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Records of the First Lady's Office (Clinton Administration)
Melanne Verveer's Subject Files
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Withdrawal/Redaction Sheet
Clinton Library
DOCUMENT NO.
SUBJECT/TITLE
DATE
RESTRICTION
AND TYPE
001. schedule
Schedule of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (partial) (1 page)
07/03/1998
b(7)(C), b(7)(E), b(7)(F),
b(6)
COLLECTION:
Clinton Presidential Records
Firstl Lady's Office
Melanne Verveer
OA/Box Number: 20028
FOLDER TITLE:
China [2]
2013-0534-S
ry1650
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act - [44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act - 15 U.S.C. 552(b)]
P1 National Security Classified Information [(a)(1) of the PRA]
b(1) National security classified information [(b)(1) of the FOIA]
P2 Relating to the appointment to Federal office [(a)(2) of the PRA]
b(2) Release would disclose internal personnel rules and practices of
P3 Release would violate a Federal statute [(a)(3) of the PRA]
an agency [(b)(2) of the FOIA]
P4 Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential commercial or
b(3) Release would violate a Federal statute [(b)(3) of the FOIA]
financial information [(a)(4) of the PRA]
b(4) Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential or financial
P5 Release would disclose confidential advice between the President
information [(b)(4) of the FOIA]
and his advisors, or between such advisors [a)(5) of the PRA]
b(6) Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
P6 Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy [(b)(6) of the FOIA]
personal privacy [(a)(6) of the PRA]
b(7) Release would disclose information compiled for law enforcement
purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIA]
C. Closed in accordance with restrictions contained in donor's deed
b(8) Release would disclose information concerning the regulation of
of gift.
financial institutions [(b)(8) of the FOIA]
PRM. Personal record misfile defined in accordance with 44 U.S.C.
b(9) Release would disclose geological or geophysical information
2201(3).
concerning wells [(b)(9) of the FOIA]
RR. Document will be reviewed upon request.
108
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
side of the river' that had constituted 'a sacred place in her mind', and
the remainder of the story describes her disillusionment with 'the other
PART III
side', an allegory likening the impoverishment of life after marriage to
that of the mind after marriage.
This shifting emphasis in time-frames during the female life was
Not the Moon
reflected in the widespread admission within and outside of China that
women after marriage so often lost interest in the revolution or gave
Gendered Difference and Reflection:
revolutionary activities less time and attention. It was as if peasant
daughters of the revolution outgrew the revolution and moved on much
Women of Reform
as daughters did of their natal families. Thus women's experience of
the separation of the present from the future rather than sequential
movement from one to the other contrasted with the continuity,
certainty and commitment envisaged by males via the concept of
heaven. And it was this contrast that may have transformed women
into ambivalent strangers less inclined to believe in or will a better
What then is the image of modern woman?' Women of China, 1984
future. This nearness and concern for the common future was also
mediated by a detachment generated by their unique experience of the
Difficult or Not, to be a Woman?' Women of China, 1992.(1)
future, which made them feel less of a commitment 'to these important
things of men's affairs'. Although daughters may have most immediately
felt both remoteness and nearness in their families of birth and marriage
With the onset of Reform in the late 1970s, a single nation-wide image
in spatial terms as a result of their physical movement, it may have
of women in blue receded to be replaced by a plurality of female
been their conceptualization of time that became a more significant
images in the China of the 1980s and 1990s. In the first decade of
gender-specific marker in the long term, differentiating female from
reform visitors to China were frequently surprised by the variety of
male experiences and images of the revolution.
colour, style and fabric, the array of jewellery, cosmetics and hairstyles
Living the revolutionary rhetoric, characterized by a substitution of
and the interest in fashion that contributed to the emergence not only
rhetoric for female experience, by a discrepancy between representation
of the 'young and modern miss' but also of the 'smarter older woman'
and experience and by an inherently flawed rhetoric, may have con-
and not only in the cities. Nowadays any crowded shopping street
tributed to a many-layered rhetorical defeat. Despite enormous efforts
reveals the availability of a wide range of goods to fashion the female
by the revolutionary government in China to introduce a new rhetoric
body and furnish the home, both increasing evidence of mass con-
of female equality and to establish new androgynous categories reducing
sumption and individual consumer choice. In shops and on market
gender difference and hierarchy between comrades, revolutionary suc-
stalls, a plethora of popular magazines are devoted to fashion, beauty
cessors and workers (perhaps unmatched by any other government), the
and life-style; above, the billboard images are overwhelmingly female
very experience of women estranged them from the rhetoric and re-
portraying wide-eyed and smiling women not as producers but as
duced its efficacy in reaching its desired ends. If the revolutionary
retailers or customers in the company of washing machine, cooking
period could be said to be marked by a discrepancy between (albeit
pot, watch, television and toothpaste or cosmetics. Alongside, on bill-
flawed) revolutionary rhetoric and female living, it was only during the
boards advocating family planning, attractive baby girls are shown
more recent reform period that events were to detonate the rhetoric
cherished between parents and smiling as befits the desired single child.
itself in favour of experience and focusing on living.
The poster presence of females of all ages in the absence of their male
peers is important, intentional and of rhetorical significance.
In the first instance, the new era of Reform, as of Revolution, was
greeted as a new age 'creating unprecedented opportunities for women
to explore their potential'. It is by now well known that the overall aim
of the Reforms of the past fifteen years has been to transform China
rapidly into a powerful and modern nation-state by reforming and
109
по
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
III
developing all sectors of the economy, altering the balance between
If a man is hired the terms are flexible,
plan and market, production and consumption and public and private
If a woman is hired the terms are strict.
forms of resource allocation. To this end, policy programmes have
emphasized the importance of education, professionalism, skills, scien-
Times have changed,
tific and technical knowledge, profitability, the operation of economic
Men and women are equal.
incentives and the demands and interests of the consumer. In formula-
Then why in a certain family
ting and implementing the reforms, the government also frequently
Do they respect boys and look down on girls?
refers to women as 'half of heaven' or 'one of two hands' again deeming
If a baby boy is born the mother is happy,
them as necessary to the success of reform and of revolution. Policy
If a baby girl is born she does not like it.
statements not only commonly began with the injunction that reform
Times have changed,
and development would only succeed if women participated, but also
Men and women are equal.
that women needed the opportunities provided by the new reforms in
Then why is it that when a certain school
order to become truly equal. If such injunctions continued to sound
Admits students they are not treated equally?
familiar, there was also a marked and contrasting characteristic of
To admit women they look at the score,
Reform distinguishing it from Revolution and that was the gradual and
To admit men the score can go down.
increasingly open acknowledgement that the rhetoric of equality did
not match with female experience of inequality either in the past during
Times have changed,
revolutionary years or now in reform.
Men and women are equal.
This discrepancy between rhetoric and experience was retrospectively
It is natural to have both men and women.
seen to be a major characteristic of the Revolution. In a personal
The old feudal thinking
interview reported in Honig and Hershatter, a teacher could ask but a
Must be eliminated to the core!'3
few years into Reform, what the point had been of teaching ideals that
were totally divorced from female experience during the Revolution?
Again in interviews, a number of women have spoken of the aliena-
tion that many Chinese women had begun to feel as a result of the rift
We were taught that women and men were equal, that women
between the government's official policy of equality and 'the day-to-day
could do what men could do. And then it took the entire Cultural
reality'. During the first years of reform, 'day-to-day reality' was
Revolution, and almost ten more years after that, to realize that
increasingly and openly characterized by discriminatory actions against
reality was totally different. What was the point of teaching us
women, and state policies too were marked by an increasing and open
ideals which had no relation to reality?2
acknowledgement of all forms of female discrimination. This more
explicit acknowledgement of discrimination in both female experience
At about the same time a poem entitled 'Four Questions' published
and policy was a direct result of the greater incidence of female
in 1983 in the Renmin Ribao (People's Daily) cartoon supplement repeat-
infanticide, which was almost single-handedly responsible for detonating
edly juxtaposed the differing qualities of the rhetoric and experience:
the rhetoric of equality.⁵
Times have changed,
Female infanticide
Men and Women are equal.
Then why, in a certain production brigade,
The billboard image of the cherished girl infant was increasingly at
Are men and women not treated equally?
odds with the experience of many daughters, for a recurring trend in
They get different pay for the same work.
the Reform era has been continuing daughter discrimination and death,
So men and women are different.
due not so much to the economic reforms, although these have
Times have changed,
strengthened the household as the most important units of production
Men and women are equal.
and consumption, as to the one-child family policy which, introduced
Then why in a certain factory
in 1978-79, was to reinforce anew the age-old secondary status of
That is recruiting workers are they not treated equally?
daughters. With the introduction of the one-child family policy, the sex
H2
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
113
of the single child became a very important question: 'the question of
to a low 1:5, in one production team more than forty baby girls had
having boys or girls is a common social problem that at present faces
been drowned in 1980 and 1981, and in another brigade, of the eight
most families." In 1981 a survey from Hebei province had revealed that
babies born in the first quarter of 1982, the three boys survived, three
95 per cent of the population wanted two or more children of which
girls were drowned and a further two had been abandoned. Further
one at least was to be a boy, and if only one child was to be permitted
comparisons with nearby villages had revealed that these patterns were
then a mere 2.2 per cent wanted a daughter.⁷ Surveys and my own
not unique. In one of the counties, the percentage of male over female
interviews in Beijing in 1983 revealed that parents of single daughters
infants had risen from 3.2 to 5.8 per cent within one year, so that in
were more reluctant to support the policy, took longer to sign the
1980 the percentage of males born was 53 per cent compared to 46 per
single-child family certificate and constituted a majority of the couples
cent male. In another county, the problem was shown to be yet more
defying the policy and proceeding with out-of-plan births.⁸ In rural
serious, for the percentage of males born had risen from 112.6 to 116.4
areas, this son preference was so marked that there were reports of
per cent between 1980 and 1981 so that in 1981 the percentage of males
female infanticide. The practice was not uncommon before 1949 and
born was 58.2 per cent compared to 41.8 per cent female.
since that time there had been occasional reports in the media of
The national newspaper Renmin Ribao (People's Daily) published these
female infanticide, and the figures obtained from some localities on the
results of the Women's Federation survey and drew attention to them
sex ratios at birth or in the first year after birth had produced some
in order to emphasize that the intolerable behaviour of drowning and
puzzling results.
forsaking baby girls 'is still rampant in some rural areas' and 'a major
However, the first serious suggestion that female infanticide might
problem worthy of serious attention'.'' There were also reports in the
be a factor to be reckoned with came in a research report on population
media from Henan, Hebei and Hunan provinces, where maltreatment
forecasts based on detailed data gathered in 1978 from three counties
and deaths of female infants occurred on a fairly large scale. In these
in Zhejiang province, which suggested that the lower proportion of
inland provinces, the sex ratios of the newly born children showed a
females born in 1978 should attract attention since this reflected the
higher proportion of males, frequently as high as III or 113 to every 100
'recurrence in recent years in some places of abandoning and killing
females. These figures above the national average of 108.5:100 estimated
infants, for the most part girls'.' In 1980 it was noticeable that the new
by the State Statistical Bureau in 1981 did seem to suggest a degree of
Marriage Law continued to incorporate prohibitions against infanticide
female infanticide, female neglect or at least under-registration of female
even though reference to other traditional practices that were thought
infants.¹² The system of registration did not itself take account of babies
to be no longer relevant had been dropped. By 1981 however, it came
dying within three days of birth, and in cases of acute disappointment,
as something of a surprise to most observers within and outside of
the registration of a baby girl did signify that the parents were relenting
China when female infanticide became the subject of emotive headlines
and accepting the child. However, most demographers within and
in the Chinese press.
outside of China agree that any tendency to under-register female
At the end of 1981, the national youth newspaper ran the headlines
infants could only exaggerate and certainly not alone account for the
'Save Our Baby Girls' because it deemed it necessary to draw attention
higher ratio of males to females among the new-born in some regions.
to the numbers of baby girls abandoned and the sharp increase in
The nation-wide survey conducted by the Women's Federation not
female infanticide which had occurred in China in the 1980s.¹⁰ Once
only suggested that female infanticide was an increasing problem, but
reports in the media indicated that the first years of the new decade
also suggested that there was a whole range of less tangible, but
had been marked by a sharp increase in female infanticide, the govern-
nonetheless serious, forms of prejudice and discrimination against female
ment charged the Women's Federation with ascertaining the scale of
infants which could not be quantified. For instance, the results of their
the problem of female infanticide throughout China. It initiated a
surveys in two rural communes on the outskirts of Beijing revealed that,
nation-wide survey designed to investigate and document cases of female
while there had been no cases of female infanticide or untoward
infanticide and other forms of discrimination against female infants
maternal deaths, a strong preference for sons still existed and was
and their mothers. In inland Anhui province, where the history of
sometimes explicitly or symbolically reflected in patterns of behaviour
infanticide had given rise to large numbers of unmarried men over the
surrounding the birth of the first child. The birth of a son might be the
age of 40 years, there was now reported to be a disproportionate
occasion of much rejoicing by parents and their kin, with the mother en-
number of newborn and young female infants who had died in the last
joying special foods and the son the focus of joyful celebrations and chat.
few years. In some areas the ratio of female to male infants had dropped
In contrast, there had been occasions in these communes where
114
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
115
disappointed relatives had precipitately left the hospital on hearing that
The question of how to regard having a boy or a girl is an
the new-born infant was a girl so that there were no celebrations and
important part of socialist morality and not to be ignored. These
no special food. Grandparents were particularly likely to show their
materials on the sameness of boys and girls and on protecting
disappointment and there had been instances in one commune where
women and female infants should be widely studied to promote
the grandmother had taken a little time to be reconciled sufficiently to
feudal education and to teach people about the legal system.
order milk for her baby granddaughter and special food for the mother.
They set out to convince people that boys and girls are equal and
In another suburban commune, the worst case of prejudice against the
that we should oppose actions which harm women and which
mother of a baby girl uncovered by the Federation during its recent
lead to loss of life.¹⁵
investigation concerned a typist in the commune office. While she had
been pregnant, a fortune-teller had predicted the baby would be a boy
In many regions the Women's Federation had also found there to be
and expectations surrounding the birth were high. Once a girl was
an absence of knowledge of the law so that infanticide was not necess-
born however, relations between the mother and the disappointed
arily conceived of as a criminal offence. To counter such ignorance the
mother-in-law, who felt extremely let down, rapidly deteriorated."
Women's Federation initiated an educational campaign to convince
In the circumstances of the single-child family policy, the birth of a
families that females did not determine the sex of a child and that
daughter could give rise to open tension within a family by setting
daughters could participate in economic and political activities on a
husband against wife and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law. Such
basis equal to sons, to the advantage both of themselves and of their
cases were not confined to the countryside, but also were reported to
households. If daughters were seen to care for their parents more
exist among city workers and cadres' families. In the delivery room in
attentively and satisfactorily than sons, and if sons-in-law could be
a large city hospital in the north-east of China, there were instances
persuaded to marry into their wives' households, then daughters could
where parents refused to accept that they had given birth to a daughter,
also remain as permanent members of their parents' households and
so convinced were they that the hospital had made a mistake; where
their value henceforth be equally recognized. Although it was recognized
husbands were said to have fainted with worry prior to the birth, so
long ago that virilocal marriage caused girls to be conceived of as poor
anxious were they about the sex of their first born; where voluntary
forms of long-term investment, the government has sometimes suggested
abortions took place on the mistaken advice of the fortune-teller that
in the past that the recruitment of the groom to the bride's household
the expected baby was a girl; and where mothers were verbally abused
in a form of uxorilocal marriage might be one means of promoting the
on the birth of their daughters. At another hospital, the degree of post-
equality of daughters. It did so again, but in the circumstances of the
partum complications was found to be significantly higher among
single-child family, it is much less likely that peasant parents of single
mothers of daughters and this was attributed to their fall in spirits
daughters will voluntarily give up their only son.
immediately after birth.
The booklets and pamphlets published in the early 1980s were full
Following on from investigation into infant female discrimination
of stories in which grandparents were won round first to accept and
and death, the Women's Federation embarked on an intensive campaign
then to welcome their granddaughters, in which disappointed parents
to persuade the population that it was as good to have a girl as a boy.
accepted their daughters and reluctant husbands eventually supported
This was probably the most extensive campaign in China's history to
wives who were mothers of new-born daughters against the opposition
upgrade the value of daughters, as there has been little previous or
of other members of the family. Posters in the streets on the commune
sustained attention given to investigating and redefining attitudes to-
and factory walls advocating the one-child family almost all uniformly
wards daughters. In the early 1980s, women's organizations published
depicted infant girls as the single child alongside her smiling mother or
a number of pamphlets designed to show that girls were the equal of
parents. Cartoons illustrated the long-range problems that would result
boys and daughters as valuable as sons and that it was demeaning to
if daughters were devalued and infanticide occurred. In one, ten fond
women of all ages to discriminate against female infants. In one im-
mothers watched proudly as ten sons play; years later, ten fond mothers
portant pamphlet, entitled 'It's as Good to have a Girl as a Boy', the
were seen searching far and wide for ten daughters-in-law. Much of this
Beijing Women's Federation explained that it was the current wave of
literature and the visual materials was also aimed at women, who were
violence against female infants and mothers of female daughters that
not only the victims but also themselves frequently colluded in the
had made it necessary for them to publish such a pamphlet:
violence against infant girls. As the Beijing Women's Federation emphas-
izes in the introduction to its booklet, 'It's as good to have a girl as a
boy':
116
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
117
We also hope that young women who give birth to girls will not
disillusionment with rhetoric, women's experience of sexual discrimina-
feel a loss of self-esteem, will value their own rights and life, will
tion in education, employment and politics received more attention
rely on various organisations and will struggle resolutely against
than at any time during the entire revolution. This is not just because
backward, ignorant ideas, and stand up for their own rights. 16
of the legacy of the revolution that had left the experience of women
lagging behind the rhetoric of equality, but because many of the new
Although much publicity has been given to the neglect, abuse and
reforms themselves led to further discrimination against women and
death of infant daughters and their mothers, the scale of such practices
exacerbated their secondary position. As the gap between the rhetoric
may never be fully known. It is my own view that while the dis-
of equality and experience of inequality widened and was increasingly
appointment and the lesser expression of this disappointment at the
acknowledged, there was a shift in the focus of attention from rhetoric
birth of a daughter was certainly widespread, female infanticide was
and images of equality to experience and problems of discrimination.
most likely to occur in families where the birth of a daughter marked
A number of bodies including the Women's Federation, social scientists
the end of the family line and in poorer inland regions of China where
there was a tradition of infancticide, so that it was consequently scarcely
at the Academy of Social Sciences and other groups of women scholars
thought of as a crime. Although it has been argued by some that
all became newly interested in understanding the multi-faceted dimen-
female infanticide might still have been practised during the years of
sions of women's lives based on investigation of their experiences. The
revolution, there is no doubt that the attention it received in the media
validation of women's experience as a topic for research and field
and from the state in the early 1980s suggested that there had been a
investigation was brought about by the revival of sociology and
anthropology as academic disciplines. Using their own distinctive tech-
marked increase in violence against daughters. As with so many prac-
tices in China, it is difficult to ascertain the scale of their incidence, but
niques of field research, social scientists set out to investigate lives as
opposed to rhetoric in a variety of social settings and in relation to a
in the case of female infanticide, as important as ascertaining the extent
number of social problems, many of which drew attention to the special
of its practice is the recognition of its importance as a watershed
difficulties experienced by women during the early years of reform.
redefining the relationship between the rhetoric of equality and female
Their discussions and research particularly focused attention on the
experience. As several mortified and perplexed mothers of daughters
from Anhui province wrote to a national newspaper in March 1983:
split between the rhetoric of equality and women's working lives.
'We simply cannot understand why thirty-two years after China's libera-
tion, we women are still weighted down by such backward feudal
Urban working lives
concepts We long for a second liberation."
Indeed, if parents were at all prepared to forfeit the lives of their
One of the main characteristics of revolutionary rhetoric was the
daughters in favour of sons, nobody could pretend that the rhetoric of
practical and symbolic importance attached to work, especially for
equality accurately reflected the experience of women. There is no
women, for whom it also provided a measure of emancipation, liberation
doubt also that it was the incidence of the visible and more extreme
or equality. During the revolution women had expanded their economic
roles in society with the result that almost all women between the ages
forms of violence against daughters that led to new investigations into
of 16 and 60 years were economically active in some form of employ-
the experience of women and a new interest in all forms of dis-
ment. As in any other society, the measures of women's participation in
crimination against women. As one of the vice-presidents of the
production very much depended on what definitions of work, employ-
Women's Federation explained in an unusually strong-worded statement
ment and production were utilized, but even allowing for the usual
in September 1983, it conceived of infanticide and violence as 'only the
factors that lead to the undercounting or underestimation of female
visible manifestation of the invisible patriarchal partiality that persists
labour in agriculture and informal sectors, it was estimated that on the
in spite of all the rules and laws written since liberation incorporating
eve of reform, the economic activity rate of women in China was
political and economic equality'.'⁸ Ironically, it was the visible and
extreme forms of violence that led to more open recognition of the
higher than in any other Asian society. In China several years into
reform it was estimated that women made up almost 40 per cent of the
degree of discrimination suffered by women that had not been possible
to acknowledge when discrimination against women was largely and
total labour force and that the female participation rate was rising¹⁹ (see
Table 1). In 1987, national statistics suggested that women continued to
officially disguised by the prevailing rhetoric of equality.
constitute a significant portion of the measurable work force in most
It is no accident then that in the early years of reform and of
sectors, making up 40 per cent of those employed in commerce, industry,
118
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
119
Table I Employment of women in 1982 and 1990 (in 10,000)
Table 2 Female employment by occupation 1992
1982
No. increased
Rate of
Form of employment
Total
Female
% Female
1990
increase (%)
All occupations
147,919501
55,855797
38
No. of employed women
22,784
29,101
6,317
28
Farming, forestry, fishing
8,179148
2,906107
36
Professional/technical
1,012
1,556
544
54
Industry, mining
66,214336
27,413712
41
Department/
Geological
1,000865
243,903
24
Organisation Leaders
84
130
46
55
Construction
10,359421
2,087009
20
Clerical
166
289
123
74
Transportation, communications
8,188727
2,027527
25
Commerce
432
909
477
110
Commerce
19,463842
8,735789
45
Service
551
801
250
45
Housing, public services
4,397427
1,993673
45
Farming
17,566
21,901
4,335
19
Health, welfare
4,209342
2,268890
54
Factory
2,953
3,501
548
19
Education, culture
12,129680
4,648748
39
Other
20
14
-6
-30
Scientific, technical
1,592200
547,423
34
Finance, insurance
2,229375
830,945
37
Source: The Report of the People's Republic of China on the Implementation of
Party, government
9,961138
2,152073
22
the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, Beijing,
China, 1994.
Source: The Report of the People's Republic of China on the Implementation of
the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, Beijing,
China, 1994.
the public service, the professions and in education²⁰ (see Table 2). By
1990 in the fields of health care, sports and social welfare, the proportion
of female employees surpassed 50 per cent and in public utilities and
their labour force alongside the procurement of their own resources
commerce, the proportion had risen to more than 45 per cent. Although
and markets. They became accountable for their own profits and losses
the opportunities for women in employment seem to have expanded
with new controls over the disposal of profits which, while permitting
and become more various during the reform years,21 the nature and
the enterprises more autonomy, also made enterprises more vulnerable
conditions of that employment had undergone substantial changes and
to market forces. This vulnerability disadvantaged the female labour
not all to women's benefit.
force in a number of important respects.
Work could no longer be represented rhetorically as an androgynous
The most serious problem to emerge in the past ten years has been
activity overlapping male and female categories of worker and con-
the reluctance of employers in the state sector to recruit and retain
ditions of work, for the openly acknowledged degree of discrimination
women workers. In cities and towns, new and greater discriminatory
against female workers drew attention to the increasingly differentiated
practices derive directly from the contraction of the state sector employ-
experience of male and female workers that was undermining notions
ment and the costs of employing working women. There has been a
of sameness and equality characteristic of the androgynous worker in
decline in the privileged state sector of employment in which workers
revolutionary rhetoric. Although revolutionary rhetoric had long
earn higher wages, have more fringe benefits including health insurance
negated the sexual division of labour in which working women had
and greater opportunities to acquire training in new skills. In 1987 it
predominated in the lesser skilled, the lighter though not necessarily
was estimated that women constituted a third of the labour force in
less physically demanding jobs and the least specialized, mechanized
state-owned enterprises, and in light industries, the textiles and food
and well-paid sectors of the Chinese economy, it was not until the
processing up to 90 per cent of the workforce may be women. The
reform period that practices of discrimination penalizing women work-
proportion of the female labour force employed in state sector enter-
ers reached such proportions that their experience of discrimination
prises has declined largely because of the contractions in the state
eroded the rhetoric itself. This erosion largely came about as the result
labour force and the introduction of contract work. Recent reports and
of enterprise reform in which state, co-operative and private enterprises
surveys suggest that enterprises may either directly refuse to accept
assumed primary responsibility for the recruitment and organization of
women assigned to the enterprise or unit or individually refuse them by
120
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
121
artificially raising entry requirements for women recruits. In a survey
at the age of 40 years. There is also some evidence to suggest that a
conducted by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions of 66o factories
disproportionate number of older women workers in state factories
with 15,000 workers, only 5.3 per cent of the employers indicated that
aged between 40 and 45 years may be at greater risk from the termina-
they were willing to have women in positions that could be filled by
tion of their contracts at a younger age than male workers. A survey of
men or women; of the 89 textile mills surveyed, 75 per cent said they
more than 400 enterprises in Shanghai in 1989 showed that 6 per cent
preferred to hire males; and in the 66 financial enterprises and 77
of women workers (of whom 80 per cent were between 24 and 40 years)
commercial enterprises women recruits were required to gain 12 to 13
were forced to stay at home either because the enterprises had all the
points more in the entrance tests.²³ These practices appeared to affect
workers it needed or did not have enough work for its labour force.
women graduates in particular, a high proportion of whom continue to
One factory had a policy that when there is not enough work to do,
have great difficulty in finding employment. Of those awaiting employ-
women over 45 had to go home. Nationally, a survey of 660 enterprises
ment in 1986, an estimated 61.5 per cent were women and in 1992, 70
showed that only 5.3 per cent of directors wanted to take on women
per cent of the young people awaiting employment in urban areas were
workers,29 and in Shanghai a survey of more than 100 large and
women.24 As you might expect, given the difficulties in defining and
medium-sized enterprises showed that 92 per cent of the directors
counting the unemployed, there is some variation in these estimates.
preferred to dismiss female workers because there were more of them
More recently the Women's Federation has suggested that the propor-
than male workers. The directors said that if the decision was up to
tion of women among unemployed youth is slightly lower at 57 per
them they would discharge one fifth of their women workers and in
cent.25
contemporary China it is the directors who are increasingly likely to
Women employees have been the first to have their employment
make such decisions.³⁰
contracted or terminated in enterprises engaged in some reorganization
One of the main reasons why women are discriminated against is
or streamlining of staff. Surveys by the Women's Research Centre and
the high costs of providing for maternity leave, child care and other
the China Managerial Science Academy in 34 enterprises in eight
related benefits. The importance of these was reiterated in new special
provinces confirmed that the percentage of women who have been
regulations for the protection of labouring women issued in 1988
made redundant has been higher than their proportion in the workforce.
updating those first issued in 195031 (see Appendix 1). The costs of
It is estimated that 70 per cent of all workers losing their employment
pregnancy, childbirth and breast-feeding were estimated in one survey
as a result of job rationalization are women and it is anticipated by
to cost an enterprise more than Y1,259 per worker; another survey
some that of the 20 million workers who will lose their jobs, as many
showed that a male worker could earn Y10,600 more than his female
as 15 million will be women. There is also the problem of under-
counterpart who was pregnant and involved in childbearing and caring
employment for women workers in the 2 to 3 million factories and
over the same two-year period." There was also the cost of providing
enterprises not in full production; women have usually been the first to
nurseries and other services. Since the reforms, these costs have to be
be laid off, either part-time or temporarily by urban enterprises
borne by the enterprise, and they are reluctant to accept the higher
contracting their labour force either due to efficiency measures and
costs and lower profits involved in employing female workers, Several
restructuring or economic strictures.
measures are under consideration to solve these problems. There has
Married women workers, older women and women with young
been some considerable effort to persuade the population that reproduc-
children are particularly at risk from dismissal. Although all the evidence
tion has a social value and that its costs should therefore be borne by
suggests that women preferred a maximum of six months paid
society and not just by the individual work units. Experiments have
maternity-leave in the interests of retaining their income, skills and
been conducted in cities whereby each worker contributes for example
promotion prospects, there have been reports recently of enterprises
Y20 per year to a city-wide fund for meeting such costs; these have
encouraging women to take a long, sometimes up to seven years,
been successful and are expected to be more widely emulated in the
maternity-leave at 50 to 75 per cent of the pay in order to save on the
future. The Trade Union movements would like to see a nationwide tax
costs of benefits and providing nursing and child-care services.²⁷ Some
levied for this purpose, but they also acknowledge that to organize such
enterprises have provided home-based work to offset the cost of pro-
a nation-wide solution in the absence of full-scale national social security
viding nurseries and other services for mothers of young children.
