Our Speaker meeting on Monday February 5th 2018 attracted not only members but a good gathering of Friends of Soroptimists.
The speaker was Dr Mark Buck a lecturer in English at a Beijing University. His subject was “Women in China”.
Mark stressed that the culture of China has very little or nothing in common with western ideas and culture and false assumptions should not be made.
There is a deep unspoken culture in China which has its roots in Confucian thought. Our speaker stressed that after many years in the country he does not understand this and there is much a foreigner does not know and never will.
The sheer size of the country deters this further. The Eastern Seaboard is very advanced and developing at a rapid rate whilst the far West is another world.
The two elements in Chinese cultural life are The Party and The Family.
The Party dominates ideas and thoughts and every teacher was expected to watch the proceedings of the 19th Congress in 2017. Its power is huge and absolute.
There are NO women serving on Congress and a marked absence of women in positions of Authority. This is never talked about and is not an issue. Strangely women are NOT seen as subordinate to men.
The real hang up in China is the very few Nobel prizes they are awarded.
The divide between men and women plus the respect the young have for the old is deeply ingrained in the Chinese system.
Dr Buck made the point that to Western eyes this seems to be an extremely repressive society but this is not the whole story. In so large a country they are having to safeguard their political and social mobility.
Our western ideas are not their ideas e.g. Gender equality , women’s rights.
Work uniform between men and women is often the same and fashion is seen as frivolous.
Women are seen as co-workers. Individualism is not part of Chinese culture and discouraged. Romantic love is seen as a late western development and to assume it is universal is incorrect
Our Speaker then informed us that the second most important part of Chinese culture is the Family. We were told not to assume this is the same as the Family in other cultures .It spreads over many generations. Families are very strong in China and one never leaves it .
For women 27 is a very important age. If you remain unmarried by then life is seen as being over. Mother’s wield much power in demanding their daughters and indeed their sons marry. Boys are still more valued in a family than girls. The one Family rule has of course created a vast pool of unmarried men. China is thinking of bringing in a two child policy in an effort to tackle this demographic time bomb.
A fascinating and inspiring talk.
