Women in Chinese Culture (Free Essay Example)

Women in Chinese culture had certain looks and standards to uphold in order to be looked at and taken seriously. Contemporary girls are usually connected to the idea of what a modern girl is because it shows how a girl should act and how they should be portrayed in society. The value of being a modern Chinese girl was a very interesting lifestyle because they had all of these accommodations that differed from how the Chinese women were supposed to act and dress in the earlier times. 

According to Ling long, the characteristics and image of the ideal modern young Chinese girl is that she should have a strong body and a strong mind so that they can have the fundamentals to do what they can do. A girl must also be strong-willed because if she is weak, then that shows that people can just run all over her. In order to be successful, women must be strong and show that they have an understanding about the basics of life. A girl must also have broad vision so that she is able to rise up and be great because that is the best way for her to make a worthwhile career. A young modern Chinese girl should also have the ability to stand on her own and not depend on others because that is a sign of weakness. She should be able to hold herself up economically and financially because that will prevent future conflicts from arising. Also, she must abandon the idea and thought of jealousy because that isn’t an important key that a girl should give/acting envious of other people can be a downfall in one’s future and achievement may not be met due to jealousy. When it came to her appearance, she had to look contemporary, and she shouldn’t be too extravagant because that is the moral virtue that they had to uphold.

In addition, the kinds of things that the ideal modern Chinese girl would do is she would have to find things to do in her free time other than being better housewives or students. She had to find a new modern lifestyle during her leisure time and it was also shown in the pictures because it would show the women showing off their clothing and taking pictures. For example, during her free time she would listen to the radio stations and even read about the American and Chinese actors in magazines. A Ling long girl would also go shopping. The things that they would have to do would be productive, and they would have to find new things to do in their leisure. On the other hand, these depictions differ from those of the ideal Chinese girl described in the primary source documents in Week 4 because though the women in this era didn’t have much responsibility, and all they had to do was stay at home, take care of household duties and look pretty. I think education to them was the least of their worries, but they had some knowledge because in the paintings, there were women playing musical instruments and painting, which shows that they had some knowledge of the arts. The qualities/characteristics of the paintings suggest that women's beauty was most prized because in every picture every single girl is dressed very well, and they look well taken care of. Nonetheless, there are some similarities when it comes to appearance, but, there are major differences in how women are supposed to think, act, look, and dress.

Overall, the articles within Ling long explore the meaning of what it meant to be a modern girl in the 1930s. A contemporary girl represents what it means to be a girl of today and the depiction of what she should look like is based on how women were looked at during the 1930s. The different types of characteristics and features that Modern Contemporary girls are supposed to look like are made clear in this documentary because it showed the clear differences between what women were described as during the 1930s and the primary source documents that were in Week 4. The main ideas were clear and the presence of these modern women was essential and a major ideal throughout China.