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Transformation of the ideal Chinese woman

www.chinanews.cn 2005-03-09 15:10:01

Chinanews, Beijing, Mar. 8 (By Shen Jia) - Chinese people in their
fifties will probably never forget the idol of their youth, a burly
Tianjin girl with short hair and a dark complexion: the idol of their
youth. She is the protagonist of the lyric "Xing Yanzi, Good Example,"
written by Guo Moruo, Vice-chairman of the National People's Congress at
the time.
In the 1960s, Xing Yanzi said farewell to a comfortable urban life and
went to the countryside as a laborer. As a result of an unprecedented,
nationwide propaganda campaign, she became an overnight star in China.
In the 1970s, an age full of enthusiasm and imagination much like today,
the image of the ideal women was not simply someone who left the house to
pursue a career, but someone who actively participated in laborious and
very dangerous jobs, jobs that seemed unsuitable for women.
However, by the eighties this type of enterprising female spirit had
gradually disappeared. The Chinese Women's Volleyball Team and Zhang
Haidi, noted as one of the "World's Top Five Outstanding Disabled
Personages" by the foreign media, were the new heroines of the era.
But, what happened in the nineties was truly astonishing. The argument
over women "living off their youth" had just been resolved, and female
authors began to write openly about sex. The prevailing concept of beauty
valued slimness above all else, and many girls starved themselves and
underwent cosmetic surgeries, becoming "artificial beauties."
Over sixty years ago, Ding Lin proposed a question in her essay "Thoughts
upon Women's Day": When will the word "woman" no longer have importance
attached to it and cease to be used? In the near future, the measures of
a Chinese woman's value and charm will multiply; people will look towards
intelligence and independence as a standard of worth, rather than
external pressures and expectations.

E-mail: zhangqinghua@chinanews.com.cn Tel: 8610-88387443 Fax:
8610-68327649

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