reform has its difficulties. At the present time, such measures have not
Women workers are now also encouraged to retire earlier, in some
yet succeeded in stemming the discrimination against employing women
cases up to 20 years less than the official retirement age for women or
in the state sector. In contrast, women are predominantly employed in
122
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
123
the plethora of new private and smaller enterprises that are less likely
labour force, much of it migrant, contracted to produce electronics,
to protect their labour or safeguard their maternal benefits.
textiles, clothing and automobile components and other light industrial
In cities and towns women predominate in the services, the textile,
goods primarily, but not only, for the export market. These factories
the food-processing and other light industries and perform the least
may be financed by foreign investment, make use of imported raw
mechanized, the more repetitive and lower-paid jobs. From the mid-
materials and assemble foreign parts, but the labour is Chinese and a
1950s the collective sector of the urban economy consisted mainly of
high proportion of that 'sweated' labour force are women. Various
small street or neighbourhood factories with a subsidiary and secondary
estimates from informal sources suggest that up to 80 per cent of the
place to the state sector that was reflected in the lower levels of wages,
labour force in the foreign or joint foreign-Chinese enterprises is made
fewer fringe benefits and the absence of political and social status
up of young single women whose health and safety may be jeopardized.
associated with employment in the state sector. Due to the informal
Those thought to be particularly at risk include young women who are
origins of most of these enterprises, the labour processes and types of
migrant workers from the rural areas in small manufacturing enterprises,
products, women formed a very high proportion of the workforce of
many of which are funded from Hong Kong or Taiwan where workers
this sector. The reforms have expanded the number of collectively and
are likely to be forced to work overtime, sometimes between 12 and 16
privately-owned small street, neighbourhood and individually operated
hours daily, and on piece-work payment. After surveying 914 foreign-
enterprises many times over. Many of the enterprises already established
funded enterprises, the all-China Federation of Trade Unions released
have been expanded and managed by new owners, and many new
a report in summer 1994 on the 'appalling working conditions' that
enterprises have been established by units, families or individuals and
women suffer despite their 'increasingly vital role in foreign-funded
run by company managers, groups of workers or household heads.
enterprises'. The survey found that women were hired and fired at will,
The current expansion of textiles, high technology, handicrafts, light
had no legal contracts, did not receive equal pay and that many
and service industries ensures that a high proportion of new workers
enterprises paid no attention to labour-protection regulations safe-
recruited into such enterprises are women and not just in cities and
guarding women's health or safety. In view of the harassment of female
towns but also in smaller townships and larger villages. In November
workers, the report recommended that women, without channels to
1988 it was reported that 35 million women were employed in the fast-
voice their complaints, should form women workers organizations which
developing township and village enterprises and made up 41.2 per cent
were 'badly needed to safeguard their rights and interests'.36 Recently
of the 80 million or so workers in these industries. In these enterprises,
during a visit to Beijing, I heard of a meeting of women's provincial
especially the smaller enterprises operating with low profit margins in
representatives at the national Women's Federation to discuss the recent
a competitive market, there are frequent complaints that there is no
spate of factory fires in which numbers of women had lost their lives.
concept of a minimum wage in China or laws preventing arbitrary
After an interval of nearly thirty years, urban residents in the past
increases in working hours, summary punishment or dismissal of
decade have again been permitted to set up their own individual or
workers and that the supervision of existing labour protection regula-
family-based enterprises to make available a wide range of small goods,
tions is lax.34 Where the labour process is fast, fragmented and repeti-
foods and services to urban inhabitants. Many of these individual- or
tive, with payment calculated according to piece-work, there is evidence
family-based enterprises are managed and operated by women who
to suggest that women work for longer lower-paid hours, conditions of
take advantage of neighbourhood employment, flexibility of working
work are cramped and there are few provisions for the implementation
hours and some individual control over the labour process. According
of new and improved labour-protection regulations. In 1989 a national
to the Chinese Individual Women Workers' Association, the number of
survey found that about half of the country's enterprises and units
individual traders with licences has reached 21 million from 13 million
investigated did not implement the women's labour-protection laws
households, and 5 million of these are women mostly with licences for
and regulations effectively. More than 44 per cent of the surveyed
hairdressing, sewing, commerce, handicrafts and household services."
factories did not reduce the heavy work of pregnant women or take
There is no government department charged with the supervision of
them off night-shift. Although in 90 per cent of the factories, women
the employment of labour in privately-owned enterprises. Although
received their full wages during maternity leave, their bonuses and
home-based work has been a permanent feature of some rural villages,
other benefits were not guaranteed, leading to a decrease in income by
it is a newer phenomenon in the cities, where now many women may
one third."
expect to work at home rather than in factories or enterprises as a
Women have also constituted a high proportion of the new casual
result of expansion in the putting-out or contracting out of work to
124
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
125
women in their own homes. For those outside of established units of
Table 3 Employment composition of China's working women 1990
employment, that is those in small-scale neighbourhood, household or
individual enterprises where the labour process is unregulated and
Form of employment
% of women in occupation
unsupervised, the insecurity and isolation must be deemed considerable
in an urban economy where the status of the unit of employment is still
Professionals
5-35
an important source of benefits and social security. There is some
Government, party,
evidence that female entrepreneurs or heads of individual enterprises
organization officials
0.45
may have difficulty in gaining access to raw materials, credit, technology
Clerks
0.98
and markets. Recently a spokesperson from the newly-formed Female
Commerce, business
3.12
Entrepreneurs' Association stated that its members received little sup-
Service personnel
2.75
port in their economic activities.³⁸ At the same time as some of the
Agriculture, forestry,
most successful urban individual enterprises are managed by women
fisheries
75.26
often earning tens of thousands of yuan per year, female workers in
Industry, transport
12.03
family-based urban enterprises may become de facto employees of the
Other
0.05
male head of the household with all the attendant disadvantages de-
Total
100.00
riving from the structure of familial authority reproduced in production.
Source: The Report of the People's Republic of China on the Implementation of
the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, Beijing,
Rural working lives
China, 1994.
In the rural areas of China, where around 70 to 80 per cent of the
female population lives, agriculture is still the main source of employ-
ment for women (see Table 3), although the proportion of women
reforms with the well-being of women now primarily dependent on
exclusively or predominantly engaged in field cultivation is declining as
regional location, the labour and material resources of the household of
a result of changes in the organization of agricultural production during
which they are members, and the distribution of resources and rewards
the economic reforms. The government introduced a number of new
within that household.
economic policies including the rural production responsibility system,
The most important repercussion of changes in the organization of
the diversification and expansion of agricultural and nonagricultural
agricultural production during the economic reforms has been the
on- and off-farm economic activities and the establishment of a rural
reduction in the number of opportunities for women in field cultivation.
market. Each of these reforms had wide implications for the location
It is estimated that, since the introduction of the rural economic reforms,
and the range of peasant women's on- and off-farm activities, the
the agricultural field labour force has been reduced by a third.
organization of peasant women's labour, the sexual division of labour
Nationally at the outset of reform it was estimated that eventually the
and forms of resourcing and remuneration. One of the most important
numbers of people engaged in agriculture would be reduced by about
dimensions of the recent rural reforms that directly affected the location
two-thirds, giving rise to surplus labour of some 200 million persons."
of peasant women's economic activities was the decline of the collective
At the same time, the President of the National Women's Federation
and the emergence of the peasant household as the dominant unit of
identified lack of employment for peasant women as one of the major,
production with new responsibilities and new demands on its material
problems facing Chinese women in the 1980s.40 Finding employment
and labour resources. The peasant household now takes primary res-
for this surplus labour and developing new income-generating activities
ponsibility for agricultural production from the acquisition of inputs to
within the rural economy has thus become an important urgent problem
the processing, transporting and marketing of the product. The peasant
for the present government and led to the recent expansion of on- and
household has become an increasingly complex and autnomous eco-
off-farm activities in rural areas and the migration of millions to towns
nomic unit demanding new skills in production and resource manage-
and cities. The government has encouraged the peasant household to
ment of its members, including women, to maintain it as a diverse
diversify its operations and expand its commodity economy to include
economic unit responsible for production, processing and marketing.
animal husbandry, cash cropping, handicraft, industrial and commercial
Rural women both benefit from and are penalized by the new economic
activities. Thus peasant households have expanded their range of on-
126
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
127
farm activities to include the raising of pigs, poultry, and other animals,
tend to undertake field cultivation and women other on-farm activities
fish farming, fruit farming, and the expansion of small industries and
such as livestock raising, handicraft or small-scale food processing.
services for which resources, labour and markets are required. Rural
In the expansion or diversification of on- and off-farm activities of
fairs and markets have been re-established so that goods, foods, local
the post-reform peasant household, jobs tend to be gender-typed al-
handicrafts and daily necessities produced locally can be exchanged
though definitions vary according to the number and range of economic
and procured for wider distribution and export. At present it is estimated
activities available within the region. For instance, depending on the
that women account for one third of the total of the 14 million rural
type of non-agricultural and other employment available, it may be
self-employed." Increasingly, rural farm workers are also encouraged to
either the men or women farmers who leave the fields to be recruited
move outside of agriculture and into an extended range of off-farm
into non-agricultural occupations, leaving the other on the farm. In
activities including a new range of rural industries producing goods for
these circumstances a new division of labour seems to be established:
the local, national and foreign markets and providing services in town-
not that between skilled and unskilled or lighter and heavier jobs within
ships, towns and cities. All these developments have broadened the
agriculture as before, but between agriculture and non-agricultural
scope of women's income-generating activities both on and off the
occupations and it is commonly the women and especially married
household farm.
women who are left in agriculture. Where there are a number of off-
On the farm, the majority of peasant women cultivate land and
farm activities into which males are predominantly recruited, women
undertake a variety of economic activities ranging from vegetable
undertake most of the field cultivation and sidelines. Peasant households
production, the raising of livestock and the production of handicraft
exhibiting this pattern are commonly referred to as 'half-side families'
goods to the provision of services for their local community. It is one
where males reside away from the household, which is, for all practical
of the characteristics of domestic production that its scale of operation
purposes, female-headed and operated. Women who are to all intents
is predominantly determined by the household's access to female labour,
and purposes the head of their household due to the absence or
given that occupations such as cultivating vegetables, tending livestock
incapacity of their male counterpart may well suffer discrimination.
and producing handicrafts have traditionally been performed by the
This is likely to be an increasingly important question given the
women of peasant households. At the outset of the rural reforms, the
scale of male migration, seasonal, temporary or permanent, that has
most important farm resource, land, was distributed to peasant house-
recently occurred, especially from the poorer regions where the villages
holds on a per capita basis and there have been some reports that
have become largely feminized at least for a portion of the year. It has
women did not receive the same quantity or quality of land as their
never been clear what the proportions of female-managed households
male counterparts, although in only one case of my many field studies
are in rural China and whether they have suffered any discrimination
was this so. The establishment and expansion of most other on-farm
in the distribution of resources. This is a question that I have often
activities including livestock-raising require that peasant women have
&
been asked, given the degree of discrimination experienced by female-
access to a number of resources including credit, raw materials and
headed households in other agricultural societies. Recently in my own
machinery for production and processing. All of these are still scarce in
investigation of female poverty in south-west China, I was particularly
much of rural China, although recent data from rural villages suggest
interested in the circumstances of female-operated households which
that it may be more difficult for peasant women who have little educa-
were referred to as female-'managed' rather than female-'headed'
tion or connections within or outside the village to obtain formal access
households. In Guangxi Autonomous Region, the investigation of their
to credit and other resources. Although certain types of sideline activ-
conditions by the provincial Women's Federation was an important
ities such as livestock-raising are traditionally undertaken by the peasant
initiative, for it is one of the first instances that I know of in which
vomen of the household, the gender-typing of on- and off-farm eco-
female-managed households have become a matter for official and
nomic activities is variable and much depends on the range and type
specific concern. There it is estimated that a high proportion - 23 per
of economic activities available within any one region. The gender-
cent of the households and 2.02 million households out of the 3.3
typing of some activities such as field cultivation, fruit farming, fisheries,
million or 61 per cent of poorer households are female-managed in
forestry and many other activities may be either male- or female-typed
that the men are either absent or labour-weak. They were considered
economic activities depending on the range of alternative economic
to be unduly disadvantaged not so much in terms of inputs, information
activities. Common patterns in the sexual division of labour in rural
and markets as due to the heavier demands on female labour.
areas are several. Where there are no or few off-farm activities, males
Now that the peasant household is once again the dominant unit of
128
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
-129
production, the degree of independence and autonomy accruing to
Off the farm the main new sources of employment have been the
peasant women will be very much dependent on the sexual division of
expanded township and village industries with the proportion of rural
labour and their relation to the male household head. It is likely that
women employed in any one of these industries very much depending
the more separate the location of their labour and the greater their
on the type of enterprises with the number of women employed rising
visibility as producers, the more individual their rewards and bargaining
sharply in textile, light and clean industries. Recently it has been
power within and outside of households are. It is also likely that their
estimated that by the end of 1992, China's rural enterprises had em-
claim on resources within and outside of the household is very much
ployed more than 100 million persons, among whom more than 40 per
dependent on the sexual division of labour and the visibility of their
cent were women producing 65 per cent of total output value in food,
separate inputs. The rapid growth and diversification into on- and off-
clothing, knitting, toy, electronics, traditional handicraft and service
farm economic activities of the post-reform peasant household has had
industries.⁴² The female workforce in rural industries may be made up
repercussions not only for the sexual division of labour but also for the
of women of all ages if they are within commuting distance of the
intensity of and demand for female labour. One of the main means by
village. If the enterprises are some distance, it is more likely to be made
which a peasant household could immediately maximize its labour
up of young unmarried girls who work and live away from their villages
power in order to rapidly expand its economic activities was to intensify
for short periods of time. Girls may acquire a specialized skill, and their
demands on family and especially female and child labour. Although
wages plus bonuses are likely to be slightly higher than incomes from
the economic reforms have altered the ways in which farmers structure
agricultural production. However, the skills they acquire may not be
their working day, many peasant women recognize that although they
transferable, the conditions in which they work may fall short of
have greater control over production processes and more flexibility,
acceptable standards in that they may work long hours for piece-work
their daily routine is even more demanding than before the reforms. In
under physical conditions that may be to the long-term detriment of
particular the diversification of on- and off-farm activities, the responsi-
their health. Where there is surplus labour and there are few local
bility for procuring production inputs and arranging for the disposal or
opportunities for young women to find employment in the village or
sale of farm products have taken more time than previously.
nearby township, they may become part of the expanding mobile labour
There may be more water, more fuel and more fodder to be collected
force often migrating long distances from interior to coastal provinces,
now that their sideline activities have expanded, and there is also a
from the north to the southern provinces and to the larger cities in
worsening shortage of fodder and fuel reported in many rural regions,
order to find employment. The fortunate of the urban 'floating' popula-
which means travelling longer distances for supplies. Marketing may
tion, often numbering tens of thousands, may find employment in
also entail several hours of walking several times a day to dispose of the
manufacturing or in the service sectors of the city including domestic
farm's produce.
service.
In regions where all members of households are employed outside of
The recruitment of rural maids into city households became an
agriculture, women who have moved into full-time waged labour off the
increasingly popular response to China's most pressing rural employ-
farm may still be required to cultivate the fields and raise domestic
ment and urban service problems. In December 1983 this privatized
livestock as part-time farmers labouring after work or on their days off.
service sector was formally legitimized by the establishment of new
One of the ways in which a peasant household can recruit additional
channels for the recruitment and training of maids first in Beijing and
labour is via marriage and the recruitment of daughters-in-law. The
later in other cities. In Beijing, when I conducted interviews with maids
demand for a daughter-in-law's labour has lowered the age of marriage
in November 1984, it was estimated that their number had trebled
and increased the expenses of marriage, many of which have led to
since 1966 and by February 1984 it was estimated that there were
reports of the sale and abuse of young peasant women. The demand for
upwards of 30,000 maids employed in the households of Beijing alone."
child labour in the countryside is one of the main reasons why female
The practice spread to other main cities and by the 1990s the scale of
children are more likely to be spasmodic in their attendance at school
their movement is such that it is very difficult to estimate their numbers,
and be withdrawn from education earlier than their brothers. In turn,
but they must reach more than a million in all the largest cities. There
one of the serious side-effects of the high rates of illiteracy and education
are well-trodden trails that rural women take between Sichuan and
drop-out rate among peasant girls is that entry into extension training
Anhui provinces and Beijing or between Zhejiang, Henan and Shan-
schemes frequently have a literacy or educational requirement and, in
dong and Shanghai, Nanjing and Wuhan. Most village women follow
turn, access to credit often requires prior attendance in training schemes.
friends and relatives either on their own initative or via agencies
130
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
131
organized by the Women's Federation and other bodies. Some village
countryside for good. Most begin with this fantasy. Their rags-to-riches
women are forced by poverty and lack of employment to move; others,
dream was recently dramatized in a popular television series called
on their own admission, are lured by the city lights and opportunities
'Sisters from the Outside', which highlighted the ups and downs of
and, away from their families, the control of their own wages and
country girls who had gone to work in a Shenzhen factory just across
spending. Some stay but a short period, others leave on marriage and
the border from Hong Kong.
some return to or remain in city households for many years. One maid
In city and countryside the demands on the domestic and public
of my acquaintance has already resided in the household of one of my
labour of women remain considerable and may be rising rather than
friends for the past thirteen years. She first returned to her village in
declining. In 1990 in their work alone it was estimated that 87 per cent
Shanxi to get married and then brought her husband back to the
of working women were physical labourers, and of every 100 working
Beijing household where she has since resided and where her son was
women, 75 are farmers, 12 are workers and only 6-7 in non-manual
born. It is not just city parents of small children who have employed
technical cadre or office work and 5-6 in service and trade (see Table
maids to ease the child-care problem; increasingly older couples employ
3). It is noticeable that despite years of official exhortation and en-
a maid to care for them in their old age. A series of interviews in
couragement for women to become technicians, clerks and officials,
households with maids also revealed there to be a third category of
women fill only 6 per cent or so of these occupations. Where women
households in which resident grandmothers used their pensions to
have conspicuously entered into new jobs hitherto occupied by men
employ maids to relieve them of family pressure to care for grand-
and in the many professions where women are increasingly employed
children - in order that they themselves might enjoy their retirement
and better represented than in most societies, they continued to be
and new-found opportunities for leisure activities! Relations between
disadvantaged in terms of remuneration, pensions rights and promotion
maid and family can be mediated by neighbourhood service agencies
prospects. According to a survey on the social status of women in
run by the Women's Federation that have been established to monitor
China, in 1990 an urban male worker received Y193.15 per month
standards of employment and work, thus providing a safety net for
compared to female workers who earned an average of Y149.60.
rural girls at risk in a new urban environment far from home.
There is clear evidence that women are less likely to be promoted
Many young rural women begin their urban careers as maids and
into managerial positions and the predominance of men in the leader-
then go on to find employment in more lucrative retail and service
ship, managerial or administrative hierarchies, whether based on tech-
outlets, but these are frequently likely to be on a short-term contractual
nical and professional skill or political attributes, can be easily observed
basis with all the potential risks inherent in such a position. There are
and documented. Moreover, only 12 per cent of the heads of govern-
many reports of exploitation and sexual harassment of such young
ment, Party and people's organizations, enterprises and institutions are
women, both those employed and those stranded without employment,
female. In political institutions and organizations, women have most
with young girls and women turning to prostitution, which has become
obviously not entered into formal positions of decision-making in pro-
a commonly observed and reported feature in the cities and towns of
portion to their representation either in production or in the population
China. In fact, an important new area of official concern has been the
as a whole. One of the most striking impressions of any official visitor
increase in levels of violence against women. Both the government and
to China continues in the 1980s and 1990s to be the predominance of
the women's organizations have drawn attention to the physical abuse
men in the leadership committees at all administrative levels of the
of women by men and there have been more cases of rape and
government and the Party. It is reported that there are 8.7 million
discussions of rape reported in the newspaper than ever before with the
women leaders making up a third of China's total officials⁴⁷, although
struggle of women to bring accusations of rape and pursue the offenders
many of these will be the designated women's representative on various
through the legal system more openly documented. There has been a
committees. Of the members of the National People's Congress, women
rise in the abduction of women and children either for adoption, as
make up 21 per cent and of its Standing Committee, the highest organ
brides or in organized prostitution, with public trials of the offenders
of state power in China, women make up 12-16 per cent of the
and sentences heavier than normal to deter others from following their
members, while approximately 10 per cent of Standing Committee
example. Mobile rural women often return to their village to marry,
members of the Chinese People's Political Consultation Conference
and the problem of reintegration back into the countryside has been
(made up of representatives of the Communist Party, democratic parties
cited as one of the causes of the high suicide rate among young married
and mass organizations) are women.48 Even after constant campaigns to
women in the countryside." Others marry in the towns and leave the
increase the number of women members, they make up approximately
132
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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133
13 per cent of Party membership. At all administrative levels from the
Table 4 Women's education status, 1990
ministries, provinces, cities, counties and townships, it was reported in
1990 that women made up approximately 7 per cent of the cadres.49 In
Level
% of Women
% of Women
% Increase
the past few years these low proportions have been constantly acknow-
graduates
enrolled
over 1980
ledged in the press with attention drawn to the continuing discrimina-
tion which women face in gaining access to employment and power.
Post-graduates
20
25
+13.0
Overall it is difficult to weigh up the repercussions of the economic
Colleges and universities
33
34
+10.3
reforms for the employment of women, for they are very mixed. Al-
Secondary technical
43
+5.5
though it can be argued that women have generally shared in the
Secondary normal
55
+29.0
increased income and standards of living of the majority of even the
Technical
38
poorest households, differentials have risen in the past ten years, widen-
Ordinary middle
42
43
+3.5
ing the gap between the richest of new women entrepreneurs and the
Junior middle
43
44
categories of peasant women most at risk, including the young mobile
Senior middle
39
39
unemployed peasant girls and women in poor health or those who are
Secondary vocational
44
39
+13.9
Primary schools
+2.0
otherwise incapacitated and without full labour power. Initially observers
47
and analysts were divided as to whether they emphasized the new
School age entrance rota
96
+4.2
opportunities that reform offered to women or the new forms of
Source: The Report of the People's Republic of China on the Implementation of
discrimination that were likely to cost them dearly. Several years into
the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, Beijing,
reform, it is not difficult to observe that with reform have come new
China, 1994.
opportunities, choices and expectations alongside increased discrimina-
tion, penalty and disappointment. It was recently admitted in Women of
China that while many women were 'joyously grasping their opportun-
national figures in all sectors of education for 1992 show an increase
ities, hundred and thousands of other women feel that challenge and
over 1985.51 (See Table 4.) However, it is also officially admitted that
crises are inevitable'.' As disappointment and penalty increasingly and
they have not participated or benefited to the same degree as their
more openly marked the experience of women, discrimination became
male peers. In a number of my own interviews in 1990 in Beijing at
not only a social phenomenon worthy of research, but also the subject
various levels of administration within Chinese ministries and other
of new policy initiatives. The first of these initiatives was to re-emphasize
official bodies reponsible for formulating and implementing gender
female self-improvement or the importance of encouraging women to
components of state policies and programmes, it was quite clear that
take advantage of all the opportunities available for them and so give
for some years they all had thought that the single most important
less cause for discrimination by acquiring an education, skills and
problem, priority and policy had to do with the education of women.
vocational training alongside their male peers.
This was not only perceived to be the priority of the State Education
Commission but was of direct concern to other official bodies, the
Women's Federation and those concerned with research. The main
Educating women
problems identified were the high illiteracy rates among young women
As with each new decade of revolutionary development in China when
of rural areas, lower female enrolment and attendance rates and high
women were encouraged to acquire education and skills in order that
female drop-out rates in primary schools leading to low proportions of
they maximize their participation in the workforce on a basis equal to
female students in higher levels of education. Alike, however, they all
men, so with reform and modernization, women were also encouraged
drew attention to the link between education and economic opportunity
to make a greater and more skilled contribution to production by
and income for women.
increasing their managerial, productive and technical skills and their
Women have entered higher education in greater numbers, but they
productivity in a new range of enterprises. In particular, women have
are still represented nowhere near to the proportion of their numbers
been encouraged to raise the levels of their education and acquire new
in the relevant age-groups. Presently the demand for higher and tertiary
skills. It has been widely reported in recent years that female education
education outstrips supply and, now that the educational system has
and training shows much improvement compared to the past, and
again become highly selective, competition for places is fierce. During
134
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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135
the revolution, the numbers of students entering higher education
Table 5 Illiteracy and semi-literacy among females, 1990, by age
increased from 20 per cent in 1949 to 25 per cent in 1980, with women
making up 34 per cent of university undergraduates and 25 per cent of
15-24
25-34
35-44
45+
Total
graduates in 1992.52 Figures available for attendance at technical and
vocational training courses show that female students generally ac-
Percentage of population illiterate
6
9
18
52
22
counted for some 30 per cent of the students, and it is generally
Percentage of female population
estimated that women students currently account for one third of the
illiterate
9
15
29
72
32
total enrolments in institutions of higher education. There are wide
Reduction in percentage of female
variations between the major cities, Beijing (45 per cent), Shanghai (47
illiterates in Population over 1982
-9
-23
-21
-16
-17
per cent) and Tianjin (51 per cent) and the inland provinces." In Hubei
Female percentage of illiterates
73
78
74
68
70
province 29 per cent of students are female and in poor and remote
regions even fewer of the students are women. There are also wide
Source: The Report of the People's Republic of China on the Implementation of
variations between disciplines with relatively few female students in
the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, Beijing,
China, 1994.
science and technology (24.7 per cent) compared to medicine (53 per
cent), teacher training (42 per cent) and foreign languages (53 per
cent).⁵⁴ Despite uniform entrance examinations and rules instituting
it is my own impression in villages that children had to be in school for
equality of opportunity, there have been frequent reports of higher
at least three to four years for there to be long-term and useful literacy
education institutes discriminating against women students by demand-
and that a higher proportion of girls than boys in many poor regions
ing higher scores in the entrance examinations in order to limit their
of China seldom had such an advantage.
numbers. However the problem might be said to start much earlier, for
Since 1988 much of the attention given to improving education
at all schooling levels there are reported still to be more male than
standards of women has been concentrated on reducing the young and
female students.
middle-aged illiterates by several million each year with the introduction
The State Education Commission has reported that the proportion
of a number of measures to popularize the advantages of literacy and
of pupils enrolling in primary school has risen from 10 per cent in 1949
encourage women to attend long-term literacy classes. Government
to 95 per cent in 1988,55 but in 1992 of the pupils enrolled in primary
agencies plan that there should be a shown correlation between educa-
school 47 per cent were female and in junior middle schools 44 per
tion and the acquisition of skills and between education and income so
cent were female; in secondary technical schools, technical schools and
as to illustrate the advantages of literacy. The government has also
secondary vocational schools girls account for 39, 38 and 38 per cent
imposed new sanctions against those not sending girls to school and
respectively.56 However, at the primary school level, the most important
against those employing child labour as part of the new measures to
entry point, field work suggests that enrolment rates are not the same
legally prescribe compulsory primary education. It is also planned to
as attendance rates and there is considerable evidence that the spas-
make special funds available to aid female education by establishing a
modic attendance, drop-out and non-attendance rates of young girls
wider range of local schools such as winter, seasonal and evening schools
are higher than for males of the same age cohorts. In 1988 the State
or schools with day-care centres for younger siblings and distance
Education Commission estimated that of the 2.79 million school age
learning for women in remote areas, concentrated classes for busy and
children not in school the previous year, 2.25 million or 81 per cent
travelling women and segregated classes where appropriate for some
were girls, and in addition girls accounted for 70-80 per cent of the
minority nationalities. National figures showing declining female
3.69 million pupils who seldom attended school." Although there have
illiteracy suggest that generally it is not so difficult to persuade parents
been campaigns to reduce illiteracy, it is estimated that 32 per cent of
of the benefits of literacy or of sending their children to primary school,
the female population and 13 per cent of the male population is still
but it has been much more difficult to persuade rural parents that the
illiterate and that women make up 70 per cent of the illiterate and
advantages of long-term education for girls is the same as that for boys.
semi-literate in China today.⁵ (See Table 5.) What is especially worrying
In the countryside, because of the temporary stay of daughters and
to the government is that although the proportions are lower among
new economic policies encouraging the expansion of family-income
females in the younger age-groups, they are still high,59 which suggests
generating activities, some parents have shown themselves to be even
that short-term gains from primary education are often lost, and indeed
more reluctant to send their daughters to school than before and the
136
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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137
drop-out rate for girl pupils, even at primary school level, is now
periods, much as does the Five Year Plan for China's economy. The
reported to be rather higher than in the past. In poorer rural areas girls
Women's Federation has long concerned itself with the role and status
may not attend school, and if they do, their attendance is not at all
of women, albeit with varying degrees of success. The Communist
uniform; they frequently start school at a later age and it is estimated
Party from its very beginnings nurtured the separate organization of
that 70 per cent of all those students who drop out are female. That
women in line with its early recognition of the special oppression of
girls are still seen to have less claim on the familial resources is important
women (in addition to the general oppression shared by men and
given that the costs of education have to be mostly and increasingly
women of the same class) and of the importance for women of having
met by peasant families whose incomes are no longer rising to meet the
their own organizational network that could take up women's issues
increasing costs of agricultural and other inputs. The problems of
and from which they could negotiate for new rights and opportunities.
resourcing education in villages in the face of reduced state allocations
In practice, the government has required that the Women's Federation
have not been solved in many regions, and there remains a heavy
fulfil twin goals: the first required it to act as a mechanism of the Party
reliance placed on donations, fees and levies at the household and
apparatus extending its influence among a female constituency in a bid
village level. The cost of schooling for households is rising and already
to gain its support for state policies, and the second required it to act
prohibitive in some poor rural regions, which will continue to be
as a separate pressure-group encouraging women to take an active part
disadvantaged by a policy heavily reliant on local resources. In these
in defining and asserting their own needs and demands. In practice
circumstances daughters are less likely to have a claim on scarce family
too, the two goals were not always mutually supportive and by the later
resources so long as any investment in daughters will be lost to another
years of the Revolution it became clear that the women's organization
family on marriage.
had come to operate within a very narrow prescription.
