...Oppression of Women in Ancient China Society in Ancient China, more specifically during imperial China, promoted gender inequality. This fostered the oppression of women in marriage. Society proved to have business-like views of marriage through their arrangement as well as foot binding and Nushu, a woman’s secret language. Further, religious views such as Confucius ideals on a woman’s role in society impacted how women were treated in society. Because religion and society viewed them as inferiors, women were forced to enter marriages that promoted oppression and gender inequality. In Ancient China, marriage was seen as a business decision rather than a union of love between two people. During the reign of the Zhou dynasty (1045-256 BCE), marriage among the elites was often viewed as the combination of two families. When a woman married a man, she often brought sisters along with her. These sisters, and sometimes female cousins, would be presented as accessory brides. (Shaughnessy, E., 2010) Women were never offered this luxury, therefore demonstrating how women were viewed as inferior. “Prejudice in China existed long before Confucianism. However, it was Confucianism that turned the marriage system into bondage of women, treating them as possessions for their husbands.” (Gao, X. 2003) Confucius was a man who...
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...conducted, are valuable in themselves. Conversation doesn’t have to load to consensus about anything, especially not values; it’s enough that it helps people get used to one another.” Appiah is correct in saying conversation amongst people with different beliefs and backgrounds can bring change to cultures and society, but nothing he points out should be regarded as anything other than attaching a name to a pattern that has repeated itself through human history. The practice of foot-binding in China is one of the examples Appiah provides to demonstrate how conversation can bring change. For over a thousand years, it was a Chinese custom for women to bind their feet so that they would not continue to grow larger. Foot-binding resulted in many horrible defects for women across China. According to Appiah, foot-binding was eradicated in the 1910’s and 1920’s when anti-foot-binding campaigns began to appear. As these campaigns grew and their message was continued to spread across China, natural-foot-societies were formed. Men began to...
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...modification for the sake of beauty. Two common forms of body modifications are corset wearing and foot binding. The corset was an important part of the female wardrobe for several centuries in the Western culture. It helped to sculpt the body, allowing for an outward intimate visualization of the female physique. Middle-class women depended heavily on the use of the corset to aide with keeping the mind and body tamed. Foot binding, was equally important to women of China for centuries. Tiny feet were once seen as a sign of female beauty by the men in China. A woman needed to bind feet so that she was able to find a good husband. Parents were obligated to make sure the process of foot binding...
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...Women’s Status in Ancient China Elane Yap Theng Yu HELP University Outline I. Introduction A. Opener: B. Thesis Statement: Women in Ancient China led a tough life as they faced discrimination in each and every day, no matter if it is in their roles in family, education, occupation and their dressing and makeup, thus these led to the revolution of some women. II. The ancient China society practiced the beliefs that men are dominant to women. A. Theory of Yin-Yang 1. low position of women compared to men 2. less useful and valuable than men III. Women in ancient were forced to make themselves to become beautiful. A. Foot binding 1. forced to bind since young 2. undergone painful and debilitating process 3. displaying of status and symbol of beauty IV. Women’s stages in their family were seen to be weak. A. Subject to their fathers 1. had no right to voice out B. Servant to their husbands 1. bear a male offspring to their husbands C. Not allowed to remarry after husband died 1. death penalty V. Women were only allowed to get limited education and job opportunities. A. Education 1. domestic duties 2. literatures that taught them the ways of complying with men B. Job 1. centered on the home 2. help their husbands VI. Conclusion: Women’s Status in Ancient China China, which is located in East Asia, has one of the oldest civilizations, dating...
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...Prior to taking this wonderful history class I had the opportunity to read a book that awoke my curiosity about China. History in general is a fascinating way to travel with our minds and learn more about our past, about what made us a society, how did we get to be what we are. The book that I mentioned earlier is called Snow Flower and The Secret Fan by Lisa See. The story takes place in nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, where a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, or “old same”, in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages to each-other on a fan and compose stories on handkerchiefs, as a way to escape their reality, a way to share their dreams and hopes. They also...
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...the common idea of powerlessness over the lives of women in traditional Chinese society. The paper includes 4 parts: (A) Chinese words; (B) Confucianism and Women; (C) The Three Obediences and Four Virtues; (D) Women Traditional Treatment. In these 4 parts, the reasons why women would be oppressed and hectored in rural China would be investigated and how they were treated would be clearly revealed. (A)Chinese Words ------------------------------------------------- First, the concept of the value difference of male and female shown in the formation of Chinese words would be analyzed. Males are high-valued because of bringing good luck and fortune while females are low-valued because of bringing bad luck and troubles. In this section, some examples of Chinese characters will be analyzed to reveal the values, opinions and signification over women in traditional Chinese society. ------------------------------------------------- Chinese words (Hanzi) were created by the inspiration of the meaning behind, the sound of it, or the shape and appearance of it (Wikipedi ,2012). These are all shown in the structure of the words. Hanzi reflect the culture of China and emphasize the family- based relationships. (Linda, 2001) According to the first Chinese dictionary《爾雅》(Erya) published 2000 years ago, there were more than 100 kinship terms found in the Chinese characters. (Linda, 2001) For those describing the males, like 父 Fu (Father) is sounded similar to “福Fu (Good Fortune)”,...
