The Impact of Patriarchal Culture in China for Women in Xue Xinran’S Memoir “The Good Women of China”

THE IMPACT OF PATRIARCHAL CULTURE IN CHINA FOR WOMEN IN XUE XINRAN’S MEMOIR “THE GOOD WOMEN OF CHINA”

A THESIS

BY CAROLINA REG. NO. 120705071

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA MEDAN 2019

Universitas Sumatera Utara THE IMPACT OF PATRIARCHAL CULTURE IN CHINA FOR WOMEN IN XUE XINRAN’S MEMOIR “THE GOOD WOMEN OF CHINA”

A THESIS

BY CAROLINA REG. NO. 120705071

SUPERVISOR, CO-SUPERVISOR

Drs. Parlindungan Purba, M.Hum Dian Marisha Putri, S.S., M.Si NIP. 196302161989031003 NIDT. 199010292017062001

Submitted to Faculty of Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara Medan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra from Department of English.

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA MEDAN 2019

Universitas Sumatera Utara Approved by the Department of English, Faculty of Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara (USU) Medan as thesis for The Sarjana Sastra Examination.

Head, Secretary,

(Prof. T. Silvana Sinar, M.A, Ph.D) (Rahmadsyah Rangkuti, M.A.Ph.D) NIP. 19540916198032003 NIP. 197502092008121002

Universitas Sumatera Utara Accepted by the Board of Examination in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra from the Department of English, Faculty of Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara, Medan.

The examination is held in Department of English Faculty of Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara on Monday, 13th March 2019.

Dean of Faculty of Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara,

Dr. Budi Agustono, M.S NIP. 196008051987031001

Board of Examiners:

Rahmadsyah Rangkuti, M.A. Ph.D. ………………….

Drs. Parlindungan Purba, M.Hum ………………….

Riko Andika Rahmat Pohan, S.S., M.Hum ………………….

Universitas Sumatera Utara ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Alhamdulillah, all praise to Allah SWT who always gives me blessing, power, strenght and love in my entire life and in terms of my study, especially in completing this thesis as one of the requirements to get a first degree from English

Department, Faculty of Cultural Studies, University of Sumatera Utara.

I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to the Dean of Faculty of

Cultural Studies, Dr. Budi Agustono, M.S, The Head of English Departement, Prof.

T. Silvana Sinar, M.,Ph.D, and the secretary of English Department, Rahmadsyah

Rangkuti, M.A.,Ph.D, and to all the lecturers of English Department for all assistances, valuable, knowledge and facilities during my academic year.

My sicere gratitudes go to my Supervisor, Drs. Parindungan Purba, M.Hum and my Co-Supervisor, Dian Marisha Putri, S.S.,M.si who have given me a considerable amount contribution of knowledge, spare their valuable time to comment, encourage, and guide me in finishing this thesis.

To my family, especially my mother is Daheli and my father is Alm. Tomi

Muhammad. I want to say thank for their supports, advice, love in my days, who have taught me to be always patient and their prayers to make me a better person to everybody. Thanks to my beloved Husband, Andika Ramatullah Harahap, Amd for your support and advice who always make me feel calm and always ready for help me when I need your help all the time. And I also Thankyou for my mother in law is

Hj.Dra, Desiana Trimurti Pangalilla who has accompanied from the proposal examination to the final examination.

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To all my friends, thank you for their understanding and encouragement in many precious moments, especially to my closest friend who have always loyally supported my activities.

In writing this thesis, I realized that this thesis is far from being perfect though

I have done my best, so I hope suggestion for this thesis. Without any helps and support from all parties, this thesis would not be completed. Finally, I expect this thesis would be useful for the readers in the future.

Medan, 13 March 2019 The Researcher

Carolina No. Reg. 120705071

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AUTHOR‟S DECLARATION

I, CAROLINA DECLARE THAT I AM THE SOLE AUTHOR OF THIS THESIS EXCEPT WHERE REFERENCE IS MADE IN THE TEXT OF THIS THESIS. THIS THESIS CONTAINS NO MATERIAL PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE OR EXTRACTED IN WHOLE OR IN PART FROM A THESIS BY WHICH I HAVE QUALIFIED FOR OR AWARDED ANOTHER DEGREE. NO OTHER PERSON‟S WORK HAS BEEN USED WITHOUT DUE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IN THE MAIN TEXT OF THIS THESIS. THIS THESIS HAS NOT BEEN SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF ANOTHER DEGREE IN ANY TERTIARY EDUCATION.

Signed :

Date : 13th March 2019

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NAME : CAROLINA TITLE OF THESIS : THE IMPACT OF PATRIARCHAL CULTURE IN

CHINA FOR WOMEN IN XUE XINRAN‟S MEMOIR

“THE GOOD WOMEN OF CHINA”

QUALIFICATION : S-1/SARJANA DEPARTMENT : ENGLISH

I AM WILLING THAT MY THESIS SHOULD BE AVAILABLE FOR

REPRODUCTION AT THE DISRECTION OF THE LIBRARIAN OF

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES,

UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA ON THE UNDERSTANDING THAT

USERS ARE MADE AWARE OF THEIR OBLIGATION UNDER THE LAW OF

THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA.

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ABSTRAK Judul tesis ini adalah The Impact Of Patriarchal Culture In China For Women In Xue Xinran’s Memoir “The Good Women Of China”. Dalam penelitian ini, penulis memaparkan peristiwa dan efek negatif yang dialami wanita di Tiongkok dari budaya patriarki dan perspektif Xinran tentang budaya patriarki dan wanita di Tiongkok. Metode yang digunakan dalam menganalisis data The Good Women of China adalah penelitian kepustakaan dalam mengumpulkan data dan juga penelitian kualitatif. Data primer adalah memoar itu sendiri. Temuan-temuan dalam penelitian ini adalah sebagai berikut: aturan ayah atau 'patriarki' dalam sebuah keluarga di mana lelaki tertua adalah kepala keluarga dan mengendalikan istrinya, anak-anak, anggota keluarga lain dan budak. Selain itu, melalui waktu konsep patriarki dikembangkan menjadi sistem sosial di mana peran laki-laki sebagai otoritas utama adalah pusat. Ini merujuk pada sistem di mana pria memiliki otoritas atas wanita, anak-anak dan properti. Sebagai institusi yang berkuasa dan istimewa bagi laki-laki, patriarki tergantung pada subordinasi perempuan. Kemudian, Hampir semua cerita mengandung unsur-unsur kekerasan yang mengerikan, kekerasan seksual, dan penindasan sosial dan sangat tertekan. Selain itu, banyak insiden kekerasan terjadi ketika mereka masih anak-anak. Masalah-masalah yang dihadapi oleh para perempuan dalam berbagai bentuk kasus pemerkosaan, penculikan gadis-gadis untuk pernikahan paksa karena desa tidak memiliki anak perempuan karena pembunuhan perempuan, penindasan anak-anak karena orang tua mereka adalah orang Jepang atau menggunakan barang-barang asing. Kadang sampai membuat mereka tidak stabil secara mental, orang-orang sangat miskin sehingga semua saudara dari satu keluarga berbagi satu pakaian yang mereka kenakan secara bergantian, karena semua pakaian kecil yang dimiliki keluarga jatuh kepada anak laki-laki.

Kata kunci: Dampak, Partiarki, China, Wanita, Memoar

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ABSTRACT The title of this thesis is The Impact Of Patriarchal Culture In China For Women In Xue Xinran‟s Memoir “The Good Women Of China”. In this research, the researcher explain the events and negative effects that women in China experienced from patriarchal culture and Xinran‟s perspective of patriarchal culture and women in China. The method that is used in analyzing the data of The Good Women of China is library research in collecting the data and also qualitative research. The primary data is the memoir itself. The findings in this reseach are as follows: the rule of the father or the 'patriarch' in a family where the eldest male is the head of the family and controls his wife, children, other members of the family and slaves. Through time, the concept of patriarchy is developed into a social system in which the role of male as the primary authority is central. It refers to a system where men have authority over women, children and property. As an institution of male rule and privilege, patriarchy is dependent on female subordination. Then, Almost all stories contain elements of horrible violence, sexual assault, and social suppression and are greatly depressing. Moreover, many of incidences of violence are met out to them when they were children. The problems faced by the women take many forms - rape cases, kidnapping of girls for forced marriage because village lacks daughter due to female foeticide, bullying of children because their parents are Japanese or use foreign goods- sometimes to extent of turning them mentally unstable, people so poor that all sisters of a family shared a single dress which they wore in turns, since all the little clothing the family went to sons.

Keywords: impact, patriarchal, china, woman, memoir.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………..……………..i AUTHOR‟S DECLARATION ………………………………………………iii COPYRIGHT DECLARATION …………………………………..……….iv ABSTRAK …………………………………..…...... ………………….. v ABSTRACT …………………………………..……………………………vi TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………..…………….....vii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ...... 1

1.1 Background of the Study ...... 1 1.2 Problem of the Study ...... 4 1.3 Objective of the Study ...... 5 1.4 Scope of the Study ...... 5 1.5 Significance of the Study ...... 5 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...... 6

2.1 Patriarchy ...... 6 2.2 China ...... 13 2.3 Patriarchal Social Structure and Values in China ...... 17 CHAPTER III: METHOD OF RESEARCH ...... 20

3.1 Research Method ...... 20 3.2 Data and Data Source ...... 21 3.3 Data Collection...... 21 3.4 Data Analysis ...... 21 CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS AND FINDING: ...... 23

4.1 Superior for Men in Xue Xinran‟s memoir “ The Good Women of China” ...... 23 4.2 Inferior for Women in Xue Xinran‟s Memoir “ The Good Women of China” ...... 27 4.3 Findings ...... 35 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION: ...... 38

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5.1 Conclusion ...... 38 5.2 Suggestion ...... 40 REFERENCES ...... 41

SUMMARY ...... 42

APPENDIX ...... 53

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

In 2002, China shocked the world. A Chinese female radio journalist published a

book entitled The Good Women of China which reveals how the living conditions of

women in China. This book attacked key issues such as infanticide, son-preference,

suppression of sexuality and the sexism embedded in culture and society. For this reason,

Xinran, the author of this book had to leave China in order to write the book which was

published in Britain.

Though the author herself has some opinions about women whose inherent differences she describes throughout the book, she acknowledges and confronts the stereotypes about women which she detailed in some of the life experiences of Chinese women she recounted. Many women‟s stories involved rape, forced marriage, deception, and abuse at the hands of authority figures in society and the government. All of these men gained their power over women from pre-existing cultural practices and furthered their control through the existing power structures. In The Good Women of China, Xinran sheds light both on the persistence of oppression of women in China as well as the new opportunities for women in modern Chinese society. Drawn mainly from anecdotes and interviews, and sparsely substantiated by historical facts and statistics, this book takes on important issues without resorting to a black-and-white view of the situation. She began her exploration of the private lives of Chinese women on her late-night radio show, Words on the Night Breeze. The Good Women of China is a selection of the stories that affected her most, plus some she gleaned from travelling around the country. They concern women of all different classes and ages and degrees of experience, although the underlying theme is horror. She begins with the story of Hongxue, whose abuse at the hands of her father began when she was 11. Even though they were living in a dormitory, he managed to rape her every day. She wrote to a friend that the only reason she didn't kill herself was that she could not bear to abandon her little brother. There are 15 true stories about women who become victims of patriarchal culture in China.

