Lilly was worried about this because Snow Flower was from a higher class than her. The concept of a lao tong is two women who give each other themselves in friendship. Snow Flower and Lilly write back and forth on a silk fan in Nushu, a secret language that only women knew about. As the story progresses Lily marries a scholar's nephew who belonged to one of the richest families in China while Snow Flower marries a butcher, which was seen as low class. They stay in touch throughout the years by the fans and meetings but their relationship falters when Lily misunderstands a message from Snow Flower.
At marriage, the female’s family must give the male’s family an expensive dowry (Mungello). After marriage, a wife was considered almost as a slave to her husband; she must bow down to her husband and respect her husband’s parents even more (Yuan). Female infanticide began in China as early as 1650 but became a major issue after the One-Child Policy in 1979. The One-Child Policy was designed as an inexpensive and easy birth control plan that allowed each family
It was harder for women because lower class women had to leave the inner quarters because they need to feed there family’s. In “A Daughter of Han: The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Women” by Ida Pruitt, it is a first-hand look at the life of a lower class women in the late late-Imperial China. Ning Lao Taitai’s life is described and how as a lower class women and her struggle with Confucian values. Ning pre-married life was much like girls of upper class families. She was able to play with any children, it didn’t matter what gender, until she was thirteen.
Unbound Feet The immigration of Chinese women was one of the most overlooked and understudied significant event in women’s history, until now. Their rise from being considered slaves, to gaining respect and credibility, is one of the most influential for women’s equality across America. In Unbound Feet, Judy Yung examines the hardships and rise of Chinese women as they immigrate to America to fulfill their dreams, yet are bound by discrimination and bind together to rise above racism and sexism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Yung examines the immigration and rise of the culture in five decades. Yung asks herself “What sociohistorical forces were at play that can explain social change for Chinese American women in the first half of the twentieth century?” (Yung, 5) The book tells of their oppression in America through prostitution, gender roles, anti-Chinese immigration laws, and class discrimination.
To make her point clear she uses a lot of pathos and a lot of examples from experiences with herself and her two daughters, Louisa and Sofia. At the beginning when she tells the stories about her daughters trying to fight back you think ’what a terrible mother’, but she uses this feeling to support the view the readers have on the Chinese mothers as being mean to their kids so that afterwards she can tell how it turned out good and therefor the way she raises her kids is the best. Amy Chua has a high ethos because she is a professor at Yale which is a very respected job, and as a parent it makes her more reliable because she tells the reader that her parents treated her the same way that she treats her daughters, and as we can see she has been very successful. Also she uses loghos: ”In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70 % of the Western mothers said either that ”stressing academic success is not good for children” or that ”parents need to foster the idea that learning is fun”. By contrast,
The novel traces the psychological development of the American daughter and her final acceptance of the Chinese mother and what the Chinese mother stands for. It is interesting to note that when Jing-mei Woo is asked by her three “aunts” to go to China in order to fulfill her mother’s long-cherished wish to meet her lost twin babies, Jing-mei shocks and upsets
The Joy Luck Club Assignment The film the Joy Luck Club was an excellent account of four different accounts of Asian American women and their grown up assimilated daughters. It dealt with the marked discrepancy in the story of the rough relationships of first generation Asian American mothers and the daughters’ complete assimilation. It was interesting viewing the mothers’ adherence to their customs and beliefs clashing with their daughters’ acceptance of the American lifestyle. In addition, the stereotypes that were perpetuated by the movie were intense, mainly of Asian men and women. By showing the beliefs and customs of the Chinese still done here in America, the film makes a massive effort to reinforce negative stereotypes such of Asians as sexist, poverty-ridden, cruel, and strange, exotic, and
In Alice’s case, her characteristics and values have been drastically influenced by what her family has been through in the past. An example of the influence of past lives on the behaviors of family members is the relationship between Alice’s mother and her grandmother. There is great conflict between the two of them during Alice’s childhood because her grandmother has such high expectations of Alice’s mother that she finds difficult to fulfill. Alice’s grandmother is an old fashioned Chinese woman, who believes that the wife of the house must bring honor to her family by perfecting all domestic duties. Juggling four children, cooking, cleaning and adjusting to a new society puts pressure on Alice’s mother.
Why Chinese Mothers are Superior There are numerous different ways to raise your child, and the “Western” parents often wonder how the Chinese can get so successful kids and in this article Amy Chua, who is a professor at Yale Law School and author of “Day of Empire” and "World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability." explains how the difference in the Chinese and Western methods of raising your child. When I write Chinese- and Western parents it’s in a very loose way, just like Amy Chua writes in the article. Amy Chua has two girls, Louisa and Sophia, they live in New Haven. She comes with examples throughout the book on how she raised her two girls.
Liliana C. Melo Professor Janet Storti English 101.5767 Paper No. 3, Draft No. 1 October 26, 2006 Footbinding … The Path towards Beauty and Pain "If you love your daughter, bind her feet; if you love your son, let him study," - Old Chinese Saying - Throughout time women have deformed, mutilated, bounded, changed, manipulated, damaged, and altered their bodies not only to survive in the society, but also to satisfy the men sexually. Footbinding was just one of the many ways in which Chinese women participated in and became bound to patriarchy. Chinese footbinding was implemented in the Chinese cultural values and traditions and wasn’t just about alluring a man with the “Golden Lotus.” The little girls of wealthy Chinese families had their feet bent double, sometimes with bones broken, and bound that way making them barely able to walk so the pain was lovely.