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The role of women in Chinese culture
The role of women in Chinese culture
The role of women in Chinese culture
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In Pearl S. Buck’s novel, The Good Earth, a humble Chinese farmer, Wang Lung, starts out as a poor man; nevertheless, he overcomes many struggles in order to become a rich and prosperous man. Although, Wang Lung is the main character of the novel there is an equal importance in the women presented. The novel focuses on the major roles of women in China. In the traditional Chinese society, women were oppressed and disrespected. The roles of women were arranged on the home, where they were expected to serve their families. Each female character shows a distinctive perspective of the common women in China. The author not only illustrations the different roles of women, she also displays the struggles women had to overcome in order deal with the injustice during this time. The importance of these female characters is fundamental to the theme of the novel.
The first female character that the book introduces to the reader is, O-lan. When she was just a young girl her parents sold her off to the Great House of Hwang, in order to reinsure their survival. Many poor families in China had no c...
The united States Declaration of independence states that all men are equal, but aren’t all women as well? Nowadays, the numbers for the population are at an increase for the support in gender equality, with the capture of feminist labels. The seek for equality between men and women, and criticize the privileges that arouse by gender differences. However in Old China, males control almost everything due to a patriarchal society. At that time, not only men, but also women are influenced by male chauvinism. In the Jade Peony, written by Wayson Choy, female characters are affected by an unequal perspective despite their age group.
The bitter cold bit against the starved girl’s skeletal body. She was tired. Her parents discussed ways to get to good lands. They told her the only way to have a better life was to sell her into slavery. The girl, only ten years old was silent. She dreamed of fine clothing and good food. The girl went to the House of Hwang. She was too ugly to be in sight; she was kept in the scullery. All dreams of any kind were lashed out of her young mind. Mistreated, beaten, and underestimated, young O-lan learned to work hard and became resigned to her fate. One day, the Old Mistress summoned her and told her that she was to be married to a poor farmer. The other slaves scoffed, but O-lan was grateful for a chance to be free - they married. O-lan vowed to return to the great house one day in fine clothing with a son. Her resolve was strong; no one could say otherwise. Her years of abuse as a slave had made O-lan wise, stoic, and bitter; whether the events of her life strengthened or weakened her is the question.
The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan Spence is an educational historical novel of northeastern China during the seventeenth century. The author's focus was to enlighten a reader on the Chinese people, culture, and traditions. Spence's use of the provoking stories of the Chinese county T'an-ch'eng, in the province of Shantung, brings the reader directly into the course of Chinese history. The use of the sources available to Spence, such as the Local History of T'an-ch'eng, the scholar-official Huang Liu-hung's handbook and stories of the writer P'u Sung-Ling convey the reader directly into the lives of poor farmers, their workers and wives. The intriguing structure of The Death of Woman Wang consists on observing these people working on the land, their family structure, and their local conflicts.
Pearl S. Buck was the “Link between China and America.” (Spurling, 109.) Her rich childhood, filled to the brim with inspiration, led her to a career writing books about her homeland of China to her fellow Americans. After large success, she also became an active member of the civil rights movement and also had her own adoption agency. Persevering through opposition from Christians and Communists alike, the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winner Pearl S. Buck was one of the most influential women in United States history.
Wang Lung needs a wife so saves up the little money he has and buys a woman who is a slave named O-lan. O-lan is sold to Wang Lung so she can take care of the home, cooking and bear children. Wang Lung is disappointed when he first sees O-lan because she does not have bound feet which was a desirable quality at that time but he does enjoy when O-lan has the food ready when he comes in a night from the land. Wang Lung is very proud when O-lan makes cakes that no one else in the village knows how to makes and when his family comes to feast for the new year at their house.