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China is an extremely large country and the customs and traditions of its people vary by geography and ethnicity. More than 1 billion people live in China, according to the Asia Society, representing 56 ethnic minority groups. The largest group is the Han Chinese, with about 900 million people. Other groups include the Tibetans, the Mongols, the Manchus, the Naxi, and the Hanzhen, which is smallest group, with fewer than 2,000 people. (Chinese Culture: Customs & Traditions of China, Kim Ann Zimmerman January 20, 2015). The Chinese culture is one of the world‟s oldest and most complex cultures in the world, tracing back to thousands years ago. The culture of China has been influenced by China‟s long history and by its diverse ethnic groups which customs and traditions could vary greatly between towns, cities and provinces. Despite all of its regional diversity, the Chinese culture is dominated by the Confucian value system. It has been ethical and philosophical system in China since its foundation by Confucius 2000 years ago. It creates a patriarchal culturewith complex system of moral, social behavior, political, philosophical and quasi-religious thought that has had tremendous influence on the culture and history of China. Besides the various culture shock phenomena, China is also well known as a country that made many controversial policies that invite the pros and cons from the international community. Take a look at the China‟s one child policy. The one-child policy was a policy implemented by the Chinese government as a method of controlling the population. The one-child policy was introduced in 1979 in response to an explosive population growth, and mandated that couples from China's Han majority could only have one child. This was intended to alleviate the social, economic and environmental problems associated with the country's rapidly growing population. Families can be fined thousands of dollars for having more than one child. Those who volunteer to have just one child are awarded a "Certificate of Honor for Single-Child Parents." It has been estimated that since 1979, the law has prevented approximately 250 million births (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/one-child-policy.asp, accessed on September 1st, 2016). In certain cases, families can apply to have a second child for extenuating circumstances such as the death of the only child due to a natural disaster. In rural areas, families can apply to have a second child if the first child is a girl, or if the child has a physical or mental disability. Of course this immediately invited mixed reactions from various parts of the world. Harsh criticism coming from CNN who proclaim the effects of China's policies with the tag line Much hated, “Millions of women have been forced to end their "illegal

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pregnancies" -- and since 2000, such abortions have numbered about seven million a year, according to China's Health Ministry. Human Rights Watch says that "coercive measures" are often used to end and prevent pregnancies -- late-term abortions and the forced insertion of IUDs. They forced a woman to abort seven-month-old child -- do they deserve to be called Communist Party officials who served the people?" (http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/31/asia/china-second-child-policy-in-effect/). Due to the patriarchal culture that has taken root in China, the notorious problems that women have to experienced,remain until now. In sociology, patriarchy is a social system in which males hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property. In the domain of the family, fathers or father-figures hold authority over women and children. Based on A Thermodynamic Interpretation of History by Lawrence Chang-Lung Chin(2005, CHAPTER 6.B.: The Origin of Patriarchy in the Eastern Ecumene (China): 1), China from the time of Sung dynasty onwards to the first half of the twentieth century must have ranked as the most “patriarchal,” as the society most oppressive of women, of all time. It is hard to imagine how women can suffer worse than had Chinese women during this millennium. More than the lack of rights what maintains their status as virtual slaves is the constant physical pain and life-long disability caused by a singular physical act of footbinding, the practice of which started in the tenth century among the aristocracies but then spread to the peasant masses, eventually affecting the entire female population of the main Chinese ethnic divisions. In 2004, the All-China Women‟s Federation compiled survey results to show that thirty percent of the women in China experienced domestic violence within their homes(McCue, Margi Laird (2008). Domestic violence: a reference handbook:100–102). The next problem is the gender superiority between man and woman. It impactswomen education. The gender gap in current enrollment widens with age because males are more likely to be enrolled than females at every group in People‟s Republic of China. It also has an effect to woman‟s health care. In traditional Chinese culture, which was a patriarchal society based on Confucian ideology, women did not posses priority in health care. Health care was tailored to focus on men. All these problems are common for women in China. Xinran, who was born on 19 July 1958 and was raised by her grandparents due to her parents‟ imprisonment during China‟s Cultural Revolution, managed to be a living witness to theose tragedies that happened to women in China. Through her book,

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Xinranwants to tell the world about the lives of ordinary Chinese women. Her courage to reveal their lives which dangerously close to the edge of the country's censorship laws, makes this book very important to be read and understand. This becomes the background for later why this book is very interesting and very important to be discussed. Critics called it "unforgettable". Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, wrote: "When I finished reading... I felt my soul had been altered" (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts- entertainment/books/features/xinran-i-want-to-tell-the-world-about-the-lives-of-ordinary- chinese-women-456979.html). These stories, as overwhelmingly tragic as they are, are written in Xinran's exceptionally poetic prose, highlighting their deeply inspiring qualities, the unbreakable strength of maternal love and the everlasting endurance of the human spirit. Xinran was born in Beijing in 1958. From 1989 to 1997, she worked as a radio-

presenter and journalist, hosting the program 'Words on the Night Breeze', in which she

invited women to call in and share their life stories. Xinran not only talked to these

women on the radio, she went and met them, accumulating material from the thousands of

women she interviewed. In 1997, she travelled to London, where she now lives. It was

here that Xinran was able to write these stories down for the first time. In July 2002, they

appeared in Britain in the form of a book, The Good Women of China, which has now

been published all over the world in more than 30 languages, becoming an international

bestseller. The book is a candid revelation of many Chinese women's thoughts and

experiences that took place both during and after the Cultural Revolution when Chairman

Mao and Communism ruled the land.

1.2 Problems of The Study

Based on the explanation of the background study above, there are some problems

that have been formulated as follows:

1. How are patriarchy potrayed in the good women of china? 2. What are the negative effects of patriarchy experienced by the character in the good women of china ?

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1.3 Objectives of The Study

Dealing with the problems above, this thesis tries to find out the answer of those

questions, they are:

1. To find out patriarchy potrayed in the good women of china 2. To find out the negative effects of patriarchy experienced by the characters in the good women of china 1.4 Scope of The Study

The Good Women of China is a memoir of 15 life stories taken from personal

interviews of some of these 'survivors' - women whose lives were agonizingly destroyed,

their families ripped to shreds, their existences pummeled into chaotic dust. The stories

are powerful, gripping, anguished accounts of inhumane treatment, sexual exploitation,

torture, rape, hunger, and death - direct fallout of the Cultural Revolution. Thus, this

thesis focused on patriarchy and it is negative effects evperienced by the character in the

good women of china

1.5 Significance of The Study

In writing this, the writer hopes to give significances as follow:

1. This study can be useful to enrich knowledge about literary works From a country which has a strict law and culture such as China. 2. This study can help readers to have a deeper understanding and perspective on patriarchal culture, culture revolution and women in China. 3. This study can help readers to explore the lives of ordinary women who became a victim of patriarchal culture in China.

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 Patriarchy

In today's world, there has been a lot of study on gender and gender roles inthe society. As the studies progress it is found that most of the societies in the world aredominated by men. The histories of different countries and culture are all about the history of men and what they had achieved. These histories are written by men and they write that which they assume to be important.In these works it can be seen that women's participation in history was totally neglected and they were rather pushed to the background. Women's participation in the evolution of society and the fact that they were partners in the process of civilization were completely ignored.

The concept of patriarchy is used to describe the power relationship between men and women. The term literally means rule by the father. The characteristics of patrirchy are men dominate women, women inferior on men,etc. In political theory, patriarchy refers to particular organizations of the family in which fathers have the power of life and death over the family members.Lerner claims that

“Patriarchy refers to the system historically derived from Greek and Roman law, in which the male head of household had absolute legal and economic power over his dependent female and male family members” (1986: 217).

Moghadamin Patriarchy and Economic Development: Women's Position at the End of the

Twentieth Centurydefines patriarchy in its narrowest sense,

"as the rule by the father within the family and consequent subordination of both his wife and children. In the broader sense, it is a term used for characterizing a society that reproducesmale dominance in all areas of its life, in education, work, and in its sociopolitical institutions." (1996 : 27)

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Patriarchy can refer narrowly to the supremacy of the husband - within the family, and therefore to the subordination of his children and his wife. In the broader concept, patriarchy is used as a term for characterizing the society which is dominated by men, within the family and outside. It characterizes a society that reproduces male dominance in all areas of its life, in education, work, and in its socio-political institutions.

According to Walby (1990 : 20) patriarchy is composed of six structures: the patriarchal mode of production, patriarchal relations in paid work, patriarchal relations in the state, male violence, patriarchal relations in sexuality, and patriarchal relations in cultural institutions.

The patriarchal mode of production refers to the undervalued work of housewives who are the producing class while husbands are expropriating class. The second level which describes patriarchal relations in paid work refers to the fact that traditionally women have been granted worse jobs. The level which is about patriarchal relations in the state refers to the fact that the state is patriarchal, racist and capitalist and it clearly has bias towards patriarchal interests. Male violence constitute the fourth structure and explains how men‟s violence against women is systematically endured and tolerated by the state‟s refusal to intervene against it. The fifth level describes the patriarchal relations toward sexuality where the patriarchy has decided for us that heterosexuality is and should be the norm. The sixth level which is about patriarchal relations in cultural institutions describes the male gaze within various cultural institutions such as the media and how women traditionally have been exhibited via the mass media etc.

Patriarchy is an ideology and a hierarchy based on the assertion of superiority of elite men to other men and women. It has historically dominated the world, its resources and ideas and continues to do so as it gives control and advantages to men over women. Historically it has taken many different forms. Today it can be said that patriarchy dominates social

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organization and exerts control over all human institutions including, the political, economic, and knowledge systems, which in turn perpetuate and reinforce patriarchy. As the oldest form of supremacy, based in the notion of "biological differences" between sexes, it formed the notion of inequality and hierarchy among people and made all of them look 'natural'. Based upon the assertion of the superiority of dominant men to other men and all men to all women, it has prevailed in most societies through most of human history. In whatever its form and in whatever historical period, patriarchy manifests a set of common characteristics, and tends to function so as to appear to be essential to cultural integrity or in the natural order, generallyaccepted without question, certainly without critical consciousness by the societies which it dominates.

Patriarchy is the result of sociological constructions that are passed down from generation to generation. These constructions are most pronounced in societies with traditional cultures and less economic development. However, gender messages conveyed by family, mass media and other institutions largely favour males having a dominant status.

According to a World Bank Policy Research Report, "Gender refers to socially constructed roles and socially learned behaviours and expectations associated with females and males.” (2001 : 8). Women and men are different biologically but all cultures interpret and elaborate these innate biological differences into a set of social expectations about what behaviours and activities are appropriate, and what rights, resources, and power they possess.

