics in my family and they could share their response as an exit ticket. The next day, we could have a discussion about their families for the students who feel comfortable sharing.

[Amy Chen]

I also agree that I didn't realize many aspects of the movie such as the lack of male leaders in the family. The main focus was on the matriarchs of the wealthy family.

[Nira Sun]

Hi Joy,

I can relate to the concern you brought up in your post. When women are taking on so many responsibilities, was it real liberty? Especially when most of the middle aged women nowadays were raised in one-child only family. I wonder if the release of second-child policy has made significant difference in child birth rate in China. Based on what I learned from my female friends in China, majority of them chose not to have the second child at all. The main reason behind it was lack of energy and attention to take care of the second child. A wife takes on so many different roles in a family while a husband sometimes just need to be a breadwinner. 

[Celeste Modster]

EMERGENT CONJUGAL LOVE, MUTUAL AFFECTION, AND FEMALE MARITAL POWER

WILLIAM JANKOWIAK AND XUAN LI

I have a friend who’s stories reflect that of a Chinese marriage built on patriarchal values and ideologies of old. Now divorced, she has no attraction to or belief in a marriage system that is other than belittling and abusive. She would have flourished as a loving wife in this new marriage model. I am a romantic from this our Western World and I am so happy to learn of the shift in love language for the Chinese culture. This article echos my sentiments on romantic relationships and I applaud the new cultural adaptation which the  authors call “the reciprocal nature of intimacy.” This artical speaks to the subject of gender moving toward equality or greater balance in marriage relationships. Women and men alike are benefitting from and enjoying love bonds. The power dynamics have become inclusive and especially empowering to women in marriage.

 

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