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...It’s 1100 years ago from China which was Song dynasty. Don’t think that was too old because it’s the basic form of women’s high heels, and it became so popular once ever. Think about what high heels do for women, all it does is to make you look pretty. But today I am not going to talk about the women’s high heels; I am going to talk about the Chinese foot-binding, what cause it and what it affects. They have similar function but it’s different. High heels are the shoes of the foot, but the foot-binding is changing your foot’s shape as a high heel. You see the difference, one is shoes and one is foot. Chinese foot- binding started during song dynasty, it is a Chinese custom of wrapping women's feet with 10 feet long bandages in order to stop them from growing with age, (picture, some women went even further, turn their feet into only 3 inches long which we call it “three-inch golden lotuses.”) and give them pretty look back then. But it has caused severe life- long disability for many millions of elder women, and even in recent years. Why Chinese women want their feet to be bounded? First of all, obviously any husband doesn’t want his wife run away, if a husband hitting his wife that she couldn’t ran away because it’s very difficult to run with bounded feet. Second, having a wife like that, it’s a status symbol for men. It means you are able to let your wife just sit at home and look pretty and no need for work. Third, back then, there was a huge foot fetish. Men ogle over feet...
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...Foot Binding the 20th Century Women have been trying to modify their bodies since the beginning of time and this has not changed to the present day. Today women use many types of products to change the way they look to create societies image of perfection. The use of makeup and other topical products is seen to be the norm and if you don’t use them you are usually not seen as put together as other women. Also today women today have many more drastic and permanent option that women in the past could not use. Women today can undergo cosmetic surgery. In fact, the amount of women that get liposuction is 55%, 47% get tummy tucks, 21% get breast enlargements and 24% of women get Botox injections (ChaCha). While the method of body modification had changed, the amount of pain and time that women are willing to put into creating the image that they think is the ideal image has not change over time. Body type and structure has always been important to women. They ideal body type has changed over time. For example, larger women at one point in time were coveted because being larger meant that you could afford to eat in excess. In China specifically the size of women’s feet was thought to be important and the smaller they were the more attractive the women. This is a brutal process that many young women had to endure so that they could be considered attractive and did a lot of damage to their bodies and esteem. Foot binding has occurred in China since the Sung Dynasty which was around...
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...Ulises Rosas-Rivera Professor Adrianna Barkey English 101 3 February 2015 Human Traditions: A Violation of the Human Rights Human rights describe equal rights and freedom for everybody by the fact of being human and without distinction of any kind of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other options. However, many people have always suffered from the lack of them throughout history. Both foot binding and female circumcision are good examples of violation of the human rights. In the essays “Footbinding” by John King Fairbank and “Female Circumcision: Rite of Passage or Violation of Rights” by Frances A. Althaus, the authors described each tradition as a violation of human rights. In today’s life there still many violations against human rights. Women and children are the ones who suffered the most. In a world where male-dominated society still exist, and discrimination, both men and women nearly have no rights for their better lives because of lower education. Female Circumcision or Genital Mutilation (what it must be called), it has been practiced in most of the countries in Africa. The practice of this “tradition,” according to Frances A. Althaus, “is one element of a rite of passage preparing young girls for womanhood and marriage” (Althaus 242). This practice is a complete form of gender discrimination. To all of the societies in Africa, Genital Mutilation is an integral part in social context. Actually, it gives complete authority and control of the...
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...WOMAN IN ANCIENT CHINA The life of a woman in ancient china was a really cruel and harsh one. Many of the things that were a popular practise back then are now against the law universally now days. Men had absolute power of women, women’s feet were bound, women had specific clothes they had to wear and they developed a secret language. Foot binding was a very strong practice in ancient china. Young girls from the age of about five or six had their feet bound by their MOTHERS. It started at this age because the feet were not fully grown (there for they were very small), and easy to change shape. This prosses was begun by breaking the toes and folding them as far back as they could go underneath the foot. Then the foot would be bound as tightly as possible so that it could not gradually slip back to normal. After that the the bandages were changed every three days. This was continued until they were thirty three. Then the foot would stop being bandaged because there was no need. Many women had infected feet. This whole prosses was excruciatingly painful. The smaller your feet the more atrractive you were considered. Women had no rights what so ever. Men could do anything that they wanted to any woman. Even if the male was four and the woman was forty. Men could beat rape and even kill a women and it was considered alright. But if that happened to a man from either sex that person would be considered an outcast. Woman had to be submissive to men and foot binding didn’t help stop...