While these expectations vary considerably among societies, there are also some striking similarities. For example, nearly all societies give the primary responsibility for the care of infants and young children to women and girls, and that for military service and national defence to men. Gender is the division of people into two categories men and women.

The status of men and women have been constructed around a whole series of dichotomous categories: the 'one' and the 'other', the public and private domains, culture and

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nature, mind and body, work and home, rationality and emotionality, autonomy and dependence, to name just a few. The first of each of these pairs tends to be associated with men and positively valued, while the second is associated with women and negatively valued.

Women represent what perception men are not; the private world of home is presented as the domain of women, the public world of power and politics the domain of men and so on.

Walbyin her book Theorising Patriarchy defines patriarchy with two similar core elements.

"The concept of patriarchy has been defined in a number of different ways, but usually with two similar core elements. Firstly, there is the core notion of gender inequality. Secondly, that there is a degree of systematicity, in that the different aspects of gender relations are connected in some way." (1990 : 29)

Walby has used the broader concept to define patriarchy more clearly as a "System of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women." (1990 : 24).

She distinguishes between private and public forms of patriarchy. Private patriarchy is based upon household production, with a patriarch controlling women individually and directly in the relatively private sphere of the home. Public patriarchy is based on structures other than the household, although this may still be a significant patriarchal site. Rather, institutions conventionally regarded as part of the public domain are central in the maintenance of patriarchy.

People within centuries believe that women are irrational, vulnerable, and incapable of thinking. Their importance is primarily judged by looking at a few aspects of their lives such as child rearing, how well they pledge themselves to their homes and how they do in civilizing their children and setting moral goals. Women is only considered to be one of their master‟s belonging just as any other property. They are supposed to show submission and obedience which is the hallmark of a good wife.

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Patriarchy is a system of male dominance in which men dominate women through the control of female sexuality moreover oppress and exploit women. The fact that men often get women to do what they want whether the women like it or not. Men sexual objects and women objects; women‟s sexuality exists to please men. Because patriarchal heterosexuality is male-dominated, male-identified, and male-centered, it illustrates and teaches general patriarchal principles: it is men‟s needs and experiences that are important.

A man‟s needs are always seen as taking priority over a woman‟s need in patriarchy, regardless of the merits of the needs themselves. For this reason, patriarchy is not only a concept that situates people whose needs are sacrificed for the sake of an oppressor‟s needs that have to be overcompensated, but rather a position of being dictated, situated against one‟s will as one of the many defining elements amongst all concepts that refer to patriarchal oppression. Moreover a woman would give up her own career for the sake of supporting her husband‟s career, which is often chosen in the name of love.

In the religious sphere it can also be seen that all established religions in the world are patriarchal as they regard male authority as supreme. The Bhagavad-Gita placeswomen as property and describes them all as being ofsinful birth. In Islam also, women have no recognised place. They are treated like properties bought by a price. They are property, valuable property, but really not persons, and must not take upon themselves the prerogative of persons who are after all exclusively male.The Quran also says that men are superior to women on account of the qualities in which God has given them pre-eminence and also becausethey furnish dowry for women.Patriarchal idea is also seen in Christianity. The

OldTestament of the Bible places women in a secondary position. In today's church also a lot of discrimination is seen against women. In the church women play an important role but very often they are given a secondary position. Though some churches have allowed women to become a minister / pastor, yet majority of the churches still have not permitted women to

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be ordained ministers and elders. Hence women cannot occupy the position of decision makers. So it can be said that all major religions have been interpreted and controlled by men.

Women are hardly seen in the forefront. It is always the men who have defined morality, ethics, behaviour and even law. So in all religions the world over women are subordinated and pushed to the background.

Men also control the economic institutions. In Asian countries where majority of the people live in rural areas, land is an important significant form of property. Land determines a person's economic well-being, social status, and political power. Men arethe ones who own most of the land and hence they tend to have more power than women and very often women have to be subservient to them. So, women have to be dependent on the male members of the family and have to be under their authority. Even if they happen to have some land, they hardly have any control over it. Ownership of land does not necessarily mean control over of the land.Some women might have access to the land, but they hardly have any rights over it.

They have tohave the consent of the brothers or uncles in the family.

Women who work in the field have to toil for long hours and when they return to the house, they again have to do the many household chores without having any rest. In today's world many women are employed in offices. However in these cases it is seen that despite having a career outside the home they still have to look after the family. Hence they have to work outside to supplement the family's income and also have to bear the responsibility of being a mother. In spite of working hard for the family, the household works are not considered to be productive work as it is seen as personal work rather than an economic activity. If they do not happen to work outside, the chores which keep them busy all day long are not considered to be labour and therefore such women are often referred to as non- working women.

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Women also have no control over theirown production. They often have to submit whatever they earn to their husbands or to the male head in the family. Even if both the husband and wife are earning, the wife's earnings are mainly used for family maintenance while men kept back their income for spending on food and drinks. So it can be said that women have little access to resources and also have little control on the distribution of the products of their labour. They also have no control on reproduction. The numbers of children are often determined by the husband.

In a global perspective, one of the most powerful expressions of patriarchy is paternal and/or parental power over children‟s marriage. The marriage is a negotiation and decision between parents and other older members.Parents who favor an arranged marriage believe that they are more experienced and objective than their children. They will be able to make better, less impulsive choices regarding a compatible, and often financially supportive mate than their child will.

An arranged marriage worldwide encompasses a wide variety of procedures, cultural customs, length of courtship, as well as the practical and spiritual reasons for the matching of the partners. Generally such a match is based on considerations other than pre-existing mutual attraction. In an arranged marriage, the parents do not allow the future newly-weds to have any say in their choice of spouse. Disobeying the arrangement can lead to disownment and exile from the family.

Patriarchal society favor son over daughter. Discrimination that begins before birth or in infancy has generally been considered an important indicator of the lower status of women and one of the effects of a patriarchal kinship system, which is seen as a culture against females. Women in patriarchal societies prefer sons to daughters since sons are regarded as safeguards moreover by having sons, they will get some privileges from their husband and the rest of the family.

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The origins of patriarchy are closely related to the concept of gender roles, or the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex. Much work has been devoted to understanding why women are typically thought to inhabit a domestic role while men are expected to seek professional satisfaction outside of the home. This division of laboris frequently mapped onto a social hierarchy in which males‟ freedom to venture outside of the home and presumed control over women is perceived as superior and dominant. As such, rather than working to destabilize the historical notion of patriarchy, much literature assess the origins of patriarchy or a social system in which the male gender role acts as the primary authority figure central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege and entails female subordination.

Historically, patriarchy has manifested itself in the social, legal, political, religious, and economic organization of a range of different cultures.Even if not explicitly defined to be by their own constitutions and laws, most contemporary societies are, in practice, patriarchal.

2.2 China

China is the most populous nation on earth; in 2000, the estimated population was

1,261,832,482 (over one-fifth of the world's population). Of these people, 92 percent are Han

Chinese; the remaining 8 percent are people of Zhuang, Uyhgur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao,

Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, Korean, and other nationalities. Sichuan, in the central region, is the most densely populated province. Many of the minority groups live in Outer China, although the distribution has changed slightly over the years. The government has supported Han migration to minority territories in an effort to spread the population more evenly across the country and to control the minority groups in those areas, which sometimes are perceived as a threat to national stability. The rise in population among the minorities significantly outpaces that of the Han, as the minority groups are exempt from the government's one-child policy.

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Mandarin Chinese is the official language. It is also called Putonghua and is based on the Beijing dialect. Modern spoken Chinese, which replaced the classical language in the

1920s, is called baihua. The writing system has not changed for thousands of years and is the same for all the dialects. It is complex and difficult to learn and consists of almost sixty thousand characters, although only about five thousand are used in everyday life. Unlike other modern languages, which use phonetic alphabets, Chinese is written in pictographs and ideographs, symbols that represent concepts rather than sounds. The communist government, in an attempt to increase literacy, developed a simplified writing system. There is also a system, called pinyin, of writing Chinese words in Roman characters.

Chinese is a tonal language: words are differentiated not just by sounds but by whether the intonation is rising or falling. There are a number of dialects, including Yue

(spoken in Canton), Wu (Shangai), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang,

Gan, and Hakka. Many of the dialects are so different that they are mutually unintelligible.

Some minority groups have their own languages.

China is a communist state. The president is the chief of state and is elected by the

National People's Congress (NPC) for a five-year term. However, the president defers to the decisions and leadership of the NPC. The NPC is responsible for writing laws and policy, delegating authority, and supervising other parts of the government. The highest level in the executive branch of the government is the State Council, which is composed of a premier, a vice premier, councillors, and various ministers. The State Council handles issues of internal politics, defense, economy, culture, and education. Its members are appointed and can be removed by the president's decree.

The country is divided into twenty-three provinces, five autonomous regions, and four municipalities. (Taiwan is considered the twenty-third province.) At the local level, elected

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deputies serve in a local people's congress, a smaller-scale version of the national body, which is responsible for governing within the region and reports to the State Council.

As a communist state, the country is officially atheist. Fifty-nine percent of the population has no religious affiliation. Twenty percent of the people practice traditional religions (Taoism and Confucianism), the rest are atheists, Buddhist, Muslim, andChristian.

The teachings of Confucius are laid out in The Analects. It is a philosophy that stresses responsibility to community and obedience and deference to elders.

Before the twentieth century, women were confined to the domestic realm, while men dominated all other aspects of society. The only exception was agriculture, where women's work had a somewhat wider definition. Western influence began to infiltrate the country in the nineteenth century, when missionaries started schools for girls. Opportunities increased further as the country began to modernize, and under communism, women were encouraged to work outside the home. Today women work in medicine, education, business, sports, the arts and sciences, and other fields. While men still dominate the upper levels of business and government and tend to have better paying jobs, women have made considerable progress.

Confucian values place women as strictly subordinate to men, and this was reflected in traditional society. Women had no rights and were treated as possessions, first of their father's and later of their husband's. The principles of Confucianism largely guide family structure and hold that family is a building block for society. Confucianism puts special emphasis on filial piety, which is believed to preserve harmony and keep families together.

And entwined in the concept of filial piety is worship of ancestors, which is a central tradition for the Chinese family. For thousands of years, traditional Chinese family structure is strictly patriarchal, with the father or eldest male as the head of the household as well as provider and guide.

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The rejection of many traditional values early in the twentieth century resulted in increasing equality and freedom for women. The Western presence in the nineteenth century also had an influence. Raising the status of women was a priority in the founding of the modern state. Women played an important role in the Long March and the communist struggle against the Kuomintang, and under Mao they were given legal equality to men in the home and the workplace as well as in laws governing marriage, divorce, and inheritance.

Despite these legal measures, women still face significant obstacles, including spousal abuse and the practice of selling women and young girls as brides.

