Shoes for bound feet on exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2017. Photo: Handout
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https://scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3013478/no-place-modern-china-womens-morality-classes-seek-turn-clock-back Comment
No place in modern China for women’s morality classes that seek to turn the clock back, 70 years after Mao proclaimed equality
- Feudal notions of ‘female virtue’, chastity and submissiveness are rearing their ugly heads across the country as more turn to outdated ideas of morality to address a growing discomfort with permissiveness in society
Mao Zedong, a portrait of whom is seen at the Tiananmen rostrum, famously said that women hold up half the sky, and gave them equal rights to education and employment. Photo: Simon Song
When Confucianism scholar An Deyi spoke of “female virtue”, he illustrated this with many examples, including this one: “A complaining woman ruins a family for three generations.” His lecture, delivered not in feudal China but this year, at the reputable Huazhong Normal University in central Wuhan, was met with outrage.
An, a visiting lecturer, was meant to talk about traditional culture. Afterwards, many undergraduates, male and female, unleashed their frustration, confusion and anger on the university’s online platform. “Is this really traditional Chinese culture? It feels like feudal dross,” one wrote.
Disturbingly, such morality teachings are gaining popularity across China.
In feudal China, the morality code for women revolved around “the three obediences and four virtues”. A woman owed her obedience to her father, then to her husband after marriage, then to her sons after her husband died. She was also expected to uphold moral virtues, and be virtuous in speech, appearance and domestic duty.
But, in 1949, after the Communist Party seized power, the government abolished feudal practices, including foot binding, arranged marriages and concubinage. Women were granted equal rights to education and employment. Mao Zedong famously declared that women hold up half of the sky. How can the clock be turned back after 70 years?
Modern China’s growing wealth and spiritual vacuum, combined with relaxed social controls, have brought changes that some perceive as a moral decline.
Premarital sex is commonplace and prostitution, wiped out by the communists in the 1950s, has returned as a major industry. Sexually transmitted diseases, crime and divorce rates have all rocketed. Some lay the blame on the so-called Western decadent lifestyle.
As a result, morality classes targeting women have sprung up across China. In May 2017, for example, during a lecture on traditional culture at Jiujiang University College in southeastern Jiangxi province, senior lecturer Ding Xuan preached on chastity, claiming that “a woman’s best dowry is her virginity”.
She also cautioned against casual sex, claiming that the sperm of three men, when mixed together, formed a potent poison that could cause cervical cancer.
Later that year, footage was leaked of classes at the Fushun Traditional Culture School in northeastern Liaoning province, where women were taught to scrub floors, bow to their husbands, never seek divorce and never fight back if beaten by their husbands.
In August, a summer camp in Wenzhou, in southeastern Zhejiang province, meant to promote traditional culture and kinship, taught that “men are heaven and women the earth”, adding that women, being inferior, should stay at the bottom.
These cases were met with sharp criticism and the authorities shut down the Wenzhou camp. But no one knows just how many more “female virtue” classes are being held throughout China. They tend to pop up in small towns and wear the cloak of promoting traditional culture.
Earlier this year, social media was abuzz with the news that singer Sun Nan and his wife had moved from Beijing to the provincial town of Xuzhou so that their daughter could attend a traditional school there that emphasised the teaching of “female virtue”.
For an annual fee of 100,000 yuan (US$14,500), the students study the Analects of Confucius and other classic texts, calligraphy, tai chi and sewing.
The authorities are aware of the problem. On April 2, the education ministry warned that enrolment of minors in “female virtue” schools is an obstruction to compulsory education.
A statue of Confucius at the Confucius Temple in Beijing. Photo: AP
It also made clear that any institution offering extracurricular activities is strictly forbidden from teaching the “three obediences and four virtues”.
Sadly, there is no specific law to tackle the preachers of misogyny to adults, and sexism, while a challenge facing China, is not a top government priority.
But it is common knowledge that the empowerment of women can significantly boost the economy and I feel encouraged by the reactions of the undergraduates at Huazhong Normal University.
Instead of morality lectures, let’s have gender education and women empowerment classes. To completely eradicate the pernicious patriarchy demands a concerted effort from individuals, all educational institutions and the authorities.
Lijia Zhang is a rocket-factory worker turned social commentator, and the author of a novel, Lotus