Chinese Women Essay -- China Chinese Culture Essays

Chinese Women traditionalistic Chinese society was patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal. In this male dominated society, sons were preferred to daughters, and women were expect to be subordinate to their fathers, married mans, and sons. Because marriages were arranged, young women and men had virtually no instance in the decisions on their marriage partner, resulting in loveless marriages. Once married, it was the adult femalehood who left her family and community and went to live with her husbands family, where she was subordinate to her mother-in-law. In some cases, female infants were subjected to a high rate of infanticide, or exchange 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 Chine se society, the family, was male dominated. The oldest lively male ruled the patriarchal Chinese family. As the head of the family, the granddad 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 deliver family and was sent to live with her husbands family. Her mother-in-law was to be considered her own young mother and her authority was absolute (Major 107-109). Her rule could be benevolent but, remote much generally, is reported to have been harsh and autocratic in the extreme, leading(a) at times to suicide (Tregear 120). Daughters, whose long-term contribution to their families was limited, were valued a lot less than sons. Traditional Chinese philosophy was that, education daughters is like raising children for another family (Major 109). After O-lan deliver s her first daughter, in the novel The Good Earth, she says to her husband Wang Lung, It is only a slave this time not worth mentioning (Buck 65). sometimes daughters were sold as servants or prostitutes, or even killed in pitch to give sons a better chance for survival in times of stress or prolonged famine. During a time of great famine, O-lan, need to do what is best for husband, suggests selling their daughter, If it were only ... ...his womens feet and associates small feet with attractor and sex (Buck 169-180). Chinese women had no choice but to comply with this torture. It was a social convention of long standing and a girl was dishonour if she came to maturity with unbound or large feet (Latourette 84). When a girl reached the mature 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 womans attractiveness resided more in her character th an in her face or body. Bound feet showed make up and respect for the Confucian idea of a mindful body. Furthermore, small feet showed tad and class, which reflected back on a womans family (Vento 4). The disgusting expose of sexism in China has been immensely reduced by the Communist regime. However, the place is mollify far from ideal. Although concubinage and footbinding have been outlawed, the womans role is still considered to be in the home. As Soren Kierkegaard once said, the present state of the cosmea and the whole of life is diseased. With a little luck, the cure will be discovered soon.