The article “Feminism and Revolutionary Struggles in China” explores that many ways that china was colonialized and faced gender inequality. Women should be treated just like any other man but they have a lower status in society; and they will never have full equality in the society. China develops a case study that tries to associate feminism and socialism during the revolutionary change Jayawardena, 1986, p. 167). An investigation of the advancement of woman 's rights and women 's activist action in China in which the Chinese experience diverges from that of different nations gives numerous lessons and knowledge to those intrigued in the examination of such issues as the impediments of middle class woman 's rights, the part of women 's
The novel The Good Earth is a story of a man living in Chinese society around the time of the Chinese Revolution. Though the story is a work of fiction, some of the events in the story were actual events that the author, Pearl S. Buck, witnessed or experienced during her life while in China. The area of China that the story takes place in is based after the town Nanhsuchou where Buck lived for a period in her life.
Poor people are always the victims. And through these two novels, we see that the leading female characters are both victimized because they came from poor households. I feel that Eileen Chang’s writing style has made her female characters seem too unrealistic. These situations are unfathomable. Her novel does not seem to depict the true struggle of traditional Chinese women.
The early part of the novel shows women’s place in Chinese culture. Women had no say or position in society. They were viewed as objects, and were used as concubines and treated with disparagement in society. The status of women’s social rank in the 20th century in China is a definite positive change. As the development of Communism continued, women were allowed to be involved in not only protests, but attended universities and more opportunities outside “house” work. Communism established gender equality and legimated free marriage, instead of concunbinage. Mao’s slogan, “Women hold half of the sky”, became extremely popular. Women did almost any job a man performed. Women were victims by being compared to objects and treated as sex slaves. This was compared to the human acts right, because it was an issue of inhumane treatment.
The beginning of the novel introduces the reader to Esther O'Malley Robertson as the last of a family of extreme women. She is sitting in her home, remembering a story that her grandmother told her a long time ago. Esther is the first character that the reader is introduced to, but we do not really understand who she is until the end of the story. Esther's main struggle is dealing with her home on Loughbreeze Beach being torn down, and trying to figure out the mysteries of her family's past.
Gender roles continue to be an ongoing issue in modern society. The Good Earth displays how gender roles in Chinese culture affected men and women drastically. The radical difference between Lotus and O-Lan make a great example for the contrast. O-Lan and Lotus had extremely different relationships with Wang Lung on both sides of the spectrum ranging from a work force and luxury.
Simply put, O-lan had a rough childhood. During O-lan’s childhood, her parents sold her as a slave to the House of Hwang. O-lan became a very skilled cook over the course of her childhood because she worked in the kitchen at the House of Hwang. As a child, O-lan also became a skilled beggar, she learned where to beg and who to beg to. When her family fell on tough times during the drought, she taught her children the skills she picked up as a child. These skills that O-lan learns while enslaved, reveals O-lan’s heavy reliance on her past. O-lan’s slavery did not end after she got married, her slavery continues on, into her marriage. “At night he knew the soft firmness of her body. But in the day her clothes, her plain blue cotton coat,
In the book, The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, the Chinese characters from the 20th century are very different from women in the U.S. today. An example of a typical chinese character is O-lan. She is a loyal and hardworking wife to Wang Lung. Prior to become a wife the Wang Lung, she was a slave for the House of Hwang. Slaves were very common to 20th century China. Nowadays, there are no longer slaves and it is not legal. This is just one of the reasons why the roles of chinese women are of so much more distinct from American women in the 21st century. Another common 20th century chinese woman is Lotus, who is a prostitute. Most Americans today believe that prostitution is very discriminating and offending for women. But back in the early 20th
The novel is made up of thirty-four chapters and falls into two main parts. The first fourteen chapters establish Wang Lung's commitment to the land and depict his solid family relationships with his wife and father. His achievement of modest prosperity is followed by a sudden reversal in the form of poverty and famine which drives him and his family to the city to beg and perform hired labor. Chapters 11 to 14, which take place in the city, provide a striking contrast to the earlier depiction of country life and its traditional values. The climax of the first part of the book occurs in Chapter 14 when city unrest leads Wang and his wife, O-lan, to join a raid on a rich man's house. The money and jewels they steal enable them to return to the land. The illegal gain proves the turning point of Wang's life and fortune.