Chinese Women Essay -- China Chinese Culture Essays

Chinese Women Traditional Chinese society was patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal. In this male dominated society, sons were preferred to daughters, and women were expected to be subordinate to their fathers, husbands, and sons. Because marriages were arranged, young women and men had virtually no voice in the decisions on their marriage partner, resulting in loveless marriages. Once married, it was the woman who left her family and community and went to live with her husband’s family, where she was subordinate to her mother-in-law. In some cases, female infants were subjected to a high rate of infanticide, or sold as slaves to wealthy families. Men were permitted to take as many wives as they wished and bound feet, which were customary even for peasant women, symbolized the painful constraints of the female role. Chinese women were considered second-class citizens and were subject to the wishes and restraints of men. The basic unit of Chinese society, the family, was male dominated. The oldest living male ruled the patriarchal Chinese family. As the head of the family, the grandfather or father decided whom the children and grandchildren would marry. Because the Chinese practiced a patrilineal system, ancestry was only traced through the male side of the family. When a woman married in the patrilocal system, she was no longer a member of her own family and was sent to live with her husband’s family. Her mother-in-law was to be considered her own new mother and her authority was absolute (Major 107-109). â€Å"Her rule could be benevolent but, far more generally, is reported to have been harsh and autocratic in the extreme, leading at times to suicide (Tregear 120). Daughters, whose long-term contribution to their families was limited, were valued much less than sons. Traditional Chinese philosophy was that, â€Å"raising daughters is like raising children for another family† (Major 109). After O-lan delivers her first daughter, in the novel The Good Earth, she says to her husband Wang Lung, â€Å"It is only a slave this time – not worth mentioning† (Buck 65). Sometimes daughters were sold as servants or prostitutes, or even killed in order to give sons a better chance for survival in times of stress or prolonged famine. During a time of great famine, O-lan, wishing to do what is best for husband, suggests selling their daughter, â€Å"If it were only ... ...his women’s feet and associates small feet with attractiveness and sex (Buck 169-180). Chinese women had no choice but to comply with this torture. â€Å"It was a social convention of long standing and a girl was disgraced if she came to maturity with unbound or large feet† (Latourette 84). When a girl reached the marriageable age, she had better hopes of marrying well if she had bound feet. It was seen to be a reflection on her parents’ ability to raise her properly. Mothers told their daughters that a woman’s attractiveness resided more in her character than in her face or body. Bound feet showed discipline and respect for the Confucian idea of a â€Å"mindful body.† Furthermore, small feet showed refinement and class, which reflected back on a woman’s family (Vento 4). The disgusting display of sexism in China has been immensely reduced by the Communist regime. However, the situation is still far from ideal. Although concubinage and footbinding have been outlawed, the woman’s role is still considered to be in the home. As Soren Kierkegaard once said, â€Å"the present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased.† With a little luck, the cure will be discovered soon.