Thursday, October 6, 2011

A parallel between Chinese and western women at ancient times

Sry that I had a post problem before.





In the lecture we discussed that Christian women are expected to stand "Holy" to be perfect, specifically, those perfect women are ascetic and virginal. However, in China, women in ancient times also had doctrines about their "Holiness". (as following listed items)

1. One women could only marry one time during her lifetime. (She was unexpected to remarry if she hated her husband, if she was abused by her husband, or if her husband died.)

2. They should have no mind to get themselves educated, enter the bureaucrat, or do other men-related activities. (They should only concentrated women's gobs: weaving, farm-working, cook, etc.)

3. They should always be loyal to their husband. (Women might be starved to death deliberately by their families to show the loyalties to their husbands.)

4. They were expected to band their feet when they were children (this act started from Tang Dynasty, 618 to the early 1900s ), to show that they were docile to their husbands and they are willing to suit men's interests(women with small feet) as well. 

To sum up, Chinese doctrines towards women also include "asceticism and virginity". To some degree, making flesh wound on oneself can also be a sign that one succumb to power(In western context, it's the loyalty to god; in eastern context, it's the loyalty both to men, to elders, to gods.)

Under different culture background, people's view towards gender, towards power (whatever men or god) can be that similar. There are definitely some origin we can trace that relates to human as a whole.

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