According to custom, marriages are arranged by the couple's parents. While this system is less rigid than it once was, it is still common for young people to use matchmakers.

People take a pragmatic approach to marriage, and even those who chose their own spouses often take practical considerations as much as romantic ones into account.

The legal age for marriage is twenty for women and twenty-two for men. A marriage law enacted by the communists in 1949 gave women the right to choose their husbands and file for divorce. While it is difficult to obtain a divorce, rates are rising.

It is common for several generations to live together under one roof. After marriage, a woman traditionally leaves her parents' home and becomes part of her husband's family. The husband's mother runs the household and sometimes treats a new daughter-in-law harshly.

Although today practical reasons compel most children to leave the parents' home, the oldest son often stays, as it is his duty to care for his aging parents. Even today, many young adults continue to live with their parents after marriage, partly because of a housing shortage in the cities.

The estate generally passes to the oldest son, although, especially in the case of wealthy and powerful men, most of their personal possession traditionally are buried with them. The remaining property goes to the oldest son.

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Extended family is extremely important, and the wealthy and well educated often hire genealogists to research their family trees. Family members, even distant relations, are valued above outsiders. The passing on of the family name is of great importance. If the oldest son in a family has no son of his own, he often is expected to adopt the son of his next youngest brother. If no sons are born in the clan, a sister's son may be adopted to carry on the name.

2.3 Patriarchal Social Structure and Values in China

Gender relationships and family structures in China have been shaped by Confucian values which embody a rigidly patrilineal kinship system that has existed for the past three thousand years. It emphasizes the subordination of women to men where patrilineality is characterized by the passing social-economic membership through the male line. Records of lineage are only documented along the male line. Access to key economic and social assets depend on men‟s position in the lineage. Families without sons are seen as dying out. Only men constitute and reproduce the social order. Daughters and wives are regarded as dependents and sometimes even property of the family. Traditional Chinese cultural values do not regard a married daughter as a part of the household. Rather, she is considered as belonging to her husband‟s family.

Many women feel trapped in a destructive marriage or when domestic violence and abuse occur. Typical domestic violence includes husband inducing harm to the wife and in- law abuses especially between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

It is still common for young couples to live with the husband‟s parents. In such circumstances, the daughter-in-law is expected to be subservient to the mother-in-law and take over most of the burden of domestic chores.

Patriarchal values emphasize male superiority versus female inferiority. Murphy in

Gaetano and Jacka (2004 : 243) says, “The patriarchal Chinese culture sees the family as a hierarchy and expects women to subordinate to man.” The three cultural principles for the

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role of the women are: obedience to the father before marriage, obedience to the husband after marriage, and obedience to the son when widowed.

In Chinese patrilineal society, men are responsible for the outside realm of the family and women the inside realm. When men go to work, they leave their spouses to manage the household. A wife has more control over daily household decision making as well as how to use the income remitted home by the husband. However important decisions are still made by the men in the household.

According to Li in Rural Land Tenure Reforms in China women‟s low status and lack of power in the patriarchal social arrangement in China is sustained by three major institutional barriers in society, namely land right issues of the household responsibility system, household registration system, and lack of women‟s participation in the political process. (2003 : 59)

Under the household responsibility system, plots of land are contracted to household for an extended period. The allocated size of the land is based on the number of members and labourers in the household. Land use rights are not allocated to the individual but to the household. The head of the household, either as a father or a husband, signs the contract. He is therefore considered as the person holding the land use rights. Patrilineal values and social arrangement dominate land contracting. Women as daughters or wives are not regarded as person who share the land use rights. They only have the rights of maintenance as daughters in their natal home, as wives in their husbands‟ home, but no rights to lay claim to key productive assets such as land.

Various government of different dynasties throughout Chinese history adopt some sort of household registration system mainly for taxation purposes and to keep track of changes in local population numbers. But when the Communist Party took power, the government introduced the Household Registration System. This system resembles a caste

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where household status is inherited. Gender inequality is in part of reinforce by a structural barrier maintained by the government‟s policy of household registration system.

Apart from socio-economic and cultural factors, women‟s limited political participation is another significant factor which can lead to the subjugation of women in a patriarchal society. Female representation in political structure has been constrained which restricts women from becoming Party members. Membership in the Party is usually granted after a considerable period of observation and consideration. It may take several years for a person to become trusted and respected by local leaders. By then, women may be too preoccupied with family responsibilities. Low educational level also directly affects women‟s level of community and political participation.

The above-mentioned patriarchal structure and institutional barriers created by socio- economic and cultural forces have strong impact on women‟s survival. The marginalization of women can be traced through all their life stages. Prior to birth, a female fetus carried by a woman faces more risks from targeted abortion as parents tend to prefer to have a boy than a girl. This is due to traditional beliefs and practical needs for survival and maintenance of the family line. Shortly after birth, a baby girl may face a risk of infanticide should her parents determine that they cannot accept a girl.

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CHAPTER III

METHOD OF RESEARCH

The important part of a research in analyzing the data is a method of research. By using method of research it will be easier for the writer easier in understanding the concerns expressed in a work that is going to be analyzed, to solve the problem and find a solution for the problems. In this study, the writer also uses method to analyze the object of the study, to understand all the data and finally transform it into a complete study.

3.1 Research Method

The research method used in this analysis is library research and the primary source of the analysis is the novel itself. This research is completed by enough valuable sources such as relevant books and literary books. The library research will be supported by the internet exploration in order to make data of the analysis more available.

Descriptive method will be used in analyzing the data. The purpose of descriptive method is as a comprehensive summarization in everyday terms of specific events experienced by individuals or groups. This method is more descriptive because the data is shaped of words and it emphasizes more on process not the product.

In doing the analysis, the writer will use qualitative research. Qualitative research is a research which is done with a limitation of target research where the data is not in the form of numbers.Qualitative research is aimed at gaining a deep understanding of a specific organization or event, rather than surface description of a large sample of a population. It aims to provide an explicit rendering of the structure, order, and broad patterns found among a group of participants.

Qualitative research does not introduce treatments or manipulate variables, or impose the researcher's operational definitions of variables on the participants. Rather, it lets the meaning emerge from the participants. It is more flexible in that it can adjust to the setting.

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Concepts, data collection tools, and data collection methods can be adjusted as the research progresses.

3.2 Data and Data Source

The primary data is the memoir itself. The Good Women of China was published by

Chatto&Windus Alfred Knopf in 2002. It contains of 240 pages in 15 chapters. And the writers choose seven storiesto support the primary data, the writer also takes secondary data from textbooks, encyclopedias, and internet about patriarchy.

3.3 Data Collection

Data collecting method is steps applied by the researcher to get the data that are needed in particular research. In writing this thesis, the writer applies the library research by collecting data from some books and many other supporting materials that can be related to the subject matter. In this thesis, the writer usesXinran‟s memoir entitled The Good Women of

China as the main source. From fifteen chapters, the writer chooses seven stories which are

The Girl Who Kept Fly as a Pet, The University Student, The Woman Who Loved Women,

The Woman Whose Marriage Was Arranged by the Revolution, The Woman Whose Father

Does Not Know Her, A Fashionable Woman, and The Women of Shouting Hill. These seven stories are seen as stories which talks a lot about patriarchy. This memoir is the most important source of information for the subject matter that will be analyzed. It is also needed a search from internet to complete the data that had been collected.

3.4 Data Analysis

The analysis is conducted by using descriptive qualitative method. According to Miles and Huberman (1992: 16), "Qualitative descriptive method consists of a flow of activities that occur simultaneously and coherence, which include: data reduction activities (grouping), presentation of data, drawing conclusions, and verification."

Below are the steps of analysis conducted by the writer:

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1. Data Reduction

Data reduction refers to the grouping of data. Grouping the data starts from sorting out

the data related to patriarchy experienced by women in China.

2. Presentation of Data

Presentation of data is presenting the data that have been gathered. The presentation of

data is related with quotations or statements about patriarchy experienced by women

in China

3. Drawing Conclusion

Conclusion is drawn by showing quotations or statements about patriarchy

experienced by women in China

4. Verification

After drawing conclusion, the last step is verification. It refers to check the precision

of the primary data which is gathered based on the results of reading the memoi

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CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

4.1 Superior for Men in Xue Xinran’s memoir “ The Good Women of China”

The word „patriarchy‟ historically derived from Greek and Roman law, in which the male head of household had absolute legal and economic power over his dependent female and male family members. It means patriarchy refers to the system that men have more privilege as head of the family unit. Most of the family power, decision-making responsibility, and authority rest upon him, as does the responsibility for supporting the family economically. In the domain of the family, fathers or father-figures hold authority over women and children and become the rule maker.

“A father is a big tree sheltering the family, the beams that support a house, the guardian of his wife and children.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 6)

“At mealtimes, if someone made a sound while eating, allowed their left hand to stray from the rice bowl or broke some other rule, my grandfather would put his chopsticks down and leave. No one was permitted to continue eating after that; they stayed hungry until the next meal.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 69)

However through times, patriarchy generally refers to any institution or instance in which men dominate women or are perceived to do so. Consequently patriarchy has been defined as a general organizing structure apparent in most social, cultural, politic, spiritual, and economic practices world-wide, a structure that is considered to promote and perpetuate, in all facets of human existence, the empowerment of men and disempowerment of women.

“For all his education, he seemed like a peasant anxious to prove his power and position as a man.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 27)

In patriarchy men are described masculine, independent, invulnerable, tough, strong, powerful, commanding, in control, and non-emotional while women are dependent, vulnerable, weak, and emotional. It can be said that in patriarchy men are all powerful and

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women are powerless. Because of the concept, men are reluctant to help women to do chores as well as to express what they feel of women.

“Her unemployed husband refused to help her in the home. When she asked him to help with the housework, he would protest that he was a man, and couldn‟t be asked to do womanish things.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 27)

“What‟s more, many Chinese men think that saying a few loving words to their wives is beneath their dignity. I just don‟t get it. What has happened to the self-respect of a man who can live off a weak woman with an easy conscience?” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 27)

“Tell me, how many women have written to your show to say that they are happy with their men? And how many Chinese men have asked you to read out a letter saying how much they love their wife? Why do Chinese men think that to say the words “I love you” to their wives undermines their status as a man?” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 27)

“He said to me, „Your mother says you‟ve grown up. Come, take off your clothes for Papa to see if it is true.‟ I didn‟t know what he wanted to see, and it was so cold – I didn‟t want to get undressed.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 6)

“My father noticed me shivering. He told me not to be afraid, ………………….. This was my first „woman‟s experience‟. Afterwards, I felt very sick.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 6)

“My rapidly maturing body made him more excited to by the day, but I grew increasingly terrified. I fitted a lock to the bedroom door, but he did not care if he woke all the neighbours by knocking until I opened it.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 7)

Men are sexual objects and women objects; women‟s sexuality exists to please men.

Because patriarchal heterosexuality is male-dominated, male-identified, and male-centered, it

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illustrates and teaches general patriarchal principles: it is men‟s needs and experiences that are important.