During the reform years, as in the past, much of the emphasis on
As a mass organization created by the government, the Women's
the importance of education for girls and women had to do with their
Federation had been more effective in soliciting women's support for
self-improvement or their acquisition of basic educational and vocational
government policies than in getting them changed to take account of
skills in order that they enter the workplace on an equal footing with
women's needs and especially those needs that did not appear directly
their male peers. However, the emphasis on the female experience of
to contribute to the prior goals of increasing production and promoting
education and the reporting and official validation of that experience,
economic development. Given that the rhetoric of equality so masked
just as for employment, has emphasized that women alone cannot solve
female experience of discrimination, perhaps the Women's Federation
the problem of discrimination; rather, any solution also requires new
itself perceived no need to redefine or further take up the cause of
societal attitudes towards women. It was this shift in emphasis from the
women's rights. However, once the rhetoric of equality could no longer
responsibilities of women to those of society which led to the separation
be seen to represent female experience, then the Women's Federation
out of women workers' and more general female-specific problems,
lost little opportunity in taking up the cause of women's rights. My own
needs and interests and the formulation of female-specific demands or
view is that the turning-point came following the reports of a sharp
women's rights to protect these needs and interests. Indeed, the first
increase in female infanticide when the government charged the
decade of reform ended with the formulation of a new law solely
Women's Federation to investigate the scale of the problem of female
devoted to the definition and protection of women's rights for the first
infanticide on the grounds that 'it would be a gross dereliction of duty
time in China's history.
if they should let this problem take its own course and not concern
themselves with it.' The Women's Federation took this new responsibility
Women's rights
seriously and, in turn, it was this special responsibility that precipitated
a change in the role of the Women's Federation, culminating in the
The increasing translation of the experience of discrimination into a
eventual formulation of its demands for a special women's law en-
plea for separate and legally-enshrined women's rights was the result of
shrining a wide spectrum of women's rights.
a growing demand by the Women's Federation that can be clearly seen
If the platforms of the four congresses for women held since 1978 are
in the reports and platforms of the four sequential national women's
examined in sequence, it is clear that, after 1978, there is a gradual
congresses held throughout the reform period. It is the deliberation of
increase of interest in women's rights in ensuing congresses, with greater
the national women's congresses, organized by the Women's Federation,
pleas that society should recognize women's rights to education, employ-
that sets the direction of the women's movement for successive five-year
ment, property and person, and it was these pleas that culminated in
138
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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139
the publication of a Women's Law in 1992. Twelve years earlier, at the
National Congress in 1978 was still that the new line of the Party was
Fourth National Congress held in 1978, the first for some twenty years,
to be the fundamental line of the women's movement and that the
women had once more been exhorted to unite and forward their interests
central task of the Party was also the central task of the women's
by encouraging the Communist Party to make work among women an
movement.64
important component of its work and to criticize the Party when it
Perhaps the contradictions between the rhetoric of independence for
neglected women's interests.6 At the Congress, a member of the Com-
the Women's Federation on the one hand and adherence to the Party
munist Party suggested to the Women's Federation that it should itself
line on the other was best revealed in a much publicized speech made
take more seriously the representation of women's special interests:
by the Secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee two years
The National Women's Federation and women's federations at
later in 1980 which stated that:
provincial, municipal or autonomous regional level throughout
all the organisations of the Women's Federation should bring into
the country should overcome the phenomenon of acting as a
full play the role of women in working independently under the leadership
government organisation, forge close ties with the masses, gradual-
of the Party, and according to the Party's line, principles and policies and
ly make themselves a mass organisation and become a better link
give full play to women's merits on the basis of their specific
between the Party and the masses of women. Women's organ-
characteristics [emphasis added].65
isations should do a good job carrying out investigation and study
at the basic level and among the masses. Women's federations at
The main assumption underlying such a pronouncement was that the
various levels should be concerned about women's weal and woe
Women's Federation fully represented both the interests of the Party
and listen to their voices in order to really become a mouthpiece
and of women. Furthermore, these were assumed to be one and the
of the women's masses, an important representative of their in-
same. It is as if a bargain had been struck: in return for supporting
terests and the home of women.61
women's rights, the government expected the support of the Women's
Federation for all its general policies.
The President of the National Women's Federation also urged women
It was this assumption more than any other that had characterized
to speak out and assert their needs regardless of the consequences: 'In
the work of the Women's Federation during its revolutionary history
handling problems of immediate concern to women we should not fear
and caused it to implement general Party policies first and only then to
giving offence or taking some risks, we must dare speak and be good
study, analyse and draw out the practical implications that recent
at speaking in support of women. It seemed that the Women's Federa-
policies may have had for women. It was clear from a variety of sources,
tion had the support of the government to speak out in favour of
reports, formal interviews and informal conversations that the Women's
women's interests and, within' carefully defined limits, it did so.
Federation perceived its prior role as being to publicize and elicit
If the beginnings of a shift in rhetoric could be detected, there was
support for the new policies and only retrospectively did it begin to
also evidence of a continuing tension between the dual tasks of the
spell out some of the likely repercussions for women. So women were
Women's Federation to act both as a separate pressure group in defence
encouraged by their own organizations to support the responsibility
of women's interests and as a mechanism for soliciting support for the
system, expand domestic sidelines, undertake outwork, work in the co-
Party and government. Indeed, the very definitions of the tasks of the
operative and service sectors of the economy, take out single-child
Women's Federation as outlined at the Women's Congress in 1978
family certificates and abolish the betrothal gift and dowry as if these
indicated that it should:
Party policies could only be of benefit to women. However, these benefits
resolutely implement the Party's general and specific policies and
were increasingly to be questioned as the Women's Federation was
fully arouse enthusiasm among the broad masses of women, and
charged by the government with investigating many of the more obvious
how to mobilise the women to carry out the general task for the
experiences of discrimination.
new period is the new problem for the women's movement.63
In contrast to the 1978 Congress, the balance in responsibility and
accountability can be seen to have shifted when speeches at the Fifth
If the Women's Federation could and did speak out in defence of
National Congress of Women in 1983 primarily emphasized the role of
women's rights, it seemed that it was the Party that continued to decide
the Women's Federation in defending and protecting women and their
which rights were legitimate and to circumscribe the independence of
interests rather than primarily soliciting support for Party and govern-
the Women's Federation. The single most important theme of the
ment policies.66 In her report on the work of the Women's Federation
140
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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141
since the previous Congress, its President, Kang Keqing, spoke of the
of the state and of the Women's Federation stressed that the legitimate
achievements of the past five years, but she equally emphasized the
rights of women were still far from universally recognized. The Presid-
gender-specific demands of the Women's Federation and the necessity
ent of the Women's Federation called on the whole of society to adopt
to strengthen its own organization, which would enable it to make and
a more civilized and progressive attitude towards women and fight
meet these demands. She called for the rights and interests of women
against sex discrimination in new joint efforts to safeguard women's
and children to be protected:
equality with men in political, economic and cultural fields as well as
What demands attention is that remnant feudal ideas of regarding
in their social and family lives. Likewise the President of China at the
men as superior to women and traditional prejudices against
opening ceremony, after paying a warm tribute to Chinese women
women have re-emerged in recent years. For example, some
calling them a 'great force for the country's construction and reform',
localities and units have placed unreasonable demands and restric-
also stressed that 'the government and the whole of society should show
tions in recruiting or promoting women and women cadres. Some
more concern for women and better safeguard their interests and
areas and units bluntly refuse to admit needed and qualified
condemn sex discrimination and maltreatment of women.'69
women; some neglect the labour protection of women in pro-
He reminded the delegates that for various historical reasons, pre-
ductive work. Parents interfering in their children's freedom of
judice against women still existed and maltreatment and abuse of
marriage, arranging marriage for money, marrying in order to
children and women happened frequently: "Those behaviours are in-
extort money and other similar cases have become fairly com-
tolerable and those who encroach on the rights of women and children
monplace.
should be punished.' This was an important statement by the President,
What is intolerable is the fact that some ugly phenomenon
for it shifted some of the responsibility for discrimination to others and
that had been wiped out long ago in new China have begun to
not just to the failings of women, as had been one of the predominant
recur. Criminal acts of drowning female infants, insulting women,
themes previously. Subsequent to this conference, there were two im-
persecuting mothers who gave birth to girls, and selling and
portant initatives that resulted from these repeated and increased calls
harming women and children have occurred frequently. In some
for more attention to the separation out and protection of women's
areas these have reached serious proportions.
rights. The first was the establishment of a new Women's and Children's
We women must unite with others in society and resolutely
Work Co-ordination Committee by the State Council in March 1990
struggle against all acts' harming women and children and
and the second was the promulgation of the new Law Protecting
vigorously help the public security and judicial organs crack down
Women's Rights in 1992.
on these criminal activities and firmly protect the legitimate
The creation of the Women's and Children's Work Co-ordination
rights and interests of women and children.6⁷
Committee at the highest administrative level was an important symbol
of the new importance attached to reducing discrimination against
The main task of the Women's Federation in 1983 was defined as
women and a recognition that such problems could not be solved by
closely associating itself with women's interests in order that it might
such mass organizations as women's federations alone, since the issues
investigate, study and solve these problems. The proceedings of the
related to politics, economics, culture and other fields and 'should be
Fifth Congress confirmed that the reappearance of infanticide and
dealt with by the whole society'.70 A women's and children's group was
violence had done much to generate the gender-specific demands of
attached to the committee and a permanent office for the committee
the Women's Federation and to legitimize the open presentation of the
was established at the All-China Women's Federation, while most
Women's Federation in its role as defender and protector of women. In
provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the
this, the Women's Federation had the full support of the state, thus
central government also set up special organizations for women and
fulfilling at least for the time being the prescription that the Women's
children. Its central committee, consisting of representatives from all
Federation fully represented both the Party and women's interests and
the leading ministries and relevant organizations, was to have as its
that these could be one and the same. Although there were no apparent
main task that of 'coordinating issues relating to women and children
conflicts between the two bodies voiced at the Congress, there were still
that should be settled jointly by the governments and units concerned'.
some limits to the legitimacy of the Women's Federation's voice on
The establishment of this coordinating agency marked an important
many broader political and economic issues.
step in an administrative system characterized by strongly demarcated
Similarly, at the Sixth National Congress in 1988, both representatives
vertical lines of authority and responsibility that had made any
142
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
143
cooperation between Ministries difficult. It had also reduced the respons-
in the early 1950s was the attention paid to educating people in the
iblity of any one Ministry for gender issues, which then usually became
new laws in publicity campaigns following on closely after their promul-
the exclusive charge of the Women's Federation, not itself a Ministry
gation. But legal recourse in appropriate conditions had never been
but a mass organization. The name was later changed to the Women's
institutionalized in China; rather less accountable local cadres mediated
and Children's Work Committee under the State Council in 1993 and
disputes and dispensed judgements within the units or regions under
its work so far has mostly involved researching regulations to protect
their administration. What distinguishes the reform decade is the new
women from abduction and prostitution, formulating laws to protect
interest in the role of law and the establishment of newly available and
women's rights and the publicization and drawing up of this legislation.
accessible legal institutions, and the Women's Federation has played its
The second important initiative arising from the repeated and increasing
part in acquainting women with their legal rights and providing help
calls for more attention to women's rights was the promulgation of a
in obtaining legal redress in the face of discrimination. From its ex-
new women's law.
perience in the early 1950s, the Women's Federation had learned that
legislation in support of women's rights and education in support of the
The Women's Law
law was not enough; there also had to be back-up legal institutions,
personnel and individual support available to women to aid them in
The new law protecting the rights of women in 1992 (see Appendix 2)
the exercise of their rights. Indeed, experience had taught grassroot
was the first law specifically defining a set of women's rights in China
women's organizations that 'the rights and interests of women and
and was thus heralded as illustrating anew the importance attached by
children are best protected by enforcing the laws and regulations
the government to women's rights and interests. Chen Muhua, Vice
designed to help abused women and by acting as their legal advocates
Chair of the National People's Congress Standing Committee and
and helping them exercise these rights."
President of the All-China Women's Federation stated:
In support of the various general laws and regulations published at
the onset of reform in the 1980s, one of the main aims of the Women's
The law on protection of women's rights and interests will produce
Federation had been to set up a network of legal centres to advise
a profound and far-reaching influence over China's efforts to
female victims of violence, collect evidence and pursue offenders through
protect women's rights and interests, raise the status of women,
the courts. These centres had been set up at provincial, city and county
promote equality between men and women and arouse the sup-
administrative levels to which lawyers and legal workers, most of whom
port of women for socialist modernisation in an all-round way. It
were women, had been recruited to provide legal counsel and allied
indicates China shows special concern for women and attaches
services to women." To sensitize women to the protection provided by
great importance to women's rights and interests 71
the new laws and to the availability of legal services, short and con-
The Law set out the rights of women in political, economic, cultural
centrated publicity programmes had been instituted in many localities
and social life and with regard to property, marriage, divorce and the
during 1983-84. Classes were held to enable women cadres to study the
family. It protects the rights of women to life and health, outlawing
pertinent provisions of the constitution, the Marriage and other civil
infanticide, abuse or any form of abduction. When these lawful rights
laws and to follow the procedural laws on criminal cases. Public forums
were infringed by others, women had the right to request and expect
were held on the laws and legal counselling centres were set up on
departments concerned to help remedy the infringement or to take
street corners and in parks where legal advisors made themselves
legal proceedings with the people's court, and disciplinary action was
available to answer queries and investigate grievances. It was reported
to be taken against those who did not provide the requisite help. It has
that the most common questions on which help was sought had to do
been stressed several times that 'the awakening of women to gender
with the inheritance of daughters, the legal rights of the elderly to
rights" would be completely impossible without the strong support of
receive support and matters to do with divorce procedures.⁷⁶
China's laws and that 'more and more Chinese women will get accus-
Publicity and practical campaigns such as these provided an infra-
tomed to safeguarding their rights and interests through legal means."3
structure for a new campaign in support of the new Women's Law.
To accustom women to the idea of resorting to legal means, the
During this campaign it was reported that the cases brought to the
promulgation of the law was followed by a month-long women's rights
notice of the Women's Federation in a single month totalled that usual
campaign to study and publicize the new law.
for half a year. In one case reported in the media, the Women's
One of the very impressive features of the first revolutionary years
Federation in Beijing received an unusual joint telegram from 118
144
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
145
women employees of a power station in far Heilongjiang province
Studies, introduced into China in a book review in Studies of Social Sciences
outlining their refusal to be charged double levies in the fundraising for
Abroad of Shirai Atsushi's Women's Studies and the History of Women's
the factory's new living quarters. Instead of turning to their husbands,
Movements, was first seriously discussed at the first National Conference
relatives or some sympathetic factory leaders, they decided to base
on Theoretical Studies of Women sponsored by the Women's Federa-
their case on Article 23 of the new Law which stated that 'Women
tion in late 1984.79 Thus participants aimed at carrying out studies of
should be equal with men in the allotment of housing and enjoyment
women, researching women's problems theoretically and establishing
of welfare benefits.' This was widely cited as an example of the ways
various branches of women's studies in their specialized academic fields.
in which 'women are awakening to this new "legal shelter" and more
In 1985 a women's committee attached to the Henan Institute of
women have learned to resort to legal means instead of swallowing
Futurology was set up and it led to the formal establishment of the
unfair treatment."
Women's Studies Centre at Zhengzhou University in Henan in May
The new law was also the main subject of discussion at the Seventh
1987. It was the first special organization of women's studies in colleges,
National Congress of Women held in September 1993.78 Of the nine
universities and institutes, and in the past few years the Research Centre
main goals outlined by the Women's Federation for the 1990s, four
at Zhengzhou has become an important academic base for Chinese
referred directly to women's rights as individuals, in society, in employ-
women's studies and the centre of a nation-wide academic network in
ment and in marriage and the family. The remaining three advocated
this field. It has compiled a women's studies series and essays and
an increase in female participation in politics and education and im-
organized seminars and public lectures on women's studies.
provements in their health and reduction in domestic labour. If the
In the past few years many other university discussion and research
promulgation of a Women's Law constituted a shift towards recognizing
groups on women's problems have been established with a view to
the responsibilities of society for seeing that women's rights were pro-
attracting broader attention to women's studies and women's problems.
tected, it also marked a milestone in the separation out of women's
In March 1990 the Women's Studies Centre at Zhengzhou University
separate needs, interests and demands. The redefinition of women's
organized a 'Workshop on Women's Participation and Development' to
roles and status could not be willed by women alone however much
review women's studies and set up programmes for collecting systematic
they improved themselves; the validity of their needs and interests had
data on social attitudes towards women and female attitudes towards
to be recognized by society. The increasing awareness and investigation
society for reference and for the long-term construction of a theoretical
of women's separate problems and needs in living and work during the
framework for women's studies.80 Many other centres for women's
early years of reform not only led to a new interest in women's rights
studies have followed suit and have also collected data on women's
but also gave birth to more academic but policy-linked women's studies.
experience and attitudes as a prelude to thinking about the problems
of women both practically and conceptually. Although much of their
Women's studies
new work in women's studies has reduced the influence of the Women's
Federation and its domination of the discourse on gender issues, most
The initiative for separating out women's studies from other studies was
of these new women's centres, institutes or societies work alongside the
spearheaded by a number of social scientists and scholars in institutions
Women's Federation and are affiliated to it either because they were
of higher education who had become interested in researching women's
themselves initiated by the Women's Federation or because they took
problems and by the Women's Federation which, seeking to reaffirm its
the decision that it was better to influence the organization from within.
legitimacy in representing the interests of women, commissioned num-
One of the most outspoken of the advocates for women's studies in
bers of popular and local studies of women's history. In 1980 the
China, Li Xiaojiang of Zhengzhou University, Henan, in critically
Women's Federation had taken a decision to establish local archives
analysing the Women's Federation has also paid tribute to its recognition
and research centres to encourage its members to write histories of the
of the importance of women's studies and to its establishment of
women's movement in their region or unit. The separation out of
women's institutes and research bodies in most cities and provinces.
women's studies as a separate category of social studies was very much
Attached to the Women's Federation, they have been encouraged to
based on the rationale that understanding the history of women, their
investigate and collect information about the experience of women in
special problems and conceptualizing women's issues was only possible
different fields and make this information publicly known via lecture,
if women were separated out from the generalized definition of men
seminar and media report.
and the study of men. According to Wan Shanping, the term Women's
One of these research bodies, the Beijing Society of Women's Theory,
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CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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147
founded in 1985, is made up of cadres of the Beijing Women's Federa-
selves'. Much of this work covering women's employment, education,
tion who believed that this organization should not only help women
political participation, family, women's health, women's rights and social
to solve actual problems they encounter in their daily lives, but probe
ideology has been published already in report and statistical forms.
into and study women's problems theoretically.81 Its members were
Recently the Research Institute for women has turned its attention to
made up of experts and scholars of the social sciences and institutions
the provision of reproductive insurance by cities and units to cover
of higher learning who were interested in women's studies and cadres
women's maternity and other benefits, the payment of which has
of the Women's Federation who have been specializing in women's
hindered their recruitment and promotion in many enterprises. Some
work for many years. In the first few years after this society was founded,
of this work is the result of a comprehensive study of reproduction and
it set about 'studying the reality'. It did extensive investigation and
women's health undertaken by the Research Institute, which began in
research on women from different backgrounds in Beijing, and the
1992 and is an interesting example of the inputs which women's studies
results provided a basis for policy and laws concerning women that
can make in widening both the multi-disciplinary and the practical
were beginning to be formulated at that time. In 1990 the Beijing
policy interest of important gender issues. In this respect one very
Society of Women's Theory co-operated with the Guangzhou Society
interesting input of women's studies has to do with reproduction and
of Women's Issues and the Departments of Social Work at the University
female health, which was previously the sole responsibility of medical
of Hong Kong to set up a research project on 'Comparative Studies on
bodies.
Women's Employment in Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong'. The
In April 1992, the Women's Studies Institute, with sponsorship from
A
project set out to observe the employment conditions, the employment
the Ford Foundation, held the first conference on reproduction and
ideas and the views about equality between men and women in Beijing
health where, as well as the usual number of expert panels addressing
and Guangzhou and compare these with the views of women in Hong
topics ranging from menstruation to menopause, birth to ageing and
Kong by studying different social systems and different stages of eco-
contraception to sexual relations, reference was made to women's studies
nomic development of the three areas. Also in 1990 the society took
and the investigation of women's health by women. At the conference
part in a large-scale survey called 'Social Positions of Chinese Women'
cadres from women's study institutes from each province were com-
organised by the All China Women's Federation. This survey specifically
missioned to carry out their own investigations, discussions and studies
targeted marriage and family, education levels, self-recognition and
of women's health and reproduction and were offered training in
social identification, lifestyles and the health of women in Beijing. In
research methods. As a result there was a systematic investigation of
1991 this society, along with the Beijing Institute of Social Investigation,
women's health problems and a spread of information about women's
also organized a survey of young female entrepreneurs who worked in
health care with the establishment of consulting services or gynaeco-
private enterprises or individually-managed establishments in the Beijing
logical clinics, which also served as local centres for women's studies. A
area, acquiring data that investigated women's new outlooks on employ-
follow-up conference was held in January 1994 at which the study
ment and trends in female employment in the wake of reform and the
groups presented their findings. Some of the groups in the more
Open-Door policy.
developed regions where primary health care is already available had
In one of my own interviews, Professor Tao Chun-fang, deputy-
devoted their attention to ageing and menopause, while less developed
director of the Women's Studies Research Institute in China also
regions concentrated on preventive health, the establishment of clinics,
affiliated to the Women's Federation, emphasized that the role of her
means of transport to hospitals and the funding of health-care pro-
institute was to offer theoretical justification for women's studies, to
grammes for women and children.
provide advice to legislative bodies and to incorporate a training and
One of the important findings was the widespread incidence of
educational element into projects that will widely benefit women. Com-
reproductive tract infections in the poor rural regions and the difficult
binations of these goals can be seen in its main areas of interest and
relationships between women and doctors or gynaecologists, which led
research. The Research Institute has recently published a number of
to delays in seeking treatment. This experiment in combining research,
books on women's history covering the previous hundred years and is
practical investigation and women's solidarity is seen to be an important
now conducting new research on the history of women during the past
precedent in both developing women's studies and meeting the practical
forty years of the revolution. In 1991 its members had undertaken a
needs and interests of women.82 It is no accident that women's health
survey of women's status in twenty-three provinces in order to have 'an
is the mainstay of this precedent, as it is becoming one of the most
objective view of women's social status undertaken by women them-
important of women's problems needing investigation and is increasingly
148
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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seen as the prerequisite to the success of most other contemporary
allocations and the number of family members of labouring age, were
programmes to benefit women and especially poor women. This was
the health and labour capacities of the male and female labourers. The
brought home to both Dr Mary Anne Burriss of the Ford Foundation
very poorest households in the village had all suffered chronic disease,
in Beijing, which has provided much of the sponsorship for the pro-
physical illness or disability, premature death or mental incapacity or
gramme, and myself when we visited poor villages in the south-west
had a high number of either elderly or young dependents. In a random
province of Yunnan in 1991 to investigate women's health and health-
sample of households, health profiles revealed that few households had
care among other topics.
escaped illness or death.
