How Women Represent Traditional Culture

How Women Represent Traditional Culture

Introduction

Throughout history, cultures play a significant role in maintaining some desirable ethical codes in society. However, many communities have, in many facets, changed from the traditional religions in terms of beliefs and practices. It is noteworthy that many cultures placed the male figure as superior to female and thus female were only subject to male. This paper examines the Chinese culture with the view to comprehend the perspective of women in traditional Chinese culture. Internationally, feminists have been for the change of cultures that undermine the role of women in society. For the understanding of the traditional Chinese culture, this paper analyzes two stories, including “When I was in Xia Village” by Ding Ling and “The Night of the Mid-Autumn Festival” by Ling Shuhua. The purpose of these texts is to help in understanding how women character represents the traditional Chinese culture and the need for reform.

The story “When I was in Xia Village” revolves around Zhenzhen, a village girl at her late teenage age. The Japanese soldiers abduct Zhenzhen as she attempts to escape to the church when her father organizes her marriage as one of the practices in traditional Chinese culture. After the abduction, the Japanese soldiers rape her, and one of them forces her into marriage. In the process, Zhenzhen acquires a sexually transmitted disease. Consequently, she decides to revenge and becomes a spy for the Chinese. However, she becomes close to a prostitute for her missions to be successful. Zhenzhen becomes very happy any time the Chinese defeats the “Japanese devils” in the battle. Although she does all these to liberate her people from the enemies, she is covered with shame when she returns home as the village people circulate rumours about her health among other concerns. As such, she decides to move to a different region where she can claim her worth after seeking medication of the disease.

Analysis of how women characters represent traditional culture

Analyzing both Ding Ling’s and Ling Shuhua’s works, the two authors demonstrate different ways that women characters represent traditional Chinese culture.  Firstly, it is clear that the traditional culture demands a lot of obedience to men by all women. As such, women must be obedient to their fathers, husbands and sons. Besides, the women characters represent the traditional Chinese culture as a culture where women’s role is that of housekeepers. Notably, the value of the following activities is lower than that of men beyond households. As observed from Zhenzhen, the protagonist in the Ding Ling’s story, traditional Chinese culture confers all the decision making powers to men (Lau & Howard 138). For example, instead of letting Zhenzhen decide to marry or not, and to choose the person to marry if she chooses to marry, the culture gives the powers to men. Even though both Zhenzhen and Dabao were early-days’ friends, Zhenzhen intended to become a nun, and therefore the decision for the father to organize a marriage was not the right move for Zhenzhen. As such, Zhenzhen decided to run away when she came across her Japanese abductors. Therefore, women characters represent the culture as a patriarchal bent culture where women must adhere to the male decisions regardless of the repercussions.

Also, the female characters represent traditional cultures as oppressive. Although the village people believed that the culture was to uplift the feminine virtues and purity, women characters demonstrate that men subvert the will of women to their benefits. For example, while Zhezhen wanted to live a modest life, the father had another opinion over her life. It is noteworthy that the traditional culture oppressed the female gender by letting them remain in the slavery of men and not letting the women make their decisions or follow their heart desires (Wasserstrom 37). Besides, although Zhenzhen voluntarily decided to join the secret mission of the Communists United Front, the army could not give it a different though despite knowing the circumstances that she would encounter as a spy in Japan for China.

It is also apparent that women character represents a non-forgiving and violent culture. Following the story of Zhenzhen in Ding Ling’s “When I was in Xia Village,” it is clear to the reader that the teen suffered the violent encounter by the Japanese while she was innocent and having lived a modest life in the village. However, instead of empathizing with Zhenzhen, women in the village disowned her and spread rumours of her health conditions. However, none could spot her requirements from the outlook or speech. Instead, they continued to say that none could agree to marry her because she had defiled herself by having been married to a foreign in addition to the rape concern. Notably, good culture should be able to analyze the situation and consider accepting the suffering population in the society regardless of their state.

Besides, women characters represent the dishonest in the culture that speaks of female purity and submission. For example, when Zhenzhen returns from Japan, she learns that other women in the village are ready to spread rumours.

Comparison between two characters

Just like in the Ding Ling’s “When I was in Xia Village,” in The Night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Ling Shuhua demonstrates that the society placed high status for men while demeaning women. For example, traditional Chinese people help some thoughts and behaviours that demean the abilities of women. All women including the wife, the husband’s mother and the wife’s mother believed that failure to eat together with the duck at the “mid-autumn festival might portend some challenges” a belief that caused women from acting more liberally.

