When my friends asked me to guess the third category of people, I excitedly assumed China was including transgendered people into the mix instead of the normative "male" and "female" categories.
no no, uh uh.
The third type of people refers to female PHDs, ("女博士是第三类人" nv3 bo2 shi4 shi4 di4 san1 lei4 ren2). They are a third type because no one wants to marry a strong, capable female. Those who do marry phds are referred to as the fourth type of people.
If a woman does support a man , the man has a “小白脸” （xiao bai lian, small white face). The man will lose some serious face if he is supported by a woman. I mean, its not that different in the West. We have a similar saying when the woman is in charge or makes more money than her husband: "she wears the pants in the family." The only way the woman can be in charge, or I would argue, be equal, is by turning her into a man.
But the attitudes towards female professionals, in my opinion, is more pronounced in China. It is more explicit. Most people I talk to openly say they want to marry a younger woman who is not as smart and makes less money. The women also generally want to marry a smarter man who is the key breadwinner. Even if people feel this way in the west, they aren't that open about it. I luckily don't know anyone (I think) who feels this way!
Anyway, good luck female phds! I hope you find some wonderful partners who do not subscribe do this ridiculous saying.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Censorship in China
So its been a while since I've written anything. Blogger has been censored for the past few weeks so I am now using a proxy service to allow me to access this blog. Unfortunately, I still cant post pictures or URLs. Why the sudden crackdown? What happened 20 years ago on June 4th?
Students gathered in the largest public square in the world to demonstrate their feelings towards a one party system. The students were joined by workers, teachers, beggars, police officers...The smell of a democratic revolution was in the air and the freedom to vote seemed so close they could almost touch it. But things turned for the worse and the army got involved. Orders straight from the top told the soldiers to open fire on these optimistic civilians until they stopped.
Now, 20 years later, the democratic revolution spark has completely died down. While most young people do not even know that such a massive protest and massacre took place, those who know do not seem too caught up over it. If you ask anyone in China who their favourite chairman was, 99 percent will say Deng Xiaoping, the chairman who gave those orders 20 years ago. Why does the majority of Chinese society fail to recognize such a disastrous event in their history?
"白猫，黑猫， 抓到老鼠，就是好猫" (bai mao, hei mao, zhua dao laoshu, jiu shi hao mao). "It doesn't matter if the cat is white or black, as long as it catches the mouse."
This is one of Deng Xiaoping's most famous sayings. It doesn't matter if China is socialist or capitalist, as long as it prospers. And many Chinese people, from my experience, love this approach. As long as China is prospering, they are willing to give up some basic rights like voting and freedom of speech. We have to remember that Deng Xiaoping came into power in 1978, after the "ten year calamity" or Cultural Revolution. The country was in shambles and Deng slowly put the pieces back together. He wasn't going to let the democracy protests take away what he had done for the country.
So what's going to happen in China in the upcoming weeks? I really have no idea. I try to go on the New York Times webpage and look up articles about Tiananmen but I cannot access them. All I know is that protesting in China has not only not ceased but have actually increased (Even though they are not seen as protests but are instead called "walks").
In the past, the government has been able to keep the majority of society relatively happy but as the economic recession is hitting more and more people, people are wanting their voices to be heard. It will be interesting to see what happens on June 4th. If you have any news from the other side of the world, please tell me!
Students gathered in the largest public square in the world to demonstrate their feelings towards a one party system. The students were joined by workers, teachers, beggars, police officers...The smell of a democratic revolution was in the air and the freedom to vote seemed so close they could almost touch it. But things turned for the worse and the army got involved. Orders straight from the top told the soldiers to open fire on these optimistic civilians until they stopped.
Now, 20 years later, the democratic revolution spark has completely died down. While most young people do not even know that such a massive protest and massacre took place, those who know do not seem too caught up over it. If you ask anyone in China who their favourite chairman was, 99 percent will say Deng Xiaoping, the chairman who gave those orders 20 years ago. Why does the majority of Chinese society fail to recognize such a disastrous event in their history?
"白猫，黑猫， 抓到老鼠，就是好猫" (bai mao, hei mao, zhua dao laoshu, jiu shi hao mao). "It doesn't matter if the cat is white or black, as long as it catches the mouse."
This is one of Deng Xiaoping's most famous sayings. It doesn't matter if China is socialist or capitalist, as long as it prospers. And many Chinese people, from my experience, love this approach. As long as China is prospering, they are willing to give up some basic rights like voting and freedom of speech. We have to remember that Deng Xiaoping came into power in 1978, after the "ten year calamity" or Cultural Revolution. The country was in shambles and Deng slowly put the pieces back together. He wasn't going to let the democracy protests take away what he had done for the country.
So what's going to happen in China in the upcoming weeks? I really have no idea. I try to go on the New York Times webpage and look up articles about Tiananmen but I cannot access them. All I know is that protesting in China has not only not ceased but have actually increased (Even though they are not seen as protests but are instead called "walks").
In the past, the government has been able to keep the majority of society relatively happy but as the economic recession is hitting more and more people, people are wanting their voices to be heard. It will be interesting to see what happens on June 4th. If you have any news from the other side of the world, please tell me!
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