Gender Inequality in Traditional Chinese Culture

Women Are Not People

Women in China were not people. According to traditional China and Confucian culture women are nothing more than objects. Lu Xun wrote the “New Year’s Sacrifice” to criticize the conventional confusions ideals and the traditional Chinese way of life are not fair or just for women. Lu Xun believed in a new china, a china similar to the one the New Culture Movement was striving to achieve. New Culture Movement wanted to create a place of equality for all.

New Culture Movement wanted a complete break from the traditional confusions ideas and desired transform China in to a country based around more western society by incorporating democracy and scientific discovery. The New Culture Movement hoped to create a modern society based on female equality, so that no woman would be abused like Sister Xianglin. The nephew is a symbol of the revolutionaries he does not believe in the old Chinese traditions and is even

willing to say the word die, even though it is considered unlucky during the New Year period (225). He even treats Sister Xianglin with respect by referring to her as Sister and stopping to talk to her or give her money if she asked, even though she is a beggar and sinful (222).

In confusions culture, women are never able to belong to themselves and a constantly subservient to men.

Women go from being controlled by their parents to their husband and then their sons. If she is unfortunate enough to lose her husband, then she should either stay celibate or kill herself. Sister Xianglin is a perfect example of how women in the traditional Chinese and Confucian culture are discriminated against and take advantage of. For example, Sister Xianglin was never referred to by her real name, because no one knew or cared enough to know Sister Xianglin’s real name, her husband had died and yet people still refer to her as his property (227). Sister Xianglin was an extremely hard worker. Although she was “more capable than a hardworking man”, and yet she was not considered an equal (227). Even though she had run away from her mother-in-law, Sister Xianglin was forced to return with her, because she was still her husband's property (227). She had no control over her life and yet would constantly be blamed and tormented for

them.

Women being tied up, forced to marry, and then raped was a normal, accepted practice according to Old Lady Wei. Lu Xun takes this revolting custom to the extreme when describing Sister Xianglin’s second wedding to be so violent. She fought so hard that it took three strong men to hold her down, she screamed until her voice was gone, and even attempted to kill her self by slamming her head in the table and leaving a hole so big it blood poured out and yet she was still forced to marry him (232). After losing her son and second husband in the most awful way, she returned to her old job at Lu Town. To make up for Sister Xianglin’s sin of marrying two men, she goes to the Earth God’s temple to donated twelve thousand dollars (239). While the gods may have accepted her penance her employers and the town did not and all the trauma of her life began to age her (240).

Another example of Chinese traditionalism manipulating women in to a subservient level, was the New Year’s Sacrifice event itself. The ceremony took great preparation and painstaking precise rituals in hope that the gods would welcome them with good fortunes. It required both men and women to prepare, however when it came down to the actual service only men could partake in it (220). Although women’s arms would be red from working so hard, they were still not allowed to participate of the ceremony only furthering the misogyny in Chinese tradition. These antiquated mindsets perpetuate the idea that women’s lives do not matter and women are nothing more than objects or toys meant to be traded about, until their owners get bored of using them or they become too broken to be of use.

Fourth Uncle is an excellent representation of the traditional Chinese that New Culture Movement was trying to abolish. He went to the Imperial College either by placing in the civil service examination or he paid for the title (129). While the New Culture Movement does want to seek further education the civil service examinations were a part of old-fashioned Chinese tradition that had died out in 1911. Another way he exemplified the old fashioned Chinese tradition was by being a follower of Neo-Confucianism, which is a branch of Confucianism that is influenced by Buddhist metaphysics (129). In the story, Fourth Uncle is described as being very stiff and stuck in his ways. The first interaction between the Fourth Uncle and his nephew is almost robotic. After not seeing his nephew for five years he goes through the “usual social commonplaces” and tell him that he is fat (219). Afterwards, he begins to criticize the new party, however the man is so stuck in his old times that he does not realized the new party of which he speaks is twenty years old (220). His statement about Kang Youwei gives the readers a glimpse at how uninformed and deluded the conventional Chinese were. Even after Fourth Uncle and Fourth Aunt heard about the kidnapping they only thought of how Sister Xianglin kidnapping would make them look to their neighbors and family (230).

Fourth Uncle at first did not want to hire Sister Xianglin because her husband died and that is a bad omen according to Chinese tradition. However, Fourth Aunt decided to give her a chance because according to the Confucian she represents the characteristics of a good servant ideals (227). To be a good Confucian servant one must dress presentable, not be disabled, keep eyes down in submission, and not speak at all (227). Fourth Uncle freaks out, again, when he realizes that Sister Xianglin has died because it is at an inappropriate time and superstition says that her death will bring bad luck to them for the New Year (224). The uncle’s outburst demonstrates how self-centered the people who were following confusion culture had become; even when talking about a person’s death, they had made it about themselves (224).

The people of Lu Town discriminate against Sister Xainglin because she is a widow and because she married again, even though she did not want those things to happen. Forth Uncle, the man who allowed a woman to be kidnaped has the audacity to say that widows, especially widows who had married again are a “deleterious influence on the morals of society” (234). The entire town is completely insensitive to Sister Xianglin’s forced marriage and rape and incessantly taunts her about it and these atrocious experiences a joke. Mother Liu even blames her for not working hard enough to fight him off (238)!

Sister Xianglin begins the story as a sad, but hard working and determined women. By the end, she has lost her mind and her only hope lays in death, all do to the disturbing treatment that Chinese tradition and Confucius culture pertain to women. Lu Xun does an excellent job of depicting the need for the New Culture Movement and equality for women.