Summary Of Old Shanghai

Shanghai Girls is written in the atmosphere of 1937 Shanghai, ‘the Paris of Asia’ . Where the Chinese were influenced by the westernization. The developing Shanghai features the rapidly growing influence of the west over traditional Chinese beliefs.

I chose William Zinsser’s “Shanghai”. In this essay Zinsser gives a firsthand account of two of his favorite jazz musicians. Zinsser starts his essay off setting the scene by letting us, the reader know the story take place in China. He tells the story of Willie Ruff and Dwike Mitchell a Duet that traveled the country playing their brand of jazz. In his story he gives the reader the impression he has a great passion for what the two men has accomplished with their musical talents. Zinsser himself a musician speaks highly of the two. Most noticeable was Zinsser’s admiration for Ruff’s ease to learn the language of other cultures. Further analyzing of the essay leads the reader to know Zinsser praises the two for their ability to bridge the gap

In Six Records of a Floating Life, Shen Fu writes of his wife, “Yün came to this world a woman, but she had the feelings and abilities of a man.” (Fu: 89) Shen Fu and Yün considered each other to be intellectual equals. However, their relationship was still constrained within the gender roles set by their society. They lived during the Qing dynasty, which was a prosperous time for China (“The Manchus”: 266) but also a time when, as Professor Scarlett states in the lecture Daily Life in Imperial China, “the outside world was for men and the inside world was for women.” Shen Fu and Yün’s relationship was pushing the bounds of their culture, but they still kept (mostly) within the lines of social acceptability.

Ancient China DBQ     Ancient China made advancements to many things that we still use on a daily basis. Not only did China make advancements, they also were inventors. These inventions improved their lives then and still improves our lives now. To this day, we still use these inventions and advancements.

As time carries on, America enters the Neolithic Period and women's worth decreases very rapidly. The western people begin to settle in cities and form villages, and the men of the time say that anything outside of the house is too dangerous. At this point, all the women stay inside the villages and tend to the domestic part of life - staying home to do the cooking, cleaning, sewing, raise the children, prepare anything the men needed. At this point, the two culture's views on women are very similar. In America, as was already explained, men were becoming more valuable than women; and in China, the same thing can be seen as the men are given the privileges of becoming emperors or merchants, or even knight errants if they so choose. At the same time, the women in China are supposed to be submissive and always at the beck and call of their husband or lover. In the story, "The Pearl Shirt Reencountered" Chiang Te leaves his wife to take care of business in his

Women during this time were considered inferior to the men. A stereotypical woman in China was, “passive, dependent, obedient, and helpless”. Women were considered guests in their own houses before marriage and after marriage the women became part of their husband’s family. This must have meant that family loyalty for the women was not as important, but it was more important for the men. The expectation was that women were to agree with their husbands regardless of whether or not they were actually correct. When out in public, they should cover up as much of their skin as possible and not raise their voices when they are spoken to. This was a difficult time for women, but Empress Wu found a way to ignore these stereotypes. Her beauty and intelligence attracted Taizong and he made her part of his concubine. She eventually married the son of Taizong, Gaozong, making her empress of China. After the death of Gaozong their son Ruizong ruled as emperor, but eventually Empress Wu threw him into exile and took the position for herself starting her rule in 690. This represents her more brutal nature and how she would not let anything or anyone get in her way, including her son. Since she had overcome the adversities of women Wu worked hard during her reign to allow more opportunities for women than previously. In

In Dai Sijie’s Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, women are portrayed as China’s cultural feminine ideal of being demure and compliant. The novella takes place during China’s Cultural Revolution where two urban youths, Luo and the narrator find themselves sent to the countryside to be “re-educated”. The two protagonists encounter the Little Seamstress—the epitome of beauty—and fall in love. They civilize the Little Seamstress through Western literature allowing her to realize a woman’s true beauty. Although the Little Chinese Seamstress gets “re-educated”, her re-education only teaches her the true meaning of beauty, convincing her to abandon her repressive village, and declare her feminine identity by leaving the city.

The role of women is China has changed a lot over the years. When we consider the position Chinese women held in ancient society, we find that they have come a long way to be where they are today.

As China faced new international pressures and the change to a communist society, gender relations transformed women from servants of men to full independent workers, who finally became soldiers of the communist state. In Jung Chang’s novel, Wild Swans, the three women – grandmother Yu-Fang, mother Bao-Qin and daughter Jung Chang – exemplify the expected gender roles of each generation. I will argue that Confucian society presented few economic opportunities for women to support

Wu Zhao belonged to the Tang Empire, which according to the author which “…was a true empire, encompassing many lands, many peoples, and many ideologies. Multi ethnic and cosmopolitan, Tang China was perfectly suited for the ascent of a historical anomaly like Wu Zhao…” (Rothschild, 2008, p. 11) In a sense, there was a conflict of traditional Confucian values which promoted a patriarchal society and the liberal Steppe culture which gave women more freedom and rights. China at that time was a cocktail of these cultures which led to a significant impact on the lifestyle and values of peoples in that era. Women were bold and tough, and unlike earlier societies, were no longer confined socially and sexually (Rothschild, 2008, p. 12). While did not exist a perfect equality between men and women, women of that era were allowed to live without hiding under the dominance of the male Yang. As the author talks of the Silk Road, it is mentioned that,”…In this free-wheeling milieu, women donned men’s attire and rode horses…” (Rothschild, 2008, p. 15) .This “cosmopolitan” (Rothschild, 2008, p. 16) society was the foundation for the Tang Empire. Another important factor was the prevalence of Buddhism as a religion of the masses. Buddhism, in itself, helped united much of Asia, and was a common platform for men and women, unlike in Confucianism where

In this time in China, the role that women and men had were very different from each other. Women were expected to be quite, obedient, and respectful. While men were the provider, the intellectual and the decision maker in the family. In Shen Fu and his wife, Yun marriage it started out like the typical relationship in eightieth century China, each one fulfilling the roles that society had in place for them. But as they became to know each other more, Shen Fu saw Yun real personality and wanted someone to experience life, so he started to encourage her to be herself and told her she didn’t have to live up to this gender stereotypes for women. They both were always

In 1997, Dorothy Ko published an article in the Journal of Women’s History called “The Body as Attire: The Shifting Meanings of Footbinding in Seventeen-Century China”. The article is organized with a brief introduction as to what footbinding is, the negative outlook on this practice due to problematic archives, and then she discusses the examples she gives to support her thesis. Ko’s thesis was “Chinese elite males in the seventeenth century regarded footbinding in three ways: as an expression of Chinese wen civility, as a marker of ethnic boundaries separating Han from Manchu, and as an ornament or embellishment of the body.” Since Ko is a celebrated and established author on women in early East Asia, the article “The Body as Attire: The Shifting Meanings of Footbinding in Seventeen Century China” is an accurate and useful source if one is trying to study that area.

I chose this topic because I view women as the backbone to the development or a nation, therefore the Chinese woman is paramount in one of the world’s great civilizations. The role of women in Chinese culture has changed over the years. When we consider the position that women held in ancient Chinese society we find that they have come a long way to be where they are today.

Shanghai Girls is a work of historical fiction, and apart from the well-known people, events and settings that figure into the narrative, all names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. The work is clearly filled with research, yet has a nice balance between history and the story line.

     A pattern that was common among the ancient civilizations of China, Rome, Greece, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India was that most of them started as a dictatorship, a monarchy, or a dynasty. Eventually, most of them changed to a democracy, republic, or to class systems. Almost all of the civilizations had one or two great leaders. For example, Egypt had King Tut, Greece had Alexander the Great and Rome had Julius Caesar.