“„Quick! Papa will help you!‟ he said, deftly removing my clothes. He was totally unlike his usual slow-moving self. He rubbed my whole body with his hands, asking me all the time: „Are those little nipples swollen? Is it here that the blood comes from? Do those lips want to kiss Papa? Does it feel nice when Papa rubs you like this?‟” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 6)

“From then on, as long as my mother was not in the room, or even if she was just cooking in the kitchen or in the toilet, my father would corner me behind the door and rub me all over.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 6)

“That day my sick beast of a father pressed my body – still desperately frail and weak – to him madly and whispered that he had missed me to death!” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 7)

“The unusual social practice of one wife being shared by several husbands also occurs in Shouting Hill. In the majority of these cases, brothers from extremely poor families with no females to barter buy a common wife to continue the family line. By the day they benefit from the food the woman makes and the household chores she does, by night they enjoy the woman‟s body in turn.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 128)

“Her husband, who never got out of bed before one o‟clock in the afternoon, and spent all day watching television, claimed that he was much more exhausted from the stress of unemployment. He could not sleep well and had little appetite, so needed good, healthy food to build up his strength.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 27)

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“Unwilling to spend money on make-up or new clothes for herself, the lecturer never let her husband go without good suits and leather shoes.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 27)

Men‟s violence against women is seen as an important basis of men‟s control over women. It means that men view violence as an instrument through which control and a sense of self-esteem can be reclaimed. It is believed as part of the logic of the patriarchal system.

“The old man is afraid his wife will run off, so he has tied a thick iron chain around her. Her waist has been rubbed raw by the heavy chain – the blood has seeped through her clothes.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 1)

“I received no praise for the rescue of this girl, only criticism for „moving the troops and stirring up the people‟ and wasting the radio station‟s time and money. I was shaken by these complaints. A young girl had been in danger and yet going to rescue her was seen as „exhausting the people and draining the treasury‟. Just what was a woman‟s life worth in China?” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 3)

“Many people in the residential compound had been drawn out of their houses by the noise. They stood watching passively as I was chased around and beaten by my husband, while his mistress screamed abuse.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 116)

Patriarchy makes men become the decision makers in all aspects of life. It is a system of social structures and practices in which men selfishly dominate and exploit women to their own satisfaction.

“He threatened me, saying that if I told anyone I would have to endure a public criticism and be paraded through the streets with straw on my head, because I was already what they called a „broken shoe.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 7)

“He therefore regarded Taohong as a son and had brought her up as a boy in every respect, from her clothes and her hairstyle to the games she played.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 60)

“But my husband said to me that if I left him, he would make life so difficult for me that I‟d wish I were dead.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 64)

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“The women who rejected his advances have all been trapped in the worst jobs, unable to leave or transfer for a very long time. Even some of their husbands were ruined.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 64)

Just as there is an exchange of other objects, there is also an exchange of women in patriarchal society. Women are thought of more as commodities than as human beings and are so exchanged and this leads to the subordination of women. The exchange of women is established between two groups of men while women are just objects in the process of exchange. The establishment ofthese extra-familial ties produces social relations which enable people to extend the field of their activities and even their authorities beyond their own families. It also guarantees peaceful co-existence by creating extended family structures among strangers.

“The men do not hesitate to barter two or three girl children for a wife from another village. Marrying a woman from the family into another village and getting a wife for a man in the family in exchange is the most common practice, hence most of the women of Shouting Hill come from outside the village.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 128)

4.2 Inferior for Women in Xue Xinran’s Memoir “ The Good Women of China”

As observed in the literature, the word „patriarchy‟ was around before the current resurgence of the women‟s movement and women‟s studies courses, the concept has been recreated in the past two decades to analyse the origins and conditions of men‟soppression of women.

The pressure to earn and look after the family is more on men while the women are supposed to do the menial jobs and take care of the children and even other members of the family. It is because of these gender stereotypes that women are at a disadvantage and vulnerable to violence and other kinds of discriminations and injustices. Systemic deprivation and violence against women such as rape, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, wife-beating,

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malnutrition, and continued sense of insecurity keeps women economically exploited, socially suppressed and politically passive.

“For the first few days, he only rubbed my body with his hands. Later, he started to force his tongue into my mouth. Then he began shoving at me with the hard thing on his lower body. He would creep into my bed, not caring if it was day or night. He used his hands to spread me open and mess about with me. He even put his fingers inside me.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 7)

“More than two years later, my mother got a job transfer and came to live with us. Her arrival did not affect my father‟s obscene desire for me. He said that my mother‟s body was old and withered, and that I was his concubine.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 8)

“A hand pinched my undeveloped nipple and a voice said, „It‟s small, but there must be a bud in there.‟” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 108)

“Something thick and big stabbed my childish body as if it were going to pierce right through me. Countless pairs of hands rubbed my chest and bottom, and a foul tongue was stuffed into my mouth. There was urgent panting all around me and my body burned with pain as if I were being whipped.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 109)

The reason why women in patriarchal society accept mistreatment and beating from men is because their belief, which has also been taught from their childhood that they are inferior to men.

“A man battering his wife or beating his children is considered to be „putting his house in order‟ by many Chinese. Elderly peasant women, in particular, accept such practices. Having lived under the Chinese dictum „ a bitter wife endures until she becomes a mother-in-law‟ themselves, they believe that all women should suffer the same fate. Hence the people who saw Zhou Ting being beaten did not step in to help.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 116)

Patriarchy can also be said to be an ideology in which men are seen as superior to women that women are and should be controlled by men and that they are part of men‟s properties.

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“From the matriarchal societies in the far distant past, the position of Chinese women has always been at the lowest level. They were classed as objects, as a part of property, shared out along with food, tools, and weapons. Later on, they were permitted to enter the men‟s world, but they could only exist at their feet – entirely reliant on the goodness or wickedness of a man.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 28)

“They had been taught by the older generation that a woman should be controlled and shut away. The gap between the husbands‟ and the new wives‟ expectations was narrowed by the women‟s compliance, but the men soon lost interest and began to see their wives as mere tools.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 69)

“Women there are valued solely for their utility: as reproductive tools, they are the most precious items of trade in the villager‟s lives.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 128)

The woman in patriarchy is only considered to be one of her master‟s belonging just as any other property. They are supposed to show submission and obedience which is the hallmark of a good wife.

“In this family, I have neither a wife‟s rights nor a mother‟s position. My husband says I‟m like a faded grey cloth, not good enough to make trousers out of, to cover the bed, or even to be used as a dishcloth. All I am good for is wiping mud off feet. To him, my only function is to serve as evidence of his “simplicity, diligence and upright character” so he can move on to higher office.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 64) “For the last forty years, I have lived numbly in humiliation. My husband‟s career is everything to him; women only fulfil a physical need for him, no more. He says, „If you don‟t use a woman, why bother with her?‟” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 67)

“Women are treated as breeding machines, and produce one child a year or as many as three every two years. ……………………………………………….. Even while heavily pregnant, they had to labour as before and be „used‟ by their men, who reasoned that only children who resist being squashed are strong enough.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 131)

More subtle expressions of patriarchy is through symbolism giving messages of inferiority of women through legends highlighting the self-sacrificing, self-effacing pure

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image of women and through ritual practice which emphasize the dominant role of women as a faithful wife and devout mother.

“I had taken all I could, so I told my mother the truth. I could see that she was terribly upset. But just a few hours later, my „reasonable‟ mother said to me, „For the security of the whole family, you must put up with it. Otherwise, what will we do?‟ My hopes were completely crushed. My own mother was persuading me to put up with abuse from my father, her husband – where was the justice in that?‟” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 8)

“Good Chinese women are conditioned to behave in a soft, meek manner, and they bring this behavior to bed. As a result, their husbands say that they have no sex appeal, and the women submit to oppression, convinced the fault is their own.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 23)

“Jin Shuai spoke with an air of authority. „Men want a woman who is a virtuous wife, a good mother, and can do all the housework like a maid. Outside the home, she should be attractive and cultivated, and be a credit to him. In bed. She must be a nymphomaniac. What is more, Chinese men also need their women to manage their finances and earn a lot of money, so they can mingle with the rich and powerful.‟” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 24)

“It is very difficult for a son to live with his mother, and very difficult for his wife. I do not want to disrupt my son‟s life, or give him a hard time trying to keep the balance between his wife and his mother.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 36)

Through patriarchy, women‟s oppression appear in many different ways, appropriating women‟s reproductive and productive force and controlling their bodies, minds, sexuality and spiritually through peaceful means such as the law and religion.

“It‟s the same with Chinese women. Even if you manage to get access to their homes and their memories, will you be able to judge or change the laws by which they live their lives?” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 4)

“However, they did not know what women‟s responsibilities and rights were; they did not know how to win for themselves a world of their own. They searched ignorantly for answers in their own narrow space, and in a country where all education was prescribed by the Party.” (The Good Women of Cina, 2002 : 29)

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“At that time, women obeyed the “Three Submissions and the Four Virtues”: submission to your father, then your husband and, after his death, your son; the virtues of fidelity, physical charm, propriety in speech and action, diligence in housework. For thousands of years, women had been taught to respect the aged, be dutiful to their husbands, tend the stove and do the needlework, all without setting foot outside the house.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 65)

“Everyone who has lived through the Cultural Revolution remembers how women who committed the „crime‟ of having foreign clothes or foreign habits were publicly humiliated.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 112)

“Growing up during the Cultural Revolution as a girl was to be surrounded by ignorance, madness, and perversion. Schools and families were unable and forbidden to give them even the most basic sex education. Many mothers and teachers were themselves ignorant in these matters. When their bodies matured, the girls fell prey to indecent assaults or rape.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 113)

The initiation of women in patriarchy is manifested at the women‟s role as wives, mothers, domestic laborers, and consumers within the family.

“It is the women who greet dawn in Shouting Hill: they have to feed the livestock, sweep the yard and polish and repair the blunt, rusty tools of their husbands. After seeing their men off to work on the land, they have to collect water from an unreliable stream on the far side of a mountain two hours‟ walk away, carrying a pair of heavy buckets on their shoulders.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 128)

“In the afternoon, they make food to their menfolk; when they come back they spin thread, weave cloth, and make clothes, shoes and hats for the family. All through the day, they carry small children almost everywhere with them in their arms or on their backs.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 128 – 129)

“In Shouting Hill, „use‟ is the term employed for men to sleep with a woman. When the men return at dusk and want to „use‟ their wives, they often yell impatiently at them: „What are you dawdling for? Are you getting on the kang or what?‟ After being „used‟, the women tidy up and attend to the children while the men lie snoring. Only with nightfall can the women rest, because there is no light to work in.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 129)

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Moreover a woman would give up her own career for the sake of supporting her husband‟s career, which is often chosen in the name of love.

