-
Institute of Journalism and CommunicationChinese Academy of
Social Sciences
P.O.Box 2011, Beijing 100026, P.R.ChinaTel and Fax:
+8610-84251952
Email: [email protected]
Women in the Chinese Media**
Bu Wei
May 1, 2000
* This paper was written under the auspices of the Project on
LatinAmerica and the Pacific Rim at the University of California,
SanDiego, where I was a visiting fellow between January 30 andMarch
14; financial support for the UCSD Project came from theFord
Foundation, the Center for Global Partnership, and theUniversity of
California.
-
2This paper will discuss ten images of women in the Chinese
media. From agender perspective, three groups gender stereotypes,
combiningstereotypes with gender equality; and gender equality -
can be defined in theten images. The growth and decline of gender
consciousness in each groupwill be analyzed. Through a brief review
on the contemporary history ofwomens images in China, this paper
will explore the meanings of the differenttypes of womens
images.
BackgroundConsidering womens images in the Chinese media from
1994-2000, two keyfactors, which greatly influenced the issue
before and after 1995, should bementioned. One is the development
of the press and media industries, theother is the Womens
Conference in Beijing in 1995.
The Development of the Press and Media IndustriesSince the
beginning of the reformation and the opening-up policy in 1979,
thepress and media industries have witnessed significant progress
in China.
At the end of 1995, there were 1,202 wireless radio stations in
China, 11.34times as many as 106 in 1978, broadcasting 13736 hours
per day in average,and covered 78.7% of the national population of
1.2 billion. There were 187million radios possessed by the whole
society and 16 radios possessed byevery 100 people1. And there were
837 TV stations in 1995, which was 22times as many as 38 in 1979,
broadcasting 46,916 hours each week onaverage, and covered 84.7%
population in the country. The possession of TVsets exceeds the
number of radios. There were 286 million TV setspossessed by the
whole society and 24 possessed by every 100 people2. In1996, the
overall possession of TV sets amounted to 3.17 hundred million.The
TV coverage reached 87.4% of the whole population and the number
oftelevision audience is 10.94 hundred million in 1997.3. Before
1978, the mainnews media were radio and newspaper for Chinese
people, but from 1980s to1990s, TV has become an important
media.
Print media grew very fast at this stage as well. In 1996, 7,916
types ofperiodicals (7,918 in 1997) and 2,163 kinds of newspapers
(2,149 in 1997)were published. The issuance of newspapers was 11.63
times as many as186 in 19784.
Meanwhile, new electronic media-video tape, recording cassette,
VCD,electronic publications and Internet come into Chinese family
life. In 1996,8,916 types of audio products (AT, CD and so on) were
published and the totalamount was 146 million pieces/boxes.
Moreover, 7,306 video products (VT,LD, and V-CD) were published and
the total amount was 18.2381 million 1 The Beijing Broadcasting
College, China Broadcasting Year Book, 19962 ditto3 Statistical
Communique of the State Statistical Bureau of the People's Republic
ofChina on the 1997 National Economic and Social Development,
Business Weekly, March8-14, 1998.4 The Office of the Press and
Publishing of China, China Publishing Year Book, 1997
-
3pieces/boxes5. Since April 1994, all kinds of Internet
functions have beenintroduced into China. The electronic
publications and Internet have beendeveloped in the high tide of
universalizing the personal computer. At the endof 1996, there are
150 thousand Internet users in China. After three years, atthe end
of 1999, the number of Internet users grew to 870 thousand6.
With significant changes both in quantity and quality of the
content in theChinese media, the traditional press and media
industries have experiencedgreat development. Before 1978, the
media agencies were strictly under thecontrol of the government, as
a result, most of the content in the media werelimited, of which
most was used for political propaganda. But now, the mediacontent
was influenced by many factors such as economic
development,commercialism, local tradition, traditional culture,
western media values, andthe need for an audience, in addition to
the political environment. One of themost important factors is the
need for an audience. Intense competitionamong media market
promoted the media to become concerned for theiraudience. Because
of this, many audience surveys were conducted after1980. It made
media open more space for reflection and discussion on manyissues,
and varieties of womens images entered into TV,
newspapers,magazines, even CD-ROMs and Internet.
Since there is no tradition of media literacy or education in
China, most ofpeople are not critical of media but very easy to
believe in them. For Chinesepeople, media is powerful and has great
influence on peoples ideas andconducts.
Influence of Womens Conference in BeijingIn 1995, the Womens
Conference was held in Beijing. Before the Conference,many
journalists automatically focused on women issues in the media
andmade women issues become much more important than ever before.
At thattime, most of journalists and writers didnt know background
of genderconsciousness well, so the content about gender
stereotypes and genderequality were presented together in the
media. During the WomensConference, there were more than 70 forums
about media and women in theNon-governmental Forum in Huairou,
including the forum Media and Womenby the Women Journalists
Association of Capital in China, and the forumWomens images in Film
and TV by the China Film Association7. We shouldsay that these
forums exerted great influence on Chinese women and
media,especially The Platform for Action, which lists Women and
Media as one ofthe 12 critical areas of concern under Strategic
Objectives and Actions(Chapter 4). From 1995, some researchers
published papers and articles,reflecting on the effect of mass
media and criticized stereotypes, gender
5 Announcement made by Planning and Budgeting Department of the
Administration forPress and Publication: 1996 National Situation on
Video and Audio Publications, Pressand Publishing Journal, 4 April,
1997.6 According to statistics on Internet Annual Survey conducted
by China InternetInformation Center in 1999.7 Bu Wei, Media and
Women: the review on Media Issue in NGO Forums of The UNFourth
World Women Conference, The Journal of International Communication,
No 1,1996, p37-43
-
4discriminations, and women images as commodities in the Chinese
media8. In1996, the Women Journalists Association of Capital in
China initiated theWomens Media Monitoring Network. Special columns
Media Watch, MediaThrough Our Eyes were opened on the China Womens
News. From agender perspective, the network members challenged
traditional stereotypesand gender discrimination in the news, ads,
magazines, and other media.Many articles and research reports have
been published9. Among them, threeimportant studies are as
follows:
News. A content analysis10 on the news of 8 mainstream
newspapers in 1996showed that 84% of newsmakers are men, 16% were
women; 71% of allimages are men's, 29% were women's; 0.9% of news
items related women'sissues or women's movement of a total 10,808
news items. In the world ofnews, men were concentrated at the
decision-making level; the majority ofmale newsmakers were
politicians, or heads of departments of thegovernment,
organizations, and companies. Women in these categories werealso
significant; but, at the same time, there were more unidentified
femalesthan there are big shots; and about 11% of the female
figures in the newswere simply family members (such as wives,
mothers, daughters, sisters, andso on). In addition, more women
were portrayed as actresses or athletes thanany other professional
types. When women appeared in the news, they werelikely put in the
pictures. Among all of the female images in the pictures,53.8% were
young women. Ms. Feng Yuan, who conducted the study,concluded that
there is unbalanced sex ratio in the world of news from
officialnewspapers in China.