The Yunnan villages were nestled in forested mountains in the east
In household I, consisting of five people, and 'not poor', the mother
of the province near the Guangxi border; some were only accessible by
had suffered a serious illness some years before but had recovered in
mud road in dry weather and then for the majority of villagers without
recent years. In household 2, with ten members, and 'not poor', there
a mule only by foot; others could only be reached by a foot track. The
had been no serious illness in recent years. In household 3, with two
houses were mostly of yellow clay or mud with natural wood beams and
people, and 'very poor', the widow was in a constant state of ill health
thatch, picturesque on the outside, but so very poor and dark and
with an eye problem. In household 4, with seven members, and 'not
sometimes chokingly dusty within. Because there was little in the way
poor', two boys and a daughter had died: one son had died three days
of furniture, bedding, clothes or food beyond the barest of essentials, it
after birth from tetanus - he had been carried to hospital, which would
was usually a case of crouching or sitting on slabs of wood a few inches
not accept him once he was diagnosed as having tetanus; another son,
off the ground, which made this stay and these interviews one of the
3 years old, died in hospital probably from pneumonia; the 7-year-old
most physically taxing of my many field experiences. There was no
daughter also died from pneumonia, apparently 'very fast' before a
drinking water in the vicinity of the villages for much of the year, when
doctor could be consulted. In household 5, with six people, and 'poor',
villagers had to trek four hours to and from the nearest source of water,
one child of 2 years old had died rapidly within two days of falling ill
sometimes twice a day. There was no electricity in the villages and some
with high fever; the husband had a persistent cough and was ill with
of the villagers were so poor that they could not even afford the sticks,
frightening stomach cramps every two weeks during which 'he seemed
paper or matches to light their way from house to house after dark. The
to die'. In household 7, with four members, and 'very poor', one 2-year-
villages were located in one of the poorest 273 counties of China, so
old son had died from dysentery after a visit to the township hospital;
defined because their per capita cash incomes, per capita grain supplies
the mother was mentally incapacitated and not in good health and one
and per capita land allocations were among the lowest in China.
of the daughters was also mentally retarded. In household 8, with four
In common with other poor, remote and mountainous villages in
people, and 'very poor', both parents were mentally incapacitated.
this region, they lacked sufficient available flat arable land to provide
Eight children had been born and five had died. This was not the only
for their grain supplies and spent much of their hard labour cultivating
case in the village where such a high proportion of children in a single
steep slopes for very low returns. In addition to cultivating grain, the
household had died. We learned of several others when we held what
fortunate women of the villages raised a few animals, which in the
seemed to be one of the first meetings of village women to discuss
absence of alternative economic activities in the village assumed prime
reproduction and female health. Then we learned of the high incidence
significance in determining the wealth, cash income and welfare of a
of debilitating reproductive tract infections among the women that did
peasant household. Animals were the most important single source of
not even count as illness; the difficult conditions of home and hospital
cash income; however, they were not plentiful and, given the high
childbirth and the deaths of children; the desire of the younger women
death rate among chickens and pigs, they consituted a scarce and
to limit the numbers of their children and their lack of knowledge of
vulnerable household resource dividing village households into three
or availability of contraception; the expense of scarce paper making for
categories which were referred to as 'not poor', 'poor' and 'very poor'.
difficulties in coping with menstruation and the absence of clinics and
The poor and very poor households of the village, the majority, had in
even medicines. It was said that the doctors were too poor to provide
common a low per capita arable land allocations, a shortage of grain
medicines, the villagers too poor to pay for them, and the village had
and few animals and they frequently suffered a shortage of labour
no funds with which to provide a subsidy to pay for clinics or medicines.
through premature death, physical illness or disability and mental
The village doctors had minimal training, difficulties in reading and
incapacity. Indeed, the most important factors determining the income,
writing and the hospitals demanded prohibitive cash deposits on arrival
well-being and welfare of individual households, in addition to land
that deterred the villagers from making the arduous journey. Given that
150
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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the township hospital had but a stethoscope and thermometer, even
children. Currently then, it is their own self-strengthening that has
villagers who had the stamina or the money were reluctant even in the
become an important platform. The new emphasis on self-referential
most extreme circumstances to attend their local hospital - a situation
qualities has drawn attention to the distinctive qualities attributable to
that had led to the common association of hospital with death and the
the female self or the feminine and to their difference from the male
depressing health profiles both in households and of women.
or masculine. The emphasis and reflections on gender distinction and
It was this visit that gave an impetus to the further investigation of
difference grows out of the explicit rejection of the previous revolu-
women's health and reproduction sponsored by the Ford Foundation.
tionary 'masculinization of the female', 'female man' or 'super-women's
One of the hallmarks of the new women's studies has not only been its
masculinization' and marks the separation out of the female from the
emphasis on investigating the experience of women and combining
previous generalized androgynous definition of comrade or worker of
practical with theoretical concerns, but also its focus on both the social
predominantly masculine or male image. As Li Xiaojiang, like so many
and the personal. At the present time, women in a variety of urban
other women, has noted in retrospect, they knew they were women, but
venues are coming together with increasing confidence in the value of
they knew less the difference between themselves and men.85
solidarity to understand and study their condition. As Li Xiaojiang has
The Reform period is thus marked by a new interest in the image
forecast, every class of women has its own pressing issues so that 'within
and presentation of the feminine, focusing first on physical appearance
a certain number of years the issues that will be defined as "female"
and adornment. This is not surprising given that one of the most
will be of every hue and shade and of unprecedented variety, and their
important characteristics distinguishing reform from revolution is the
boundaries will be difficult to establish.' Retrospectively, however, the
new interest in consumption, in consumer goods and in their style,
women that I have interviewed in the past few years identify the main
colour, material and brand name, all of which have generated a new
legacy of the revolutionary years as the 'coming out of women into
phenomenon - consumer desire. Eyes, and not just those on the ad-
society'. This phenomenon used to be referred to as the revolution
vertising billboards, are firmly fixed on consumer objects to do with
within a revolution', but now women's organizations and studies have
fashioning the individual and furnishing the home. Shopping has not
broadened their brief to draw attention to a third revolution or that
only become a serious recreation and a sociable exercise with much
within the female person as necessary, not only in order to take ad-
noisy consultation; the new interest in commodities and lifestyles has
vantage of the new social opportunities offered by reform, but in order
brought about a new relation between people and things, so that persons
that they benefit and become modern women.
have become classified not so much by their class background or 'work'
or occupation as previously, as by the possession of objects or their
'The four selfs'
evaluation, so that identity has become associated with lifestyle rather
than class label. Adorning the body and the home has drawn attention
The Sixth National Women's Congress had first officially promoted
to the persons and their immediate environments in a proliferation of
women's self-development', which has been defined as 'the strengthen-
style statements that is born of income generation and generates a
ing of the principles of women's four selfs - self-respect, self-confidence,
sense of individual, family and gender difference. The desired and
self-reliance and self-improvement'. Other phrases referred to at the
different qualities of the feminine are outwardly symbolized by choice
Congress and in its associated literature refer to self-esteem, self-
of colour, style and fashion. One of the most noticeable features of
awareness, self-possession and self-love. What is new is not so much the
recent years to long-time observers, and symbolic of wider shifts, has
notions of esteem, improvement, awareness, reliance, confidence and
been the near disappearance of the uniform blue garb of the revolution
respect but their self-referential qualities. The shift in importance to the
and the subsequent and sudden swings in fashion. Gone are the days
self that is also female and merits separate definition, discussion and
when I noticed the individual and stylish twist of the hairgrip that
deference is new. Instead of the 'we' of the factory, farm or family unit,
served to differentiate the modern young Shanghai 'miss' from her
there is the 'I' of the woman and a recognizable process of attempted
peers. Despite an interval of more than ten years, the visitor to China
or preliminary exploration or discovery as to who she is or who she
today is still taken aback by the great variety of and sudden shifts in
might become in a new Chinese society. Now women are perceived as
fashionable colour, style and fabric. The all-pervasive interest in fashion
already having entered the social but at the cost of sacrificing something
is evident in crowded shop and market-place and the emergence of the
of their selves for socialism, the Chinese state, the urban enterprise or
fashionable young. Older women too are determined not to be omitted
the rural collective, quite apart from their families, husbands and
and are also seen to be 'eager to beautify themselves'. Magazines now
152
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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153
have at least some, if not all, pages devoted to fashion and the fashion
do they dress in suits and leather shoes, they also have money to
show is now a routine event. In addition to dressing fashionably, there
buy gold and jade. So why be astonished that model women
is a great interest in make-up, skin care, jewellery, cosmetics and hair-
workers are dressed in gold and jade? Rather we should say that
style, all accentuating the enhancement of physical appearance that is
if model workers live better lives than most, they will have greater
the new attribute of women who 'know how to be women'.
appeal and will encourage more people to work diligently. If
For role models too, the relation of working women to consumption
model workers only get 'a suit of blue and black' for their work,
is as important as their productive roles. In a new trend, the adornment
I'm afraid no one will want to be a model. From the changes in
of the role models may be as fully described in detailed terms of dress
the style of dress of this model woman worker, we can catch a
and other fashion accessories as their other attributes. An interesting
glimpse of the economic development of our nation and the
example can be cited of the description of one such model in which the
change in people's concept of consumption!"
commentator also draws attention to the novelty of this apprehension.
The adoption of new fashions, make-up and jewellery by women is not
When I went to the Shenzhen Daily Use Goods Factory to gather
only part of a new interest in consumption; it also marks a new emphasis
material, I found sitting in the office a dignified, beautiful young
on the feminine or female as separate and different from masculine or
woman. Her hairdo was done quite tastefully, two gleaming ear-
male.
rings adorned her earlobes, a glittering necklace hung from her
neck, suspended from her wrist was an exquisite small golden
Uniquely female
bracelet, and encircling the ring finger of her right hand was a
conspicuous golden ring. Ah, one look and I realised that it was
This interest in and new reflection on gender difference can be seen as
Fan Liying, deputy to the provincial People's Congress and pro-
a reaction against the enforced female appropriation of a male-defined
vincial model worker.
world during the revolution when women are now seen to have
I could not help feeling stunned. So many stories about her
responded to the call of the Communist Party to a point where they
tumbled about in my brain Originally she was an embroiderer
lost a sense of their female selves in the pursuit of gender sameness
her fingers were covered with needle marks two years ago,
with a consequent loss of image, demeanour and perceptions distinctive
she happily took over the post of cashier, giving up her monthly
to women and different from the male other. In emphasizing sexual
income of about Y300 without complaint and earning only a little
difference rather than the sameness of revolution, attention had to be
more
than
100
yuan
and in the past two years has not made
drawn to the qualities unique to women and female. In my own recent
the slightest error
interviews, the quality that women most often thought to be uniquely
Yet I simply didn't quite believe my own eyes when I saw her.
female was 'softness', which together with nurturing qualities con-
As if she saw my astonishment, she smiled gently, revealing shallow
tributed to their uniquely female capacity for caring. However much
dimples, and said 'I am a twenty-three-year-old woman, and of
attention might shift to definitions of the female self and the process of
course I like to dress up.'
becoming a woman, it is also the case that definitions of the female
Suddenly I understood. Model workers of the 1980s are good
take as their reference point the male other and separation from or
at creating wealth, and they also understand how to enjoy it. This
'othering' in defining of the female self. Although meanings are so
is probably the charm of our times.
often born of contrasts, with self-definition mainly resting on othering
A model woman worker dressed in gold and jade? The way
or demarcation from the other, the search for what is different and
some people see it, perhaps this is a great outrage. In their eyes,
distinctive from the masculine does not start with questioning assump-
a model worker who fits the image should be covered with grease
tions about the masculine so much as with the identification of 'woman's
and dirt, dressed in blue and black.
own perceptual world', 'women's own outlook and world' and 'inner
But nowadays in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, model
qualities unique to women'. There has been a number of articles
workers no longer have that old appearance. There, the wage
expressing the growing view that there is a peculiarly female perception
system has been reformed, and anyone who works hard has a
of the 'natural world' that extends say from sexuality to tourism. For
higher income. Naturally, the income of model workers is higher
instance one article, entitled 'Women are the Natural Masters of the
than that of most and they live better lives than most. Not only
Perceptual World', argued that there are peculiarly female perceptions
154
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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155
based on women's distinctive and different perception of nature and a
tend to elbow their way on, although they know everyone can
rich perceptual world transcending and enriching male language and
have a seat. But women usually receive their gifts by lowering
logic:
their heads.
I suddenly came to realise that the happiness derived from the
Women are not like men, who seem to hunt hard after moun-
perception of beautiful things is a true happiness in real life, a
tains and rivers. Compared with men's shining eyes, they usually
satisfaction, and confirms the perceptual world. Females are not
half close their eyes to enjoy the scenery. Men value form, but
women stress content
as dull, shrivelled and abstract as males, who pretend to be serious
all the time How can women protect their original clear rich
Men with education have created the phrase 'touring the scenic
and moving perceptual world?
spots'. They play politics and war, so certainly they can do a good
job of sightseeing mountains and rivers. Women with no education
Having established that women had a stronger claim to a superior
often have no chance to enjoy scenic spots, so they can only take
natural pleasure, the writer goes on to translate this claim into a stronger
it as a blessing when they can view green mountains and trees
claim for female sexual pleasure. The writer reveals that, although it
from their windows.89
was not until very late that she realized that the pleasure of sexual life
not only belonged to men, she now thought that one of 'the happiest
Some women have even been heard to say (perversely?) that they wanted
things in life is no doubt sexual pleasure for women'. Indeed, she
a girl not a boy child because of her capacity to appreciate the natural,
thought:
emotion and experience:
The female's longing for pleasure sometimes is stronger than the
A girl is more sensitive, has more capacity to feel everything -
male's. However because of various reasons, mainly social reasons
happiness, sorrow, all the sentiments. A girl can appreciate new
it seems, the females' strong desire and need for this pleasure
experiences much more than boys. So the world is always a new
have been depressed and hurt or even buried under social tradi-
world for her. That's why I want my baby to be a girl.90
tions that centered on men for thousands of years. They were
Not surprisingly perhaps, the search for difference has once again
crushed by various erroneous concepts, thoughts, customs and
led to an emphasis on those qualities thought to be traditionally and
norms, which have caused many females to lose their chances in
uniquely female such as gentleness, refinement, restraint, modesty,
life, not knowing they should realise or demand to realise their
shyness and reserve or attributes, all requiring some degree of restraint
own natural instincts. It seems that in the female's sexual pleasure,
if not submission in deportment and demeanour. Indeed, the rejection
the rational is also mixed with perceptual The rational is not
of sameness and pursuit of difference has led to an appreciation and
those concepts, thoughts, language and standards that can be
cultivation of images based on the traditional definition of the feminine
recognised it has become one with the perceptual. Therefore
so clearly reminiscent of the first section of this book. However the
they can get that unexplainable feeling and pleasure. Men can get
search for what is female-specific cannot be seen merely as a reiteration
their warmest and most delightful life in sexual contact with
of past qualities, for a prevalent theme of the new literature on female
females 88
attributes includes female self-sufficiency and independence of person.
The pursuit of contrasts in gender perception has led to some
interesting reflections on gender difference. In one article, the author
Independently female
reflects on the different approaches distinguishing male and female
tourists: the men rush round, with cameras, wanting to tour all the
Female independence now has a much wider definition than the notion
sights at rapid speed while women lingered taking in intensively the
of economic independence so commonly heralded during the revolution.
small, the hidden and the incidental at a more leisured pace. This
Now it is something more that is advocated or an independence of
contrast thought the author reflected and distinguished more generally
personality and spirit that is now seen to have been previously inhibited
female from male qualities:
in women by a 'spiritual footbinding' that 'deformed our souls'. Un-
fortunately, as one article stressed, 'many women do not know how to
Nature has bestowed different gifts upon men and women. Men
be women' in that, in limiting their horizons to appearance and adorn-
are usually impatient. For instance, when getting on a bus they
ment, they do not realize that independence of personality plus charm
156
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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157
and elegance is the most seductive combination appealing to men and
impossible for us to display our talents, intelligence and creativity.
the most appropriate for the new society. 'Keep to this road' says the
We just become men's servants and their burden."
author 'and be true women.'91 Noteworthy is the example of five young
If women have been encouraged to be independent, they also find
women students who, on establishing a successful campus candle-lit
themselves, in their own words, 'burdened by the wide rivers and high
café, were irked when they were dubbed as 'the five warrior attendants'.
mountains' of contrasting social or male expectations of women. Women
They would have much preferred to be known as the 'five golden
in Beijing I have talked to about recent policies towards women had
flowers', a more feminine image, although they also wanted to be
strong views on the subject of independence. One 40-year-old university
appreciated for their 'strong determination' of which they were in-
teacher thought that independence for women should be stressed,
ordinately proud." The most powerful and popular metaphor for the
because from her experience as a teacher most young women were not
acquisition of a new feminine independence is that captured by the
sure about their own ideas unless applauded and were very dependent
phrase 'not the moon'.
on their families and others for validation and approbation. An older
The phrase 'not the moon' was first used in a contemporary play to
woman I also interviewed instantly came up with her definition of the
denote the realization of the heroine that she need not depend on the
modern woman as 'one who plans her life without reference to men'
light of another, as does the moon, to make herself shine. The metaphor
at all stages of her life be it dressing to catch, competing for or living
was afterwards adopted widely both to criticize women's dependence
with and keeping her man. But she also simultaneously added that she
on men's reflective light and to advocate female self-reliance in develop-
was 'not being very realistic'. Continuing and current male expectations
ing 'their own brilliance'. Many writings including a television series
of women are perhaps most visibly displayed in male definitions of
have taken up this theme. An article in Women's World in 1985 entitled
preferred or desirable marriage partners. According to one recent
'Woman is not the Moon' exhorted women to treasure this phrase:
account, the desired female personality could not have more accurately
Woman is not the moon. It is true, woman is not an appendange
reflected traditional virtues:
of a man. As a member of society she has independent qualities;
The increasingly fierce competition in modern society pressures
she has all the behaviour, morality, intelligence and ability of a
men more and more. They need a warm and harmonious family
human being. She can work and be creative
life, and want to find a life partner who is beautiful, gentle and
Women is not the moon. She must rely on herself to shine.
kind-hearted. She should be both a virtuous wife and good mother
These are words that many pioneers of the women's liberation
- the traditional charm of Oriental woman, very womanly.
movement, valiant women, and heroines have inscribed with their
their own actions, tears and blood. Let us treasure these words,
In a recent city survey, male images of an ideal wife were reported to
remember them, and act on them. Hopefully each person can
be of one 'who is beautiful, tall, healthy, soft, kind, well-mannered,
find her own path in life and develop her own brilliance.
loyal, virtuous and one who is skilled in domestic crafts (e.g. sewing,
cooking and so forth) and can take care of children'."
The author argued that what most obviously stands in the way of
Much discussion centres around the conflict between socially ap-
female independence and individual shining-brightness is the continuing
proved qualities of 'virtuous wives and good mothers' and the ideal of
influence of old ideas subordinating woman to man:
the newly independent modern woman. A popular television series
They believe that as women, we don't have to be strong. They
entitled Women are not the Moon centered on this female dilemma. The
think that as long as one finds a good husband to depend on, it
heroine, a beautiful young woman, is torn between pursuing a career
will be enough to just live out one's days. Old ideas such as
'after hard training' in the city as a fashion designer with 'a grand
'Woman is one of man's ribs,' 'If a woman does not have a
future in front of her' and marriage to a long-time sweetheart and now
husband, her body does not have an owner,' etc., still influence
well-known entrepreneur who wants to marry her but keep her at
some people. Many believe that man is the supporter of the
home 'like a good wife'. The heroine however, believing that a woman
family; the only thing that a woman can do is help him at home
is 'not the moon' and can shine without reflection from men, knows
as a virtuous wife and good mother; getting ahead is something
that she need not depend on a man, and thus she finally says goodbye
for men to do. History and present circumstances make many of
to her young man in favour of pursuing her career - an ending that
us women comrades oppressed and constrained. This makes it
aroused much discussion among young viewers informally and in the
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CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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press. Such tensions between the ideal of independence held out to
widowed. It's hard for all of us, but the worst is to be unmarried.
women in their own literature and social expectations still surrounding
Once you're over thirty - and I am - people think there is
female attributes and roles is most evident in interviews, letters and
something strange about you if you're not married. They think
short stories written by older young women or older single daughters
you have bad relationships, that you're not friendly, or are eccen-
after the age of around 30 years.
tric. If you work in an office as I do, if one day you talk with a
man, immediately there is gossip that you want to marry him
Married people keep wanting to give advice to you - they
Older 'single' women
mean well but they make you very uncomfortable. They say,
Given their professional status it is just such older single daughters who
tomorrow, I'll bring a boy. Every day they ask have you a boy-
have the potential for leading independent lives, but this they are not
friend yet? What aren't you married? Why don't you like this boy,
permitted to do formally or informally. These single women are often
this man?
referred to as da guniang (big daughter or big girl), which reflects the
It makes an unmarried woman like me very tired of this
importance still attached to marriage in becoming a woman or an
problem Some people; decide in the end, they'll take any man
adult. From their mid-twenties, these young women come under pres-
- not because she really loves him, but to get rid of all this
sure to be married and it is their difficulties in finding husbands or men
rubbish and the questions that go on and on. If you live in this
who will have them that has brought their plight to public attention.
society, it's easier to be married, no matter to whom.
They find themselves in an anomalous position. Officially, the older
Indeed the status of lone woman still carries with it such difficulties that
single woman has no existence separate from or independent of her
family. For instance, she cannot have a registration separate from her
most daughters are said to 'want to marry even if they have no desire'
parents' household and therefore has no individual right to separate
because marriage still gave them the best chance of social recognition
housing or other benefits. The young women themselves say they not
as a person.
If it was far easier for women to get married rather than not, it is
only come under pressure to marry from others, but they themselves
also, many felt, easier for them to stay married rather than divorce.
say they feel 'incomplete', 'without a future' or lacking self-determina-
tion without a marriage partner. One short story illustrates the plight
Divorced women too find it difficult to obtain housing or receive any
voiced again and again by such older daughters. Entitled Hopes Worn
individual respect for their newly single status. Although the new
Marriage Law of 1980 made divorce easier to obtain, and the divorce
Away, it charts the feelings of an unmarried woman whose hopes for a
rate has increased, especially in the cities, the divorced woman still
married future had little by little worn slowly away so that at 30 years
finds that, although she might be treated as more adult in that she has
of age, she described herself as 'old, shrivelled, dying' as she plucked
been married, she is also a lone female without rights or status. In 1992
up the courage to stare in the mirror and look at the 'shell of her body'
or 'the sad remains of her life'. 'I'd made a fairy tale for myself but now
a woman journalist, herself divorced, reported on her talks with other
divorced women and her surprise to find that they were still far more
found that I'd entered a nightmare, with me as the fairy tale's old hag
interested in men's position, achievement and other material conditions
- an old hag that everyone called "Old Maid". I felt a chill spreading
rather than their own. She felt quite indignant that these women were
over me.'96
without sufficient self-respect and could only think of depending on
An older woman in her late thirties thought that gossip was the
men.99
worst feature of a single life. 'If you're different,' she said, 'there can be
a lot of gossip and you're different if you're not married, especially if
The trauma associated with divorce is certainly the theme of many
you are of a certain age. People start asking "What's wrong?" as if there
a short story and in accounts of divorce in the media over the past ten
is something peculiar about the single state.'97 One older single woman
years. It is one of the most common topics of discussion in the media
described what women like her go through, 'day in and day out':
and in conversation in the cities. My own interviews in 1994 with
several women who were divorced and struggling to bring up their
I still have strong desires in my heart. But I hate the prejudice
daughters after a tumultuous parting suggested that their situation was
that I have to suffer. I don't know if I can put up with it for ever.
not a happy one. They were in educational occupations and fortunate
As a single woman in China, it is very hard to stand up. There
that their housing was secure although sometimes hard won, but they
are three kinds of us - the unmarried, the divorced, and the
also mostly found it a very lonely state in which to survive socially and
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CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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161
emotionally. They thought it was much more common to look for love
become mature, they all search for it and make sacrifices for it.'100 In
outside of marriage or alongside marriage, and I was certainly surprised
an interview, another young woman more ruefully commented:
to hear of the number of extra-marital liaisons that seemed to be an
accepted or even preferred solution to the common lack of or end of
When we love a man, we do everything for him, but we lose
love in marriage and certainly those so attached did not experience the
ourselves in the process. Love becomes a trap for women. It's not
loneliness felt by lone women in their thirties and forties.
the same for men. They get a lot from a relationship. Whether or
This trend is confirmed by the popularity of Shen Rong's short
not one is married we women should never lose touch with our
story, entitled Divorce, Why bother? or Too lazy to divorce, in which the
own needs never forget about ourselves.
material and emotional cost of divorce was deemed so great as to
So intense is the experience of merging one self with another in love
suggest alternative solutions. An older woman, a social scientist, twice
and romance, that the literature is also full of references to the devasta-
married herself, proffered the opinion that she knew of 'no women
ting anguish of lost love. A 28-year-old city woman summed up the
happy in marriage'. Given all the changes in recent years, she thought
feelings of her gender and age cohort when she noted that, because
it had been difficult for any relationship to survive such 'twists and
dating was a monumental experience, getting over the loss of a loved
turns'. Although divorce was much talked about in Beijing, she thought
one was very difficult: 'You put everything into it. So that the other
that most 'just let it go' and led their separate lives as far as possible.
person becomes your life. For him to leave you when you are involved
She herself had managed to swap a four-roomed flat for two flats of
with him is crushing. It is an abandonment that is difficult to get
two rooms each on separate floors of the same building which allowed
over."¹⁰¹ The intensity of attachment and magic of romance is such that
her and her husband to live separately - although sharing a housemaid,
it seems to be difficult to sustain such an attachment following marriage
they ate together. In this way women had fought to acquire some
with its daily routines and domestic life. The first few years of marriage
independence without the trauma of divorce, and given that the status
are commonly thought to be the most difficult for a couple to traverse
of a lone woman, be she unmarried, divorced or widowed, has never
and their common lack of success in doing so happily is one of the
been recognized as independent and worthy of individual esteem, this
reasons why marriage is often referred to as 'the grave of love'. One
had seemed to be a sensible solution to some in towns and cities. In the
personal history after another illustrates that the risk of losing one's
countryside too movement to new places by both men and women may
identity by being entirely preoccupied with another is a major
well offer something of a similar solution. However, although the
characteristic of romantic involvement in contemporary China.
marriage relationship may be seen by all to be still a most desirable
This preoccupation of young woman with male other is seen also to
state for women, falling in love is increasingly seen to be at some cost
transfer itself to mother with child. A 38-year-old knitting-mill technician
to female independence.
writes 'My love for my daughter surpasses my love for myself' and
another mother writes 'to bring up a son, a sixth-grade pupil, I'm
Love and the female self
willing to sacrifice myself." A woman manager of a shirt factory office
concluded with a heavy heart that 'women around the age of 40 are
With marriage still a well-nigh universal goal, there is much evidence
almost oblivious of themselves,"⁰³ such are their emotional investments
of a new and prevailing idealization of romantic love in contemporary
in their families. In such cases not only were women seen to lose their
Chinese literature with more than 500 magazines focusing on romance,
identity and their dreams for themselves, but the children were also
love, dating and marriage. Recently though, the literature on women's
seen to be denied their own identities as they became dependent on
independence has suggested that women are most likely to lose their
and lived out their mother's dreams. Thus, in relation to both men and
personal independence in love: it is both the most desirable and the
children, women have been increasingly exhorted not to lose their
most vulnerable of states. Young women, in dreaming of love and
independent sense of their own needs and interests and to 'not surrender
romance, are said 'to get carried away' and 'give up everything to
the female self' by wholly identifying with or receiving validation from
someone'. To use a now common Western phrase, 'women love too
another. As one young woman emphasized, their sense of value derives
much,' and in doing so in China they are similarly seen to lose some-
from the love of another: 'When you are really loved by one person,
thing of themselves 'as a kind of surrender'. In a recent short story, one
you can discover your own value." Frequent reference to notions of
young woman muses: 'I thought to myself: love is such a simple word,
dependence on and validation of another and abandonment and in-
but no one escapes it. When a person's life really begins, when they
completeness without another have worried counsellors newly charged
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CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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163
with attempting to help the modern young. As one counsellor with
the heavy task of constructing the 'Four Modernizations'. Con-
experience of listening to young women's problems has said: 'Compared
versely, if parents impose on their girl children the concept that
to a man, a woman must have more psychological preparation to
'males are worthy of respect and females are inferior,' this will
venture into society alone In a strange world a woman tends to look
cause them to form a sense of inferiority and a weak and timid
for a shelter."⁰⁵
character. It will limit them in giving full reign to their intelligence,
It was this search for shelter, she thought, that reflected the difficulty
ability, and wisdom, constrain their creativity, strangle their enter-
women had with the concept of independence. Unusually too, she also
prising spirit and cause them to become weak people.
had a message for parents of daughters, admonishing them not to
At present, many parents have not yet become conscious of
forget to tell their young daughters to 'Keep true to yourself no matter
the importance of fostering the self-confidence of girl children.
how rough life's road is.' This was an unusual message, for rarely at
Some even unconsciously undermine their self-confidence. For
any time in China's history has it been suggested to parents that they
example, some girls are bright, like to study and have high
might have a social responsibility to strengthen the independence, self-
aspirations, but their parents don't encourage them and even say
confidence or self-esteem of their daughters.
that girls have low intelligence, that no matter how hard they
work it will be a futile effort, and that they are better off doing
Female socialization
more housework instead. Aside from doing housework, girls very
seldom have the chance to temper themselves in other ways.
Although in the aftermath of the upsurge in reports of infanticide in
Thus a difference is created in the abilities of boys and girls,
the early 1980s, the Women's Federation had embarked on an intensive
which in turn becomes a reason for deprecating girls. Then there
campaign to persuade parents that it was as good to have a girl as a
are some parents who often say in front of their girl children that
boy, there has been little attention given to the socialization of girls or
girls are not as good as boys, causing the girls to feel they are
to the experience and lives of daughters during the revolution or in the
second-class citizens from birth. The result is that in all respects
1980s and 1990s. This lack of attention to the socialization of daughters
they become careful and cautious, and are always shrinking back.
is an important omission given the evidence from cross-cultural studies,
With all of this, how could a girl's newly sprouted self-confidence
which show again and again that the most important prerequisite to
not come under attack?
redefinition of women's roles and status is self-esteem and that the
People often praise boys for their spirit of striving hard, seeking
origins of this self-esteem lies in their experience as daughters. There
to outdo others, and swearing not to stop until they reach their
are the beginnings of such an acknowledgement and the development
goal. But this spirit, this self-confidence, this self-strengthening
of such an interest in China, but it is still very small. An article written
and courage, are by no means innate in their minds. They are the
in Zhongguo Funu in 1985 was unusual in drawing attention to parental
result of social education, and more important parental education.
responsibility for early female socialization and to the importance of
When a boy is easily upset and cries, his parents often say, 'Why
this socialization for becoming a woman with self-esteem:
are you crying? Men don't cry.' When boys retreat in the face of
People often sigh at the feelings of inferiority of some grown
difficulties, parents often say, 'Be brave - it's not like a boy to
women, and blame them for lacking self-confidence. It never
shrink back.' This talk, these exclamations, are a form of educa-
occurs to them that much of this sense of inferiority is formed in
tion and encouragement. They bolster the courage and confidence
childhood. This is mainly because parents do not understand
of boys. If girls were given the same treatment, I firmly believe
how to cultivate a girl's self-confidence. So, in order to train
that a spirit of confidence and steadfast bravery would take root
and sprout in the virgin soil of their pure souls.¹⁰⁶
strong self-confident women appropriate to a new era, it is neces-
sary to begin in childhood.
So far in China there is much less attention given to early differences
If parents pay attention to educating their girl children in self-
fostered between girls and boys and much more emphasis given to
confidence, giving them more encouragement, more support,
physical, emotional and intellectual differences apparent at the onset of
more help, more opportunities to temper themselves, and help
puberty. However, it is hoped that increasing attention will be given to
them to form a strong, brave character, then after they grow up
the early socialization of daughters at a time when the fate of daughters
they will be able to fully develop their own abilities and shoulder
is attracting more attention than at any time during recent history in
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CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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165
China. In particular, two phenomena drawing attention to daughters
births twice exceeded that of male births in most years between 1983
both resulting from the single-child family programme may have re-
and 1988, and Chinese demographers have estimated that this factor
percussions for the self-perceptions of young daughters. The first is the
accounts for at least half to three quarters of the shortfall in sex ratios.
large numbers of daughters who are denied their lives at or before
This explanation implies though that the sex ratio of children at
birth because they cannot substitute for sons and the second is the
subsequent ages would fall to normal as the previously hidden or
unusual experience of single daughters as the focus of parental ex-
adopted children are enumerated in later population census and surveys.
pectations, who might be said to be newly substituting for sons. Both
While this was the main working supposition throughout the late
categories of daughters might be said to be 'missing'.
