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“Manager Chin” In an age where Chinese culture comes to terms with Western fashions, we should not be so naïve and presumptuous to assume that the degrading century-old stereotype image of the Chinese woman still exists as it did over 200 years ago. In a chronicled account on the life of Ch’iu Chin, the liberated heroine of the Ch’ing dynasty who was beheaded in 1907 for anti-dynasty revolutionary activities, Mary Backus Rankin writes that while such “evils” as bound feet, curtailed education, cults of chastity, virginity and concubinage were real enough, towards the end of that dynasty, feminist members of the urban elite, influenced by Western attitudes and the 1898 Reform Movement, emerged into Chinese society, paving the way for the feminism that was to blossom after the Revolution as part of the May Fourth Movement. The Emergence of Women at the End of the Ch’ing: The Case of Ch’iu Chin. In the workplace today, women who have achieved equal status and credibility with men, are referred to as “managers,” regardless of gender. It is therefore not surprising to find that “Manager Chin,” for example, “President Chin” or “Chairman Chin,” will, in a number of instances, be a very capable woman. In the home, in addition to quality time devoted to the child, the woman also finds the time to entertain and prepare or supervise the preparation of a meal, more like a feast, that will consist of many succulent courses generally accompanied by a palatable rice wine. It is indisputable then, that the role of the woman in Chinese society has been dramatically reversed and that today’s woman is finally coming into her own, politically and socially. In pursuing the emergent dual role “to be an able person and a good wife,” which she juggles so admirably, she has become competitive and a force to be reckoned with, not only in the workplace – an emerging market environment – but also in the home; a professional who is at once gracious and at ease in entertaining while being a good mother as well. Valerie Anderson March 29, 2009
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