Ads. Compared with news, women image is highly visible in TV
commercials.Conducted in 1996, an ads study11 indicated that among
the 1,197 ads,35.8% (426) have one or more women's roles, 6.9%
higher than thepercentage of ads with men's roles (343). The study
has also found that 87%of the images are of beautiful young women
out of the 517 women's roles.
The statistics indicated that 33.7% or one third of the
commercials includestereotypes or gender discrimination. Although
very few images representinggender equality can be found in the
commercials, they are better than nothing.Compared with
gender-related roles invisible 64.7% in commercials and33.7% in
stereotyping commercials, only 1.6% images with gender equalitycan
be found in commercials.
8 Most of articles or papers were published on China Womens News
and Collection ofWomens Studies sponsored by All-China Womens
Federation. Such as: Huang Mei,Analysis on Young Women Images in
the Media, No. 2, 1996, Collection of WomensStudies; Jin Yihong,
Womens Magazine Dont Lost Gender Consciousness for business,24th
Feb.,1997, China Womens News.9 Bu Wei, Gender and Communication
Policy for China, Engendering CommunicationPolicy in Asia, p8688,
The Asian Network of Women in Communication, New Delhi andthe World
Association for Christian Communication, London, 199710Feng Yuan,
Chinas Establishmental Newspapers: The Gender Map and
Beyond,unpublished.11 Liu Bohong, Bu Wei, The Research Report on
Womens Images in TV Commercials inChina, Journalism &
Communication, No.1, 1997, p4558.
-
5Magazine Womens FriendsIn the content analysis in Womens
Friends from 1990-199612, the statisticsshows that in all
gender-related articles 6.3% contain sexist content, while12.6%
represent gender equality, and 11.4% are a mixture of
genderstereotypes and equality (69.7% articles are not
gender-related).
Another important finding in the study is that those articles
dealing withwomen's roles are very gender-related. The statistics
is showed as table 1.
Table 1: Correlation about Women's roles and Gender-Related in
articlesNo womens roles Womens roles Total (1168)
No gender-related 71.4% 28.6% 833Gender-related 37.3% 62.7%
335
Chi-square = 116.164.04 Sig=.0000
It can be concluded that women are almost invisible and greatly
marginalizedin the news but are highly visible in commercials. When
media content containhuman roles, especially women's roles, more
gender-related content arerepresented. The gender-related content
includes more stereotypes as well asgender equality in the Ads and
news. For magazine, some content combiningstereotypes with gender
equality are found in the studies
In the above-mentioned view, the study will not provide a
quantitative orcomparative analysis to find difference between male
and female roles in themedia. This paper will focus on the analysis
of womens images in theChinese media. It will describe and analyze
three situationsgenderstereotype, combining stereotype with
equality, and gender equality in themedia; discuss the meaning of
womens images; and explore the reasonsabout womens images
represented in the media.
Methodology
1. Gender Perspective and CommunicationOne of contribution of
Western feminist theories is try to separate sex fromgender, while
sex refers to the biological difference between female andmale,
gender means the socially and culturally constructed
perceptions,expectation, request, and evaluation based on the
differences between thetwo sexes. The concept of gender clearly
shows that sex stereotypes are nota natural result but shaped by
social culture. As a social structure, gendercan be changed even
eradicated13. Although it is difficult to find a sharpdistinction
between gender and sex empirically, gender has been supportedby
some researches in psychology, anthropology, sociology and other
fields. Itchallenged the persistent biological determinism and has
been enrolled in theanalytical category or research perspective in
social sciences.
12 Bu Wei, An Analysis on Gender in the Magazine Womens Friends,
1997,unpublished.13 English-Chinese Lexicon of Women and Law,
edited by Sharon K. Hom & XinChunying, UNESCO Publishing, China
Translation and Publishing Corporation, 1995,145147.
-
6Gender difference is usually conveyed and consolidated in
social systems andsocialization. Mass media, as part of the social
systems as well as one of thesocialization factors, has dual
effects on the audience. On the one hand,gender exists in society.
Mass media based on commercialization surelyreflects gender
difference if it goes after mass identity. On the other hand,mass
media is also an important source of gender construction. It
promotes toshape and to intensify social stereotypes or gender
consciousness. In otherwords, media is capable of building gender
meaning and pattern to each sex.For example, advertisements always
take advantage of the values andpremises that are most familiar to
the receivers, that is to say, the dominantideology in the society,
to ascribe gender meaning and patterns. Women areoften portrayed as
young, beautiful, gentle and obedient. In turn, mediadescriptions
of women are frequently internalized into social expectations inthe
minds of the audience and eventually exert influence on their
perceptionsof gender and their own behaviors.
Therefore, media are perceived as the main instruments in
conveyingrespectively stereotypical, patriarchal and hegemonic
values about womenand femininity14. Moreover, in modern society we
can see dominant ideologyhas been translated into the common sense
of the audience. That is whyfeminist media study is always critical
and analytic.