In many parts of the world, women have historically been taken from an inferior perspective. As such, the patriarchal society has continually benefited from this particular misconception. It is from this perspective that women in china have held positions in the government and political life. The position held by the majority of the people in the political arena influences the cultural changes (Yu-Ning 26). Ling Shuhua indicates that women are their political enemies.

For example, the poor husband sold in the grocery store, a task that many people termed it as a disguise. Instead of placing any blame on the husband for failure to the husband, the husband’s mother extends the blame mind of responsibility to the husband’s wife.

Nonetheless, the wife and her mother continually claim that the latter is in its current situation, mainly because of the economic status of the household (Lau & Howard 144). As such, both the wife and her mother, two female characters argue that the poor background of the father is the leading cause of the deteriorating picture of the larger society.

Why the traditional culture needs reforms

One of the reasons that require a change in Chinese culture is because the culture is making the members of the society lose their wishes. For example, if the Chinese culture was changed, Zhenzhen could have become a nun as her first choice. While demonstrating an action that many Chinese women undertake, Zhenzhen decides not to discuss with the parents about the marriage but runs to the church. However, her enemies caught up with her and ended in the worse situation of being sexually mistreated by the Chinese rivals. Although she remained focused and with hope, she becomes more frustrated and mixed up upon return from Japan when the village people dismissed her. In the end, she suffered her social status and lost her dignity from the eyes of the villagers because of “being abused by many men and had constructed stigma” (Lau & Howard 142). However, she remained focused and hopeful that she can still make it in life and let the villagers understand her worth when out of their site. Zhenzhen claims that she does not “deserve any good marriage.”

The change of the traditional culture needs to permit fairness among gender representations and roles in society. While the Chinese culture sat on patriarchal society, women could hardly speak before their male counterparts. For example, when Zhenzhen disputed with the father’s arranged marriage, she could not air her opinion but instead runs away, heading to the nearest Catholic Church (Lau & Howard 139). Because she understood the state of the society and its perception of marriage, the status of men and women, confronting her father could mean being disloyal to the male figure.  Notably, many women have continued to lose their social status and dignity without seeking justice for fear of being termed as disrespectful by other people in society. It is for this reason that Zhenzhen stands out as a feminist ready to fight for female rights.

Zhenzhen reveals that she can easily place some information from that is purely borrowed from the Japanese army into the Chinese military. The latter shows that if a situation similar to that can cause the oppressors to calm down, then it is essential for the Chinese political and cultural drivers to establish a change mechanism to ensure that the change occurs effectively to the target group.

Even though the contributions by Zhenzhen in japan while as a spy for the Chinese military are a significant contribution, most of the traditionalists perceive it from a negative perspective just because of what occurred here.  It is essential to state that the people challenge these significant contributions because of the beliefs, perceptions and cultures of the people of China. Often, the customs and traditions block someone from seeing beyond the chains of these traditions (Wasserstrom 33). As such, anything that happens and is contrary to the culture or tradition is always seen as a harmful element introduce to the customs (Lau & Howard 142). The added feature is observed as a strange element and an element that can mutilate the tradition. Therefore, the people of China would always not let anything from a foreign nation to be implemented as a genuine contribution.

Further, it is essential to have reforms on the traditional Chinese culture to ensure that the female gender can exploit their abilities without restrictions. Zhenzhen manages to initiate a different way of looking at things, including marriage practices. When she decides to stand firm on her stand by refusing the marriage arrangements by the father, she introduces another chapter in the Chinese culture (Clark 15). Notably, this new chapter is all about protecting the rights of the female. While traditions hold that daughters cannot go against the will of their parents, this particular initiative is important towards bringing reforms as the females can start a feminist movement that can put across all the interests of the female (Lau & Howard 143). Although Zhen Zhen refuses the marriage arrangements partly to ensure that she does not do anything that might affect Dabao’s reputation, the overall event is a great achievement for the female gender and global gender-oriented issues.

Conclusion

The discussion above demonstrates that because of how women characters represent the traditional Chinese culture, reforms to the literature are critical. Firstly, a patriarchal culture that constantly sidelines a particular gender should have reforms to ensure inclusivity that is critical in the modern world. Secondly, reforms to eliminate oppressive actors are essential. Of importance, the characters have shown that women are equally capable and thus changes for enhancing society by empowering women are necessary.