1980s, the 1990 census cast doubt on the degree to which under-
enumeration or under-registration of females could have occurred
Missing girls
during the previous years. Now Chinese demographers are inclined to
concur that under-reporting can by no means wholly account for the
As the first decade of reform has drawn to a close, there has been
higher than normal sex ratios, mainly because there has been little if
increasing attention given to the phenomenon of missing girls, largely
any re-emergence of girls into the cohorts born in the last half decade.
because of the rising discrepancy in sex ratios at birth. By mid-decade,
In their view this factor implies that, unless they have been concealed
trends in sex ratios at birth were estimated to be in excess of 110:100,
with a tenacity that is hard to imagine, they may never have been born
which is 4 points above the international norm of 106:100. The 1990
or survived birth. The hypothesis based on under-reporting thus appears
census, according to both Chinese and foreign demographers, elim-
much weaker than it did several years ago. Another explanation is that
inated any doubt that sex ratios were high and rising in excess of
female infanticide has increased either at birth at the hands of birth
112:100; that ratios were higher for rural than urban areas and for poor
attendants or parents or some time later due to family neglect. Statistical
or densely populated provinces such as Guangxi, Zhejiang Anhui
and anecdotal evidence quoted in the Chinese press and in personal
Henan, Hunan, Shandong and Sichuan; and that ratios for higher
interviews and conversations suggests that infanticide, child sale and
parity births reached anywhere between 125 and 132 or even 149.4 if
premature death of females has continued in many regions of China,
the first born was a girl.¹⁰⁷ All the evidence suggested a large and a
giving reason to suppose that girls have less chance of surviving than
growing number of missing baby girls. The latest figures released in
do their male counterparts. However, there is general agreement that
China suggest that the problem is increasing as a result of pre-natal
female infanticide is not likely now to be the main cause of the
screening. The ratio in one city in Shandong province is estimated to
imbalance in sex ratios at birth, mainly because unwanted baby girls
have reached 163.8:100, which is higher than the norm reported for the
are more likely to be abandoned and placed in orphanages for adoption
surrounding rural areas which was estimated to be 144.6:100.¹⁰ Al-
or to be aborted before birth.
together in China, the numbers of girls missing are reported to be in
Presently the most discussed and likely explanation for imbalanced
the millions, with foreign demographers persistently estimating that the
sex ratios has to do with pre-selective abortion, for it has become
numbers missing amount to around 40 million and one Chinese source
increasingly possible for parents to determine the sex of the foetus and
estimating that this figure will rise to some 70 million by the end of the
for the pregnant woman to undergo an abortion if she is bearing a girl.
century.¹⁰⁹
Improvements in medical technology in the 1980s have been responsible
Explaining the causes of the imbalance in China's sex ratios and
for the development and spread of various pre-natal sex-identification
large numbers of missing girls has become the subject of many a
techniques, so that the now widespread availability of ultrasound B
demographic and social enquiry both within and outside of China.
machines has made it technically feasible for sex-selective abortion to
These enquiries commonly consider four hypotheses and their con-
take place in many regions in China. In 1979 the first Chinese-made
clusions show some congruence. The first of the hypotheses is that
ultrasound B machine was produced; in 1982 a large volume of imported
female births are hidden by their parents either temporarily or per-
and Chinese-made ultrasound B machines began to enter the Chinese
manently. There is certainly evidence of local instances of serious under-
market; in 1987 the number of ultrasound B machines used in hospitals
reporting or non-registration in order to evade penalties and to permit
and clinics was estimated to exceed 13,000, that is, about six per county
a second birth. Additionally, instances of temporary or permanent
or enough to supply every county and many townships in China. A
adoption by a friend or by family members would also raise the reported
large number of the ultrasound machines were put in place for purposes
sex ratios of births. There is evidence that under-reporting of female
of disease diagnosis, monitoring of pregnancy and checks on IUD
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CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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167
placement. It is estimated that China now has a capacity of producing
of the orphanages almost exclusively caring for baby girls and disabled
over 10,000 ultrasound machines per year, or enough to provide every
baby boys; another colleague was offered a baby girl for Y2000, a sum
county in China with four more machines every year, so that clinics
that was voluntarily reduced by the parents to Y500 upon his refusal to
and family planning centres at county and most township levels in-
purchase; it was rumoured that, at an airport where three adopted girls
creasingly have ultrasound machines advanced enough to be used for
and one boy were leaving the country, the boy apparently had to be
pre-natal sex identification. Surveys show that ultrasound machines
dressed in girls clothes to distract an angry crowd; my hotel in Beijing
have been widely available in China since 1985, and widespread pre-
was being used as a transit point by large numbers of Canadian parents
natal screening for birth defects has meant that ultra-sound machines
adopting Chinese babies all girls; the Chinese papers from the
and technologies, such as amniocentesis, have become widely available
international seminar on China's 1990 census confirmed the widespread
and are used to determine the gender of the pregnancy in the period
availability of ultrasound technology permitting pre-natal sex-selective
around 15 to 25 weeks after conception.
abortion; and China Daily in that week ran the headline, 'More boys
While government policy forbids the use of any of these technologies
than girls but no problem.' It is particularly noticeable that any
for ante-natal sex determination, their widespread availability makes
discussion of ensuing or potential problems has centred on the likely
real the possibility of misuse by officials open to bribes, the levy of fees
shortage of wives, problems of men unable to marry and fears for
to finance an otherwise under-funded local health service and the
future social stability. What has not been defined as a problem, or even
promotion of many forms of private and semi-private medical practices
considered, is the possibility that the presence of such extreme dis-
to supplement incomes an attractive option. Strong son preference,
crimination and its widespread reports might affect the self-perceptions,
gifts and bribes make backdoor options more likely and the deployment
self-images and self-esteem of China's surviving daughters.
of pre-arranged informal or unwritten signs such as a smile for a son
It does not just have to be imagined how young girls might respond
and a frown for a daughter would suggest that the central government
to reports that girls were missing in large numbers merely because of
may have difficulty implementing regulations against the use of gender-
their sex. There are not the monograph-length autobiographical ac-
determination technology. Despite government ruling against sex de-
counts featured in Part I of this study that documented the damage of
termination of the foetus, this explanation has the wide support of
close personal and familial experiences of discrimination, but there are
Chinese demographers and media, and what lends weight to this
shorter vignettes that suggest that girls continue to be fully cognizant
hypothesis is that even where birth surveillance is high, as in urban
of their secondariness and vulnerability to son preference. In one short
hospitals, medical records also show a high sex ratio, suggesting that
account of her life so far, one very young schoolgirl wrote of how her
numbers of women had undergone pre-natal sex identification.
birth had not only been unwelcome but also, she thought, the cause of
Daughter discrimination, observed and recounted, has been an
her parents' estrangement and her mother's subsequent death:
ongoing feature of my own field studies for many years. In addition to
the features of household surveys I have outlined in Section 2 of this
book, there are several memories that have haunted me on my many
trips to China in the 1980s. For years many of those who have but
casually crossed my path in taxi and train, not to mention colleagues
and friends, have had stories and anecdotes of having seen or knowing
somebody who has seen an abandoned and/or dead baby girl. For
many years I have heard of the sale of baby girls and the under-
registration of baby girls, depriving them of official record and facilities,
but latterly in December 1992 the magnitude of the problem became
more explicit with the publication of reports in Nongmin Ribao (Farmers'
Daily), which estimated that there were 37 million more men than
women in the population, and that by the year 2000, 70 million
bachelors would be roaming China's countryside looking for wives. 110
Moreover, within the space of one week's stay in Beijing in March 1993,
I had a number of telling exchanges and experiences. A colleague told
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CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
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171
Mother, have you ever considered what would happen when
requirements, resorting to altering her report cards and returning home
you treat me so? Whenever I get bad marks, I dare not show
later and later. In the face of increasing criticism and warnings and
them to you since if you know, I will be beaten and scolded. What
fearing her deceptions would be found out, she decided to run away:
is most terrible is that it wounds my self-respect!
'It's better for me to leave home and try to hew out my path in life in
I understand that you cherish high aspirations for me and
the outside world than stay at home offending my parents.'
want me to become a college student and a very intelligent girl.
In reply, her parents admitted that:
I can confidently say that I am a child who is eager to outdo
others, and I will study very hard and try every way to make
Aching regret has been gnawing at our hearts for the whole year
myself an outstanding person even though I might not be a very
since our only child went away. But it all comes too late. We had
clever girl.
the child when we were both 30. We ambitiously designed what
The night is still quiet and, bending over the desk, I don't feel
we felt to be a bright future for our daughter: key high school,
a bit sleepy, for I really have a lot to say to you. Mother, please
renowned university We wanted her to achieve much more
trust your daughter so as to help her better!"
than we did We kept adding pressure on her. Whenever she
was fond of playing and showed reluctance in study, we would
The craving for mothers' affection of several of these young daughters
scold her or beat her.
is highly reminiscent of the personal narratives of the early decades of
the century quoted in Part I.
What is also interesting about so many of these cases is the role that
A few daughters, feeling pressurized to achieve, have given up on
peers or friends of the daughters' play as confidantes and advisors to
their parents and left home, making 'runaway' or 'vagabond' girls a
the girls and as mediators between daughters and parents. It is friends
feature of newspaper reports for the first time since the early decades
who keep contact with the girls by posting letters and mediating between
of the century. Then girls ran away from home in their attempt to
parent and girl by explaining to parents the predicaments of their
further their education; now girls are running away primarily to escape
daughters. When Beijing children were asked in a recent survey in
from the pressures to achieve educationally. In 1993, the Women's
whom they would confide, most said they would go to their friends.
Studies Forum drew attention to the phenomenon of vagrant girls as a
Their fathers ranked only fourth and their mothers fifth, with teachers
problem 'not to be overlooked'.¹⁵ At about the same time, Zhongguo
not even in the top ten.¹¹⁸ In the new defiance of age-old inter-
Qingnian (China Youth) also reported on the experience of six girls who
generational bonds, it is peer groups who provide more suppport and
had all run away from their families.' In a manner reminiscent of the
it is such surveys, together with these newspapers stories of runaway
first decades of the century, the newspaper published letters from the
girls, that have caused many to fear for future relations between older
daughters explaining their reasons for running away and the replies of
and younger generations: 'This disturbing trend may signal that the
their parents. In all the cases featured in the newspapers, including the
traditional relationships that have for centuries bound Chinese youth
national daily newspaper, People's Daily, the daughters had been only
with their parents and rest of society may be loosening."¹⁹
children who could no longer tolerate the pressure to achieve and to
It is not just the traditional bonds between the generations that are
live up to parental expectations. In turn, the parents admitted that in
observed to be loosening as old juxtaposes with the new, as Chinese
retrospect the pressures they had placed on their daughters may have
juxtaposes with the West and the traditional juxtaposes with the mod-
been unnecessarily high. The city parents of one 15-year-old girl run-
ern; within the same generation tension between expectations and
away were both geologists who had spent the best years of their youth
female choices make for ambiguity in lifestyle, attitudes and emotions.
in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. They later admitted
that they had transferred their dreams to their daughter, whom they
Ambiguous women
had named 'making wonders'. According to their daughter's letter
published in one of the papers, their expectations had had a detrimental
Young women, especially, feel themselves to be hovering within a
effect: 'I used to swear to study hard and bring honour But your
plurality of expectations originating from a variety of sources including
autocratic education and indiscriminate physical punishment made me
state, family and male, so that the identification of 'proper' or 'ap-
really lose confidence in myself."¹¹⁷
propriate' female behaviour and priorities seems difficult in the absence
She began to fail her exams and continually fall short of her parents'
of a single rhetoric defining proper female needs and interests ap-
propriate to a modern woman. Indeed, confusion is the prevalent theme
168
NOT THE MOON
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
169
Mother died. Since then, Granny and I have depended on each
the one-child family policy, the majority of households have only one
other for survival and every day I fear to lose her 112
child and in these circumstances there is evidence to suggest that one-
child daughters have become as important as sons and may even have
Another very young girl in less extreme circumstances wrote of how it
become more important than at any time in the past, given their new
felt when her mother seemed to prefer and privilege her brother:
status as substitute sons. City parents have thus invested in their only
My mom, no matter what happened, always considered my elder
child regardless of whether it is a boy or a girl. In field investigations
brother first and ignored me. At the table, she kept putting food
of household accounts several years ago, it was quite clear that the
into my brother's bowl and not mine, as if I were not her own
portion of family income devoted to the single child, boy or girl, was
child. This made me very unhappy. Except that he is a boy, my
rising, whether for special foods, toys, clothes, recreation or education.
brother was nothing special. People often say that men and women
In fact, meeting children's needs has become one of the fastest ex-
each hold up half the sky. Mom would see sooner or later that I
panding consumer sectors in recent years. My own interviews with
would grow up better than he, I thought. One day when I got
parents of single children some years ago also suggested an over-
home after school, I opened the newspaper and saw a cartoon. It
whelming interest in their education. This was not only fostered by the
showed a balance scale with a boy sitting high up on the left side,
state in the interests of raising a 'quality child', but also parents,
holding various fruits and foods in his arms, while a little girl was
members of the previous generation 'lost' during the Cultural Revolu-
sitting listlessly on the other side being beaten and scolded by her
tion, were quite openly making up for their own deprivations. With this
parents. Under the cartoon the words said: 'Don't regard men as
new-found interest and with new-found means, the single child has
superior to women.' As I looked at it, I thought of myself and felt
become the focus of expectations of two sets of grandparents and one
I was just like that little girl. I cut the cartoon out of the newspaper
set of parents. For single-child girls this is something of a new phenom-
and put it on the wall so Mom would see
enon and it has led to stresses and strains in family relations, with girls
unable to withstand the presssures and in extreme circumstances even
When young girls were asked to draw their families in one of my
running away from home.
own field exercises conducted in schools over the past few years, those
One small daughter in grade six primary school wrote a letter to her
with brothers, admittedly a small sample and mostly rural, thought that
mother in which she tried to convey to her the negative effects of the
their parents preferred their brothers to themselves. However, where
high expectations she demanded of her daughter:
daughters were single children, a phenomenon usually confined to the
cities, their experience of family life might be quite different.
The night is so quiet. I have been bending over the desk for five
hours, writing mechanically, the extra homework that you required
me to do. Rubbing my sleepy eyes, looking at the endless subjects
Single-child daughters
and those inexplicable problems, I have no way out but write you
More than any other policy, it is the single-child family policy that has
this letter to tell you what is on my mind!!14
been responsible for the differing familial values attached to sons and
What is on her mind is that her mother has had ambitions for her from
daughters in contemporary China although there is a major difference
the time she was born: 'You often say to me "Clumsy birds have to
in urban and rural households. Whereas in rural families the second-
start flying early come on, do thirty applied problems" Rewards
ariness of daughters has been exacerbated in that they cannot substitute
and punishments are set out clearly; your words are an "imperial edict"
for sons, in urban areas, the picture is somewhat the reverse. There has
to which I dare not object.'
never been the same degree of daughter discrimination evident in the
If she makes mistakes, her mother cannot control her temper and
cities largely because of the widespread availability of pensions and
gives her a heavy slap in the face:
other economic factors that lay less stress on the importance of sons for
economic reasons. Couples usually set up new households on marriage
Mother you may scold me and beat me as you please, for why on
and later elderly parents may just as easily reside with a daughter as
earth am I so foolish as not to be able to live up to your
with a son. Indeed, some city parents would argue that a daughter's
expectations! Mother, how wonderful it would be if you use
care for her elderly parents is likely to be more solicitous than that of
the energy it takes to beat me, to help me with my lessons and
a son. In larger cities, with the widespread stricter implementation of
homework!
172
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
173
in present-day representations of women and in the written and spoken
life. Labelled 'the new realism', the stories lay stress not only on woman's
words of women themselves. Tension and confusion is openly expressed
own search for self-worth within the everyday but also on her own
again and again in the numerous short stories published in the past ten
desire to exert some control over her own destiny.
years in China. So far there have been three volumes on contemporary
Tension and confusion are also expressed by women directly in their
Chinese women writers translated and published in English and the
own letters published in the media. In a similar period of rapid social
stories in each depict very clearly trends in the changing representations
change several decades earlier, when there were also few patterns and
of modern woman in China over the past ten years. The first volume,
cues guiding new behaviour in education, employment, courtship and
published in 1982, illuminated some of the hitherto hidden areas of
marriage, daughters especially looked to the new media for help in
women's lives, which were represented as more complex than in previous
establishing models for becoming new and modern women. As did the
revolutionary decades, both in their presentation of their selves and of
younger generations in the early decades of this century, young women
others. 120 In these stories the reader was newly treated to more than
in recent years have also turned to magazines and newspapers for some
just a description of a sequence of events, which was usually secondary
form of guidance in resolving tensions and reducing confusion. Since
to the importance of the stream of consciousness or interior dialogue
1980 the number of popular magazines and newspapers has mush-
of the women characters as they think and verbally rationalize their
roomed, with most giving women the opportunity to seek advice on a
choices or lack of options in working out the priorities of their young
wide range of social and individual problems generating confusion. In
or middle-aged lives and in particular the conflicting demands of love,
one of my recent interviews, one woman editor of the 'Family and
marriage or children with career. Most of these of stories, of which
Society' section of Zhongguo Funu Bao (Chinese Women's News) outlined
Shen Rong's At Middle Age is an example, belong to the genre of wound
the main issues raised in the letters of her correspondents. She thought
literature or scar literature in that they focus on expressing social
that a majority of the letters were to do with legal issues or the
problems of political movements that caused great suffering.
protection of women's rights and interests, particularly pertaining to
In the second volume the influence of important events and charac-
family disputes in which they as daughters, daughters-in-law, wives or
teristics of society fades into the background and it is the conflict and
widows felt discriminated against. Many of the letters had to do with
tension within female minds that are narrated. 121 The stories are of
affairs of the heart, particularly with relationships outside of marriage
fragmented disorderly lives, with the emphasis on the inconsequential
and the problems of divorce including the division of property.
as a device to question the meaning and worth of female lives lived in
In rural magazines, the editor of Rural Women thought that more
all their ambiguity and ambivalence. In one very popular short story,
than half of the problems had to do with requesting information in
Blue Sky and Green Sea, the author Liu Suola portrays female characters
order to generate income and reduce poverty, with the remaining
who display outward confidence but are hiding hearts full of paradoxes,
number divided equally between issues to do with the law and the
juxtaposing contradictory outward and inward feelings or thoughts
exercise of their rights in family and marriage. Common problems in
robbing them of vital energy. To emphasize this point, the young woman
the latter category included the opposition of parents to the man of a
author also writes in an unusually ambiguous tangled style of writing
woman's choice and the refusal of a man to marry a woman after
with constant repetititon and confusion said 'to mirror the characters'
having had sexual relations with her. A subject of both letter and
own depressed and confused mind'.
discussion were the problems, including harassment from managers
It is the complexity of life's choices, dilemmas and problems in the
and other men, that young rural women might face as migrants to the
everyday of late-reform China that feature in the third volume of short
cities and special economic zones. Many young village women perceived
stories published in 1993. They feature one woman's moving tale of
a dilemma: they wanted to leave the boredom of the villages for the
stifled aspirations in the countryside; another's exhausting day as a
bright lights but they did not want to travel to the confusion of the
factory worker; another's frustrations at bringing up a child in the
unknown urban world far from the protection of family and friends.
consumer age and the anxieties of a successful Shanghai business-
One novel medium for providing advice and guidance, and one
woman. The majority of the heroines are shown moving beyond the
which has received much publicity, has been the establishment of
quest for male protection to develop a sense of their own worth as
telephone hotlines, which have become fashionable in the cities as
women. In one short story, entitled Black Forest, a young woman who
sources of advice for women and young persons 'troubled by the
recognizes her own abilities and the large gap between her and her
confusion of choice in China's changing society'.123
husband, resolutely breaks out from her ailing marriage to start a new
A women's hotline in Beijing was set up in September 1991 by a
174
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
175
retired newspaper editor who, in the process of studying women's issues,
schools, now studied abroad. No wonder, on her recent return to China
realized that women needed more direct help in alleviating the 'life-
after an absence of several years, she said she felt like Rip van Winkle!
confusions and worries' that the changes of the reform era had brought.
Several younger women in their early to mid forties too had lived
She thought this was largely because this generation of women 'shoul-
several lives including Red Guard, Xiaxiang or sent-down-to-the-
ders the burdens of society and family while strongly desiring emotional
countryside-youth, university student in Beijing and student abroad.
compensation'. The hotline promised to do its best for callers who
One woman whom I have known for several years went from riding
'pour out their secret sorrows'and it has been so successful that it is
horseback on the Mongolian steppes to Harvard University, Massachu-
said to 'link a society full of problems and grievances'. During the first
setts within the space of a few years. She had been fortunate in that
seven months of its operation, it was reported that more than 80 per
one of her classmates sharing her Mongolian tent had studied English
cent of the calls were from women with two thirds from callers less
and taught her all she knew, which was enough to gain her entrance
than 30 years old.
to university in Beijing when competitive entrance exams were re-
The main problems were to do with marriage and love (44.6 per
instated. She went on to work for a foreign agency and study inter-
cent), maternal and child-care (18.8 per cent), sex problems (6.4 per
national relations at Harvard. For her too, in her own words, 'life and
cent) and human relationships (8.5 per cent). In marriage and love the
marriage had been cooked up somewhere in this process,' leaving her
main questions focused on problems to do with communication within
now newly divorced as a new mother struggling to bring up her school-
the marriage relationship, affairs, divorce and the sharing of domestic
age daughter previously cared for by her mother-in-law. When I asked
labour. Maternal and child-care problems included eontraception, birth,
her if she would talk about how the modern woman might feel in
nutrition and correcting child misbehaviour. A report on the hotline
China today, she replied without a pause 'Very confused! How can
has noted that it is quite clear from the questions to do with sex that
you not be confused?'
while some women are now making their 'own claims for sexual life',
Women in their twenties and thirties also admitted to some confusion
others are still worrying about and wanting to know the physical signs
as to where their priorities lay in the new China - itself ambivalent
of 'lost chastity'. Overall, according to the report, most of the requests
about its own developing priorities. Should they place the demands of
for advice confirmed that, 'although great changes have taken place in
work before or after those of their families or more precisely how could
Reform China, the influence of traditional values is still very powerful.'
they best juggle the demands of both in these times of piece-work,
The interviews with the counsellors also suggested that they primarily
inflation and uncertainty to the benefit of themselves and their families?
saw themselves as providing support for women 'caught between tradi-
There is some ambivalence surrounding the status of the strong in-
tion and opportunity' and enabling them 'to make independent de-
dependent successful career woman, with the single woman deemed
cisions' for which many women 'still need special help to realise their
less than successful. In this respect, the women of Taiwan, seeming to
own strengths and destinies'.
combine an alluring femininity and family care with careers, were
In interviews conducted in the summer of 1994, city women of all
much more admired than the career women of Hong Kong with their
but the youngest age cohorts felt themselves ambiguously drawn in
shoulder pads! Again young students in higher education feared that
several directions at once and confessed to some confusion in these
they would neither obtain a good job nor make a good marriage: if
times of rapid change and without clear directions or models to follow.
they put off one they might lose it all together. Most women felt that
Older women felt they had lived through so many changes in their own
only as school students bent on their studies had they escaped the
lifetimes or twisted and turned in so many different directions. The
dilemmas of their times. These stories are of privileged women; other
oldest woman I interviewed had been educated in a Catholic convent
young women in other places would have talked of the new choices and
school and university before 1949; she had studied and worked at the
the conflict, tension or at least ambivalence involved in making life-
Academy of Social Sciences since the early 1950s, observing and
choices perhaps choosing city over village, work rather than school,
participating in political movements for socialist education including
self- or service- rather than state- or factory-employment or long-term
the anti-Rightist campaign, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural
careers over short-term contracting of their labour or even the more
Revolution; she had since studied in England and North America and
lucrative contracting of their bodies given that one of the most ob-
returned to Beijing to retire and translate and write on feminist themes
servable of changes in the 1990s over the 1980s has been the growing
in English and Chinese literature; she had married twice, divorced
number of bar girls and prostitutes in cities in pursuit of the consumer
once, lived separately now and her two children, educated in Chinese
dream. The visibility of such young women walking the streets and the
176
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
177
escalators in smart hotels and in bars was my single most important
risks for today's younger generation of women. The number of op-
new observation during a recent trip to Beijing in the summer of 1994.
portunities has surely risen but the new opportunities of reform rhetoric
In 1994, each age cohort had very different expectations, and expressed
have not been lived by all: "These times have made Chinese women's
very different ideas, reservations and fears about themselves, their own
lives sweet and sour. For some their jobs are less secure sometimes and
generation and younger or older cohorts, but in common they seemed
their opportunities fewer, but for others, their futures are more promis-
to be searching for cues, guidance and models in making sense of the
ing and are of their own choosing."¹² To continue the seaside analogy,
new opportunities for women's social and self-expression in
some venture into the water boldly and some more timidly, some may
cosmopolitan China of the 1990s.
swim, some may flounder, but even if the experience of sailing is not
smooth the important point is that the sea of opportunity is present.
Cosmopolitan daughters
Although it is difficult during the Reform era to identify a single
rhetorical definition of the modern Chinese woman, the many exhorta-
Perhaps it is the search for opportunity, independent strength or worth
tions and expectations of women advocate a strength, independence
and control of their destiny in becoming a modern Chinese woman
and adornment that are uniquely female. Model women want not to be
that are common to the plethora of images and dinstinctions in living.
five golden warriors but five golden flowers, albeit determined and
In the search for images and qualities that are female as opposed to
independent. In Republican times, modern women also searched for
male, modern as opposed to traditional and Chinese as opposed to
sources of strength via education and employment to flower and be
Western, much of the contemporary attempt to reflect on and newly
independent of their families. Rather than be uniquely female, however,
chart the uncharted territory of Reform also recalls similar female
they saw themselves as becoming more like male others or at least
attempts during Republican and Revolutionary eras. Just as for the
taking on masculine characteristics of strength and independence.
daughters discussed in Parts I and II who searched for and took
During the revolution, the modern Chinese woman was exhorted to be
advantage of new opportunities for education and occupation, so women
physically strong and economically active like her male peers primarily
in reform have found and taken advantage of the new opportunities for
by entering the androgynous category of work. Now, in a shift to
education and occupation not only in greater numbers but also with
concern with the personal, individual and gender qualities, women are
greater variation. If there is one trend that subsumes the major changes
exhorted to be strong, independent of spirit and uniquely female, not
for women during the reform era, it is the appropriation of the new
depending on or reflecting the light of male others. Yet despite this new
opportunities to become educated for and employed in a variety of
rhetoric, women are still by their admission influenced by male desires
occupations, making for a new independence in living. The trickle of
and preferences, especially in love and marriage choices, and daughters
new opportunities in the Republican era and the river of new op-
who are not married feel incomplete and far from strong and in-
portunities in the Revolution has become the sea during Reform years.
dependent in their single status.
A popular saying, xia hai or going out or down to the sea, currently in
While overlapping gender categories are rejected, definitions of
vogue to refer to taking up new business opportunities or 'leaping into
female still very much take the qualities of the male other as the
the tide of private business' might be expanded to embrace more than
yardstick in identifying different and uniquely female characteristics. If
just business opportunities:
men are assumed to be strong and independent then in becoming
Some say that the sea symbolises an immense realm, and going
separate and different, women have been tempted to adopt opposite or
to the sea is an action that incites bold people. Some say that
female qualities traditionally associated with femaleness and femininity.
there are more chances of harvest in the sea than on the land.
Both among men, but also among women on their own admission,
People watch the sea from the shore with some desire, some fear
'traditional beliefs also run deep.' From the turn of the century during
and some mystery. The waves are turbulent, so there may not be
Republican and Revolution and now Reform, even the most strong and
plain sailing ahead. Yet many women are among these sea-
independent of women be they pioneers, models or entrepreneurs find
goers.¹²⁴
themselves succumbing to customary thoughts and practices in public,
in the domestic and within themselves as they shape their identities to
Just as some of the early modern women in Republican times became
please very mixed societal, familial and specifically male expectations.
successful in the professions and business and others ended up as 'fallen
Central to becoming a modern woman throughout the twentieth
leaves in an autumn wind', so with new opportunities have come new
century and symbolic of so much more has been the adoption of
178
CHANGING IDENTITIES OF CHINESE WOMEN
NOT THE MOON
179
'modern' dress. In the early decades of the century it might be Western
continue to have a hand in shaping a hybrid or ambiguous Chinese-
dress or at least mixed Chinese-Western dress and in a few cases male
Western image for today's modern Chinese women, women of most
attire; during the Revolution it was the unisex blue trouser suit that was
ages might experience tension and confusion in meeting a pluralism of
de rigueur, and during the Reform era the Western fashion garment
mixed Chinese and Western expectations, but more than ever before
various in style, colour and fabric took Chinese women by storm, so
China's youngest daughters expect to assume a cosmopolitan culture.
speedy, general and changeable has been its adoption by the younger
women throughout so much of China.
More generally, if the association of the modern with Western, albeit
often both indirect and limited in influence, characterized the Repub-
lican era and the explicit and planned dissociation or closing of China
to Western influence characterized the years of Revolution, then the
overlapping of the 'modern' of socialism with both global consumption
and mainly Western influence has distinguished recent years of Reform.
