Society in China - Research Paper Example

? Society in China Society in China In accordance to Jan Wong's Memoir, in the Red China Blues, the of the youthful passion, for socialist politics, as well as the left-wing politics, is described as astonishingly great, in relation to the cultural revolution of the Chinese. Jan Wong, making use of the little Chinese she was effective in, was able to research on the particular revolution. The author’s dire experience in matters concerning China, and the experiences that were involved in, during the Cultural Revolution, expounded on the chance to expound the vast knowledge concerning gender dynamics, and the ideologies, that were involved in the particular revolution scenario. The Cultural Revolution, as per the narration of the Jan Wong, was launched in May 1966. Mao, the then chairperson of the Communist Party of China, alleged that the elements of the bourgeois were infiltrating the government and society at large, aiming to restore capitalism. Mao Zedong insisted that the revisionists, ought to be removed through violent class struggle. The youth of China, responded to Mao's appeal by forming Red Guard groups around the country-Party leadership itself. 1 In cultures that are non-industrialized, two major forces define gender disparity in the distribution of work and these are the men’s greater power and physic and women’s childbearing and nurturing responsibilities. As long as maternal care does not disrupt a mother’s activities and if women have a way of enhancing their bodily strength, they can and do partake in activities that are in the contrary male dominated. Presence of such means varies over culture and environment.? Therefore, men and women are not downright different people. Women may have more of a particular characteristic; there may be traits that men have more of, but it should not be a case that men and women are essentially and radically different on these psychological characteristics This resulted to widespread factional struggles in all lifestyles. In the top leadership, it led to a mass purge of senior officials who were accused of taking a "capitalist road", most notably Liu shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. During the same period, Mao's personality cult grew to immense proportions. During China’s long revolutionary years, the state both promoted and negated new roles for women. The most severe reaction against female activism was the Guomindang’s counter-revolution, called the White Terror, when female activists were accused of being instigators of societal chaos. During Chiang Kai-shek’s relentless hunt for Communists, thousands of women were murdered and raped, including those who had simply bobbed their hair. The Communists, for their part, turned away from what they saw as bourgeois feminist reforms to attack the socioeconomic conditions they perceived as the source of all female oppressions. The idea was that once gender difference was erased, women would be freed to help spearhead the “new society.” Mao Zedong coined the phrase “Women Hold up Half the Sky,” and set in motion a campaign to get women out of the home and into the work force. Selections from oral histories collected during the period illustrate his attempts to mobilize the lowest in society, the female peasant, so she could confront “feudal” fathers, husbands, or property owners. Millions of people were persecuted in the violent factional struggles that ensued across the country, and suffered a wide range of abuses including public humiliation, arbitrary 2345imprisonment, torture, sustained harassment, and seizure of property. A large segment of the population was forcibly displaced, most notably the transfer of urban youth to rural regions during the Down to the Countryside Movement, Rather, the DCM. Historical relics and artifacts were destroyed. Cultural and religious sites were ransacked. Female-specific concerns continued facing disregard, during the Cultural Revolution when equality between sexes faced assumption and class war took center stage. In China’s post 1980 modernization efforts, new tensions have emerged as women felt the urge to return to their traditional roles at home and at work, and to “feminize” their physical appearance. 6 At the same time, the old ideal of the worker who forsakes even family duties to selflessly contribute, to society still holds. A new slogan, coined by a detractor to today’s modernization drive, claims that now “Women Hold up Two Skies!” Propaganda posters dramatically illustrate these shifts from revolutionary times to today when, although over 80 percent of women work outside their homes and some participate in political activities, it is clear that habits established thousands of years ago do not easily disappear. Mao officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969, but its active phase lasted until the death of the military leader Lin Biao in 1971. The political instability between 1971 and the arrest of the Gang of Four in the year 1976 thus the wide regard, as part of the Revolution. After Mao's death in the year 1976, reformers led by Deng gained reputation. Most of the Maoist reforms associated with the Cultural Revolution were abandoned by the year 1978. The Cultural Revolution has been treated officially as a negative phenomenon ever since. According to Chinese history, the ideologies, and relevance of gender in society, gathered high