2. Research Resource and SamplesGenerally speaking, media
content can be divided into two kinds: narrativeliterature such as
films or TV serials and non-narrative such as news, Ads,personage
reports, comments, essays and so on. The latter content will
bediscussed in the paper.
Media resource mainly comes from five studies that were
conducted from1994 to 2000 as follows:
A. Womens Images in TV Commercial of China, Journalism
andCommunication, No.1, 1997, by Liu Bo Hong and Bu Wei
B. An Analysis on Gender in the Womens Friends Magazine, 1997,
by BuWei, unpublished
C. A Research Report on China TV Programs for Women, 1998, by
BuWei and Liu Xiao Hong, unpublished
D. Gender and Media Criticism, Ways, No.6, 1997, by Bu WeiE.
Girls' Images in the Mainstream Newspapers, 2000, by Bu Wei,
unpublished
In China, most media are public media sponsored by central and
localgovernments, and 47 papers and magazines for women are by
All-ChinaWomens Federation and local womens federation. Besides,
some publicmedia also have special programs for women. Considering
balance amongtypes of media, different sponsors, and content in the
media, I made
14 Liesbet van Zoonen, Feminist Perspectives on the Media, P41,
Mass Media andSociety, edited by James Curran and Michael
Gurevitch, 1991, Edward Arnold, a divisionof Hodder Headline PLC,
UK.
-
7choices as follows:Table 2 studies (19942000)
Content PM or WMSpecifically
For women ornot
Sample*
Ads TV / PM NoNational Sample
1197 Adsfrom 10 TV stations (1994)
News Papers / PM No
146 news items about girl childfrom the Peoples Daily (Jan.
1,1996 March 31,2000);286 news items about childrenfrom 6
mainstream newspapers
30 May to 2 June in 1996,1997,1998, and 1999
Documentaries InterviewTalk show
TV /PM YesNational Sample450minutes from
3 TV stations(1998)
ArticlesEssays
And othersMagazines /
WM Yes
Womens Friends(1990-1996)1104 articles
from 28 issues
PM= Public MediaWM= media sponsored by Womens Federation
Perhaps it is not a representative sample because the sample is
composedof four samples. But it is possible that it provides a
relatively reliable pictureof the situation on the basis of
considering media types, content, audience,and sponsors. For making
up some loss, I will mention other resource aboutgender in the
Chinese media also.
3. Analytic MethodsBasically, the text analysis method is
employed in the study. Although it is nota complete and strict text
because we will discuss many texts, the study willshow social
ideology in texts and point out unequal power relationshipbetween
men and women.
According to discussion above, three situations exist in the
Chinese media, soall images will be divided into three groups on
the basis of the feminist genderconsciousness:1. Representing
Stereotypes2. Combining Stereotypes and Gender Equality3.
Representing Gender Equality
I will choose some images as cases from the above samples to do
criticalanalysis in every group. The characteristics of these kinds
of images are:1. The same meaning of images (like mothers love) is
repeated many times in
the media;2. Most of audience is familiar with these images or
these images have greatly
influenced on audience.3. Very little people have criticized
these images.Thus, 10 images like mother, wife, girl, girl friend,
movie star, woman shop
-
8owner, female worker, rural woman, woman writer, and
sportswoman werediscussed in the paper.
I. Review: Contemporary History of Womens Images in China
It is true that womens image originates from womens roles in our
society. SoI would like to use four key terms to indicate womens
roles in China as astarting point for discussion on womens images
in my historic review.
1. WomanFor the term of woman, there are two forms of address
employed by someChinese people15. One is Funuu that contains
complex historic and culturalmeaning. Funuu were kept at the bottom
of society for a long time, and wereconsidered miserable and
backward objects liberated by the Communistrevolution in old China.
After the revolution in 1949, women are given equallegal rights
with men and most women have their jobs. But Funuu has been
adisdainful term, which still means a woman who is married, old,
backward,conservative, ignorant (or even stupid), and stays in her
home as a housewife.Though official documents or media often
mention Funuu as a generaldesignation, most women, especially those
city women dont like to callthemselves Funuu. Another form is
Nuuxing. In contrast to Funuu, Nuuxingmeans professional, young,
educated well, revolutionary, independent evenfashionable. Nuuxing
usually have a good job in society. From 1949, somewomen want to
sever relation with Funuu identity, become a Nuuxing or newNuuxing,
but they were placed in a dilemma. Women have been requested tobe
like Funuu in homes and like men in their workplaces until 1979.
Evenmarriage and reproduction were taken as a part of revolutionary
contributionsbut its position was much lower that other jobs.
Everything women did was forthe revolution such as Glory Mother16
in the 1950s and Put Birth Controlinto Practice for the
Revolution17 in the 1970s. The Chinese revolutioncontains women and
womens movement, Nuuxing has a very smallindependent space18.
2. From Iron Maiden (Tie Gu Niang) to Strong-minded Woman (Nu
QiangRen)
During the Cultural Revolution (19661976), womens identity as
mother andwife in the private sphere was almost covered. Since Maos
slogan that Thetime is different, and male and female become the
same had influenced 15 Some Chinese people means city women,
especially women who had educated well.These women also are main
audience of media. We dont know other womens ideasabout women, it
is a shortcomings in the study.16 In 1950s, state called women to
learn from Soviet Mother and birth more childrenbecause socialist
construction need more labor force. Those mothers who have
morechildren were taken as glory mother.17 More details is analyzed
in the Picturing Power in the Peoples republic of ChinaPosters of
the Cultural Revolution edited by Harriet Evans and Stephanie
Donald, Page12, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 1999.18
About discussion on Funuu term, I consulted a paper by Li Xiao
Jiang With WhatDiscourse We Think Women? edited by Qiu Ren Zong,
Chinese Women and FeministThought, China Social Sciences Publishing
House, 1998, p97-113.