As in the early decades of the twentieth century, in the interests of
becoming global but retaining what distinguishes Chinese, there has
been a continuing official attempt to separate the import of Western
culture from Western goods so as to be both modern and Chinese.
Thus in China today in the pursuit of both internationalism and cultural
specificity, it is politically correct to speak of 'socialism with Chinese
characteristics'. So it might be argued that there is a serious attempt to
evolve a feminism with Chinese characteristics, femininity with Chinese
characteristics or even fashion with Chinese characteristics. Now within
women's studies in China, it is common to emphasize the specifically
Chinese socio-political context of contemporary Chinese feminism and
demarcate its differences from Western feminism.
There is an attempt to define a culturally-specific Chinese woman-
hood with references to her Chinese, often traditional, qualities that
differentiate her from her Western sisters, and contemporary fashion-
shows predominantly combine both Chinese and Western stylistic
features in a single garment. 126 However, for each successive generation
anew, the pursuit of the 'modern' has been less nuanced or culturally
specific in intent. A survey of new role models among children in
Beijing revealed that the people they now respect are from film and
popular music shows mostly derived from outside of China. 127 When
young schoolgirls in one of my recent research exercises were asked to
draw their families now and themselves in twenty years time, the
majority illustrated their families in the company of the centrally-placed
television sets and portrayed their grown selves as Western-clad singers
and dancers with short skirts and microphones and rich in the company
of consumer durables ranging from a car to television sets. What
exercises such as these, undertaken in both urban or rural locations,
suggest is that more than any other factor it is is the global mass media,
much of it originating outside of China, that is important in defining
female models for becoming a modern woman. Official rhetoric might
24/06 98 09:11 FAX 010 65325495
FORD FOUNDATION
001
FAXED
THE FORD FOUNDATION
INTERNATIONAL CLUB OFFICE BUILDING. SUITE 501
JIANGUOMENWAI AVENUE, NO. 21
BEIJING, CHINA 100020
Tel: (86-10) 6532-6668
Fax: (86-10) 6532-5495
writer's e-mail address: [email protected]
29m?
FACSIMILE TRANSMISSION
27n? TO:
Total number of pages inc. this cover sheet:
Susan O'Sullivan, US Dept. of State
FAX: 202-647-1677
FR:
Phyllis L. Chang
he
TEL:
DATE:
May 23, 1998
RE:
Women's Issues Roundtable
Susan,
Glad we had a chance to catch up, even if only briefly. I am leaving tomorrow morning for a
project visit and must attend part of the trial procedure seminar today, so I won't be able to
get you as much information as I had hoped. But here are some suggestions for women
activists-and great people-whom would be excellent for a roundtable. If a roundtable is to
be held, which I think would be very interesting, my one very strong plea is to include
Chinese who do not speak English (this problem can be reasonably overcome with the
topnotch interpreters that the Presidential delegation will certainly have). At similar events
in the past, only Chinese who speak good English have been chosen. As you can imagine,
this distorts the pool of candidates and you really miss some of the best people.
I have sent by express mail a small package with a couple of misc. English articles on
women's issues in China, as well as Chinese materials from some of the organizations we
talked about.
Hope these are of some help or inspiration!
Best,
Phyllis
8610 6532-4512
WFF
Rayles
IX
mis Bob ml ice into Tab
Susan
Elizabeth R. Newman
06/11/98 11:42:28 AM
Record Type: Record
To:
See the distribution list at the bottom of this message
CC:
Subject: RESEND - NO CHANGES 6-11-98 Remarks on China in the National Interest
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
June 11, 1998
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
National Geographic Society
Washington, D.C.
10:32 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, President Fahey. I don't know what to say about starting the
day with this apparition. (Laughter.) But it's probably good practice for our line of work. (Laughter.) I try to
read every issue of the National Geographic, and I will certainly look forward to that one.
Chairman Grosvenor, members of Congress, members of the administration, and members of previous
administrations who are here and others who care about the national security and national interests of the United
States. First let me, once again, thank the National Geographic Society for its hospitality, and for the very
important work that has done for so long now.
As all of you know, I will go to China in two weeks time. It will be the first state visit by an American
President this decade. I'm going because I think it's the right thing to do for our country. Today I want to talk
with you about our relationship with China and how it fits into our broader concerns for the world of the 21st
century and our concerns, in particular, for developments in Asia. That relationship will in large measure help to
determine whether the new century is one of security, peace, and prosperity for the American people.
Let me say that, all of you know the dimensions, but I think it is worth repeating a few of the facts about
China. It is already the world's most populous nation; it will increase by the size of America's current population
every 20 years. It's vast territory borders 15 countries. It has one of the fastest growing economies on Earth. It
holds a permanent seat on the National Security Council of the United Nations. Over the past 25 years, it has
entered a period of profound change, emerging from isolation, turning a closed economy into an engine for
growth, increasing cooperation with the rest of the world, raising the standard of living for hundreds of millions
of its citizens.
The role China chooses to play in preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction are encouraging
it in combatting or ignoring international crime and drug trafficking; in protecting or degrading the environment;
in tearing down or building up trade barriers; in respecting or abusing human rights; in resolving difficult
situations in Asia from the Indian subcontinent to the Korean Peninsula or aggravating them. The role China
chooses to play will powerfully shape the next century.
A stable, open, prosperous China that assumes its responsibilities for building a more peaceful world
is clearly and profoundly in our interests. On that point all Americans agree. But as we all know, there is serious
disagreement over how best to encourage the emergence of that kind of China, and how to handle our differences,
especially over human rights, in the meantime.
Some Americans believe we should try to isolate and contain China because of its undemocratic system
and human rights violation, and in order to retard its capacity to become America's next great enemy. Some
believe increased commercial dealings alone will inevitably lead to a more open, more democratic China.
We have chosen a different course that I believe to be both principled and pragmatic: expanding our
areas of cooperation with China while dealing forthrightly with our differences. This policy is supported by our
key democratic allies in Asia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Thailand, the Philippines. It has recently been
publicly endorsed by a number of distinguished religious leaders, including Reverend Billy Graham and the Dalai
Lama. My trip has been recently supported by political opponents of the current Chinese government, including
most recently, Wang Dan.
There is a reason for this. Seeking to isolate China is clearly unworkable. Even our friends and allies
around the world do not support us -- or would not support us in that. We would succeed instead in isolating
ourselves and our own policy.
Most important, choosing isolation over engagement would not make the world safer. It would make it
more dangerous. It would undermine rather than strengthen our efforts to foster stability in Asia. It would
eliminate, not facilitate cooperation on issues relating to mass destruction. It would hinder, not help the cause of
democracy and human rights in China. It would set back, not step up worldwide efforts to protect the
environment. It would cut off, not open up one of the world's most important markets. It would encourage the
Chinese to turn inward and to act in opposition to our interests and values.
Consider the areas that matter most to America's peace, prosperity and security, and ask yourselves,
would our interests and ideals be better served by advancing our work with, or isolating ourselves from China.
First, think about our interests in a stable Asia, an interest that China shares. The nuclear threats
excuse me -- the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan are a threat to the stability we seek. They risk a terrible
outcome. A miscalculation between two adversaries with large armies would be bad. A miscalculation between
two adversaries with nuclear weapons could be catastrophic. These tests were all the more unfortunate because
they divert precious resources from countries with unlimited potential.
India is a very great nation, soon to be not only the world's most populous democracy, but its most
populous country. It is home to the world's largest middle class already and a remarkable culture that taught the
modern world the power of nonviolence. For 50 years Pakistan has been a vibrant Islamic state, and is today a
robust democracy. It is important for the world to recognize the remarkable contributions both these countries
have made and will continue to make to the community of nations if they can proceed along the path of peace.
It is important for the world to recognize that both India and Pakistan have security concerns that are
legitimate. But it is equally important for India and Pakistan to recognize that developing weapons of mass
destruction is the wrong way to define their greatness, to protect their security, or to advance their concerns.
I believe that we now have a self-defeating, dangerous, and costly course underway. I believe that this
course, if continued, not moderated and ultimately changed, will make both the people of Indian and the people of
Pakistan poorer, not richer, and less, not more, secure. Resolving this requires us to cooperate with China.
Last week, China chaired a meeting of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to forge a
common strategy for moving India and Pakistan back from the nuclear arms race edge. It has condemned both
countries for conducting nuclear tests. It has joined us in urging them to conduct no more tests, to sign the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, to avoid deploying or testing missiles, to tone down the rhetoric, to work to
resolve their differences including over Kashmir through dialogue. Because of its history with both countries,
China must be a part of any ultimate resolution of this matter.
On the Korean Peninsula, China has become a force for peace and stability, helping us to convince North
Korea to freeze its dangerous nuclear program, playing a constructive role in the four-party peace talks. And
China has been a helpful partner in international efforts to stabilize the Asian financial crisis. In resisting the
temptation to devalue its currency, China has seen that its own interests lie in preventing another round of
competitive devaluations that would have severely damaged prospects for regional recovery. It has also
contributed to the rescue packages for affected economies.
Now, for each of these problems we should ask ourselves, are we better off working with China or
without it? When I travel to China this month, I will work with President Jiang to advance our Asian security
agenda, keeping the pressure on India and Pakistan to curb their nuclear arms race and to commence a dialogue;
using the strength of our economies and our influence to bolster Asian economies battered by the economic crisis;
and discussing steps we can take to advance peace and security on the Korean Peninsula. I will encourage
President Jiang to pursue the cross-strait discussion the PRC recently resumed with Taiwan, and where we have
already seen a reduction in tensions.
Second, stopping the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons is clearly one of our most
urgent security challenges. As a nuclear power with increasingly sophisticated industrial and technological
capabilities, China can choose either to be a part of the problem or a part of the solution.
For years, China stood outside the international arms control regime. In the last decade it has joined the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Biological Weapons Convention, and
the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, each with clear rules, reporting requirements and inspection systems. In the
past, China has been a major exporter of sophisticated weapons-related technologies. That is why in virtually all
our high-level contacts with China's leadership, and in my summit meeting with President Jiang last October,
nonproliferation has been high on the agenda.
Had we been trying to isolate China rather than work with it, would China have agreed to stop assistance
to Iran for its nuclear program,? To terminate its assistance to unsafeguarded nuclear facilities such as those in
Pakistan? To tighten its export control system, to sell no more anti-ship cruise missiles to Iran? These vital
decisions were all in our interest, and they clearly were the fruit of our engagement.
I will continue to press China on proliferation. I will seek stronger controls on the sale of missiles,
missile technology, dual-use products, and chemical and biological weapons. I will argue that it is in China's
interest, because the spread of weapons and technologies would increasingly destabilize areas near China's own
borders.
Third, the United States has a profound stake in combatting international organized crime and drug
trafficking. International criminal syndicates threaten to undermine confidence in new but fragile market
democracies. They bilk people out of billions of dollars and bring violence and despair to our schools and
neighborhoods. These are problems from which none of us are isolated and which, as I said at the United Nations
a few days ago, no nation is so big it can fight alone.
With a land mass spanning from Russia in the north to Vietnam and Thailand in the south, from India and
Pakistan in the west to Korea and Japan in the east, China has become a transshipment point for drugs and the
proceeds of illegal activities. Last month a special liaison group that President Jiang and I established brought
together leading Chinese and American law enforcement officials to step up our cooperation against organized
crime, alien smuggling, and counterfeiting.
Next month the Drug Enforcement Agency of the United States will open an office in Beijing. Here,
too, pursuing practical cooperation with China is making a difference for America's future.
Fourth, China and the United States share the same global environment, an interest in preserving it for
this and future generations. China is experiencing an environmental crisis perhaps greater than any other nation in
history at a comparable stage of its development. Every substantial body of water in China is polluted. In many
places, water is in short supply. Respiratory illness is the number one health problem for China's people because
of air pollution.
Early in the next century, China will surpass the United States as the world's largest emitter of
greenhouse gases, which are dangerously warming our planet. This matters profoundly to the American people,
because what comes out of a smokestack or goes into a river in China can do grievous harm beyond its borders.
It is a fool's errand to believe that we can deal with our present and future global environmental challenges
without strong cooperation with China.
A year ago, the Vice President launched a dialogue with the Chinese on the environment to help them
pursue growth and protect the environment at the same time. I have to tell you that this is one of the central
challenges we face -- convincing all developing nations, but especially China, and other very large ones, that it is
actually possible to grow their economies in the 21st century without following the pattern of energy use and
environmental damages that characterize economic growth in this century. And we need all the help we can to
make that case.
In Beijing, I will explore with President Jiang how American clean energy technology can help to
improve air quality and bring electricity to more of China's rural residents. We will discuss innovative tools for
financing clean energy development that were established under the Kyoto climate change agreement.
Fifth, America clearly benefits from an increasingly free, fair and open global trading system. Over the
past six years, trade has generated more than one-third of the remarkable economic growth we have enjoyed. If
we are to continue generating 20 percent of the world's wealth with just four percent of its population, we must
continue to trade with the other 96 percent of the people with whom we share this small planet.
One in every four people is Chinese. And China boasts a growth rate that has averaged 10 percent for
the past 20 years. Over the next 20 years, it is projected that the developing economies will grow at three times
the rate of the already developed economies. It is manifestly, therefore, in our interest to bring the Chinese
people more and more fully into the global trading system to get the benefits and share the responsibilities of
emerging economic prosperity.
Already China is one of the fastest growing markets for our goods and services. As we look into the
next century, it will clearly support hundreds of thousands of jobs all across our country. But access to China's
markets also remains restricted for many of our companies and products. What is the best way to level the
playing field? We could erect trade barriers. We could deny China the normal trading status we give to so many
other countries with whom we have significant disagreements. But that would only penalize our consumers, invite
retaliation from China on $13 billion in United States exports, and create a self-defeating cycle of protectionism
that the world has seen before.
Or we can continue to press China to open its markets -- it's goods markets, its services markets, its
agricultural markets -- as it engages in sweeping economic reform. We can work toward China's admission to the
WTO on commercially meaningful terms, where it will be subject to international rules of free and fair trade.
And we can renew normal trade treatment for China, as every President has done since 1980, strengthening
instead of undermining our economic relationship.
In each of these crucial areas, working with China is the best way to advance our interests. But we also
know that how China evolves inside its borders will influence how it acts beyond them. We, therefore, have a
profound interest in encouraging China to embrace the ideals upon which our nation was founded and which have
now been universally embraced -- the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; to debate, dissent,
associate and worship without state interference. These ideas are now the birthright of people everywhere, a part
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They are part of the fabric of all truly free societies.
We have a fundamental difference with China's leadership over this. The question we Americans must
answer is not whether we support human rights in China -- surely, all of us do -- but, rather, what is the best way
to advance them. By integrating China into the community of nations and the global economy, helping its
leadership understand that greater freedom profoundly serves China's interests, and standing up for our principles,
we can most effectively serve the cause of democracy and human rights within China.
Over time, the more we bring China into the world the more the world will bring freedom to China.
China's remarkable economic growth is making China more and more dependent on other nations for investment,
for markets, for energy, for ideas. These ties increase the need for the
stronger rule of law, openness, and
accountability. And they carry with them powerful agents of change -- fax machines and photocopiers, computers
and the Internet. Over the past decade the number of mobile phones has jumped from 50,000 to more than 13
million in China, and China is heading from about 400,000 Internet accounts last year to more than 20 million
early in the next century. Already, one in five residents in Beijing has access to satellite transmissions. Some of
the American satellites China sends into space beam CNN and other independent sources of news and ideas into
China.
The licensing of American commercial satellite launches on Chinese rockets was approved by President
Reagan, begun by President Bush, continued under my administration, for the simple reason that the demand for
American satellites far out-strips America's launch capacity, and because others, including Russian and European
nations, can do this job at much less cost.
It is important for every American to understand that there are strict safeguards, including a Department
of Defense plan for each launch, to prevent any assistance to China's missile programs. Licensing these launches
allows us to meet the demand for American satellites and helps people on every continent share ideas,
information, and images, through television, cell phones, and pagers. In the case of China, the policy also
furthers our efforts to stop the spread of missile technology by providing China incentives to observe
nonproliferation agreements. This policy clearly has served our national interests.
Over time, I believe China's leaders must accept freedom's progress because China can only reach its
full potential if its people are free to
reach theirs.
In the Information Age, the wealth of any nation, including China, lies in its people -- in their capacity to
create, to communicate, to innovate. The Chinese people must have the freedom to speak, to publish, to
associate, to worship without fear of reprisal. Only then will China reach its full potential for growth and
greatness.
I have told President Jiang that when it comes to human rights and religious freedom, China remains on
the wrong side of history. Unlike some, I do not believe increased commercial dealings alone will inevitably lead
to greater openness and freedom. We must work to speed history's course. Complacency or silence would run
counter to everything we stand for as Americans. It would deny those fighting for human rights and religious
freedom inside China the outside support that is a source of strength and comfort. Indeed, one of the most
important benefits of our engagement with China is that it gives us an effective means to urge China's leaders
publicly and privately to change course.
Our message remains strong and constant: Do not arrest people for their political beliefs. Release those
who are in jail for that reason. Renounce coercive population control practices. Resume your dialogue with the
Dalai Lama. Allow people to worship when, where, and how they choose. And recognize that our relationship
simply cannot reach its full potential so long as Chinese people are denied fundamental human rights.
In support of that message, we are strengthening Radio Free Asia. We are working with China to
expand the rule of law and civil society programs in China so that rights already on the books there can become
rights in reality.
This principled, pragmatic approach has produced significant results, although still far from enough.
Over the past year, China has released from jail two prominent dissidents -- Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan -- and
Catholic Bishop Zeng. It announced its intention to sign the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
which will subject China's human rights practices to regular scrutiny by independent international observers.
President Jiang received a delegation of prominent American religious leaders and invited them to visit Tibet.
Seeking to isolate China will not free one more political dissident, will not open one more church to those
who wish to worship, will do nothing to encourage China to live by the laws it has written. Instead, it will limit
our ability to advance human rights and religious and political freedom.
When I travel to China I will take part in an official greeting ceremony in front of the Great Hall of the
People, across from Tiananmen Square. I will do so because that is where the Chinese government receives
visiting heads of state and government, including President Chirac of France and, most recently, Prime Minister
Netanyahu of Israel. Some have suggested I should refuse to take part in this traditional ceremony, that somehow
going there would absolve the Chinese government of its responsibility for the terrible killings at Tiananmen
Square nine years ago, or indicate that America is no longer concerned about such conduct. They are wrong.
Protocol and honoring a nation's traditional practices should not be confused with principle. China's
leaders, as I have repeatedly said, can only move beyond the events of June 1989, when they recognize the reality
that what the government did was wrong. Sooner or later they must do that. And, perhaps even more important,
they must change course on this fundamentally important issue.
In my meetings with President Jiang and other Chinese leaders, and in my discussions with the Chinese
people I will press ahead on human rights and religious freedom, urging that China follow through on its intention
to sign the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, that it release more individuals in prison for expressing their
opinions, that it take concrete steps to preserve Tibet's cultural, linguistic, and religious heritage.
We do not ignore the value of symbols. But, in the end, if the choice is between making a symbolic
point and making a real difference, I choose to make the difference. And when it comes to advancing human
rights and religious freedom, dealing directly and speaking honestly to the Chinese is clearly the best way to make
a difference.
China has known more millennia than the United States has known centuries. But for more than 220
years, we have been conducting a great experiment in democracy. We must never lose confidence in the power of
American experience or the strength of our example. The more we share our ideas with the world, the more the
world will come to share the ideals that animate America. And they will become the aspirations of people
everywhere.
I should also say we should never lose sight of the fact that we have never succeeded in perfectly
realizing our ideals here at home. That calls for a little bit of humility and continued efforts on our part on the
home front.
China will choose its own destiny, but we can influence that choice by making the right choice ourselves
working with China where we can, dealing directly with our differences where we must. Bringing China into
the community of nations rather than trying to shut it out is plainly the best way to advance both our interests and
our values. It is the best way to encourage China to follow the path of stability, openness, nonaggression; to
embrace free markets, political pluralism, the rule of law; to join us in building a stable international order where
free people can make the most of their lives and give vent to their children's dreams.
That kind of China, rather than one turned inward and confrontational, is profoundly in our interests.
That kind of China can help to shape a 21st century that is the most peaceful and prosperous era the world has
ever known.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
END
11:00 A.M. EDT
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06/18/98 03:39:00 PM
Record Type: Record
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Subject: 1998-06-18 President's Remarks to Religious Leaders
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
June 18, 1998
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO RELIGIOUS LEADERS
The Roosevelt Room
3:08 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Madam Secretary, to
the members of Congress who are here and the religious leaders,
especially to Rabbi Schneier, Archbishop McCarrick, Reverend Argue.
I thank all of you for your devotion to religious liberty and to the
proposition that America's advocacy of freedom should, indeed must,
include our advocacy of religious liberty.
I'd like to say a special word of thanks to John
Shattuck, our Assistant Secretary of State, who has worked so hard to
promote human rights around the world, and whom I hope will soon be
moving on to other important responsibilities for the United States.
John, thank you very, very much for doing a great job. (Applause.)
Sandy Berger and Madeleine and I rely on you a lot and we hope you'll
have another good run soon.
I'd also like to say a special word of appreciation to
Reverend Argue, Archbishop McCarrick and Rabbi Schneier for leading a
delegation to China on a mission that grew out of my meeting with
President Jiang last fall. In their discussions with Chinese
government leaders and religious groups of all kinds, they were our
forceful advocates for religious liberty. Their visit helped to make
the Chinese people aware of the fundamental importance of this issue,
not simply to the American government, but to the American people.
We have just met to discuss their trip and I have
received from them a very impressive report of their activities,
replete with their specific recommendations about where we go from
here. And their insights will certainly have a big influence on my
activities and conversations as I prepare to embark for China.
I also want to thank all the religious leaders who have
joined us here today who have been part of our advisory process. We
welcome the recent release from prison of two key Chinese religious
leaders -- Gao Feng and Bishop Zeng Jingmu, as well as China's
announcement that it intends to sign the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, with its guarantees of freedom of thought
and religion. But Chinese Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists remain
imprisoned for their religious activities, including in Tibet, and
other believers face harassment.
Therefore, when in China, I will speak as clearly as I
can about human rights and religious freedom. Our message is clear:
we in the United States believe that all governments everywhere
should ensure fundamental rights, including the right of people to
worship when and where they choose. We believe that China should
resume talks with the Dalai Lama. We believe that prisoners of
conscience should be released.
I am convinced that dealing directly with the Chinese on
these issues is the best way to make a difference, and making a
difference is in the end what matters. I am also convinced, as I
told President Jiang here both privately and in our press conference,
that China will be more stable, will grow stronger, will acquire more
influence in the world in direct proportion to the extent to which it
recognizes liberties of all kinds and especially religious liberty.
(Applause.)
Of course, we all know that the freedom to follow one's
personal beliefs, to worship as one chooses, is at the core of what
it means to be an American. It is in the very first amendment to the
Constitution. It is at the forefront of the Bill of Rights. Men and
women fleeing religious persecutions helped to found our country.
They still arrive every year, of every conceivable faith, from every
point in the world, to seek this freedom.
Our churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and other
houses of worship are centers of vibrant community life and vital
community service. We have always been vigilant in protecting our
own religious freedoms, for we know that an attack on any group
imperils all. Dr. Martin Luther King once said that "injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." It clearly applies to
the principle of religious liberty.
And we know now that if we want the kind of world for
our children that we are laboring so hard to build for the 21st
century -- for this one in particular -- (laughter) -- Exhibit A --
(laughter) -- our struggle for liberty cannot end at our borders.
There are many countries, far too many, where religious believers
still suffer in darkness, where governments ban religious practices
or force an officially sanctioned creed on non-believers; people are
harassed, imprisoned, tortured, sometimes even executed for daring to
live by their beliefs.
On the other hand, we know that when religious diversity
is respected, it fosters a sense of community and solidarity.
Religious hatred fuels violence, as we have seen too often. So we
promote both religious freedom and religious tolerance. They are two
sides of the same coin, each necessary for the other's success.
Secretary Albright and I, as she said so eloquently,
have made promotion of religious freedom around the world a top
priority. I have had extensive discussions on the subject with
President Yeltsin, as all of you know, and with other world leaders.
State Department officials here and overseas now give greater
attention to religious persecution and other religious liberty issues
than ever before. We have a high-level advisory committee on which
many of you serve, and I thank you for the work you have done.
Now Secretary Albright is creating a new position, a
Senior Advisor for International Religious Freedom, to make sure that
religious liberty concerns get high and close attention in our
foreign policy. And I am pleased to announce the appointment today
of the gentleman to my right, Dr. Robert Seiple, to the job. As
President of World Vision United States, he has applied skill and
determination to World Vision's faith-based struggle against poverty
in more than 100 countries. To this position he brings a genuinely
unusual combination of deep personal faith, sweeping global
perspective, the toughness and determination of a Marine Vietnam
veteran, and an extraordinary proven capacity for leadership. He is
here with his family and in a moment I want to ask him to say a few
words. But we thank you for your willingness to serve. (Applause.)
Let me just say one word about how we should continue to
pursue this cause. I have been deeply touched that as the presence
of these members of Congress shows, there is a universal
determination I think in our country among all our decisionmakers to
advance the cause of religious liberty. It crosses party, it crosses
region, it crosses philosophy, it crosses different religious faiths.
There is some difference of opinion about how we can best proceed.
My belief is that we have to be both principled and
resourceful. We need to be doing what works. We need to be
dedicated to achieving results. And therefore I hope that Congress
will not only express its strong support and give us the tools to do
the job, but leave us as much flexibility as possible to advance the
cause of religious freedom consistent with what can be done and how
it can best be done nation by nation. America is not strengthened in
fighting for religious liberty or in fighting against religious
persecution by laws that are so rigid a President's hands are tied.
As we intensify our efforts to promote religious
liberty, I know we can count on the support of people of faith all
over this country.
Abraham Lincoln, whose determination to defend our
liberty cost him his life, once said, "The fight must go on. The
cause of liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one, or even
100, defeats." Many of you in this room have been part of those
defeats. But at the end of all of them there lies ultimate victory.
That is what we must believe, that is the reality we must create.
Again, let me thank you all and now ask Dr. Seiple to
come forward to make a few remarks. Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
END
3:17 P.M. EDT
Message Sent To:
PAGE
8
30TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright 1995 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
September 6, 1995, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final
Hnc-Beiging Unc
SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 3; Foreign Desk
LENGTH: 1177 words
HEADLINE: HILLARY CLINTON, IN CHINA, DETAILS ABUSE OF WOMEN
BYLINE: By PATRICK E. TYLER
DATELINE: BEIJING, Sept. 5
BODY:
Speaking more forcefully on human rights than any American dignitary has on
Chinese soil, Hillary Rodham Clinton catalogued a devastating litany of abuse
that has afflicted women around the world today and criticized China for seeking
to limit free and open discussion of women's issues here.
"It is time for us to say here in Beijing, and the world to hear, that it is
no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human rights,"
Mrs. Clinton told the Fourth World Conference on Women assembled here.
"It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned,
or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls," Mrs.
Clinton said, or "when women and girls are sold into slavery or prostitution for
human greed.
"It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set
on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small"
she continued, or "when thousands of women are raped in their own communities
and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war."
While her comments concerned abuses that have taken place around the world --
the burning of brides occurs in India for example, and rape has most recently
been a tactic of war in Bosnia -- her words took on a special resonance here in
China, where the Administration has muted its public criticism of human rights
abuses and is struggling to patch up frayed political relations.
China has been widely criticized for forcing women to be sterilized or have
abortions as part of its policy of one child per family, and there are wide
reports of female infanticide by parents who want a son.
China's reaction was uncertain tonight. Beijing's relations with Washington
have been strained by a summer of tumult over the visit to the United States in
June by the president of Taiwan, Lee Teng-hui.
Mrs. Clinton's gravity and directness seemed to please both Democratic and
Republican members of the United States delegation here, and thus the speech may
trump the political disputes that have plagued both Mrs. Clinton's decision to
travel here and the Administration's approach to China.
PAGE
9
The New York Times, September 6, 1995
She delivered her remarks after joining hundreds of delegates in a morning
workshop on "women and health security."
Addressing the full conference in the afternoon, Mrs. Clinton expanded on a
theme that Pakistan's Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, raised on Monday when she
told the delegates that violence against women thrives when there is a "crisis
of silence and acquiescence."
As Mrs. Clinton recited her litany from the podium, many delegates applauded,
some cheered and others pounded the tables.
Continuing with references to domestic violence, genital mutilation, coercive
abortions and sterilizations, Mrs. Clinton told the delegates from more than 180
countries, "If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let
it be that human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights,
once and for all."
A senior Administration official traveling with Mrs. Clinton was at pains
after the address to explain that it did not mark a return to a more vocal
confrontation with China over its poor human rights record. In recent months,
Washington has sought to tone down its public remarks on human rights abuses in
favor of a more private dialogue that had few results.