“I wanted to rediscover my love of music and rhythm, to fulfil my longing for a true family, to be my old free self – to rediscover what it meant to be a woman.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 64)

“In the 1930s, when Western women were already demanding sexual equality, Chinese women were only just starting to challenge male-dominated society, no longer willing for their feet to be bound, or to have their marriages arranged for them by the older generation.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 ; 29)

“My own nanny was a kind, honest, and diligent nineteen-year- old country girl, who had fled alone to the big city escape a forced marriage.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 31)

“I had never worried about marriage like my classmates. Most of them had had their marriages arranged for them in the cradle; the rest were betrothed in junior middle school.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 65)

Women do not have the right to choose whom she will be married to. In patriarchal society, a number of women marry because of love are rare.

“There was nothing they could do; they had known from their earliest youth that their parents had their final say in choosing their marriage partner.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 65)

“When I visited my parents one weekend, I said to my mother that I found it very difficult to distinguish between life in an emotionally barren marriage and being in prison. My mother replied lightly, „How many people in China have a marriage based on love?‟” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 69)

Only men have a right to divorce their wives. If a man is not satisfied with his wife for any reason, it is enough for him to divorce her. The woman will have to go back to her

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parents‟ house and even that is too much of a shame for her family, and often, they will not take her back. In case of a husband‟s death, the woman is to live with her in-laws. She is not allowed to remarry.

“How many widows in China‟s history have not even considered remarrying in order to preserve the reputation of their families?” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 28)

While there is such a strict view on a woman‟s right to have more than one husband, men are allowed to have as many as wives or concubines as they can afford. In fact, eventually, men‟s social status is determined not only by the size of their property but also by the amount of wives or concubines that they have.

“Any man who could marry several wives was bound to be the son of a large, important family, with many rules and household traditions.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 65)

In patriarchy, women either have minimum or no rights to inherit money or property.

Women‟s control of property appear increasingly improper and inconsistent with the authority and power of their husband. Even after the death of their husband, the properties will go to either their son or their in-laws.

“On the road, Wang Yue learned the older man was called Wang Duo and that he had been headmaster of a school in Nanjing. …………………………………….. When Wang Duo married, the family profession and the house had passed on to him.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 90)

“‟And what about your former flat?‟ As soon as I asked this, I realized I knew the answer: in state-run work units, practically everything allocated to a family is in the man‟s name.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 119)

“After they become mothers, they in turn are forced up to give up their own daughters. Women in Shouting Hill have no rights or property or inheritance.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 128)

“On the day I left Shouting Hill, I found that the sanitary towels I had given to Niu‟er‟s grandmother as a souvenir were stuck in her sons‟ belts; they were using them as towels to wipe away

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sweat or protect their hands.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 131)

Women learn how to use patriarchy to make room for themselves and secure a privileged position. When she gives birth to a son, she gains certain privileges.

“When Xiao Yao was in labour, she had been in a ward with seven other women. Xiao Yao asked her husband several times to move her to a private room, but he had refused. On receiving the news that she had given birth to a son, her husband immediately arranged for her to be moved to a single room.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 38)

“Niu‟er said that the greatest honour and treat in woman‟s life was to have a bowl of egg mixed with water when she had a son.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 127)

“The only day a woman in Shouting Hill can hold her head high is the day she gives birth to a son. Drenched in sweat after the torment of labour, hears the words that fill her with pride and satisfaction: „Got him!‟ This is the highest recognition of achievement she will ever get from her husband, and the material reward is a bowl of egg with sugar and hot water.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 129)

When her son gets married, she exercises control over her daughter in law. Both the mother- in-law and the bride define themselves within a relationship to the male political subject and they contest and compete with one another, dependent on their relevant status. To this extent, two women compete with each other in accordance to rank, within classical patriarchy.

“Chinese mothers-in-law, especially the traditional or less educated ones, were legendary for terrorizing their sons‟ wives, having cowered under their own mothers-in-law in their time.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 33)

When the man has several wives, there is no scene of jealously, unacceptance, or animosity.

If these feelings are displayed, the woman is shamed. Because of those reasons, the older wife will oppress the younger wives. These enable them to escape their own oppression by becoming an oppressor.

“An apology was not enough – the junior wives would be punished for any perceived misdemeanours. They would be

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slapped by the senior wife, forbidden to eat for two days, made to do hard physical labour or forced to kneel on a washboard.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 65)

The purpose of marriage is to produce male heirs to perpetuate the paternal grandparents‟ family, to assure the continuity of the husband‟s family structure, and to provide additional work power. Not having a son will lower the pride of the family and bring humiliation to the family itself.

“I love my parents very much. Ever since I was small, I have hoped that they would be proud of me, happy that they had a clever, beautiful daughter rather than feeling inferior to others because they did not have a son.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 20)

“For countless generations in China, the following saying has held true: „There are thirty-six virtues, but to be without heirs is an evil that negates them all.‟ A woman who has had a son is irreproachable.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 38)

“Taohong‟s father had been very ashamed of not having a son. After giving a birth to her, her mother had developed cancer of the womb and could not have any more children; she later died of the cancer. Her father was distraught that his family line had been „cut off‟ but there was nothing he could do.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 60)

Being a son in a patriarchal society raises some privileges. His position is higher than his sister(s) because he continues the family line. He is treated better than his sister(s).

“When a family got new clothes, once every three to five years, they dressed the boys first, often leaving several sisters to share one set of outer clothing, which had to fit all of them.” (The Good Women of China, 2002 : 129)

4.3 Findings

Originally used to describe the power of the father as head of household, where the eldest male is the head of the family and controls his wife, children, other members of the family and slaves, the term „patriarchy‟ has been expanding into male domination in the family, society, cultural, etc.

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It is a system of social structures and practices in which men selfishly dominate and exploit women to their own satisfaction. Hongxue, an eleven-year-old girl who repeatedly sexually abuses by her father. Even though they live in dormitory or when Hongxue is sick, her father keeps on sexually abusing her just to satisfy him. Despite what happens to

Hongxue, her mother asks her to keep it as a family secret. Her mother reaction makes her depressed. Not long after, Hongxue committed suicide by rubbing fly into a wound in her arm and developing a fever.

Women are viewed morally, intellectually, physically inferior to men. It is the women doing all the chores. Having men do the chores will lower their pride and dignity just like experienced by a university lecturer whose husband is an unemployed. The woman becomes the family‟s sole breadwinner. When she asks her husband to help her in the home, he refuses by saying that it is the woman‟s job to do the chores. He does not want to help because he is a man.

Women in China must obey the “Three Submissions and the Four Virtues” meaning that they have to show submission to their father, their husband, and after their husband‟s death, their son while the virtues are about fidelity, physical charm, propriety in speech and action, diligence in housework. It is the law that the women have to hold to in order to be a faithful and devout wife. Many times the women have to sacrifice themselves because of that law.

As an example, the women in Shouting Hill. They have to feed livestock and sweep the yard. After their husbands go to work, they have to collect water with two hours‟ walk while carrying a pair of heavy buckets on their shoulders. Then they have to prepare food for the family. When their husband gets back from work and asks for having a sexual intercourse, they have to fulfill their husband‟s lust no matter how tired they are. Even when

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they are heavily pregnant and their husband ask them for a sexual intercourse, they are not allowed to reject it. That is why women in Shouting Hill have a prolapsed womb.

Men‟s violence against women is another perspective in patriarchal society and it is viewed as a normal thing. There is this woman whose husband is a womanizer. When she has a quarrel with her husband‟s concubine, she is beaten by him. The neighbours see her being beaten but they do nothing. There is a belief saying that a bitter wife endures until she becomes a mother-in-law so wife-beating becomes something common.

Patriarchy can also be said to be an ideology in which men are seen as superior to women that women are and should be controlled by men and that they are part of men‟s properties. The women in patriarchy are only considered to be one of their master‟s belonging just as any other property. They are supposed to show submission and obedience which is the hallmark of a good wife.

When talking about patriarchy, people will relate it to an arranged marriage. The marriage is set by both parents and elders. Not love but economic and social considerations are upmost in everyone‟s minds. Neither do some parents wait until their children are of age as many marriages have been arranged when the couple are still young or even babies.

For countless generations in China, there is a saying: „There are thirty-six virtues, but to be without heirs is an evil that negates them all.‟ Having a son is required in patriarchy since a son is going to perpetuate the family line. A family without a son is considered disgraceful.

All women in this memoir face a hard and difficult time because of patriarchy. Some of them are able to cope the situation and raise their status among men and the women themselves but some are not.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

5.1 Conclusion

The word patriarchy which is frequently used by feminists and writers literally means the rule of the father or the 'patriarch' in a family where the eldest male is the head of the family and controls his wife, children, other members of the family and slaves.

Somehow, through time, the concept of patriarchy is developed into a social system in which the role of male as the primary authority is central. It refers to a system where men have authority over women, children and property. As an institution of male rule and privilege, patriarchy is dependent on female subordination. Historically, it has manifested itself in the social, legal, political, and economic institutions of different cultures.

The Good Women of China is a selection of the stories that concerns women of all different classes and ages and degrees of experience, although the underlying theme is horror.

The story begins with a girl who was shockingly abused by her father and could find refuge only in ill health, hiding out in the hospital where a fly was the chief recipient of her love and longing. When the girl told her motherwhat was happening, her mother told her to endure it for the security of the whole family. Not long after, she effectively committed suicide by rubbing a fly into a wound in her arm and developing a fever.

Then there is a sophisticated university student whose bitterness and cynicism was the result of the fractured world she grew up in. According to her, good Chinese women were conditioned to behave in a soft meek manner and they brought this behavior to bed. As a result, their husbands said that they had no sex appeal, and the women submitted to oppression, convinced the fault was their own. Men wanted a woman who was a virtuous wife, a good mother, and could do all the housework like a maid. Outside the house, the woman should be attractive and cultivated, and be a credit to him. In bed, she had to be a

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nymphomaniac. Chinese men needed their women to manage their finances and earn a lot of money so that they could mingle with the rich and powerful.

Women in China must obey the “Three Submissions and the Four Virtues” meaning that they have to show submission to their father, their husband, and after their husband’s death, their son while the virtues are about fidelity, physical charm, propriety in speech and action, diligence in housework. It is the law that the women have to hold to in order to be a faithful and devout wife. Many times the women have to sacrifice themselves because of that law.

As an example, the women in Shouting Hill. They have to feed livestock and sweep the yard. After their husbands go to work, they have to collect water with two hours’ walk while carrying a pair of heavy buckets on their shoulders. Then they have to prepare food for the family. When their husband gets back from work and asks for having a sexual intercourse, they have to fulfill their husband’s lust no matter how tired they are. Even when they are heavily pregnant and their husband ask them for a sexual intercourse, they are not allowed to reject it. That is why women in Shouting Hill have a prolapsed womb.

From the patriarchal societies in the far distant pass, the position of Chinese women had always been at the lowest level. They were classed as objects, as part of property, shared out along with food, tools and weapons. Later on, they were permitted to enter the men‟s world but they could only exist at their feet – entirely reliant on the goodness or wickedness of a man.