-
9Chinese society. The revolution and the socialist construction
required a moremasculine style, so the ideal image of women was
required to be like a man.Women had to do hard work according to
mens standard, and their thoughts,conduct, ability, and even body
shape and dress were like that of men. As aresult, some Iron Maiden
Team or March Eighth Team became a trend at thattime. I dont think
that it is equal between both women and men though itseems equal on
the surface. To be an iron maiden means that women enterinto social
mainstream only as man can. Even though women have enteredinto the
social mainstream or revolutionary team, it is very possible that
herrole is still traditional. For example, women solders sewed
clothes for mensolders in the famous Ballet Red Detachment of the
Womens Army during theCultural Revolution. In other words, women
had to conform to mens standardand think that men were superior.
Compared with men, women found theirown weaknesses, and then
overcame these weaknesses. It was mainly acultural autocracy
because these changes came at the revolutions demandrather than by
the womens choice on their own initiative.
When the Cultural Revolution was over, Chinese people formed a
violentrebounding attitude toward iron women. The typical masculine
men andtypical feminine women were praised highly in the media.
Especially forwomen, adopting feminine characteristics such as
tender, beautiful, passive,dependent and so on has become a central
pursuit. This is nothing strangebecause, with the revolution,
feminine characteristics were lost whilemasculine ones were kept in
society. Women, and even men, needed torecover the right of choice
as a compensation. Nevertheless, women aredifferent. When some
women choose careers as their own pursuit and havegreat
achievements in the areas traditionally dominated by males, they
arecalled Strong-minded Women in the 1980s. The image of the
Strong-minded Woman has replaced the Iron Maiden now. It no longer
refers to arevolutionary woman, but means a professional woman. In
fact, Strong-minded Women shares similar features with the Iron
Maiden, in which womenenters into areas traditionally dominated by
males. In the case of the IronMaiden this entails physical labor
while Strong-minded Women take onintelligent or business
activities. But today, Strong-minded Women are not aswelcomed as
the Iron Maiden. As an invader, people naturally think
thatStrong-minded Women lack femininity. This has formed an
invisible pressureon women. So, In China, nobody, not even famous
women, wants to be aStrong-minded Woman.
3. Virtuous Wife and Caring Mother (Xian qi liang mu)Womens
images (Nuuxing Xingxiang) have been a big issue in the
Chinesemedia from the 1980s to 1990s. As the above mentioned,
rebounding fromthe Cultural Revolution, the traditional womens
roles (virtuous wife and caringmother) have re-entered our society;
while modern beauties and sexy imageshave arisen on television, on
the covers of magazines and in somenewspapers, and have gradually
become the dominant images. Virtuous Wifeand Caring Mother reflect
traditional feminine characteristics, and beautiesand sexy images
reflect more modern ones. In addition to the Strong-mindedWomen
dilemma, two images left many women felt puzzled. How does a
-
10
woman be a woman today? What are our images today? The
discussion onthe role of women and womens image was initiated by
the Journal of ChinasWomen, China Womens News, Workers Daily,
Guangming Daily andothers19.
Most discussion focused on whether women should be strong-minded
or justremain as a Virtuous Wife and Caring Mother. Because of
womensreproductive ability, they are taken as innately virtuous
wives and caringmothers, and not suited as professional women in
society. Someone evenproposed that a woman should sacrifice her
career to ensure her husbandssuccess (Er Bao Yi). This idea is well
reflected in the common slogan Behindeach successful man, you will
find a virtuous and great wife. Some womenwanted a compromise
proposal in which they will be strong-minded in theircareers and to
be good a wife in their family, but it was refused by most ofwomen
because they will meet a heavy double burden in that situation.
In the discussion, the need for state, economic development, and
the needs ofmen were emphasized repeatedly and womens need and
initiative weregreatly ignored. Some papers and articles suggested
that women go home tobe virtuous wives and caring mothers so that
more positions for men areavailable and the states employment
crisis is resolved 20.
It seems that the traditional feminine image contradicts with
that of the Strong-minded Women. However, neither refuses modern
femininity. We can see thatstrong-minded women use make-up when
they are represented on TV orother media, and in public, wives and
mothers also hope that they becomemore beautiful and young through
some artificial means. As replenishment,modern femininity makes
strong-minded women more feminine and wives andmothers more modern,
so that their roles will meet with the social requests.
4. FeministWhen the term feminist entered into China from 1995,
most people did not likeit. They though of it as reflecting the
strong-minded women image. It wasconsidered to be dangerous,
because feminist would want more rights thanmen or would want to
share rights and power with men. Thus in China, thecommon
understanding for feminist is a radical even terrible woman.
Scholarsalso debated the translation of feminist. In Chinese, there
are two translationsfor feminist. One is Nv Xing Zhu Yi Zhe, that
has a less political, but morefeminine meaning. Another is Nu Quan
Zhu Yi Zhe that means womens rightsand power. In the Chinese
context, womens primary problem is fighting forrights or separating
women from the state and revolution and this is
verycontroversial21. Nu Quan Zhu Yi Zhe is considered western, and
implieswomen want rights and powers. But in China, the 1949
revolution gave equal
19 Edited by Womens Study Institute of All-China Womens
Federation, Reference onWomens Studies, 1999, unpublished.20 Lin
Song Le, Discussions on Gender Roles, Equality and Development,
edited by LiXiao Jiang, Zhu Hong and Dong Xiu Yu, San Lian Shu
Dian, 1997, p385-388.21 Li Xiao Jiang, With What Discourse We Think
Woman, Chinese Women and FeministThought, Edited by Qiu Ren Zong,
China Social Sciences Publishing House, 1998, p97113.
-
11
legal rights to women. All womens movements are closely related
to stateand social development. Therefore, for Chinese women,
perhaps they needindependence from the state and recover their
self-consciousness and abilityto decide for themselves. In this
sense, Nu Xing Zhu Yi Zhe is better.
We can see that womens images in contemporary history are
complexbecause many terms like Funuu, Nuu Xing, Iron Maiden,
Strong-mindedWoman, Virtuous Wife and Caring Mother, and feminists
can explain a part ofwomens images in China. Moreover, these terms
have interweaving historicrelations, and influence each other. But
we still find a clue for understandingwomens images as follows:
Funuu Nuuxing
Virtuous wife Modern Beauty strong-minded women feministsCaring
mother
Clearly, Funuu represent traditional role in the private sphere,
while Nuuxing ismore independent in public sphere. Of course it
doesnt mean that thedifference is absolute.
