Chinese Society and Culture - Essay Example

Society And Culture Since the Chinese government adopted the “one child policy” during 1979, each family has been forced to have only one kid. As a result, I am the only child in my family. In Chinese families, women always do the housekeeping chores and they take care of children. But now females in the Chinese society have become a part of the workforce and no longer are restricted to the role of housewife. They have their own work and they can have their private space. But at home, it is still a female’s job to wash clothes and dishes, tidy the rooms, and take care of their kids. They do most of the housework and men rarely do any housework, but some of the men cook for their family. At a very young age adults told me that, “girls should be quiet and well-behaved”, “boys should be strong and they should not cry”, “girls should talk softly and behave gently”, “boys should protect girls and they should support of their family when they grow up”, “girls should keep their space clean and tidy”, “boys should take responsibilities of all things” and so on. Usually, in one relationship, men and women make decisions together if they are respect each other. Sometimes they make their own decisions without consulting their partner if the issue is not very big. However, in severe situation, men always have the decision-making authority in their family. For example, when I decided to study abroad, I knew my mother would support me, but the final decision was in the hands of my father. I believe that in a relationship my girlfriend should listen to me when we have to make a choice or decide an important issue. However, things were not practiced the same way in the past. At the time, when my grandparents were young, wives had to be obedient to their husbands. People thought men were superior to women. Families prefer sons to daughters, and they thought if a woman could not give birth to a boy, it was all her fault. When I was very young, I asked my parents how I was born but they never responded to this query. Chinese people are more conservative than Americans and Europeans. Some people think it is disrespectful and wrong to talk about sex and women’s bodies. So I think feminist movement is very necessary and important throughout human history and it should be continued now and in the future. As the reading “The Body Through Women’s Eyes” by Joanna Frueh says, feminist artists can “show that women could become makers of meaning, as opposed to being bearers of man’s meaning” (Broude 190). It also states that due to the invention of contraceptives, women have freedom to demand for sexual pleasure and sex is no longer considered as a shameful act. Men and women should be equally treated regarding sexuality. I and my family belong to the middle class of the socio-economic group. I do not think that my family is wealthy and prestigious enough to be labeled as upper class. However, my parents can afford to pay for my studies abroad and we live a good life, so I see my family as middle class. My cultural background is obviously Asian culture and I grew up in the mainland China. After my sophomore year in high school, I came to the United States and started adopting its culture. So before I came to the United States for education, all my classmates were Chinese. The schools I went in China were all public schools. Due to this, there was lack of international students in my school. After I finished my sophomore year in China, I transferred to a private high school in the United States. It was a Catholic high school and most of the students studying there were Americans and they were Catholics. Some of the students were international students from Asia and Europe. The neighborhood in which I grew up mainly consisted of my father’s colleagues. Then we moved to a new community and the people living there were not familiar with us and I barely knew them. Most of my neighbors were people belonging to my parents’ age group and most of them were seniors. The friends with whom I grew up were mostly the children of my father’s colleagues. Since we all live close to each other and each of us is the only child in our family, we became good friends since childhood. I think a desirable friend to bring home is the one that is sincere, honest, and friendly. He or she must be my good friend and we know each other very well, and I trust him or her so I am happy to bring him or her home. I think friends should have similar interest and similar thoughts for each other. We can talk about a lot of things and they can understand my feelings. Also when I choose friends, roommates, and partners, I expect him or her to be considerate and warm-hearted. We can help each other when we encounter difficulties and he or she will have my back when I am confused or sad. I do think that social identity categories impact the friends’ circle I maintain or relate with, because I feel people belonging to different background end up having conflicts quite often. Although I have been in the United States for 6 years, it is still hard for me to be good friend with people from other cultures. However, social identity does not impact whom I could learn from because I think all the people have their advantages and merits and we can learn from. Experiences