GRSJ224/feminisminchina

Feminism and Gender Discrimination in China by: Sheng Hui Jin (Alice)

Feminism in China has a long history that involves many people struggling for freedom and rights for women. One of the most important era for feminism in China was the time period after the cultural revolution which is around the 1980's. As China was beginning to modernize and strive to be a more advanced country, feminism was on the rise as well: "Moving out of the rigors of 'political winter' of the Cultural Revolution...a Women's Studies wave has emerged." (Min, 274) However, the concept of "feminism" or the idea of striving for women's rights in China did not receive as much attention from the people in comparison to the other parts of the world. This point is mentioned in Spakowski's journal article "'Gender' Trouble: Feminism in China Under the Impact of Western Theory and the Spatialization of Identity": "Though Asian women's studies is a latecomer within global women's studies, and chinese women's studies is a latecomer within Asian women's studies, they are still part of women's studies as a universal effort..." (Spakowski, 36) It is probably not surprising to anyone to learn about the gender inequality or gender discrimination that has been existing in China and the Chinese culture since a very early time. In fact, it is not exaggerating to say that the social phenomenon of gender inequality or gender discrimination has been deeply rooted in the Chinese culture and also deeply rooted in people's minds. After the long years of the oppression from the patriarchal society on the Chinese women, many women themselves consider themselves to be relatively lower in terms of their social status or their social position. This self-identity of the women applies to various aspects of their life including in the context of their family and in the broader context of the patriarchal society. Perhaps the self-identity of the women which makes the women think that they are born to be inferior to men makes it even more difficult to ease the situation or gain more gender equality eventually. Gender inequality is a common social phenomenon in China that could be reflected in various different aspects of people's life and and the society including marriage, workforce, and access to education. One of most important and obvious example of gender inequality would be the marriage culture in China. There is a common social norm or views regarding marriage which is that women should get married when they are still considered to be young and attractive to the men. In other words, the Chinese culture tend to value a woman based on her age and judge a woman by her fertility ability. In other words, there is a common view or opinion that a woman's main duty in her life is to get married and give birth. It is likely for a woman to be negatively judged or receive criticism if she does not get married at a certain age or refuse to give birth. In addition, it is a common view in the Chinese society that giving birth to a son is much more preferable than giving birth to a daughter. This phenomenon of gender preference regarding giving birth is deeply rooted in people's minds and it is possible for people to harm the new born baby if the baby was a daughter in some extreme cases. This practice is likely to take place especially in the rural areas of China because people lack in education and the influence of the traditional norms. The feminism movements in the Western world is likely to have a great influence on the feminism of China. However, the influence from the Western feminism on the Chinese feminism seems to be interpreted or viewed in several different ways. Some scholars think that the situation of the feminism in China is very different from the feminism in the West and that they should be interpreted separately: "...she distinguished between 'localization' (bentuhua) and 'local research' (bentu yanjiu) and made clear that she favored the local research, that is, research without any outside interference." (Spakowski, 37) As one can see from this quote, this particular scholar thinks that the influence from the Western feminism on the Chinese feminism should be separated when conducting researches on feminism in China. More specifically, the influence of the Western feminism on the Chinese feminism is thought to be likely to contribute to the tendency of losing its own originality: "...that reduces Chinese feminism to the orle of a student and Chinese society to a mere extenson of the West." (Spakowski, 38) Feminism still has a long way to go in China before fighting against the gender discrimination against women and achieving true gender equality eventually. It is likely to be very difficult to change or diminish the influence of the traditional norms and views on gender roles in China.

Sources:

Spakowski, Nicola. “‘Gender’ Trouble: Feminism in China Under the Impact of Western Theory and the Spatialization of Identity.” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, vol. 19, no.1, 2011, http://muse.jhu.edu.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/article/444419. Accessed 5 Aug 2016. Min, Dongchao. "Awakening Again: Travelling Feminism in China in the 1980s" Women's Studies International Forum, vol. 28, no.4, 2005, http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/science/article/pii/S0277539505000245. Accessed 5 Aug 2016.