Besides, Strong-minded Women has some big differences with
feminists,their characteristics are as follows:
Strong-minded Woman Feminists Have abilities like men Keep the
initiative in ones own hands Personal struggle Womens overall
interests Almost passive under the pressure Active, proceed and
have of society and others gender consciousness
Unlike Strong-minded Women, Feminists keep the initiative in
their own handsrather than claim to have more ability than men; are
concerned aboutwomens interests as a whole rather than only
emphasize personal struggle.Feminists have more gender
consciousness, so they are active, but mostStrong-minded Women
began their personal struggle under the pressure ofsocial or other
factors. Therefore, Strong-minded Women are very differentfrom
feminists.
II. Gender in the Media
1. Gender stereotypes in the media
The term Stereotype, taken from printing, denotes something
fixed andlacking in originality. As an ideological discursive
strategy, stereotype reinforcethe dominant discourse through
categorizing the roles and characteristics ofwomen which are viewed
as essentially different from those of men. Withinthis dichotomous
opposition the feminine is categorized as inferior, while the
-
12
masculine is valorized. The stereotyped ideal woman is the
nurturing wife,mother or muse constructed through the scopic gaze
of the male22. In thiscontext, womens needs and subjectivity are
greatly ignored, and femininity,based on stereotypes shaped by
social culture, is stressed repeatedly.Stereotypic images are
mainly mother, wife, girl, girlfriend, movie star andothers in
Chinese media.
1. MotherMother's love is often used as a topic in the media
including news, ads, andmagazines. When media talk about mothers,
they speak highly of mothersdedication for her family in almost all
reports. Mother's love is great becauseit is self-giving. Most
articles and news in the media never talk about mothersown
person-hood, social role, personality, interests, personal
developmentand rights to life selection. In fact, media suggested
that self-development isnot significant when a woman become a
mother. Sometimes mothers in themedia are poor, and occupy lower
social positions, but they have sacrificedthemselves in order to
their sons have more bright future and higher socialposition.
2. WifeSimilar to mothers, the wifes role also implies
dedicating herself to her family.The mother sacrifices herself for
her children and the wife sacrifices herself forher husband. Most
media highly praised women who sacrifice their lifetimeand devote
themselves to household work so as to ensure their husbandssuccess.
This idea is well reflected in the popular slogans Behind
eachsuccessful man, a virtuous wife can be found. and in the
propaganda onwomen models Solders Wife (Jun Sao) conducted by
media. There weremany details about family life in the media,
including wife served as a servantand cooker and secretary for her
husband. For example, a man expressed hisgratitude to his wife in a
letter, because the wife said to her husband, if it isnecessary
that one sacrifice for another between us, I will sacrifice myself
tobe a virtuous wife and caring mother. The husband said that he
thanked hiswife because she really fulfilled her promise.23
The study on TV commercials24 showed that a womans position is
withinfamily. Of the commercials with identifiable show-up spots,
female rolestypically show up in two kinds of scenes: the family
which accounts for 50.8%of the total; big or top grade
entertainment centers which account for 30.2%,and others are
19%.
Women play the leading role mainly in commercials for clothing
andcosmetics, family appliances as well as food and drinks, and
percentages are60.8%, 44.7% and 35% of the total (including
advertisements involving nohuman roles) respectively. For example,
all the commercials for washingmachines and detergents in all five
regions have women as the leading 22 Edited by Sarah Gamble,
Critical Dictionary of Feminism and Postfeminism ,Routledge, New
York, 1999, p323.23 Writing to My Wife from Afar, Womens Friend,
No.3, 1992, p32.24 Liu Bohong & Bu Wei, Womens Images in the TV
Commercials in China, Journalism &Communication, No.1,
1997.
-
13
household roles. But male voices appear more often than that of
femalevoices in all categories of commercial except for those for
public welfare. Menare dominant not only in knowledge and the
intellectual world (like ads for Sci-tec and electronic products,
85.1% of voice are mens) also in family. Mennarrators in the ads
for clothing and cosmetics, household wares orappliances, food and
drinks are 69.6%, 74.4% and 75.5% respectively. Thegeneral pattern
is to have men tell women how to wash cloth, how to sweepthe floor
and so on.
Today, most of women have their own jobs. Media still suggested
thathousehold duties are the wifes responsibility. These kinds of
reports aboutfamous and successful women always stress it, so many
successful womenoften feel uneasy and used to apologize to their
husbands for being too busywith their work to do more household. If
a woman makes great achievementsand is famous, media journalists
used to ask her how she managed tobalance work and housework,
whether her husband were satisfied with her,and whether she is a
good wife. It reminds women that wifes primary duty islooking after
her family. A good woman must be a good wife, if she issuccessful
in society and simultaneously is good wife in her family, she is
agood woman. A woman will not be considered as a woman if her
husbanddoes more housework. It is very different from the
evaluation of a successfulman.
3. GirlfriendGirlfriends in the media arouse peoples imagination
of young, beautiful andvirtuous girls. Besides young and beautiful
characteristics, their role is muchlike the wifes. That is to say
they usually dedicate themselves to theirboyfriends career. In a
male writers story about his girlfriend, he describesthe only
reason to love a directors daughter is that he wants to be an
actor.The girl knew the truth but she decided to help her
boyfriend. The manhighly praised her girlfriends selflessness and
said that girlfriends love hadbecome his stepping-stone25.
Sometimes girlfriends are students in universities. In the
Womens Friendsample, 13.8% of these roles are female students. They
are young, romantic,knowledgeable, virtuous, tender and passive. In
an article, a female studentdescribed her transition from tomboy to
Fair Maiden (Shunuu). Sheexplained that she could not find a
boyfriend if she keeps her personality andfreedom. She has to
change herself and become a tender and virtuous girl.When she tried
hard to do it, a good man would find her and love her. FairMaiden
means that a girl is well-educated and very traditional. Men like
thisbecause the dual characteristics are beneficial to men.