from others help me in the growing up process and I will always learn from people and appreciate their virtues despite of their social identities. Due to these prior experiences, most of my friends now are still Chinese although I have moved from China to the United States. In my opinion, the “outsiders” in my life are people who do not know me well. They can only see my appearance and how I behave publicly. And the “insiders” of my life are my family and good friends who have seen different aspects of me. They went through a lot with me and they knew my shortcomings but they never left. I think my concepts of womanhood and manhood have changed over time. As I become older and as I see come in contact with more people in life, I identified that each of them is different from one another. As the society becomes more open, more people now accept gays and lesbians. In older times, people think a man should be muscular and masculine; a woman should be gentle and soft. In the reading, “A Day Without Feminism”, by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, imagine people live in 1970s, “Boys who want to learn how to cook or sew on a button are out of luck, as are girls who want to learn how to fix a car… In high school, the principal is a man” (Baumgardner 28). Girls have physical-education class and play half-court basketball, but not soccer, track, or cross country; nor do they have any varsity sports teams. In this reading the author states that “the only prestigious physical activity for girls is cheerleading, or being a drum majorette” (Shaw 28). While reading this article, we can see how unequal the society was between men and women during those periods. Now things have changed and a lot of women are muscular and they participate in various sports and activities. People admire them when they achieve their goals in sports competition. Furthermore, some people think if a man is tender now, he is cute and attractive. There are no specific standards for how to be a good man or woman. People tend to accept all personalities and they now learn to respect. Since most of my friends are Asians, they also pay more attention to Asian actors rather than American actors and many Asian girls like Korean actors. For me, those actors are not attractive at all. In my opinion, a man can be gentle and tender, but he first needs to be masculine to be fascinating, but I accept their views. Those messages did not really shape my ideas in regard to my own physical appearance. I just want to be myself and I do not think I need to change to comply with the wishes of other people. In our first week’s reading, “Claiming an Education”, by Adrienne Rich, it says that “Today, with increasing numbers of women students in nearly every branch of higher learning, we still see very few women in the upper levels of faculty and administration in most institutions. Douglass College itself is a women’s college in a university administered overwhelmingly by men, who in turn are answerable to the state legislature, again composed predominantly of men” (Rich 25). In China, I know a lot of the employers still prefer male over female applicants when they hire employees, because they think that women focus more on family than business. Also after women get married, they will have babies and they need time off during their pregnancy and that might impose some burden on their companies. This illustrates that although now most women get higher education than before, the society is still mainly dominated by men. Finally, I want to talk about one of my good friends whom I think it is really brave to express her identity by any means that fits her best. We lived in one dorm in middle school. She is a girl but she sees herself as a boy in her mind. She dresses like boys and she has girlfriends. Many people do not understand her because in China, gays and lesbians are not really accepted. It is like the scenario stated the article “What’s So Bad About A Boy Who Wants to Wear a Dress?” by Ruth Padawer (Padawer 1). It talks about that “Alex had recently become inconsolable about his parents’ ban on wearing dresses beyond dress-up time” (Padawer 1). After consulting their pediatrician, a psychologist and parents of other gender-nonconforming children, they concluded that “the important thing was to teach him not to be ashamed of whom he feels he is”. I think people have the right to choose what life they want to live and who they are inside of their hearts. No one should look down upon someone due to his or her dressing or sexual orientation. Inequality in life is hard to eliminate because people always have bias and prejudice. Works Cited Baumgardner, Jennifer, Richards, Amy. “A Day Without Feminism” Women’s Voices and Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Ed. Susan M. Shaw, Janet Lee. New York: McGraw Hill. 2009. Print. p.28-31 Frueh , Joanna. “The Body through Women’s Eyes.” The Power of Feminist Art. Ed. Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1994. Print Padawer, Ruth. Log In - The New York Times. Nytimes.com. N. p., 2012. Web. 17 Jun. 2014. Rich, Adrienne. “A Day Without Feminism” Women’s Voices and Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Ed. Susan M. Shaw, Janet Lee. New York: McGraw Hill. 2009. Print. p.25 - 27 Read More