"There is nothing in her speech that in any way deviates from our approach on
China," the official said, "or on our desire to get the relationship stabilized
and to get some momentum going. This is a United Nations conference and she was
speaking out on a global problem."
One of the Democratic Congresswomen here, Carolyn B. Maloney of New York,
said she believed that Mrs. Clinton spoke from personal conviction after she
became acquainted firsthand with some problems of women in the third world on a
tour of Pakistan and India earlier this year.
"I think she spoke from the heart and she spoke with great power, Ms.
Maloney said.
Representative Christopher H. Smith, Republican of New Jersey, who had called
on Mrs. Clinton to speak out against "barbaric and egregious" human rights
abuses in China during this trip, said he was satisfied to a great extent with
her speech, but believed she could have been even more specific in criticizing
China's abuses. He called her speech "eloquent" and praised her for "raising the
issue" in China.
Still, the impact of the speech seemed to reverberate through the hall.
"She talked so eloquently about human rights, and I thought it was very
effective, because all of the women here will know that the wife of the
President of the United States also thinks about these things, said Maria Kamm,
a delegate from Tanzania and member of Parliament there.
In the section of her speech aimed most directly at China, Mrs. Clinton
seemed to betray frustration over China's intolerance for dissenting views.
A number of delegates, including exiles from Tibet and leaders from Taiwan,
were denied visas to attend this meeting and a parallel gathering of private
PAGE 10
The New York Times, September 6, 1995
women's organizations.
"Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly,"
Mrs. Clinton admonished her Chinese hosts. "It means respecting the views of
those who may disagree with the views of their governments. It means not taking
citizens away from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them, or
denying them their freedom or dignity because of peaceful expression of their
ideas and opinions.'
Ordinary Chinese citizens did not see or hear Mrs. Clinton's speech, which
was blacked out on official radio and television. There are 5,000 Chinese
delegates, all selected by the Communist Party and all with strong ties to the
party or the Government. Others were restricted from even coming near the
conference site. Their news was limited to a carefully scripted menu, featuring
a blizzard of ethusiastic propaganda on the enormous progrss of Chinese women
under the party's guidance.
The senior party official in attendance today, Chen Muhua, refused later to
take any questions on the speech. "I'm sorry, I'm very busy," she said. The
official Chinese press was under instructions to ignore Mrs. Clinton's remarks
until an official reaction had been considered.
Afterward, Mrs. Clinton said she hoped the Chinese had gotten the message of
her speech. "I think it is important that all governments which in any way
infringe on human rights know that this conference takes a strong stand and that
this conference is trying to move toward the realization of human rights, she
told a news conference.
She said President Clinton's goal is to remain "engaged" with China in a
broad and comprehensive relationship, but added, "we are trying to have an
honest relationship."
"To me, it was important to express how I felt and to do so as clearly as I
could," she said.
Thousands of Chinese women who were interested in attending these sessions
simply had no opportunity to apply or gain access to the gathering.
GRAPHIC: Photos: Hillary Rodham Clinton speaking at a panel on women's health
and security in Beijing yesterday before addressing the full assembly, where her
pointed address evoked cheers, applause and pounding on tables. (Associated
Press) (pg. A10)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 6, 1995
PAGE
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29TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright 1995 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
September 11, 1995, Monday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 8; Column 1; Foreign Desk
LENGTH: 1099 words
HEADLINE: As Women Meet, China Bars Chinese
BYLINE: By PATRICK E. TYLER
DATELINE: BEIJING, Sept. 10
BODY:
As the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women was approaching,
China's Ministry of Public Security made Wang Zhihong an irresistible offer.
She could have a rare, extended visit with her ailing husband, the
pro-democracy dissident Chen Ziming, on one condition: that she enter Beijing
No. 2 Prison, where he is serving a 13-year sentence.
For Ms. Wang, it wasn't even a close call.
"Ms. Wang is in prison; how could she refuse?" one of her friends said this
weekend.
In this way, China's security apparatus got another educated, free-thinking
Chinese woman off the streets of Beijing.
A determined advocate of human rights and democracy in China, Ms. Wang is not
the kind of woman China's Communist Party leaders wanted to expose to the women
of the world gathered here.
With thousands of dissidents jailed or under house arrest this month and with
security around the conference extremely tight, the most striking thing about
the United Nations conference, which is entering its final week here, is how
sealed off it is from the rest of China, where nearly a quarter of the world's
women live.
"The only connection between this conference and China is that if the
conference runs smoothly, it is good for China, it helps our international
reputation," said a 56-year-old scientist at China's Academy of Sciences.
"Chinese television has been telling us how foreigners are very pleased with our
hospitality."
China's reputation might not have been well served had Ms. Wang been free to
speak out this month. In June, her husband was thrown back in jail after a year
of medical parole that was won largely because of pressure from President
Clinton and more than 50 members of the Senate.
Since then she has appealed to the United Nations for help. Had she tried to
show up at the gates of the conference, it would have been deeply embarrassing
to China.
PAGE
6
The New York Times, September 11, 1995
Even for women able to pay attention to the conference, China's censors have
blacked out most of the substantive news. It is impossible to obtain a draft of
the "Platform for Action," which is freely available as an official United
Nations document inside the hall.
The document, when approved, will spell out a bill of rights for women in
language that could become an influential standard for all governments.
But the debate, at times so eloquent inside the hall, is swallowed by a gulf
of enforced silence outside.
Shortwave broadcasts from the Voice of America and the British Broadcasting
Corporation reach only a limited audience of intellectuals. CNN, which is
carrying daily special reports on the conference, is becoming less available in
China because of new controls.
This weekend, as Beijingers were enjoying cool, sunny weather and a Moon
Festival holiday, few women strolling or bicycling through the city admitted to
any knowledge about the fundamental rights this conference is seeking to
enshrine for women in matters of sex and health and child-bearing, power and
politics, labor and economics.
And many of them did not even know that Hillary Rodham Clinton was here last
week to deliver a forceful address equating women's rights with human rights.
"Hillary Clinton was here in Beijing?" a young woman who works at a Beijing
television station asked in surprise. "I haven't heard anything. I guess she
must have said something bad about China, otherwise she would have been on
Chinese TV."
But in dozens of conversations, the curiosity and interest of Chinese women
in the conference was palpable.
Though few can attend - and even fewer can hear -- the speeches that ring
through the halls of the sealed convention center site, the issues that are
being debated in the United Nations forum seem important to Chinese women, which
makes their isolation all the more poignant.
For 16-year-old Fang Na, a music student at Beijing No. 3 Normal College,
discrimination against women in China's job market is an issue in her life.
"When a female university graduate goes looking for a job, she meets a lot of
obstacles that the men do not have," she said.
There is a Chinese delegation to this women's conference, led by Chen Muhua,
a Communist Party stalwart. Its members are carefully selected party loyalists
chosen for their enthusiasm to defend the party line.
For 61-year-old Guo Ruiyun, an illiterate vendor selling sodas under a
circular umbrella, girls' access to education is an issue she relates to.
Growing up in poverty in the mountains north of Beijing, Mrs. Guo never attended
primary school.
While her four children in Beijing all have attended universities, millions
of girls in poor regions of China are kept at home to work while boys are more
PAGE
7
The New York Times, September 11, 1995
likely to go to school.
If China's political system ever opens up to allow women to run for office,
Mrs. Guo said, "I would be very glad for them to participate in politics.'
Wang Zhe, age 23, is a senior in hydraulic engineering at Qinghua University
and after she and two of her classmates dismounted their bicycles to speak to a
reporter, a plainclothes policeman walked up and pointed a shoulder bag with a
videocamera lens opening at its base in their direction.
Ms. Wang, not oblivious to the intrusion, prefaced her remarks by saying, "I
am very proud of China to be the host of this conference."
"Of course I would like to attend or participate," she continued. "Maybe it
is a kind of sadness for ordinary Chinese women that they cannot participate."
As she spoke, four other plainclothes policemen, who are assigned to follow
foreign reporters for the duration of the conference, positioned themselves to
observe and record casual contact with ordinary Chinese.
Down the street from Mrs. Guo's stand, Jiang Sufang, 28, was busy repairing
shoes on her cobbler's bench.
"I really don't know much about this women's conference," she said, "but
actually, if I had the opportunity, I would really like to go and see it, but we
are not allowed to go there."
Asked how she knew she was barred from the conference area, she said, "No one
told us, but right now we can tell that the law is very strict and many of my
friends who do business on the street have been forced to go home."
Ms. Jiang has a single child, a 2-year-old daughter, and would like to have
another child, like many Chinese women who feel the pressure of Chinese
tradition to bear a son. She had not heard that Mrs. Clinton, in her speech,
criticized the practice of forced abortion and forced sterilization in China's
family planning program.
Thinking this over for a moment, Mrs. Jiang just smiled and said, "Not bad."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 11, 1995
PAGE
2
28TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright 1995 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
September 15, 1995, Friday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 1; Foreign Desk
LENGTH: 996 words
HEADLINE: FORUM ON WOMEN AGREES ON GOALS
BYLINE: By PATRICK E. TYLER
DATELINE: BEIJING, Friday, Sept. 15
BODY:
The Fourth World Conference on Women reached agreement early this morning on
a wide-ranging declaration calling on world governments to raise the economic
circumstances of women, protect them from increasing levels of violence and
improve the status of girls throughout the world.
The "platform for action" is to be presented for ratification later today,
and the vote is expected to be unanimous. Some states, including the Vatican and
other countries with large Muslim or Roman Catholic populations, may register
objections to specific sections.
The completion of the document brings to an end 10 days of debate on issues
such as how to free women from poverty with new forms of credit, how to raise
girls' education level and how to insure women's rights, including equal
inheritance.
In the morning hours, women groaned, cheered and applauded through the final
arguments in an atmosphere largely free of rancor. An Iranian slapped an Irish
delegate on the back after they had gone head to head in a daylong negotiating
session over sexual rights. Both seemed to like the outcome.
While document will not bind countries to action, delegates say it gives the
issues new visibility among governments and international agencies, and can
serve as a template for national policies and legislation.
After a series of key compromises on language relating to sexual rights and
cultural and religious differences, delegates from 185 countries debated final
sticking points until 4:45 A.M.
"We have a platform," said Patricia B. Licuanan, chairwoman of the final
drafting meeting, which is to present the document later today.
"I promised we would be out of here before sunrise and I kept my promise,
she said.
Chief among the final obstacles to consensus was whether "sexual orientation"
should be included in the antidiscrimination clauses of the document.
But this language was jettisoned at 4:15 A.M. over the objection of more than
30 countries, including South Africa, whose delegation chief, Dr. Nkhosasna
PAGE
3
The New York Times, September 15, 1995
Zuna said, "We shall promise ourselves and future generations that we shall not
discriminate against anyone ever again."
The United States and Israel also spoke in favor of including sexual
orientation.
In an era of tight domestic budgets in many countries, the conference failed
to win sizable financial commitments from governments to pay for new programs
for women, but it managed to elicit a large number of pledges to redirect
national budgets.
"There is not much new money around,' said Msgr. Diarmuid Martin, a Vatican
representative here, "but the benefit of these conferences is that they focus
the attention of everyone on how money ought to be spent and how it can be
refocused."
India promised to raise the level of its investment in education with a focus
on women and girls. Britain pledged to raise its child-care expenditures 20
percent. The United States is setting up a White House Council on Women and will
step up attacks on domestic violence.
The conference ground to its conclusion with far less rancor than had been
expected on the sensitive issues of contraception and abortion.
Thomas H. Kean, former Governor of New Jersey and the most prominent
Republican on the 45-member delegation, said: "This is a document that
guarantees the same rights for women that have long been enjoyed by men. I don't
see why anyone would want to oppose it."
This conference on women, which follows meetings that began in Mexico City in
1975, was suffused with a sense of urgency by the rise of the number of women in
poverty and the systemic rape and violence directed at women in the "ethnic
cleansing" campaigns in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda.
In the document's opening declaration, the conference will seek to "insure
women's equal access to economic resources including land, credit, science and
technology, vocational training, information, communication and markets, as a
means to further advancement and empowerment of women and girls."
China had hoped to be one of the greatest beneficiaries of this conference by
virtue of Beijing's selection as its site. But instead, China's fears that
pro-democracy and human rights campaigners among the delegates would set off a
new outpouring of dissent against the Government led at times to heavy-handed
and oppressive security measures.
It seemed for a time that the controversy over China's security assault on
the delegates would mar the visit of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who delivered the
most forceful address of the conference on human rights.
The greatest fear of many of the delegates was that they would have to debate
once again the issues relating to women decided last year in Cairo at a United
Nations conference on population and development.
At that conference, the Vatican and countries with large Muslim and Roman
Catholic populations sought to defeat a clear statement of a woman's right to
PAGE
4
The New York Times, September 15, 1995
regulate her fertility and reproductive health.
But in Beijing, the Cairo declarations became a benchmark that many states,
including the Vatican and Iran, sought to maintain.
However, among the final sticking points early today was a footnote to the
document that sought to subordinate some women's rights to national and
religious customs. The footnote was finally rejected when a majority of
delegations preferred to state the relationship between human rights and
national custom in the document's preamble.
The preamble now states: "While the significance of national and regional
particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgroud must be
borne in mind, it is the duty of states, regardless of their political, economic
and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental
freedoms."
Ms. Licuanan, in a ruling as chairwoman, struck the final compromise of the
night when, to satisfy the competing interests in the hall, she killed both the
sexual orientation references and the sensitive footnote.
GRAPHIC: Photo: At a news conference yesterday, Iranian delegates at the
conference on women stressed the need for noting cultural differences in the
"platform for action" that was adopted at the United Nations meeting.
(Associated Press) (pg. A3)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 15, 1995
SCENESETTER: HONG KONG ROUND TABLE WITH DISTINGUISHED WOMEN
The roundtable will afford the First Lady a chance to
discuss substantive issues with a small group of women who
have each made a major contribution to Hong Kong in
government, law, business, medicine and the arts. The
meeting could consist of opening remarks from the First Lady
and Mrs. Betty Tung, wife of Chief Executive C.H. Tung,
followed by an open exchange while all are seated.
Express thanks. Express pleasure at being back in Hong
Kong for the first time since the 1980s. Many changes in
this dynamic city.
This Round Table is a chance to share information,
experience and points of view to improve the lives of
women around the world.
Just saw China, where society is changing fast. Many
women in and out of government are shaping change to
improve jobs, education, and standards of living.
Hong Kong is vibrant, rich in resources, a crossroads, a
Chinese city where for generations different cultures
have mingled and enriched all.
You all play vital roles in Hong Kong's free society and
open economy. Women here teach in Hong Kong's great
universities and schools, practice medicine, lead
political parties, protect the rule of law and
fundamental freedoms, exercise Hong Kong's freedom of the
press as journalists, run business large and small, and
of course are volunteers and parents in this service-
oriented and technologically advanced city. It is almost
exactly one year after the reversion of Hong Kong to
China. Most observers feel that the transition has gone
smoothly and Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy has been
preserved. Do you agree? What issues are sources of
concern?
What is your assessment of women's role in Hong Kong
society? What is the role of the Equal Opportunity
Commission?
How are new, lesser-skilled immigrants from the Mainland
incorporated into the mainstream of Hong Kong's society
and economy?
What role does Hong Kong play in improving the lives of
people, especially women, on the Mainland?
04-JUN-1998 13:16 FROM
TO XPDITE
P.06/06
Christine Lob
1203 Dominion Centre
43 Queen's Road East
Wanchai, Hong Kong
Tel: 2893-0213 Fax: 2575-8430 Email: [email protected]
Personal Biodata
Christine Loh was bom in Hong Kong and was educated in Hong Kong and England She
has an English law degree, became a commodities trader in 1980 for a multinational
corporation, then took on various senior management positions before devoting herself to
full-time politics in 1994.
Ms. Loh was appointed to the Legislative Council in 1992, and won direct election to the
Legislative Council in 1995; her term ended with the dissolution on 30 June 1997. In her
year off from the Legislative Council she continued her work in politics and the
community, hosted a morning public affairs programme on HIT radio, and studied for a
Masters of Law degree in Chinese Law at City University. She won direct election to the
Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region from the Hong
Kong Island geographical constituency in May 1998. She continues to serve as Chair of
Citizens Party, established on 4 May 1997.
Ms. Loh writes extensively in local and international publications and is a leading
advocate for the environment, equal opportunities, open government, human rights and
the arts.
TOTAL P.06
Page 8
30TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright 1996 New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad
New Straits Times
August 1, 1996
SECTION: Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1711 words
HEADLINE: Women leaders can bring change
BYLINE: By Foong Wai Foong
BODY:
IT started with a television documentary on women leaders in the world. The
project sought to answer the question: "What would the world be like if a woman
were the President of the United States of America?" For the documentary, Laura
Liswood, head of the Women's Leadership Project, interviewed women heads of
state around the world. In the process, she wondered how these leaders would
interact with each other if they were brought together in a forum. The
Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies took up the idea
and recently organised the International Women Leadership Forum (IWLF) in
Stockholm, Sweden. The forum was attended by seven chiefs of state and heads of
government along with over 100 women leaders from government, business,
academia, science and non-governmental organisations from around the world. It
was convened "to promote the effective exercise of leadership by women on the
community, national and international levels". According to the President of
Iceland Vigdis Finnbogadottir, who was also chairman at the Stockholm meeting,
the purpose of the forum was not to address "women's agenda". Rather, "it will
be devoted to the study of women as leaders, and will, in the process, strive to
redefine leadership itself". Indeed, what would the world be like if women
serve as leaders in government, business and the community? Many women in high
political office today came to assume office out of circumstances and necessity,
for example, upon the death of their husband or father. Just like in millions
of families where women have to "hold up the sky" either because the men are
away or are irresponsible, these women have risen to the occasion and are
developing their own vision for the job. The fact remains: the emergence of
women as leaders worldwide is an unstoppable movement. Women represent half of
the world's population and women's rights are indeed human rights, and therefore
must be respected and addressed in all development efforts. Having more women in
leadership will definitely bring greater appreciation of women's sensitivities
and situations than what we are experiencing now. In today's world,
centrally-directed leadership is lagging far behind changes by grassroot,
privately-driven movements such as voluntary and non-governmental organisations
(NGOs). While it is true that women are still a minority in high positions in
both the public and corporate sectors, there is already a critical mass built up
in the middle and at the grassroots. The strength women have gathered at these
levels is already changing the balance of power at home and in business and in
time, it will be felt in other sectors. Of course, the perception of women in
leadership is also generational. After serving as President of Iceland for 16
years, President Finnabogadottir is fond of saying that "small boys in Iceland
think that only women can become President!" In deliberating on the changes the
Page 9
New Straits Times August 1, 1996
world is going through today, a very strong message that came out of the
discussion was the call to traditional leadership to allow for participation and
involvement by members of the community. Christine Loh, legislative
councillor from Hong Kong, expressed the people's wish to be involved in
decisions affecting them, and the importance of leadership to address this
aspiration. Having only less than 40 days to a possible end of her political
career, Loh, an independently- elected candidate, is planning to launch a
political party. She plans to involve members of her community in shaping the
future of their political, economic and social lives. She advocates dialogue and
partnership and urges belief in the process. What really amazed me throughout
the meeting was each time a woman asserted the importance of women's involvement
on an issue, she equally emphasised the importance of partnership with men.
These messages of partnership echoed throughout the chamber of the Swedish
Parliament and the City Hall, where the forum was held. I wonder, in meetings
dominated by men, whether such emphasis is made on women's partnership, and why
are women so careful to emphasise the need to get the men involved. I want to
pose two questions. One, are we underestimating men, are we reassuring them that
women are not going about alone, without them? Second, we know that the men
sometimes (if not all times) want to do things without women, so why can't women
go about without men on some issues? Perhaps what I saw at Stockholm was women
leadership evolving. Or could it be a reflection of women's inclusive and
accommodating nature, an important and valuable quality in an increasingly
globalised world where greater diversity will come into play in human
interaction, in the realm of political, economic and social arrangements? This
inherent trait in a woman will perhaps make her a very suitable candidate for
leadership in economically unequal, politically divergent, culturally different
and linguistically incomprehensible groups of peoples. While all the women
leaders agreed that women's agenda was important and there should be more women
in public office to help shape the agenda, attention was focused on examining
the changing nature of leadership, priorities for leadership and the forces
transforming leadership. One of the most important messages from the forum was
how leaders prepare their public educationally and emotionally for necessary
change. The world is undergoing massive infrastructure shifts; political borders
are becoming irrelevant due to the forces of globalisation, driven largely by
telecommunication. Domestic economies are giving way to the single global
marketplace. Countries, especially those in the West, are moving from
industrial- to knowledge-driven. What strategies are needed to mobilise support
for these changes and to help people and institutions adapt with a minimum of
dislocation? What are the new players and communities that must be brought into
this process and how can they be most effectively involved? How should leaders
be measured and held accountable? Perhaps many of the leaders represented at
the forum were from the public sector, including institutions, both
international and voluntary. There is a very strong orientation towards
solutions driven from a central leadership, if not authority. Some of us who
came from the business sector like Patricia Aburdene, author of Megatrends for
Women, and myself are strong advocates of bottom- up empowerment,
entrepreneurship, and the importance of the individual to take leadership in his
or her own hands. Aburdene, while commenting on the reliance on big
corporations to generate economic opportunities, reported to the forum that in
the US today, women-owned businesses are creating more jobs and employing more
people than the Fortune 500 companies - a clear case of what self-reliance can
do in a time of great economic shifts. She also highlighted the success of the
Grameen Bank of Bangladesh which has provided billions of dollars in the form of
micro loans to women in rural areas. These small loans have given these people a
Page 10
New Straits Times August 1, 1996
way out of poverty. According to Aburdene, the Grameen Bank has achieved
repayment rates as high as 97 per cent. The bank has confounded the perception
that poor people are bad credit risks. The Grameen Bank example is hailed as a
model of poverty-eradication and development. I was very disturbed by the
insistence that central leadership (government and international institutions)
should provide the lead and drive to solving today's social and economic
problems. The story of a rising Asia, I asserted, was the story of millions of
individuals who took leadership into their own hands, were open to ideas, put
tremendous emphasis on education and worked hard to break out of poverty. It was
hard work, education, entrepreneurship, and self-reliance that made the Asian
story - there was no miracle. At a time of great infrastructure shift in the
world today, self- reliance is the only strategy to help millions of people cope
with the new world. New skills have to be learned to work with new technology,
new attitudes have to be developed so that we can adjust and learn to cope with
a multicultural world. Dependence on a central leadership to show the way is
disastrous, as the central leadership in many cases is too burdened with
political baggage to honestly face up to reality and effectively initiate
change. Besides, some in the central leadership have become too remote and
distant to know what is going on at the grassroots. It is far more efficient
and effective to bring about changes through excellence and independence. One by
one, people can bring about real changes without any perceptible pressure on the
system. One message that came out very loud at the forum was how to bring back
the nobility associated with public office. People, especially young people,
perceive politicians as corrupt, controlling and self-serving. There was a
resounding and passionate call among many women at the forum to bring back
idealism, to celebrate and reshape our future on a more compassionate platform
through public office. On the same note, Taiwan-based publisher Diane Ying made
a plea to the media to expound on positive values - values that will empower,
stories that will inspire, promote and advance human progress, instead of
wasting sound bytes and columns dwelling on the negative and ugly. On the
economic front, there was consensus that growth and development must not be
confined to the material. There was a call to adopt a total approach to
development. Loh from Hong Kong suggested a Quality of Life index to be adopted
by the world to measure the progress of human development, replacing the
traditional GDP approach. She said that perhaps adopting this index would also
reduce the tension between a rising Asia and the sluggish western economies.
Economic development is really not a contest. It is not only about GDP; it is
about well-being. It is about human wellness, health, education, harmony of
family and community. Foong Wai Fong is director of Transforma Sdn Bhd and the
New Asia Forum. She was the Asian advisor for the forum in Stockholm.
GRAPHIC: Picture - Making a difference
Some women leaders who have provided
inspiring leadership. (STF) - Seven heads of State and government convened with
more than 100 women leaders in Stockholm, Sweden, recently for a forum to
promote the effective exercise of leadership by women at community, national and
international levels. Foong Wai Foong reports.
Page 12
31ST STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright 1996 South China Morning Post Ltd.
South China Morning Post
May 18, 1996
SECTION: Pg. 5
LENGTH: 640 words
HEADLINE: Anson Chan calls for more women in politics
BYLINE: JANE MOIR
BODY:
The number of women in the political sphere is "much too low", Chief
Secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang told women's leaders yesterday.
Speaking at the International Women's Forum, she said about only 10 per cent
of legislators were women: "(It's) much too low, but on a par with the House of
Representatives in the United States, 11 per cent of whose members are female."
The proportion of women in the civil service was one in 10, she said, but
noted the proportion shrank in the top levels.
"But the good news is that it is increasing very rapidly. And taking the
public service and business together, women now account for over 20 per cent of
the administrative and managerial grade in Hong Kong," she said.
"This is a comparatively high percentage in Asia, and as high as many
developed economies in Europe."
But women's groups took the Chief Secretary's comments with a pinch of salt,
asking what she planned to do about the low numbers.
Women Workers' Association co-ordinator Linda To Kit-lai asked: "Did she
mention any ways to improve the situation?" Ms To urged the Chief Secretary to
work to rectify the situation by encouraging child-care facilities and more
retraining programmes for women.
"There's not a lot of support for women to enter politics," she said.
"Look at the district boards - although it's open to the general public, the
number of women councillors are not that many," she said. Of the 373 district
board members, only 37 are women.
Ms To said the Chief Secretary should encourage more community support for
women.
On a broader note, the Chief Secretary also referred to the progress being
made on Hong Kong's future as "so far so good".
"But agreement with the Chinese side on one piece of the jigsaw, for the
Page 13
South China Morning Post, May 18, 1996
protection of individual rights and freedoms, has yet to be forthcoming, " she
said.
She referred to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which she
hoped would be applied after the handover.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: May 19, 1996
Clinton Presidential Records
Digital Records Marker
This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative
marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
This marker identifies the place of a tabbed divider. Given our
digitization capabilities, we are sometimes unable to adequately
scan such dividers. The title from the original document is
indicated below.
BACKGROUND
ON CHINA
Divider Title:
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
HONG KONG WOMEN'S ROUNDTABLE
HONG KONG, CHINA
JULY 3, 1998
Thank you, Secretary Albright, for being here, and for that kind introduction. It is a
great pleasure to be in Hong Kong with my husband, and to see firsthand the
extraordinary changes taking place here and throughout China. I am also very
pleased to have this opportunity to meet with such an extraordinary group of women
- who have made such impressive contributions - both inside and outside of
government - in forging a new Hong Kong. [I had the pleasure of meeting Anson
Chan only a few weeks ago in Washington, D.C.]
One of the great privileges of my position is having the opportunity to travel around
the world, and to listen to the voices and experiences of women: women like
yourselves who are playing such active roles in the political life of this city, and who
are working to protect fundamental human rights, and expand opportunities -- for
women and for all citizens.
I have been in China only a short time - yet I've been overwhelmed by the
intelligence and vitality and openness of the women I've spoken with - rural
entrepreneurs; educators, lawyers, publishers, women's advocates. But no matter
what country I'm in, I'm always struck by how women share the same concerns; face
the same challenges; and need the same tools of opportunity: equal access to
education; jobs; credit; and fundamental human rights. I look forward to continuing
that conversation here this morning, with all of you.
Some of you have blazed the trail of equal opportunity legislation - and are working
to strengthen the rule of law;
Others have worked tirelessly to make reversion a success - speaking out for Hong
Kong's autonomy; for China upholding its commitments under the 1944 Joint
Declaration - and the 1990 Basic Law; for preserving Hong Kong's civil liberties and
fundamental freedoms.
Some of you are leaders in the media - which is such a powerful tool for building and
protecting democracy.
Others are passionate advocates in areas like the environment (pollution is a major
problem in Hong Kong).
And everyone here is concerned with how to improve education (most kids grades
1-6 attend half sessions in school - because of overcrowding); how to expand
housing (50% of people here live in extremely cramped public housing); and how to
ensure progress in this period of transition.
I'm looking forward to hearing each one of you talk about these and other challenges
facing Hong Kong today - and the solutions you are seeking to meet those
challenges. Because it is only by learning from each other -- particularly in this time
of both great uncertainty and possibility - that we will be able to ensure that no one
is left behind as we move forward into the 21st century.
I know that a number of you have studied at American universities. And I hope you
agree that those kinds of experiences are invaluable to deepening the friendship and
understanding between our TWO countries. Just a few days ago, in Shanghai, I was
very pleased to amountice the creation of five new exchange programs between
American and Chinese women - sponsored by USIS -- which will bring 50 Chinese
women leaders to the United States next year.
Before we begin this morning's discussion - there is one more question that I hope
we can explore todav and that is: what are the conditions here in Hong Kong that
have enabled so many women to gain such prominent places of leadership? What
makes you such powerfilmole models throughout Asia? What lessons can we draw
from your experience withat more women across China - and around the world, can
be empowered? Thara's such a wealth of knowledge in this room. Let's start
sharing it.