consideration. The early history of China is obscured by the lack of written documents from this period, coupled with the existence of later accounts that attempted to describe events that had occurred several centuries previously. In a sense, the problem stems from centuries of introspection on the part of the Chinese people, which has blurred the distinction between fact and fiction in regards to this early history. The experiences of women occupying senior positions in modern industrial Hong Kong demonstrate the ambivalence with which women confront changing gender roles. In his interviews with 35 Hong Kong female executives, found that on the job, these women reported that they could not bargain with men on equal terms, which forced them to play and reconcile contradictory roles. On the one hand, they had to prove themselves worthy of the position of authority; on the other, to make life easy for themselves, they were obliged to live up to men’s expectations that women are soft, gentle, and vulnerable. To resolve the dilemma, some chose to reject the stereotype and insisted on behaving “like a man.” Many, however, chose to rely on feminine charm, even if they recognized that it simply reconfirmed male-held stereotypes. In China, the concept of gender difference, tend to appear in both male and female aspects of the famous yin-yang Taoist symbol. The dark swirl within the symbol’s circle is the passive, yielding, feminine yin; the light swirl the active, aggressive, male yang. Neither off the principle is, or rather was considered subordinate to the other. This is in that, each complements the other and is capable of expressing both female and male characteristics. As per this ideology, women were able to seek spiritual fulfillment beyond their family duties. This included, some 7joining convents, while others gathered with men to discuss philosophy and religion, as a result, a few became Taoist adepts. In Hong Kong, a predominantly Chinese society influenced by both Western and Chinese cultures, the expansion of economic opportunity and a more liberal social climate provided an impetus for women’s relief. Considerably, this rose from household obligation and facilitated increased participation in the labor force. However, despite social changes towards increasing status and expanding roles for women, remnants of traditional Chinese values, including beliefs about the place of women, persist among Hong Kong people. Evidence indicates that public attitudes towards women with successful careers are both positive and negative. Such women are described as achievement-oriented, rational, decisive, and competent as well as selfish, aggressive, and lacking in nurturance. The contradictory nature of attitudes towards the status of women in Hong Kong is exemplified further by Chinese university students’ beliefs that women and men, were, and remain entitled to the same level of autonomy. In China, the equal employment opportunity law was established in 1949. After that, women who have children started to work outside. The number of the working women had increased. However, in 1980, the quality of housework was regarded as very important thing to grow children up. They said that children must be taught social rules and studies at home. Most people accept the conservative gender ideology automatically. It is common for the women to do housework. Not only in family but also in the society, the women are engaged in the job like housework. The women occupy the jobs such as housekeeper, nanny, and teacher in nursery schools. The men do not want to do such works so they tend to leave everything of housework to the women. People think that women should do housework even if they work outside. The thought that women do not work is old ideology. On the other hand, people regard the thought that women should do housework as natural, not old. Under what is a broad umbrella of psychoanalysis, different theories vary there between. The basic method of psychoanalysis is the interpretation of the relative subjects’ unconscious conflicts, that later tend to interfere with his or her day-to-day normal functioning’s. These conflicts may pose a threat such as causing phobia, anxiety, or depression. Feminism on the other hand, which generally fights for ideologies aimed at defining, as well as defending equal opportunities for women in the political and economical sector. This gives a feminist the role to advocate for the rights and equalities of women. The gender ideologies have long existed that their impact, continues to be felt to date. First, people suppose that the men are more efficient than the women in society are so the women had better stay at home. I think that there are physical differences based on sex but the gap of ability between women and men does not exist. Second, the women accept this gender ideology. It helps keeping conservative thoughts. Participating the movements, the women called for jobs and got it. Next step is to tell the men that the housework is not women’s job. The social movements are required to change the mind of people in the world. In the imperial era, women were prohibited from having official positions. It was unimaginable for women to hold these positions because during this time women underwent foot bindings, which prevented them from doing any sorts of physical labor. They held jobs that required minimal physical activity like domestic chores and