4.GirlImages of girls in the media fall into two categories. One
is the city image thatshows girls as naive, innocent, pure,
beautiful and happy. Their images arealways represented in news
reports about various festivals. Followingpictures26 showing
typical city images. 25 Lan Ni, Womens Friend, No. 3, 1992, p 37.26
China Womens News, June 1, 1999.
-
14
Another image is the rural image. After 1995, young girls
development in ruralareas has become an important issue in the
media. But the content analysisabout Peoples Daily (from Jan 1,
1996 to March 31, 2000) showed that 82%of girls images are passive.
Among them, 33% of the images depict girlsreceiving financial aide
because their family cant afford for them to go toschool; 46% of
the images convey sympathy because of their unluckyexperience. In 6
news items girls are participants, but they are still passive.This
kind of news showed that girls are always invited by some agencies
toattended some festival activities. They are only onlookers in
news. Asaudience, we can see sponsors love, but we cant find girls
experience,
-
15
feelings, requests, and opinions. Girls are usually silent and
there is nearly novoice from them27.
Both images of girls have a common characteristicthey are
passive. Thecity girl image is taken as an ornament for society or
festival. The rural girlimage is taken as a mean of representing
adults morals superiority complexor advertisement.
The slogan for rural girls education Todays Girl, Tomorrows
Mother showedgirls as tools. Many articles and news stories
stressed that girls education isvery important because a girl means
a good mother who will have goodchildren and good family. The
slogan stressed girls future family role ratherthan girls rights.
Girls should enjoy their education and development nomatter whether
they will be mothers or not. As a stereotype, the Mother
roleenveloped girls rights. Of course most girls are future mothers
and they willgive their contribution to childrens education, family
economy, and communitydevelopment if they had good educational
background, but that is not the onlyreason why we must help them or
that a girl should enjoy developmentalrights. Education is a
process of empowerment. Girls will obtain power andability to make
their own decisions in life through education.
5. Movie Stars or ModelsMovie or TV stars and models are popular
images in the media. The study onWomens Friends pointed out that
24.1% of women's roles are movie stars ormodels28.
We can see that mass media are more interesting in description
Stars ormodels appearance, body shape, voice and feeling than their
performance oracting. Beautiful and sexy is usually the focus of
description and comment.For example, a writer enumerated 41 reasons
for top 20 women stars. Amongthem, only 3 are related to
performance, other comments describe a sexysmile, sexy femininity,
sexy lips which arouse imagination, stimulating bodyand expression
and so on. The writer chose Li Zhi to be a star because she ismans
hope by God29. In another article, the writer described some
famousmen choosing the Top 4 Beautiful Legs. These men in Hong Kong
praisedthat charming legs will attract the focus of mens eyes30. A
woman star is nota whole person. She is cut into a part of her body
for mens admiration. Asaesthetic subjects, men have power to
nit-pick. Thus their expatiation onwomens appearance and body shape
virtually controls women.
6.Female Shop OwnerAa ChunThe image of the female shop owner was
taken from the leading lady AaChun in a TV series named Beijinger
is in the New York broadcast in 1994.
27 Girls Images in the Mainstream Newspapers, 2000, Bu Wei,
unpublished
28 Bu Wei, An Analysis on Gender in the Magazine Womens Friends,
1997,unpublished.29 20 Top Women Movie Star, Womens Friends, No. 4,
1990, p35.30 4 Top Beautiful Legs in Hong Kong, Womens Friends, No.
4, 1993, p46.
-
16
Aa Chun owned a small shop and also was portrayed in the series
as a lover.There were many comments on Aa Chun in the media in the
1990s,because Aa Chun is taken as a perfect woman image who has
dual traditionaland modern characteristics. Aa Chun is beautiful,
kindhearted, deeplyconscious of the righteousness of a cause, self-
sacrificial, but someonepointed out that it is not enough to be a
good woman. Only traditional roleallows men to feel weary. An
article summarized that Aa Chun has modernfour feelings (si qing)
besides traditional characteristics as follows:
True feeling (Zhen Qing) -- - womens love for men is
unconditional;Only feeling (Zhuan Qing) -- - womens love for men is
unchangeable in herlife;Inciting feeling (Shan Qing) -- women can
incite mens love and desire;And amorous feeling (Feng Qing)-- women
should be flirtatious but inexcellent taste. 31
Comments on Aa Chun conveyed that women should learn to meet
mensdifferent needs. In the relationship between women and men, men
havepower to pick up or appreciate women, while women are passive
anddependent.
It is noticeable that there are two kinds of role in text with
gender stereotypes.One is mother or wife or girlfriend, in a family
role, sacrificing themselves totheir children or husbands. Another
is star or female student, as a beauty, theyare gazed upon by men.
Aa Chun, as a lover, contains characteristics of twokinds. Girl
images are also beautiful, naive, weak and passive. Sometimesthey
are taken as a tool. Womens appearance, character and life value
isviewed from an androcentric position, namely that they must meet
mensneeds of gaze, appreciate and sacrifice. It denies womens
independentselfhood, and shows inequality between women and
men.
2. Text That Combing Gender Stereotypes and Gender Equality
Different from images containing gender stereotypes, most images
ofpeasants and workers contain a mixture of gender stereotypes and
equality.
7. Rural WomenRural women are often represented in two kinds of
roles in the media. One isthe image of being very poor. Journalists
or writers may describe miserablestories about them. Another image
is that of being successful. journalists orwriters may tell you
stories in which rural woman make great achievementsthrough their
very hard efforts. Readers cant believe that a rural,
evenilliterate woman can have such achievements that change her and
her familysfuture. Of course both roles have news value. In
addition, the latter one hasbeen encouraged by the news policy
propaganda by positive examples"(zheng mian xuan chuan) in China.