When Western women were already demanding sexual equality, Chinese women were only just starting to challenge male-dominated society, no longer willing their feet to be bound or to have their marriages arranged by the older generations. However, they did not know how what women‟s responsibilities and rights were, they did not know how to win for themselves a world of their own.

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5.2 Suggestion

Reading literary works can enrich the horizon of thinking of the readers about human life as most of literary works have messages or moral lessons so that the readers can justify how to behave.The writer expects that the readers will understand what she has analysed and get knowledge after reading this thesis. As the analysis focuses on the effect of patriarchal society on women, the writer wishes that the readers can take the final message that is men and women are the same in every aspect of human existence. The gender differences do not mean that the men are superior to women.

The writer would like to give suggestions especially for students of English Department to make further analysis of this memoir because there are many topics that can be discussed from this memoir. Moreover the writer also hopes that the readers will be interested in reading other Xinran‟s literary works and analyze them.The writer realizes that this thesis is far from perfection and still has many weaknesses and mistakes therefore it would be pleased to invite the readers to give suggestion, correction, or any other input which later the writer could use in order to produce an impressive writing.

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REFERENCES

Anderson, Chris. Literary Nonfiction: Theory, Criticism, and Pedagogy.1989.Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press. Blake,Fred. Foot-Binding in Neo-Confucian China and the Appropriation of Female Labor. 1994.Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Chin, Lawrence Chang-Lung. 2005. A Thermodynamic Interpretation of History;A theory of the cosmic origins of power, gender relation, and modernity. CHAPTER 6.B.: The Origin of Patriarchy in the Eastern Ecumene (China): 1 Web. April 1999. (http://www.reocities.com/theophoretos/chinesepatriarchyR.html). INDEPENDENT.“Xinran: I want to tell the world about the lives of ordinary Chinese women.” Web. 13 July 2007. (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/xinran-i-want-to-tell-the- world-about-the-lives-of-ordinary-chinese-women-456979.html). Xinran, Xue. 2002. Good Women of China. London: Chatto&Windus. A.M. Gaetano & T. Jacka. On the Move : Women in Rural-to-Urban Migration in Contemporary China. 2004. New York : Columbia University Press Donald McLennan. The Patriarchal Theory. 1885. London : MacMillan and Co. Gerda Lerner. The Creation of Patriarchy. 1986. Oxford : Oxford University Press K. Bhasin. What is Patriarchy. 2006. New York : Vintage Books Kathleen Kuiper. Understanding China : The Culture of China. New York : Britannica Educational Publishing P.J.S. Li. Rural Land Tenure Reforms in China. 2003. Boston : Little Brown SlyviaWalby. Theorizing Patriarchy. 1990. USA : Blackwell Publishers Inc. V. Moghadam. Patriarchy and Economic Development : Women‟s Position at the End of the Twentieth Century. 1996. Bloomington : Indiana University Press World Bank Policy Research. 2001. Working Paper Series No. 16. Washington DC : World Bank XuZong. On Notions of the Female in Traditional Chinese Culture. Taiwan : China Social Science Publishing House Yu Xie. Gender and Family in Contemporary China. 2013. Beijing : Peking University Press

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SUMMARY

The Good Women of China reveals a China in which the Party attempted to dam up emotion and sexuality for the sake of politics, only to see them fire off in hideously wrong directions. The women about whom she writes endured child abuse, rape, gang rape, abduction and the forced parting of parents and children.

When Deng Xiaoping‟s efforts to open up China took root in the late 1980s, Xinran recognized an invaluable opportunity. As an employee for the state radio system, she had long wanted to help improve the lives of Chinese women. But when she was given clearance to host a radio call-in show, she barely anticipated the enthusiasm it would quickly generate.

Xinran's evening radio programme, “Words on the Night Breeze”, was bravely designed to open a window so people could allow their spirits to cry out and breathe after the gunpowder-laden atmosphere of the previous 40 years.It was ground-breaking and brave, as discussing personal issues in public could still be perceived as an offence by the authorities.

Xinran's radio show was monitored but despite the risks, it created and answered a desperate need among the people of China.Through this little window roared the whispering voices of people who had never before dared to open their mouths.

Operating within the constraints imposed by government censors, “Words on the Night

Breeze” sparked a tremendous outpouring, and the hours of tape on her answering machines were soon filled every night. Whether angry or muted, posing questions or simply relating experiences, these anonymous women bore witness to decades of civil strife, and of halting attempts at self-understanding in a painfully restrictive society.

The first story in the book is one of personal triumph for Xinran, although she would never frame it in such a crass way. It happened just four months after Words on the Night

Breeze began broadcasting. She received a letter from a boy who lived in a village 150km from Nanjing. The envelope had been made from the cover of a book and there was a chicken

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feather glued to it. According to Chinese tradition, a chicken feather is an urgent distress signal.

The letter said that there was a crippled 60-year-old man bringing a young wife, who had been kidnapped for that purpose. The man was so afraid she would run away that he had tied her around the waist with a thick iron chain. Her waist had been rubbed by the heavy chain – blood had seeped through her clothes. The rest of the villagers were unconcerned, and the boy knew that if they found out he had written to Xinran his family would be expelled from the village.

This letter was the first of many to appeal to Xinran for practical help. She got on the case and contacted the local Public Security Bureau. The police officer said that that sort of thing happened a lot but they could not do much about it because they had piles of reports to be done furthermore their human and financial resources were limited. Besides in his opinion, the law had no power there. The peasants feared only the local authorities who controlled their supplies of pesticide, fertilizer, seeds and farming tools.

The policeman was right. In the end, it was the head of the village agricultural supplies depot who threatened to cut off the villagers' fertilizer if they didnot release the girl. She was returned home to her parents, accompanied by a police officer and someone from Xinran's radio station.

Xinran received no praise for the rescue of the girl, only criticism for moving the troops about, stirring up the people and wasting the radio station's time and money.

The letters Xinran received from her listeners were full of longing and hope. She then asked her director to add a special women‟s mailbox feature to the end of her programme, in which she could discuss and perhaps read out some of the letters she received. Her director was not opposed to the idea. Six weeks later, her application form was sent back, festooned with four red seals of official approval.

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The impact of the women‟s mailbox slot went far beyond her expectations; the number of listeners‟ letters increased. The subject matter of the letters was becoming more varied too.

The stories had taken place all over the country, at many different times during the past seventy or so years, and came from women of very different social, cultural and professional background. They revealed worlds that had been hidden.

One afternoon, Xinran received a parcel. Inside was an old shoebox, with a pretty drawing of a human-looking fly on the lid. The box was filled with yellowing faded pieces of paper sent by someone called Hongxue.

Hongxue was sexually abused by her father since she was eleven years old. The sexual abuse started when her father was back home from military base. From then on, as long as her mother was not in the house or even if she was just cooking in the kitchen or in the toilet, her father would sexually abuse her.

Later her father was moved to a different military base where Hongxue along with her brother went to live with him. Even though they were in dormitory or when Hongxue was sick and hospitalized, he managed to rape her every day. The only reason she didnot kill herself was that she could not bear to abandon her little brother.

When Hongxue finally had the courage to tell her mother what happened, her mother told her to put up with it for the security of the whole family. Her mother words made her hopeless and she got sick again. Once again she was taken to hospital and hospitalized for a year. In hospital, she got a new friend called Yulong, a pretty and clever girl, who became her best friend. Besides getting a new friend, Hongxueadopted a baby fly, the only creature she could love and whose sensuality she could enjoy innocently. When the fly died, she stole out to bury it and saw what she thought was a man attacking a woman on a grassy bank in the grounds.

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Hongxue reported the attack to the hospital authorities. In fact, it had been her best friend from hospital, making love to her boyfriend. Both were expelled from the military academy and the boyfriend hanged himself. Not long after, Hongxue effectively committed suicide by rubbing a fly into a wound in her arm and developing a fever.

At another story, Xinran had a talk with Jin Shuai, a university student. Xinran asked her whether she considered herself as a good woman. Firmly, Jin Shuai replied that she was not. She said good Chinese women were conditioned to behave in a soft meek manner, and they brought this behavior to bed. As a result, their husbands said that they had no sex appeal, and the women submitted to oppression, convinced the fault was their own. In her opinion, there was no such thing as a good woman in men‟s eyes.

According to her, men wanted a woman who was a virtuous wife, a good mother, and could do all the housework like a maid. Outside the house, the woman should be attractive and cultivated, and be a credit to him. In bed, she had to be a nymphomaniac. Chinese men needed their women to manage their finances and earn a lot of money so that they could mingle with the rich and powerful. When they were about to end their meeting, Jin Shuai came with three questions: what philosophy women have, what happiness for a woman was, and what made a good woman.

Xinran pondered Jin Shuai‟s questions for a long time but she realized she did not know the answers. From the patriarchal societies in the far distant pass, the position of Chinese women had always been at the lowest level. They were classed as objects, as part of property, shared out along with food, tools and weapons. Later on, they were permitted to enter the men‟s world but they could only exist at their feet – entirely reliant on the goodness or wickedness of a man.

In the 1930‟s, when Western women were already demanding sexual equality, Chinese women were only just starting to challenge male-dominated society, no longer willing their

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feet to be bound or to have their marriages arranged by the older generations. However, they did not know how what women‟s responsibilities and rights were, they did not know how to win for themselves a world of their own.

Then there's Xiao Ying, a survivor of the Tangshan earthquake of 1976 which killed

300,000 people. So preoccupied was the Chinese state with the deaths of Mao Zedong,

Zhouenglai and the military leader Zhu De that no one in Beijing realized there had been an earthquake until a man travelled all the way from Tangshan with the news, and at first they thought he was mad. Even the local news agency found out about it from the foreign press.

In the chaos following the quake, Xiao Ying was gang raped by soldiers. When her mother found her in a ditch, she was naked. Her mother hurriedly dressed her in clothes the soldiers lent them. Xiao Ying pulled the down the trousers, closed her eyes and hummed. She was so tired and soon fell asleep.

Xiao Ying was sent for psychiatric treatment. The doctor told that Xiao Ying had a great shock due to being gang raped. Two and a half years, just as her memory was starting to get back to normal, the day before her parents were planning to take her home to start a new life, she hanged herself in her hospital room.

On the letter she left for her parents, she said she could not go on living. The memories left were the cruelty and violence of men who gang raped her and she could not live with those memories every day. Remembering was too painful for her.

The success of Xinran‟s program had brought her a considerable acclaim. People called her the first female presenter to lift the veil of Chinese women, the first women‟s issues journalist to delve into the true reality of their lives. The radio station had promoted her and she had also finally been able to make a „hotline‟ program and take listeners calls on air.

One evening, Xinran got a call asking about her opinion towards homosexuality. The caller was Taohong, a woman who felt in love with Xinran. Being called several times,

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Xinran asked for a meeting. And when they finally met, Xinran wanted to know why and when Taohong started to love women. Taohong‟s story then flooded out.

Taohong‟s father had been very ashamed of not having a son. After giving a birth to her, her mother died of cancer. Her father was distraught that his family line had been cut off.