producing textiles to sell or use.8 During Mao's rule, Chinese women were needed for their manual labor for farming and for urban industrialization. To compensate for their hard work, they got access to education and politics. The Chinese government supported women's education. The percentage of girls attending school was 96.2% compared to below 20% before the People's Republic. The Chinese government has tried to decrease the amount of women illiterates while promoting adult and vocational schools. The amount of illiterates has gone down from 90% in 1949 and 32% from 1993. In the first 30 years, of Communist rule women's discrimination was decreasing, but they did not have jobs that had real decision-making power. In a separate case scenario, there was the existence of Gender role stress. Gender role stress refers to the cognitive appraisal that one is not living up to the standards of one’s stereotypical gender. In this study, both the 40-item Masculine Gender Role Stress and the 39-item Feminine Gender Role Stress scales were administered to all participants. Each item was rated on a7-point Liker scale, ranging from zero to six. Examples of items on the MGRS scale are being married to someone who makes more money than you do. This was admitting that you are afraid of something and staying home during the day with a sick child. Examples of items on the FGRS scale are Having Others believe that you are emotionally cold, negotiating the price of car repairs,” and “Finding that you have gained 10 pounds.” These two scales have been adopted for use in Hong Kong Chinese samples of university students and human service professionals, and have demonstrated good internal consistency and expected relationships with health adjustment, burnout, and gender role orientation. In this study, the coefficient alpha was for the MGRS and for the FGRS scales. According to a 2003 study that involved people from 44 countries, women were happier than men. The researchers attributed the gap to women's tendency to focus on personal problems, compared to men's tendency to focus on financial success and world issues, or matters outside the home. However, a Chinese study found that at the age of 48, men's happiness surpasses women's, possibly because by that age they have experienced a certain level of career success that might elude women. Revelation by the subject in research proved that in the interest of the family, rural females were sent to find urban employment over male counterparts, mainly to supplement familial income at home and to support the males, who are more likely to attend formal learning. The male standard of education in China was, and continues to reign supreme. This was more vivid, particularly when a family is under financial stress; females are more likely to drop out of school to generate income for the family. Because females have lesser impact on the family’s long-term financial stability, their rights for opportunities development are consequently unequal. Research shows that there is openness to sexual matters that revolve around women as avenues and forums are today provided to address issues that regard female sexuality. Michael Kimmel in his response to this debunks the idea that men and women being so differently wired to the point of regarding them as coming from different planets. He argues that qualities such as compassion cannot be the only characteristic of one gender. Although there are small average differences between men and women, there is so much overlap between the two groups that no trait is regarded as either male or female. Therefore, even with these differences, both men and women have a common ground on majority of issues and hence they do come from a common planet earth In conclusion, rather than defying the conversion of lives that gender equality offers, men should embrace these changes; both because they offer the possibilities of social and economic equality, and because they also offer the possibilities of richer, fuller, and happier lives with friends, lovers, partners, and with their children. It is as a result, that psychoanalytic theory gathers appropriation here, as a weapon: a political weapon that demonstrates the magnitude in which the patriarchal society continues to structure film forms. Wong's theory is thus highly applicable in the study of masculinity, as findings from research continue to unfold. It is true however, that psychoanalytic theory, as it currently stands, is at a position to advance ones understanding of the role of feminism, as well as making it possible to nurture it deep within our societies. After the review of these points, one gets to understand the issue at hand and gets a clear picture. 9 Bibliography Gao, Mobo C. F.. The battle for China's past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution. London: Pluto Press, 2008. Print. Latourette, Kenneth Scott. The Chinese, their history and culture. 4th edition. New York: Macmillan, 1964. Print. Liu, Kang, and Xiaobing Tang. Politics, ideology, and literary discourse in modern China: theoretical interventions and cultural critique. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1993. Print. Wolf, Margery, Roxane Witke, and Emily Martin. Women in Chinese society. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1975. Print. Wong, Jan. Red China blues: my long march from Mao to now. Toronto: Doubleday/Anchor Books, 1996. Print. Read More