So rural women are visible in mainstreammedia including city
magazine such as Womens Friend. It is of equalsignificance that
while media made rural women visible and reflected their
31 The God Give Women Four Feelings, Womens Friends, No.2, 1995,
p62.
-
17
situation, it is not complete enough, since the media still
places value on thefact that rural women sacrifice themselves for
their family or village. Forexample, some writers challenged the
popular slogan Behind eachsuccessful man, you will find a virtuous
wife when they talk about severalrural womens stories in an article
why do great women stand behind men inWomens Friends.32 They
suggested that successful mens wives shouldaccept honor from
society along with their husbands, if society really praiseswives
for their housework and support. But at the same time, these
writersappreciated womens dedication to their career even when
those wives aremore much capable than her husband. A rural woman
who does all thehousework, earns money for her husband, willingly
endures her husbandsbad temperament is called a virtuous wife in
the article. Generally speaking, inthe countryside, women have a
lower position than city women. But whenmedia talk about
development, rural womens rights, independence andperson-hood are
still greatly ignored. It sounds like only when women supporttheir
husbands can they get their interests from economic reform, or
womencontribute themselves to society through contributing
themselves to theirhusband. Thus, a woman is still not an
independent person.
8. Female Laid off WorkersLike images of rural women in the
media, media have made female laid offworkers visible and
represented their images in a positive light. We willanalyze a
program from the Women & Children Channel of the Sichuan
CableTV.
The ten shows are a series on laid-off women workers entitled
Walk Out,There Is the Sky Ahead. We choose four shows as analytical
examplebecause four women have different characteristics as
examples of re-employment, whose basic conditions are indicated in
Table 3.
Table 3 An Analysis of Womens Programs of theWomen &
Children Channel of the Sichuan Cable TV
Index Worker 1 Worker 2 Worker 3 Worker 4new job Saleswoman
of lifeinsurance
owner &photographer
grocery vendor sales manager
age middle aged Middle aged older middle agedappearance Mediocre
mediocre mediocre mediocreBody shape Medium medium a bit plump
medium
type ofpersonality
Educatedwith no
professionalskill
Educated withprofessional skill
uneducated noprofessional
skill
educated andprofessional
skill
viewsexpressed
Womenshould learnfrom theirstruggle to
survive
Work hard to intheir pioneerwith specialty
dont be shy tostart over again
where theresa will, there is away to survive
32 Why Do Great Women Stand Behind Men, Womens Friends, No.2,
1995, p12.
-
18
way ofpresentation
Arduouscourse to selllife insurance
Emotionalrecalling
sorting outvegetables
handlingbusiness in
office
conflicts
Frustrated atbeing laid off,
new jobchallenging
Husband andwife both were
laid off
both man andwoman were
laid off as theyneared
retirement, lifeis hard
how to fact thereality
social values
one must lovewhatever sheis hired to do
Being laid offone should tapher potential
with theunemployment
experience
one mustendure
hardships afterunemployed
one must bewilling to do
ordinary workregardless ofpayment ,asthe gold will
always glisten
As indicated in Table 3, the program producers are much
concerned withordinary womens fates, and the anchor emphasized time
and again that theprograms we produce are about grassroots working
women. In this series, allthe women are represented as in their
middle or elder ages (In reality, mostlaid-off women workers are in
or above middle age), whose shapes aremedium or slightly plump.
Unlike some womens programs that tend to showmore interest in
good-looking, and white-collar office young women who
arefashionably dressed, the journalists worked in the program are
moreconcerned with the surviving conditions of women in
difficulties and theirpossible future, and full of encouragement to
them.
What the programs advocated are as follows: One in adverse
environment should not wait for or rely on others but muststruggle
and study hard and must learn and make perfect herself perfect
inthe struggle (from the saleswoman of life insurance);
So long as you start over and over again so that you can always
find yourplace for survival. It is necessary to endure hardships
and walk aheadbravely (from the grocery vendor);
There is nothing to fear when you get laid off. What you fear
should be yourown passiveness, and Being laid off offers you an
opportunity to test yourselfin every respect, but you must not aim
too high and you should be willing todo ordinary work (from the
sales manager).
Through the experiences of four women who are or not educated
and have ordo not have professional skill, the producers tried to
show that whatever thecase, so long as one tries hard and does not
wait passively, one can get towork again and rediscover her
happiness. Perhaps it is too high a standard formost women. Because
personal success depends on both personal effortsand social
conditions.
The laid-off women workers were presented as a topic based on
the
-
19
assumption that more female than male workers have been laid off
and it ismore difficult for women to be rehired than men. Why is
it? Some studiesindicated that womens family burdens are highly
related to their ability, whichin turn may affect their
employment33. This is not only a problem of womenthemselves, but
also a social problem.
In discussing the issue of women being laid off, such programs
describedmore about womens personal struggles rather than paid
attention to genderequity. Whether they have equal opportunities
and rights to choose with menthrough their personal struggle merit
media attention. If not, it will be likely thatwe are blaming laid
off women workers, implying that they are nothardworking enough and
it is their own fault if they fail to find a new job. As aresult,
Laid off women workers are likely to be regarded as a
SocialProblem.
Many programs or articles and reports often use words like
Staunch,Earnest and down-to-earth, Hardworking, and Simple to
presentsuccessful female workers story. It should be pointed out
that such words arethe most commonly used expressions for Chinese
women. In the series, theanchor emphasized that Earnest and
down-to-earth, hardworking areunique characteristics for Chinese
women. When covering the issues ofgetting laid off women workers
reemploy the media love to stress that womenworkers should be
realistic. In this context, womens pursuits forindependence, equal
opportunities, individual choice and positive tests of
newexperience might be neglected. It is really worthy of discussion
for womensprograms to decide from which perspective to cover the
personal struggle ofLaid off women workers.
3. Gender EqualityIn the gender equality content, media
challenge gender stereotype, and affirmwomens subjectivity,
self-consciousness and independence. The text withgender equality
represented a diversity of womens image. Women are notonly wives or
mothers but also any person they want to be.