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...The population of China is quite skewed towards males. There are many reasons for this, including high suicide rates, forced abortion, and female infanticide, and it’s terrible to think about why these are so common. This is a disturbing reality that, unfortunately, doesn’t seem as though it will go away anytime soon. Every year, the gender ratio skews more and more towards boys over girls. This is because raising a baby girl in China is seen as a burden because the child will force the family to give up some wealth, while raising a boy will cause the family to gain wealth. As it happens, in China, it is sometimes said that it’s “more profitable to raise geese than to raise a daughter”. This causes many women to get pregnant in hopes of having a son to be praised as new family heir. However, instead of a son, they’ll give birth to a daughter and kill the baby because it’s better for her to die right then and there than for her to go through the hardships of living as a woman in China. If the woman does decide to keep her daughter, a number of things may also happen to kill the girl at a young age. She’s likely to get sick, and her parents won’t see the point in getting medical help for her. In other cases, she’ll be abandoned later in life if not when she’s young....
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...her first husband, Hsu Chih-mo during the crossroads of traditional Chinese culture and Western ideas. This book includes a chronology of events, prologue, and also an epilogue. Bound Feet & Western Dress was published in New York City, by Anchor Books in October of 1997. Furthermore, from information in this book, I will attempt to write an essay that will explain the changing ideas of the family in modern China, how and why these ideas change, and why Chang Yu-i’s experiences were exceptional. Yu-i was born in the year 1900, a time when Chinese tradition and culture were taken very serious. As men moved forward, women stayed behind in the past with the sole purpose of becoming the property of a husband one day and giving birth to sons to carry on the family name. Before Yu-i told her story to her niece, there were a few things she wanted her to know so she would understand: “In China, a woman is nothing. When she is born, she must obey her father, when she is married, she must obey her husband. And when she is widowed, she must obey her son.” (6) Children in China are brought up to respect their family and elders and must always inform their parents of where they are going and what they are doing. (10) Yu-i was born into a changing time. In the year that Yu-i was born, a group of Chinese called...
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...the throne during the Tang Dynasty. She had been and still is the only female who had ruled China - no small feat despite the controversies of how she achieved that status. As it would apply to her, the ends did not justify the means. Empress Wu was born in 624 A.D. during the Tang Dynasty (618 A.D. - 907 A.D.) to an aristocrat family in Wenshui County of the Shangxi province. As a young child, Wu was well educated by her father and was taught to read Chinese classics, write and play music. (Jiang, 2003) Not surprisingly, she was selected for her astuteness and beauty at the age of fourteen to be a concubine to Emperor Taizong. Traditionally, during this era, women from nobility had their foot bound to not only represent their wealthy background and their freedom from manual labor, it was also a symbolism of the women’s chastity as such women with bound foot was largely restricted to the confines of her home. With all its “charms”, bounded foot women were sexually desirable to men. These women were required to take small steps, which made it seemed as if they were swaying. These sways were also known as the Lotus Gait, and they were extremely sexually stimulating to the men. In addition, it was thought to be that the way in which the women with bound foot had to walk strengthened the walls of her vagina and made it more narrow, thereby making for a much more erogenous zone (Foot Binding, 2011). However even...
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...with Hu Shi’s interpretation of the May fourth movement. After all, it appears that throughout history, society tends to replace traditional institutions through a process of reflection and creative destruction. In concordance with Chiang Monlin’s interpretation, Hu Shi views the May fourth movement as an “emancipating movement”. The movement was an era of challenge. Tradition was challenged by reason, authority was challenged by freedom, and suppression was challenged by humanist values. The movement was faced with a surge of radicalized idea’s many of whom were influenced by western politics. Communism was born with the downfall of the Russian Tsar Nicholas ll in 1917, and nationalism was born out of foreign imperialism. Culturally, china was previously dominated by Confucianism values, which was not only...
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...in the United States I am fortunate to have all the rights that I have, especially since I am female. I cannot imagine what life would be like without all of the changes that have come about because of our nations early feminists. Autumn Gem is a documentary about the life of China’s first feminist and how it sparked the women’s movement in China. Qiu Jin challenged the traditional gender roles and demanded equal rights and opportunities for women in China. She became interested in defining women’s rights at an early age. As a child she looked up to other influential women in China’s history. Qiu Jin studied martial arts as a young child and began schooling after watching her brother and his tutor. Qiu Jin became an accomplished writer, talented martial artist, and a leader of a revolutionary army. In the 20th century she was recognized as a national heroine who redefined what it meant to be a woman in China. At the beginning of the movie we see Qiu Jin trying to take the role as a traditional woman in China. You see her going through an arranged marriage, to a wealthy man and came from a religious family, and practiced foot binding. As her marriage progressed Qiu Jin became very unhappy with being a submissive house wife. So she began to read and write for a women’s activist newspaper. She had two children and soon was divorced. Her and her fellow activists’ supporters built a school where they would recruit and train new members of the cause. They hoped the school would...
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