women

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Let's use this section of the forum for the group working on evolving perceptions of and roles for women.

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Last week I mentioned the novel Flowers in the Mirror by Li Ruzhen (Li Ju-chen, 1763-1830) to the group. The Chinese name is 鏡花緣 (Jinghuayuan). Li was among those who did not pass the civil service examination and turned to fiction to express his frustrations.

Flowers in the Mirror is set in the Tang dynasty (618-906)

The English translation was originally published in 1965 and UNESCO made an Anchor/Doubleday reprint in 1971.

Among the more interesting passages in the novel are those about a group of women preparing for the civil service examination and the decision by women to bind the feet of Merchant Lin, a man.

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The current (4/30/04) issue of the The Chronicle of Higher Education includes an article by David Glenn entitled "A Dangerous Surplus of Sons." Valerie Hudson and Andrea de Boer conclude in their book Bare Branches: Security Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Population (MIT Press, 2004) that sex selective abortion will threaten peace as mate-less males contribute to higher levels of crime and social disorder. Asian governments will channel males into larger armies and trouble will ensue.

I haven't read the book, but attach the article for you to explore. Off the top of my head, I think we can note that in some places in late imperial China (roughly 1368-1911) unmarried males were prevalent and participated in rebel groups (see Elizabeth Perry's classic work on rebellion Rebels and Revolutionaries in North China, 1845-1945).

The article discusses why the preference for sons has endured. Please take a look and share your views.

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone- I'm all set up and ready for my pre-trip assignment. Now, if I can just recall what it is......... 😐

[Anonymous]

Holding Up Half the Sky?

Women's Changing Images and Relationships Across the Centuries

Relationships:
Mother-in-law - daughter-in-law
Husband - Wife
Mother - Sons and Daughters
Friends

Images & Ideals:
"Traditional" and "Now"[Edit by="rmoser on May 6, 9:40:52 AM"][/Edit]

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Footbinding is one of the topics that every teacher needs to discuss when looking at the varying experiences of Chinese women. It emerges about a thousand years ago and survived into the last century.

Not all women had their feet bound. Many non-Han ethnic groups such as the Hakka and Manchus did not bind their women's feet and it was much less common among ordinary people in the South than it was in the North, probably because women in the South usually joined in agricultural labor.

How are we to understand this custom and role men and women played in perpetuating it? How should we raise the topic with children? Is it enough to note that our own culture imposes standards of beauty that cause some to endure suffering, surgery, or psychological damage?

Below are some web resources on footbinding that you may find interesting.

California resident Beverly Jackson is a longtime collector of the shoes worn by Chinese women with bound feet. She traveled to China and interviewed women who had their feet bound and produced a lavishly illustrated volume Splendid Slippers. Her website offers short excerpts from the book, reviews of it, and -- of course -- a link to buy the volume. Combined with works by Howard Levy and Dorothy Ko, this is a good resource to draw upon in introducing the practice to students.

http://www.silcom.com/~bevjack/

Levy, Howard S. Chinese Footbinding: The History of a Curious Erotic Custom, Foreword by Arthur Waley. Introd. by Wolfram Eberhard. New York, W. Rawls, 1966.

Ko, Dorothy. Every Step a Lotus : Shoes for Bound Feet. Berkeley : University of California Press, 2001. Click here to see the UC Press webpage on the book. You can download and read chapter 2. It includes terrific images. Prof. Ko has also written "The Body as Attire: The Shifting Meanings of Footbinding in Seventeenth-Century China," The Journal of Women's History 8.4.

Feng Jicai, one of China's most popular writers, authored an interesting novel on the custom and its place in family and social life. Three Inch Golden Lotus. It was translated by David Wakefield and published by the University of Hawaii press.

Yue-qing Yang's recent film Footbinding: The Search for the Three-Inch Golden Lotus is available and includes interviews with Chinese about the custom. In the film, Dorothy Ko argues that footbinding is routinely misunderstood.

http://www.movingimages.bc.ca/catalogue/Cultdiverse/footbinding.html

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We've already mentioned a few resources, but here's a good list of English language works on women in Chinese history. Ordinarily this gets put into the "Asia in My Classroom" forum but I'm eager to get the women group working together in advance of the reunion weekend.

http://hua.umf.maine.edu/China/womtxt.html

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WBUR, the famed Boston public radio station, had an interview with a Cantonese woman named Pun Ngai about her work to secure rights for laborers in Southern China. Click on this link to read a summary. If you are interested you can hear the program online.

http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2004/09/20040908_a_main.asp

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China's making some big leadership moves. Jiang Zemin has retired from his all-powerful post atop the CCP's central military commission. At the 2002 CCP conference, several female members of the CCP leadership are highlighted:

http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/48517.htm

Outside of the CCP, a Ford Foundation project is trying to develop women leaders:

http://www.winrock.org/fact/facts.cfm?CC=5230

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