[The First Lady Opens up the discussion.]
HRC
Roundtable Participants
BETTY TUNG
Mrs. Tung is the wife of Chief Executive Tung of the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the
People's Republic of China. She was born and raised in
Hong Kong. She attended Boston University's School of
Nursing in 1955. She lived in New Jersey for over 12 years
and, reportedly, returned somewhat reluctantly to Hong
Kong. She has three children, at least two of whom are
American citizens. Mrs. Tung is president of the Hong Kong
Red Cross and the Hong Kong Community Chest. She has an
interest in Japan and speaks Japanese. According to the
Consulate, she is not likely to be an active participant in
the discussion.
ANSON CHAN
Chan is Chief Secretary for Administration, HKSAR's
second-highest ranking official and Hong Kong's top civil
servant. She is the first ethnic Chinese and the first
woman to oversee Hong Kong's civil service of approximately
200,000. She was a staunch supporter of Governor Chris
Patten's democratic reforms and was, in fact, his publicly
announced choice for Chief Executive. She is a popular,
widely respected figure; Chief Executive Tung's 1996
decision to keep her on as Hong Kong's top civil servant
boosted confidence in the reversion.
Chan joined the British civil service in 1962 at a
time when discrimination against women was rampant. As she
rose through the ranks she lobbied successfully for equal
opportunities and benefits for women and, in the 1970s--as
chair of the Association of Senior Female Government
Officers--she persuaded the government to equalize fringe
benefits for male and female workers.
She is a staunch supporter of Hong Kong's autonomy and
spoke out earlier this year when comments were made in
Beijing about the content of broadcasts on the public radio
station, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK). Chan argued
forcefully that such comments were "inappropriate" and
defended freedom of speech. She has also played a behind-
the-scenes role on the Adaption of Laws Bill, which exempts
certain PRC entities from HKSAR law, arguing that
exemptions be kept to a minimum. In general, Chan is a
staunch supporter of rule of law, human rights, civil
liberties and Hong Kong autonomy; she is, however, cautious
about the rapid promotion of democracy. Some describe her
as very comfortable "being a mandarin." She consistently
leads Hong Kong approval polls, ahead of Martin Lee and
C.H. Tung. Chan was born in Shanghai in 1940 and earned
her B.A. in literature at the University of Hong Kong. Her
father was a well-known Nationalist general and her mother
is a noted artist and calligrapher.
CHRISTINE LOH (LOW)
Loh is the founder and leader of the Citizen's Party,
a pro-democracy group with a strong environmental interest.
Although the Citizen's Party is tiny (only 100 members),
Loh is a very influential figure in Hong Kong. She was a
member of the pre-reversion legislature, where she
established herself as an effective advocate on behalf of
democracy, the environment, and gay, minority, and women's
rights. She headed a campaign to change laws in the New
Territories that prevented women from inheriting property.
Recently, she has focused on environmental issues,
strongly opposing further filling in of the harbor. She
has also pushed the U.S. to enter into a cooperative
program to protect the Pearl River Delta. Loh is a strong
advocate of civil education and argues that political
parties in Hong Kong have to be strengthened. Loh studied
law at the University of Hull in Britain and made a fortune
as a commodity trader before she was thirty. She is a
popular Hong Kong figure and is viewed as highly articulate
and committed. She won a tight race for the Legislature on
Hong Kong island in May. Loh will likely be a particularly
lively participant in the roundtable discussion.
DENISE YUE (YEW)
Yue is a protégé of Anson Chan's and is considered by
many to be her most likely successor. She is currently
Secretary of the Treasury, a post she has held since April
1998. Previously, she was Secretary for Trade and Industry
of Hong Kong from 1995 to 1998. She is known for her in-
depth expertise on trade matters and her tough negotiating
skills. She is considered a staunch defender of Hong
Kong's autonomy, especially as an independent trade and
financial center. According to reports, she repeatedly
asks that other countries treat Hong Kong as a reliable and
autonomous trade partner. She holds a B.A. from the
University of Hong Kong and a M.A. in public administration
from Harvard. She is a strong, highly articulate
personality.
ANNA WU
Wu, a lawyer, is head of the Hong Kong Consumer
Council. She was an appointed member of the pre-reversion
Legislative Council from 1992 to 1995. Wu is one of the
prominent human rights activists in Hong Kong. She has
called for the establishment of an independent Human Rights
Commission to oversee the implementation of the Bill of
Rights, extending the Convention of the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women to Hong Kong, and ending
discrimination against homosexuals, minorities and women.
Wu's tireless efforts to fight discriminatory practices
contributed significantly to the establishment of the Equal
Opportunities Commission in 1996. She is a graduate of the
University of Hong Kong. She is married to Frank Ching, of
the Far Eastern Economic Review. She will likely be among
the most lively of the roundtable participants.
CHEUNG (Choong) MAN-YEE
Cheung is the Director of Broadcasting, Radio
Television Hong Kong (RTHK) She is known for being tough
and independent. When suggestions were made in Beijing to
limit the range of opinions voiced on RTHK and,
essentially, turn it into a government mouthpiece, she
fearlessly (and publicly) fought back. Since she became
director of RTHK, the radio station has been
revolutionized. According to the Consulate, it is now "the
NPR of Hong Kong." Controversial figures are regularly
invited on the program. Cheung, by all accounts, is an
animated and lively personality. She is a native Hong
Konger and received her B.A. from the Chinese University of
Hong Kong.
FANNY CHEUNG Mui-ching
Cheung is chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission.
She is the former dean and professor of psychiatry at the
Chinese University of Hong Kong. She received her B.A.
from the University of California at Berkeley and her Ph.D.
from the University of Minnesota. She is the vice-chair of
the New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association and a
member of the Queen Elizabeth Foundation for the Mentally
Handicapped.
Biographies of Proposed First Lady Roundtable Participants
*
Audrey Eu: Eu was elected chairman of the Bar Association - the professional group
representing Hong Kong's barristers -- in January 1997. She pledged that the association
would continue its stand for the rule of law through the reversion and beyond.
Maintaining close working connections with pro-democracy lawyers both locally and
abroad, Eu enjoys great respect in the legal profession for her meticulous judgment, open-
mindedness and liberal outlook. She strongly criticized the government's decision to
rush through the Provisional Legislature the controversial adaptation of laws bill, which
exempts Chinese state organs from some Hong Kong laws, arguing that the move would
seriously undermine both local confidence and the rule of law. Eu is in her second
consecutive one-year term heading the Bar Association.
Rosanna Wong: Wong, 46, Housing Authority Chief, and member of the executive
council, dynamic graduate of the University of California at Davis, rides herd on one of
Hong Kong's largest departments and stands out amidst much pressure as a spokesman
for the government's housing policy. Active supporter of many charities including
Mother's Choice. Honored three times by the British government for her innovative
policies and civic achievements. Long-time director of the Hong Kong Federation of
Youth Groups.
S:\FirstLady\EuWong bios
7/01/98 1730
* These 2 added at last minute
may not appear.
TOTAL P.05
LENA CHI (CHEE) Hui-ling
Chi is the deputy law officer and newly named head of
the Mutual Legal Assistance Unit of the Justice Department.
A barrister-at-law, Chi started her civil service career in
October 1974 as student physiotherapist in the Legal
Department. She was promoted to Crown Counsel in 1986 and
Deputy Principal Crown Counsel in charge of the Extradition
and Treaties Unit in August 1994. She is considered a
strong personality and a brilliant lawyer.
Key Points
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Shanghai Women's Education and Training Center
June 30, 1998
0 The government has launched a major drive to re-structure
China's state-owned enterprises. Approximately 70% of
the country's more than 100,000 government-owned
companies lose money and losses are growing steadily.
0 Women have borne the brunt of this restructuring, in part
because they often work in peripheral services at the
state-owned enterprises as cafeteria workers or
janitorial staff.
0 The unemployment rates for women will continue to grow
over the next few years. It is estimated that 20 million
additional workers will be laid-off by the year 2000.
0 Shanghai is at the forefront of Chinese efforts to
retrain female workers laid off as a result of the
economic reforms.
0 In Shanghai, where the textile industry was cut sharply,
the Municipal Labor Bureau reported that as of the end of
1996 58% of laid-off workers were women.
0 Older women were hardest hit-69% of laid-off workers
were between the ages of 35 and 45.
0 There is blatant discrimination against women on the
basis of age and appearance. This discrimination is
open-job ads often note age and appearance requirements.
0 The Shanghai Women's Education and Training Center was
established in 1993. It quickly realized that women's
lack of self-esteem was as much a barrier to reemployment
as lack of education.
0
The Women's Hotline at the Center was set-up in
recognition of the serious depression and sense of
helplessness that overwhelms women when they lose their
jobs. It was the first hotline in China.
0 The Center's focus on the psychological component of
joblessness is reflected in its emphasis on "four
strengthenings" -- strengthening self-respect, self-
reliance, self-empowerment, and self-confidence.
0 Since 1993, the school has trained 5000 women, 3000 of
whom were laid off workers. The school has a success
rate of 75% in placing graduates. Job placement is done
by inviting companies to come to the school to interview
prospective employees in an event similar to a job fair.
Background Paper: Shanghai Women's Education and Training Center
The Women's Education and Training Center is operated by the Shanghai Women's
Federation. It began in 1986 as a school for leaders of women's committees. which are
a feature of the socialist style of factory management and political organization. In 1991.
the school went into the retraining field, training high school graduates who had failed
their college entrance exams. This was the school's first venture in retraining and they
had a 100 success rate in places the graduates of their course training Chinese women
to be English and Japanese secretaries. In 1993 the School began to deal with the
problems of laid off workers as economic development increased and the economy began
to shed surplus labor. This actually followed, or was possibly concurrent with, the
establishment of the "Women's Hot Line" set up as a crisis management tool for women
depressed over losing their job or, in general, finding themselves in difficult situations.
The school and its President. Ms. Zhao Pinghe. the developer of the hot line. have
received numerous awards and recognition for the hot line. Its business sponsor, the
Welfare company. which makes women's health products. has also benefited
commercially from the hot line.
The Center places a great deal of emphasis on the "four strengthenings" for women laid
off as part of economic restructuring. These are strengthening self-respect. self-reliance.
self-empowerment. and self-confidence. Women are encourages to go to the Center by
the network of Women's Federation committees around the Shanghai area and are given
counseling and testing to work on "the four strengthenings" and to determine their skills
level for retraining. Courses are given in Fashion Design. Accounting. Flower
Arranging. Home Skills. and Computers. although the latter is not emphasized since the
school does not have the resources for a computer lab and must borrow computer time
from a local university. The Fashion Design courses are particularly popular and utilize
dummies to teach students modern tailoring techniques.
Since 1993. the school has trained 5000 women. of which 3000 were laid off workers.
The school has had a success rate of 75% in placing its graduates. Job placement is
done by inviting companies to come to the school to interview prospective employees.
possibly like a "Job Fair" in America. Graduates take and pass a standardized test upon
completion of their studies that qualifies them to receive a certificate guaranteeing an
employer a certain level of competence.
The School is located about 25 minutes away from the Portman (15 minutes motorcade
time) and. although in an old building, the scrubbed wood floors and white washed walls
are rather charming and give a warm quality to the school. Access is via a somewhat
dark staircase (69 steps) and the whole school is on one floor. It is very clear the School
is operated directly by the Women's Federation, as opposed to being another facility used
by them. The School President clearly is a stakeholder in the program. able to go on at
length about the school and its programs. She is a very compassionate woman and
particularly enthusiastic about the "four strengthenings" and improving the self image of
laid-off women.
Ms. Zhao Pinghe, Executive Director, Shanghai Women's Educational and Training
Center
Professor Zhao Pinghe was born on Jan. 12, 1944 in Shanghai. She graduated from
Shanghai Normal University with a degree in mathematics in 1967. The timing of her
graduation coincided with the Cultural Revolution. She experienced two years (August
1968-August 1970) of training at one of the army reclamation farms. In 1970. she was
assigned as a teacher in Taopu Middle School in Taopu village. Jiading County. She was
a mathematics teacher for 14 years (until 1984). In March 1983. she was elected the
deputy-chief of Taopu Township Administration. and held this position until she was
transferred to the Shanghai Women's Federation in August 1985 to serve as the Chief of
Education Division of the Education and Propaganda Dept. In 1992. she was assigned to
her current position as executive director of the Shanghai Women's Educational and
Training Center and the School for Women's Leadership Development.
Professor Zhao is very interested in women's education. Although her major in
university is mathematics. she received the title of "associate professor" in social science.
She published some books and articles on women's education. and also founded the "Wei
Er Fu" (Welfare) hotline which provides counseling and assistance to women in distress.
The Shanghai Women's Educational and Training Center conducts vocational training
courses for middle-aged women laid-off from factory jobs. In addition. Professor Zhao is
one of the executive commissioners of the Shanghai Women's Federation. Deputy
Secretary-General of Shanghai Women's Association. She has been elected as deputy to
the current Xuhui District People's Congress.
Page 82
1ST STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright 1997 National Broadcasting Co. Inc.
NBC News Transcripts
SHOW: NBC NIGHTLY NEWS (6:30 PM ET)
July 1, 1997, Tuesday 10:32 AM
LENGTH: 471 words
HEADLINE: ASPIRING CHINESE GIRLS RECEIVE BETTER EDUCATION
BODY:
TOM BROKAW, co-anchor:
China has not been a friendly place for modern women, but that could be
changing. The challenges are so great, everyone will have to pitch in, and with
families limited to just one child, daughters are no longer automatically
relegated to a secondary role. Come with me now to a Shanghai girl's school.
Shanghai Number Three Girls High School, a grind and a privilege. The week
begins at 7 AM Monday; it won't end until late on Saturday. Ten-hour days in
class, lots of homework, no time for television. Yet these young women, who all
speak English, know a lot about America and its ways.
Unidentified Girl #1: I think our burden must be heavier than the American
kids.
BROKAW: The United States fascinates them.
Unidentified Girl #2: I want to know what do American youngsters, the
teen-agers--what are they interested in?
BROKAW: China is determined to catch up, and a well-ordered classroom is a
place to begin. No frivolous teen-age behavior here.
Unidentified Girl #3: My mother country is the most important thing for me.
BROKAW: How many of you have brothers?
Girls: (In unison) No.
BROKAW: No brothers?
Girls: (In unison) We're only children.
BROKAW: You are all only children.
Unidentified Girl #4: It suits the Chinese situation, I think.
BROKAW: They're often called China's little princesses,' the products of one
couple/one child family planning. Parents have pushed them into the best
education that money can buy.
Page 83
NBC News Transcripts, July 1, 1997
Unidentified Girl #5: Not everyone gets a chance to be well educated, so the
government and the people of China make an effort to change the situation.
BROKAW: When it comes to Chinese politics, they are well drilled.
Unidentified Girl #6: I think we won't forget Deng Xiaoping, and we think
highly of him.
Unidentified Girl #7: Yes, very. Yeah, we think highly of him.
Girl #6: He's really a very great man!
Do you agree?
Girls: (In unison) Yes!
BROKAW: Now their history books will reflect the changed status of Hong Kong.
It's become a part of China, and these young women have big personal ambitions
for China's future.
Unidentified Girl #8: I want to be a social worker.
Unidentified Girl #9: In the 21st century biology--biology and chemistry will
be very useful and helpful.
Unidentified Girl #10: A diplomat.
BROKAW: A diplomat?
Girl #10: Yeah, because I want to see the world.
BROKAW: They're not shy about expressing their dreams.
Unidentified Girl #11: I like to be a reporter, maybe just like you.
BROKAW: Oh, is that right?
Girl #11: Yes, have interviews with different people, and I wish that maybe
one day I can have an interview with Michael Jordan. Of course, he is my idol.
BROKAW: The key to shooting is one hand here.
Michael Jordan wasn't available, so off the bench. We only show the shots
that go in.
There we go.
This is where the 21st century is taking shape for China. What many believe
will be the Asian century, a new time for Chinese women prepared to take their
place. China still has a long way when it comes to educating women. Seventy
percent of the country's illiterates are women.
LANGUAGE: English
06/25/98 THU 14:09 FAX 202 456 6244
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Memorandum
To: Evan Ryan
Pm
From: Pat Halley
Date: June 25, 1998
Re: POLITICAL / CULTURAL CONCERNS RAISED BY CG HK RE: ROUND TABLE
At the Consul General's request Sharon Kennedy Gill and I
met today with he and other people assigned from the US mission
to support the First Lady's HK visit.
The CG raised several concerns regarding the round table:
1. He does not feel comfortable with having open press at the
event. He says having the press present throughout the
discussion will hamper the free flow of ideas because some of the
host country participants will be unused to such attention and
are likely therefore to say little or nothing with the cameras
present. He suggests this is a Chinese cultural phenomenon.
2. He thinks giving the round table, if its topics are indeed
the role of women and children in society and women's political
prominence in HK, such a high profile will be moving the US
government into areas in which it has not expressed an interest
to date. He was less than comfortable with that notion.
3. He has sought repeatedly to have Mrs. Toung "host" the event.
He suggests she give the opening remarks, introduce the
participants and welcome the First Lady and the Secretary of
State. I told him our preference was that Mrs. Clinton serve as
host and moderator, and that she would certainly pay due
deference to Mrs. Toung, but he keeps coming back to this
scenario.
4. The CG subsequently met with Anson Chan and according to the
report of that meeting given me by Ann White, my control officer,
Ms. Chan, unsolicited, raised exactly the same concerns.
5. The CG's recommendation, as I understand it is:
A) Let Mrs. Toung host the event, and have it made clear
that we are there as her guests.
B) Limit the press coverage of the event to a still photo
spray at the beginning or end of the discussion.
c) Consider the topics of discussion carefully so as not to
imply that the US Government has a broader interest in women's
issues in HK than it has expressed to date.
6. Given the above, I asked why these concerns had not been
brought to our attention by State or NSC. His reply was that "I
06/25/98 THU 14:10 FAX 202 456 6244
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guess they just haven't focused on it. We're a little closer to
the situation here." "
7.
I request guidance on how to proceed. My personal
recommendation would be that we explore through other channels
the level of "cultural difficulty" such a forum with open press
would engender; that we maintain our position that the First
Lady is the host and moderator of the event; and that we use
this opportunity to have the First Lady and the Secretary of
State make it clear that the US Government dons indeed have an
interest in the role of women in HK political and civil life.
8. Please pass this information to the appropriate parties and
advise me which course of action I should pursue.
TOTAL P.003
Post-It° Fax Note
7071
Date 6.26 AL- 4
Oserllivan
From White Bowls
Co./Deps. White House
COVS.Consulate Hona Kom
-4000
Phone 852 284 2332 85 2334
Fax # 2521 8670
6841-7400
United States' Consulate General
Hong Kong
From the Gensul General
Friday, June 26, 1998
TO:
White House - Melanne Verveer, First Lady's Chief of Staff
FROM:
Richard Boucher, Consul General
SUBJECT: The First Lady's Events in Hong Kong
We are looking forward to scheduling a few additional events for the First
Lady during the visit to Hong Kong next week. These events will be
interesting and will help us, and the First Lady, understand some aspects of
Hong Kong that are not frequently explored. We are committed to making
these events work.
There are two or three questions which arise on which I wanted your best
Judgment, since they relate directly to the First Lady's goals for these
meetings:
11 The format of the roundtable. Having thought about the proposals and
checked with one or two Hong Kong women, including Anson Chan,
whose reactions 1 trust, I believe that we face a choice between an on-
camera, more-stilted event with some posturing, and a more private and
balanced discussion.
If we expect to have cameras roiling the whole time, we should invite 8
different crowd of people, people who are used to taking in public. In
Hong Kong terms, that would include the two most popular women
politicians, Emily Lau and Christine Loh, and the likellhood of debates and
charges about other political Issues In Hong Kong unrelated to the etatus
of women. The end result la likely to be less candor and more posturing
- but not an uninteresting event.
Frankly, I would recommend press coverage at the top and a more
private discussion -perhape with the penoll press in attendance- which 1
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believe would lead to a higher quality discussion of women's issues
based on a variety of personal experiences.
For this reason, I attach a suggested list of participants for on-camers
which Includes the two politicians, Emily Lau and Christine Loh. If we go
for B semi-private event off gamera, I would suggest dropping Lau and
Loh and adding two of the interesting and thoughtful women from our
"first alternates" list, which is in our suggested order of preference.
2) Mrs. Tung, wife of the Chief Executive, wants to act as the First Lady's
host in Hong Kong, and I have been asked, on behalf of the Chief
Executive, whether she can host the roundtable. My initial reply was that
she would not want to be responsible for the cholces about attendance
and format that we are making, and thus the request was difficult.
Nonetheless, It would be useful if we can work her in as the nominal
hoat: to welcome the First Lady and the Secretary, to introduce
participants or ask them to introduce themselves, and then to turn to the
First Lady for an Introduction and first question. From that point on, the
event could proceed as normal. This seems to be a way of giving her a
role without negotiating the event with the Hong Kong government.
(NOTE: We think Betty Tung has to be at the table. It would be noticed
If the First Lady were to exclude Mrs. Tung from a hand-ploked gathering
of Hong Kong's leading women, especially since the First Lady will be
going straight from the roundtable to the President's speech, which we
understand Mrs. Tung will attend. End note.)
CC: Patrick Halley
Mort Engelberg
Susan Elliot
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Withdrawal/Redaction Marker
Clinton Library
DOCUMENT NO.
SUBJECT/TITLE
DATE
RESTRICTION
AND TYPE
001. schedule
Schedule of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (partial) (1 page)
07/03/1998
b(7)(C), b(7)(E), b(7)(F),
b(6)
COLLECTION:
Clinton Presidential Records
Firstl Lady's Office
Melanne Verveer
OA/Box Number: 20028
FOLDER TITLE:
China [2]
2013-0534-S
ry1650
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act - [44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act - [5 U.S.C. 552(b)]
P1 National Security Classified Information [(a)(1) of the PRA]
b(1) National security classified information [(b)(1) of the FOIA]
P2 Relating to the appointment to Federal office [(a)(2) of the PRA]
b(2) Release would disclose internal personnel rules and practices of
P3 Release would violate a Federal statute [(a)(3) of the PRA]
an agency [(b)(2) of the FOIA]
P4 Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential commercial or
b(3) Release would violate a Federal statute [(b)(3) of the FOIA]
financial information [(a)(4) of the PRA]
b(4) Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential or financial
P5 Release would disclose confidential advice between the President
information [(b)(4) of the FOIA]
and his advisors, or between such advisors [a)(5) of the PRA]
b(6) Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
P6 Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy [(b)(6) of the FOIA]
personal privacy [(a)(6) of the PRA]
b(7) Release would disclose information compiled for law enforcement
purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIA]
C. Closed in accordance with restrictions contained in donor's deed
b(8) Release would disclose information concerning the regulation of
of gift.
financial institutions [(b)(8) of the FOIA]
PRM. Personal record misfile defined in accordance with 44 U.S.C.
b(9) Release would disclose geological or geophysical information
2201(3).
concerning wells [(b)(9) of the FOIA]
RR. Document will be reviewed upon request.
SCHEDULE FOR HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1998
FINAL*
HONG KONG. CHINA
HONG KONG
LEAD ADVANCE:
PAT HALLEY
THE GRAND HYATT HOTEL
ROOM 3012
9108-3793
CELL PHONE
WHCA PAGER
# 5067
PRESS ADVANCE:
SHARON KENNEDY GILL
ROOM 2819
9106-5580
CELL PHONE
WHCA PAGER
# 5012
SITE ADVANCE:
BRENDA COSTELLO
ROOM 2502
9106-5227
CELL PHONE
WHCA PAGER
# 5024
SITE ADVANCE:
STEVE GRAHAM
ROOM 2801
9106-5675
CELL PHONE
WHCA PAGER
# 5059
SCHEDULER:
EVAN RYAN
202/456-6751
PHONE
202/456-5340
FAX
202/483-0383
HOME
WHCA PAGER
#4223
PREV RON
Grand Hyatt Hotel
Hong Kong, China
STAFF NOTE: Staff should gather on the 36th floor in the
travelling staff office at 8:10 am.
[00]]
8:15 am
DEPART Grand Hyatt Hotel
EN ROUTE Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition
Center
[drive time: 5 minutes]
(b)(6), (b)(7)c, (b)(7)e, (b)(7)f
8:20 am
ARRIVE Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center
LOBBY GREETERS:
Roundtable participants
JUL-03-1998 01:49
202 456 5340
P.002
SCHEDULE FOR HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1998
PAGE 2
8:30 am-
HONG KONG WOMEN LEADERS' ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
10:00 am
Phoenix Room B, Room 301b
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center
Hold: Room 304
Phone: 2582-1596
Fax: n/a
Staff Hold: Room 304
POOL PRESS/WH PHOTO
FORMAT:
-The First Lady proceeds to her seat on stage.
-Mrs. Betty Tung makes welcoming remarks and
introduces Secretary Albright.
NOTE: Mrs. Tung must depart for a prior engagement at this point.
-Secretary Albright makes brief remarks and
introduces the First Lady.
-The First Lady makes brief remarks and opens
the discussion.
-At the conclusion of the discussion, the First
Lady makes brief remarks.
-The First Lady, Secretary Albright, and Carolyn
Brehm, wife of the Consul General, exit left to
VIP elevator to fifth floor.
-The First Lady, Secretary Albright, and Carolyn
Brehm exit elevator proceeding left through
service corridor, and proceed to POTUS hold.
JUL-03-1998 01:49
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SCHEDULE FOR HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1998
PAGE 3
PARTICIPANTS:
The First Lady
Secretary Madeleine Albright
Betty Tung, Spouse of Chief Executive C.H. Tung
Anson Chan, Chief Secretary of the Civil Service
Lena Chi, Mutual Legal Assistance Office,
Department of Justice
Denise Yue, Treasury Secretary
Christine Loh, Legislator
Fanny Mui-Ching Cheing, Chairperson, Equal
Opportunities Commission
Cheung Man Yee, Director of Broadcasting, RTHK
Anna Wu, Hong Kong Consumer Council
50 - 60 people in the audience
10:15 am-
THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS: "BUILDING STABILITY IN
11:15 am
ASIA FOR THE 21ST CENTURY"
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center
OPEN PRESS
11:20 am-
DOWN TIME
12:30 pm
12:45 pm-
GREET AMERICAN CONSULATE COMMUNITY w/POTUS
1:30 pm
Grand Foyer
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center
CLOSED PRESS/WH PHOTO
FORMAT:
-The President and the First Lady, accompanied by
Secretary Madeleine Albright, Congressman Edward
Markey and Consul General Richard Boucher, are
announced onto stage.
-Consul General Richard Boucher makes brief
remarks and introduces Congressman Edward Markey.
-Congressman Edward Markey makes brief remarks and
introduces the First Lady.
-The First Lady makes brief remarks and introduces
the President.
-The President makes remarks, works a ropeline,
and departs.
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JUL-03-1998 01:49
SCHEDULE FOR HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1998
PAGE 4
1:35 pm
DEPART Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center
VIA Presidential Motorcade
EN ROUTE TBD
1:45 pm-
OTR/LUNCH w/POTUS
2:45 pm
2:45 pm-
DOWN TIME
6:00 pm
6:15 pm-
STAR FERRY SUNSET CRUISE w/POTUS
7:25 pm
Site TBD
PRESS TBD
7:30 pm
DEPART Star Ferry
VIA Presidential Motorcade
EN ROUTE TBD
7:30 pm-
DOWN TIME w/POTUS
11:00 pm
11:05 pm
DEPART Down Time site
VIA Presidential Motorcade
EN ROUTE Chek Lap Kok International Airport
[drive time: tbd]
11:45 pm
ARRIVE Chek Lap Kok International Airport
GREETERS:
C.H. Tung, Chief Executive
Mrs. Betty Tung, Spouse
Anson Chan, Chief Secretary, Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region
Mrs. Lillian Wong, Director of Protocol
Steven Cheng, A.D.C.
Ma Yuzhen, Commissioner, Chinese MFA
12:00 am
WHEELS UP Chek Lap Kok International Airport
EN ROUTE Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska
[flight time: 9 hours, 30 minutes, -16 hours]
5:30 pm
WHEELS DOWN Elmendorf Air Force Base
JUL-03-1998 01:50
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₹0000
SCHEDULE FOR HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1998
PAGE 5
7:30 pm
WHEELS UP Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska
EN ROUTE Andrews Air Force Base
[flight time: 6 hours, 30 minutes, +4 hours]
6:00 am
WHEELS DOWN Andrews Air Force Base
6:15 am
DEPART Andrews Air Force Base
VIA Marine One
EN ROUTE The White House
[flight time: 10 minutes]
6:25 am
ARRIVE The White House
RON
Air Force One
WEATHER FORECAST FOR HONG KONG, CHINA: Periods of clouds
sunshine. High 86. Low 78.
JUL-03-1998 01:50
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P.006