He therefore regarded Taohong as a son and had brought her up as a boy in every respect.

Taohong was proud of her masculine behavior and had no love for women at all at the time.

At one particular night, Taohong had a gang raped. From then on, she hated all men, even her father. To her, they were all filthy, lustful, bestial and brutal. When Taohong had answered

Xinran question, they parted. A few days later, Xinran got a call from Taohong asking whether Xinran could accept her as a younger sister.

Another call getting Xinran‟s attention was from a woman whose marriage was arranged by the Party. Her husband had an important position in the provincial government, her son was a manager in the city branch of a national bank, her daughter worked in the national insurance company and she worked in the office of the city government. But in the family, she had neither a wife‟s rights nor a mother‟s position. Her husband said she was like a faded grey cloth, not good enough to make trousers out of, to cover the bed, or even to be used as a dishcloth. All she good for was wiping mud off feet. To her husband, her function was to serve as evidence of his simplicity, diligence and upright character so he could move on to higher office.

She did not have the position of a mother because her children were taken away from they were born and sent to the army nursery. The Party said that they might affect their father‟s work. The children were more attached to the nurses who had cared for them for so long. Father and Mother were only names to them.

When this lady was still young, she had never worried about marriage like her other classmates because her parents had studied abroad and were open minded. Most of her

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friends had had their marriages arranged by the old generation. Many of them became junior wives or concubines. At that time, women obeyed the “Three Submissions and the Four

Virtues”: submission to father, husband and after his death, son; the virtues of fidelity, physical charm, propriety in speech and action, diligence in housework. For thousands of years, women had been taught to respect the aged, be dutiful to their husbands, tend the stove and do the needlework, all without setting foot outside the house. For a woman, to study, read and write, discuss affairs of state, and even advise men, was heresy to most Chinese at that time.

Time went by when this lady decided to join the revolution. Her parents forbade her to go but she kept on joining the revolution. She was very happy when arriving in the area liberated by the Party. Everything was so new and strange. Peasants and soldiers were indistinguishable, the civilian guard stood side by side with the soldiers. Men and women wore the same clothes and did the same things, the leaders were not distinguished by symbols of rank.

On the evening of her 18th birthday, the regimental leader told her that she had an urgent mission and to be moved to the regional government compound. There she was introduced to a senior officer saying that she was his secretary. The next day, the Party informed her that they were holding a simple wedding party to celebrate my marriage with the senior officer.

For a long time, this lady asked herself how this could have happened. How she could have been married off by the revolution. Her youth was cut short, her hopes crushed, and everything beautiful about her used up by a man.

The subjects discussed on Xinran‟s program sometimes provoked enormous debate among her listeners. The morning after she had presented a program on the subject of

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disability, she got a message saying that the daughter of a Guomindang lieutenant general,

Shilin, was in mental hospital. She was mentally retarded but she was not born that way.

Shilin was the youngest in her family living in Nanjing with her aunt, Wang Yue.

Though Wang Yue was only twenty, she had told Shilin to address her as „mother‟ in order to conceal their identities. She reminded Shilin not to mention her parents‟ names or anything about their old home under any circumstances. Though Shilin kept her aunt‟s warnings firmly in mind, she did not realize the full implications of letting anything slip. This accident made them leave Nanjing and move to Yangzhou. There they lived with Wang family whose son,

Guowei, then married Wang Yue. Shilin already addressed Wang Duo and Liu Ting as her grandparents and Wang You as her mother but it was not so easy for her to address Guowei as her father.

One day Shilin had a quarrel with some boys at school. The boys said that Guowei was not her father. They even said that she was a hypocrite, a bastard child. Shilin trembled in

Guowei‟s arms, white as a sheet, sweat on her brow and blood on her lip where she had bitten it. A doctor said that Shilin was suffering from shock. If her temperature was not lowered soon, she might become mentally deranged.

At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, when extra-marital relationships were seen as a „counter-revolutionary‟ crime, the Red Guards labelled Wang Yue a criminal for having has Shilin before marriage. Due to that reason, Wang Yue as well as her husband and parents in law was brutally interrogated and tortured. The Red Guards forced Shilin to watch it. Just as the Red Guards were about to torture Guowei, Shilin cried out in a high and inhuman voice saying that Guowei and Wang You were not her parents. Her parents were Zhang Zhongren and Wang Xing living in Taiwan. Then she started foaming at her mouth and collapsed.

Shilin became mentally ill. The Red Guards then sent her to a village in a mountainous area of Hubei to be re-educated‟ by the peasants. Unfortunately for Shilin, she was gang

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raped by the men there. An old woman saved her but she had lost all awareness of her surroundings.

Early in 1989, Wang Yue and her family found Shilin and took her away to be hospitalized. Shilin did not recognize them. When the report of Shilin physical examination came out, Wang Yue was speechless. The report stated that Shilin‟s torso was scarred with bite-marks, part of one nipple had been chewed away and her vagina labia were torn. The neck and lining of her womb had been severely damaged and a broken branch had been extracted from it.

Shilin lost her mind as a result of extreme pain. Her pain had built up in layers from the night she fled Nanjing through her confused childhood. The years of abuse in Hubei had crushed her consciousness.

In the autumn of 1996, Xinran was told that several poverty-alleviation groups were being sent to north-west China, south-west China and other poor economically backwards areas. There was a shortage of qualified government personal to undertake such research trips so the government often made use of skilled journalists to gather information. Xinran was this as an excellent opportunity to extend her knowledge of Chinese women‟s lives and immediately asked to join one of the groups. Xinran was sent to Shouting Hill, a tiny village where water was so precious that even an emperor could not wash his face or brush his teeth every day.

Xinran shared a cave house with a young girl and her grandmother. She was being honored by being served the mo. Only men who did farming work had the right to eat it.

Women and children survived on the thin wheat gruel – years of struggle had accustomed them to hunger. The young girl said that the greatest honor and treat in woman‟s life was to have a bowl of egg mixed with water when she had a son.

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In Shouting Hill, women were valued solely for their utility: as reproductive tools, they were the most precious items of trade in the villagers‟ lives. The men did not hesitate to barter two or three girl children for a wife from another village. Marrying a woman from the family into another village and getting a wife for a man in the family in exchange was the most common practice. After they became mothers, they in turn were forced to give up their own daughters. Women in Shouting Hill had no rights of property or inheritance.

The unusual social practice of one wife being shared by several husbands also occurred in Shouting Hill. In the majority of these cases, brothers from extremely poor families with no females to barter bought a common wife to continue the family line. By day, they took benefit from the food the woman made and the household chores she did, by night they enjoyed the woman‟s body in turn. The villagers did not regard this practice as illegal because it was an established custom passed down from the ancestors, making it more powerful to them than the law. None of them felt compassion for the shared wives. To them, women‟s existence was justified by their utility.

It was the women greeting the dawn in Shouting Hill; they had to feed the livestock, sweep the yard and polish and repair the blunt, rusty tools of their husbands. In the afternoon, they took food to their menfolk. All through day, they carried small children almost everywhere.

In Shouting Hill, „use‟ was the term for men wanting to sleep with a woman. When the men returned at dusk and wanted to „use‟ their wives, they often yelled impatiently. After being „used‟, the women tidy up and attended to the children while the men lied snoring.

The only day a woman in Shouting Hill could labor her head high was the day she gave birth to a son. This was the highest recognition of achievement she would ever get from her husband and the material reward was a bowl of egg with sugar and hot water.

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When a family got new clothes, once every three to five years, they dressed the boy first, often leaving several sisters to share one set of outer clothing, which had to fit all of them.

Xinran noticed a bizarre phenomenon among the female villagers of Shouting Hill: when they reached their teens or thereabouts, their gait suddenly became very strange. They began walking with their legs spread wide apart, swaying in an arc with each step.

When a girl in Shouting Hill had her first period or a woman had just married into the village, she would be presented with ten leaves. The leaves were used during their periods. In a region where water was so precious, there was no alternative but to press and dry the leaves after used. A woman would use her ten leaves for her period month after month, even after childbirth.

There was another reason for the strange gait of the women in Shouting Hill which was prolapsed wombs. In Shouting Hill, women were treated as breeding machines. Even while heavily pregnant, they had to labor as before and be „used by their men. This brutal pragmatism had led to severely prolapsed wombs among the fearless selfless village women.

Before her visit to Shouting Hill, Xinran had thought that Chinese women of all ethnic groups were united, each developing in a unique way, but essentially walking in step with the times. During her two weeks in Shouting Hill, however, she saw mothers, daughters and wives who seemed to have been left behind at the beginning of history, living primitive lives in the modern world. Perhaps, there was a way of helping the women of Shouting Hill to move a little more quickly.

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APPENDIX

XUE XINRAN BIOGRAPHY

Xinran was born in Beijing in 1958. From 1989 to 1997, she worked as a radio-presenter and journalist, hosting the program 'Words on the Night Breeze', in which she invited women to call in and share their life stories. Xinran not only talked to these women on the radio, she went and met them, accumulating material from the thousands of women she interviewed. In

1997, she travelled to London, where she now lives. It was here that Xinran was able to write these stories down for the first time. In July 2002, they appeared in Britain in the form of a book, The Good Women of China, which has now been published all over the world in more than 30 languages, becoming an international bestseller.

Sky Burial, her second book, was published in 2004. This is the compelling story of Shu

Wen, whose husband, only a few months after their marriage in the 1950s, joined the Chinese army and was sent to Tibet for the purpose of unification of the two cultures. A collection of

Xinran's Guardian columns from 2003 to 2005, What the Chinese Don't Eat, was published in

2006. It covers a vast range of topics from food to sex education, and from the experiences of

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British mothers who have adopted Chinese daughters, to whether Chinese people do

Christmas shopping or have swimming pools.

Xinran's first novel Miss Chopsticks was published in July 2007. It explores the uneasy relationship between Chinese "migrantworkers" and the cities they flock to.

China's economic reform is changing the role of its chopstick girls. Once a disposable burden, they can now take city jobs as waitresses, masseuses, factory line workers and cleaners, They bring bundles of cash home, earning them unprecedented respect in patriarchal villages, as well as winning the respect and hearts of city dwellers.

Xinran's fifth book, China Witness: Voices From a Silent Generation was published in

October 2008. It is based on twenty years worth of interviews conducted by Xinran with the last two generations in China. She hopes it will, 'restore a real modern history of China, from real people after most historical evidence was destroyed in the Culture Revolution'

In August 2004 Xinran set up 'The Mothers' Bridge of Love' (MBL). MBL reaches out to

Chinese children in all corners of the world; by creating a bridge of understanding between

China and the West and between adoptive culture and birth culture, MBL ultimately wants to help bridge the huge poverty gap which still exists in many parts of China.

The MBL book for adoptive families, Mother's Bridge of Love, came third in TIME magazine's list of the top ten children's books of 2007. Xinran often advises western media

(including BBC and Sky) about western relations with China, and makes frequent television and radio appearances.

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