From ancient to modern time, men and women were situated in different positions and were viewed as having unequal capabilities and values. The modern Chinese literature works may serve as a great source to understand the prevalent thoughts and values about women since they reveal the social construct and prevailing ideas about women during that time period. Texts such as “A Posthumous Son” and “When I Was in Xia Village” both depict how women are valued and the social norms regarding women. The examination of these texts, along with the historical backgrounds of society, suggests that the role and status of women are established through the construction of political ideologies, in that woman from childhood to mature lives were assigned with
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The prevailing idea in Chinese culture of arranged marriage plays a vital role in hampering women from realizing values but directing them to a subservient position at home. For Zhenzhen, the main character in “When I Was in Xia Village” who lead a complexing and unusual life, she has experienced her father’s arrangement on her to marry a rice store owner; and when she returned home her parents again expect her to be married. Once married, in traditional society, the father to son inheritance system put greater pressure on wives, and bearing sons became the most critical and essential duty of women. In the story of Wenqing, his wife constantly gets pregnant and bear children for years, and when she did not bear a son, it is believed as “her failure to prove herself” (Goldblatt, 24). The way how women could prove their existence and success is by bearing male children, implying the limited role of women within the family and the less recognized values as their only function is to raise sons, and therefore suggesting women’s secondary status. The secondary status of women continued when they grow up as they become wives and fulfill the role in the continuation of the patrilineal family, and the ruling party uses the family order to enhance the order of society, resulting in the deteriorating status of
The prevailing idea in Chinese culture of arranged marriage plays a vital role in hampering women from realizing values but directing them to a subservient position at home. For Zhenzhen, the main character in “When I Was in Xia Village” who lead a complexing and unusual life, she has experienced her father’s arrangement on her to marry a rice store owner; and when she returned home her parents again expect her to be married. Once married, in traditional society, the father to son inheritance system put greater pressure on wives, and bearing sons became the most critical and essential duty of women. In the story of Wenqing, his wife constantly gets pregnant and bear children for years, and when she did not bear a son, it is believed as “her failure to prove herself” (Goldblatt, 24). The way how women could prove their existence and success is by bearing male children, implying the limited role of women within the family and the less recognized values as their only function is to raise sons, and therefore suggesting women’s secondary status. The secondary status of women continued when they grow up as they become wives and fulfill the role in the continuation of the patrilineal family, and the ruling party uses the family order to enhance the order of society, resulting in the deteriorating status of