Women in china

There is a popular saying that, when friends bumped into each other in the past in streets of china, they greeted each other saying, 'Chi le ma?' (Have you eaten?). But now they greet each other saying, 'li le ma?' (Have you divorced?). While the social significance of this saying with respect to divorce rate is a subject on its own, what the saying signifies is that women in china are enjoying freedom and right for expression of thier opinion. The other day, when I was walking down the road, I happened to see a wedding procession. It was an elegant display of the occasion with pools of long and luxurious cars swishing behind, the bride elegantly dressed with long red gown; her dress carefully and sophisticatedly dressed and made to bounce. The parents of the bride and bride groom were equally elegantly dressed, supplimenting pride to thier ornaments. The whole occasion reflected luxury and eloquence. This setting is a strong semblance of the equality women possess in this modern society, atleast in the urban ambience. But is this what was experienced by girls in the past? Lets rewind a bit to history.

In the past, the parents of the bride were not allowed to enter the wedding of thier own daughter. In most cases there were no wedding ceremony at all. The bride was just sent to the home of her husband and therefore supplimenting thier mother in law and working like a slave. Most men in ancient china were allowed to have 4 to 5 wives. Women had no freedom of expression and led a humiliating life throughout. When the men were asked about the number of members in the family, they normally exclude women from the count. Women were just considered as the being to satisfy the men's needs.

Perhaps the most blatant symbol of suppression of women in the ancient society was the practice of 'Foot Binding'. In mandarin it was termed as 缠小脚 ( chan xiao jiao). It was practice imposed on women to bind thier foot to make it smaller which was considered to be admirable and sexy to the men at those times. Perhaps the picture in this blog might emphasise the cruelity of the practice. Women suffered enduring pain through out thier lives. The permamant bind of thier toe meant that thier finger nails grew long, swirled back and start penetrating back into thier feet and spread infection alll around. Feet of even teen age girls started smeeling foul and felt decayed. The pain was something they had to live with.

This cruelity and helpness was experienced by a billion of women for over 100o years. But things later started to transform over periods under different regimes.

Since the wake of twentieth century, women equality started taking more realistic turns. Chairman Mao was a big supporter of women equlaity. One of his popular quotes, "
妇女能顶半边天" (Women can hold half the sky) indicates his sheer confidencen is women. Many rules and laws had become astionized during his regime. Labor law was passed on to ensure women get equal wages compared to men. Divorce law was passed on to hear the say of women to terminate wedding. All this and many more made the transformation of women's status in the society become the reality.

And the transformation shows. In 1940, womens contribution to thier families income was meagre 10%. But now its nearly 40% and all set to sky up. More and more women go to schools, universities and get white collar jobs. Women are found as truck drivers , taxi drivers, software professionals, hospitality professionals and many more. It will not be exagerrating to say women in china are becoming the dynamic force in modern chinese society. To add up to this, the ratio of men to women in china is 117 to 100, which means women are msking the calls for marriage. Getting married is becoming extremely hard for men. They have to ensure good eduction, good job, home, car and other comforts to ensure they get married let alone finding the girl they like. And more and more women in china have beeome inspired by western society and customs and it shows. To put it simply, the transformation of women in china from the state of being suppressed to become the dynamic force in chinese society is remarkable. There are still plenty of transformation that has to be spread out to the rural area but that will happen eventually with time.

The next time I happen to see a chinese wedding, it will not only displays the elegance of the occasion but also the path women has to endure all the while to reach the position they are.