Gender equality is currently a great pursuit for many women throughout the world, and China is no exception. In recent years, the status of Chinese women has admittedly improved, but some people think that there are serious problems still remaining. Wang Zhousheng is one of these critics, and today she will talk about her novel Gender: Female together with her thoughts and worries on the subject of Chinese women.

Gender: Female is a tragic tale which centers on a mother and her daughters. Yet this mother has seven daughters, and this novel in fact depicts three generations of this Chinese family in order to highlight the discrimination and persecution that women experience in love, sex, marriage and motherhood.

The author, Wang Zhousheng, is a Chinese woman presently residing in Shanghai, as well as working as an associate researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Literature, within the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. The publication of her book Gender: Female has attracted attention from both academics and the general public. Broad and profound, this novel has been called a rare genre painting of the oppression and proscriptive sexual history of Chinese women.

"I write the family history of ordinary women. We are always saying that women and men are the same, but I have always been thinking about these questions, such as 'are we really the same?' And if we are the same, does it mean that we are equal?"

Wang Zhousheng says that her concern for the female condition began in the 1980s when she did her research on Ding Ling, a modern Chinese writer whose works depicted the hopes and disappointments of Chinese women. These depictions can perhaps best be found in Ding Ling's creation "Ms Sophie's Diary," as well as her commentary on International Women's Day.

This latter article bravely explores how the same problems afflicted women even after the liberation of the masses. Ding Ling's thoughts concerning Chinese women have exerted a profound influence on Wang Zhousheng, who continues to consider the inequality of the two genders.

"Sex and child-bearing are heavy burdens imposed on women, even nowadays, when it is usual for women to work outside the home. In fact, they are suffering from twin pressures, since besides their daily work, they also have to do the housework and give birth."

In Wang's novel, a woman gives birth to one child after another in order to satisfy her husband's wish for a son. Wang has gathered together many examples of her female acquaintances' real life experiences

"The mother in the novel has seven daughters, just like my mother who gave birth to 10 children. She is also typical of most women in the past, who kept giving birth in order to fulfill the husband's wish for a son. What's more, at that time a woman didn't have the right to decide whether or not to bear a child once she had been forced into pregnancy. "

The seven daughters lead different lives, but each life represents the typical lot of an ordinary woman—one may lose her life giving birth; whereas another may commit suicide because society will not accept her love. Another may hold on to her life but lose her love, or be forced into marrying a soldier.

Finally, and perhaps most relevantly to modern day China, a woman may be so sexually passive as to jeopardize her marriage. These personal feminine woes reflect the devastating effects that traditional norms and patriarchal culture have had on all human beings, but especially upon women. Furthermore, Wang considers that these women's tragic stories are brought about by a male-dominated society, which decides the different roles of the two sexes.

"The congenital physical difference in the two sexes causes the inequalities in sex and child-bearing. Then the achieved distinction between genders, as regulated by social norms, designs the different social roles that are to be played by the male and female. This therefore places even heavier shackles upon women. Why should boys play with toy guns, and girls play with dolls, and are they subsequently shaped into different personalities?"

Wang says that there are many new problems appearing under a market economy system, which could possibly have even more serious consequences than the problems of the past.

"This inequality infiltrates into every aspect of life. For example, women are 'being watched.' A standard for 'beauty' is established by the male, which most women cannot obtain. Plastic surgery, especially breast enhancement, is a new form of discrimination against the female in these contemporary times. We used to criticize the cruelty of foot-binding for young girls in feudal China, but in fact there is no difference between foot-binding and breast enhancement; they both destroy the natural beauty of women in order to cater to the tastes and standards of men."

Having said that there is no difference between these two practices, Wang notes that girls were previously forced into foot-binding by their parents, whereas many now voluntarily choose breast enhancement. According to her way of thinking, this is certainly retrogression, rather than progression.

When it comes to the current popularity of so many female writers, Wang Zhousheng takes a logical approach. She doesn't agree with those who talk about "female literature," which she considers a fairly useless term. For her what matters is the stance that the writer adopts, and instead of looking at "female literature," we should be looking for "feminist literature."

"As a female writer, it's not enough to just take on the stance of a female. First of all, we should adopt the female stance in order to speak for those who are being dominated. However, we even need to surpass this and to take up the stance of people as a whole, so that we can speak for all human beings."

Perhaps most of all, Wang Zhousheng hopes that her novel can trigger thoughts on how women can achieve true emotional and sexual equality with men. She sees it as a problem that more people first need to pay attention to before society can realize not only the seriousness of gender inequality but also how it can be solved. Wang thinks that there is still a long way to go.

"We have introduced many Western social theories, but few of them are related to women and gender studies. Many intellectuals, especially the males, feel that women's liberation is not that important and now women can do the same work as men, but this is only a superficial phenomenon. Moreover, the liberation of women can only be completed through our own efforts, so we all need to think more about it."

Finally, she points out that we must admit the physical difference of the two sexes, and pursue real equality, before woman and man can realize that when it comes to the heart, they are both equal.

(CRI March 11, 2005)