9. SportswomanSportswomen are much easier to be seen as
independent images, becausethey have their own careers, and rely on
more fairly competitive system todecide their position in sport
career. An article Love in the Shooting Rangefrom Womens Friends
showed the life of a couple who are shootingchampions in Shannxi
Province. Having married and given birth to a baby,they have to
make decision just like most of Chinese people. In the
traditionalgender division of labor, wives have to give up their
own career to supporttheir husbands success. But, considering the
wife had the same bright future
33 Women Work Committee of the Central Committee of the Chinese
Public Party andthe Women Studies Institute of All-China Women
Federation: On the Laying Off ofWomen Workers -- A Survey Report on
Re-employment Situation, Collection ofAcademic Reports on Women
Studies, edited by Women Studies Institute, All-ChinaWomen
Federation, 1998.
-
20
as the husband in shooting, they help each other in life and
decided tocontinue shooting together. The writer complimented their
real and equallove34.
10. Woman WriterSome women writers in China pay more attention
to gender issue. Hu Xin, amiddle-aged writer is an interview
program on CCTV35. The anchor askedthree questions in the talk
show:
Q: Why did you start writing after you reached your middle
age?Hu: I did not ponder on many questions until I reached my
middle age. Forinstance, in the novel of Entering the Middle Age,
it is the man who sacrificeshimself to the woman. If the woman
sacrifices herself to the man, the novelmay not be so sensational.
I also pondered on many other things aboutwomen and wanted to speak
them out, pour out, so I began to write novels.
Q: What kind of women do you most respect?Hu: Ordinary women who
know what they should do. Womens independencedoes not mean being
antagonistic to men. Women and men are just like thestructure of
the Chinese character Ren or Human beings, which relies onthe
mutual support. Independence has a two-fold meaning, which is that
oneshould not be dependent on man, nor should she Selflessly
sacrifice herselfto man. Women should not lose themselves. Half of
the military medalbelongs to me, while the other half belongs to
you. But after all it is won bythe man. Even the husband and
daughter would not regard your sacrifices asvaluable. Some couples
used to stand on the same starting point, but thewomen sacrificed
their own career for the men. When the men get itdeveloped, they
feel the women no long match them and want to divorce thewomen. In
the old days people would reproach the men, saying they
wereUngrateful, and showing sympathy for the women. But now people
wouldthink the women deserved it since they gave up themselves.
Q: How should a man approach womens independence?Hu: Womens
independence does not lie in the fact whether your are marriedor
not, whether you have a child or not, whether you do housework or
not. Itlies in that whether it is your own choice or not, rather
than a choice made foryou by the man. The man should not assume
that it doesnt matter if youshould have a child or not. It matters
very much. If the woman does not wantto have a child, is unwilling
to do the washing, or if she likes computers, youcannot say she is
not a woman. There are various men and there are variouswomen. So
men should also readjust themselves psychologically and changetheir
values.
From the above three questions and answers, we can see that Hu
Xin is awoman who has gender consciousness and can challenge
traditionalstereotypes and discriminations. 34 Love in the Shooting
Range, Womens Friends, No.7,1990, p14.35 A Research Report on China
TV Programs for Women, 1998, by Bu Wei and Liu XiaoHong,
unpublished
-
21
The table 4 displays the 10 type women images in the Chinese
media:Table 4 Characteristics of Womens Images
Types Roles Main Characteristics1.Mother Self-giving2.Wife
Self-Sacrificial
4. Girlfriend
Have good backgroundEducated well
Young and romanticSelf-sacrificialFair maiden
Tender
4.Girl
Naive, innocentVirtuousBeautifulPassiveAcceptor
Future mother (tool ofreproduction)
5.Movie stars or models Beautiful and Sexy
GenderStereotypes
6.Shop owner(Aa Chun)
TenderFlirtatious
Self-sacrificialClever and capable
7.Rural women
Poor but work hardContributiveSuccessful
Attach themselves to theirhusbands or family or society
Not independentNot related to womens rightText that Combing
Gender StereotypesAnd
Gender Equality
8.Female workers
StaunchEarnest
down-to-earth HardworkingSimple
ContributiveIndependent
But not related to womensright
9.Sportswoman
IndependentChallengingSelf-decided
InitiativeEqual with menGender
Equality
10.Woman Writers
IndependentChallengingSelf-decided
InitiativeHas Gender Consciousness
-
22
III. Discussion
Womens Images in the Chinese media are showed as follows:
Traditional Modern Funuu Nuuxing
Virtuous wife beauty strong-minded feministsCaring mother
women
1.wife 2.mother 3.model
4.girl
5. shop owner 9.sporter
6.girlfriend 10.writer 7.peasant 8.female worker
1. Meaning of Womens Images
We can see that the roles of mother and wife are limited in the
frame ofstereotype. The writers subconsciously showed that mother
and wifescontribution and sacrifice to husbands or children in the
media. The identity ofmother and wife means that women no longer
belong to themselves whenthey become mothers and wives. Their only
duty is to contribute to the basisof the traditional sex division
of labor. It is very different from the identity ofhusband and
father.
Model or film stars are usually viewed as Modern Nuuxing because
they arepublic personages rather than traditional house wives.
Their characteristics ofstrong-minded woman or professional women
are greatly covered in themedia, but their beautiful appearance and
sexy body are stressed from mensperspective and employed to meet
mens need of gaze.
Girls role has feminine characters like Funuu such as naive,
passive,beautiful and happy. They are weak and need help. Besides,
they are takenas future mothers. Audience can not find their
independent voice from media.
Girlfriend and peasant are typical double roles in our society.
In their career,they are Strong-minded Women, but their position or
education background isemployed to serve men. In their family, they
must be virtuous wife and caringmother.
-
23
In the sample, female workers were not strongly taken as the
role of goodwife, but social expectation like down-to-earth,
Hardworking, and Simpleon female worker imply that women are more
suited for simple and inferiorlabor. Under the pressure of survive,
they were forced to be independent frommen or society, adapt
themselves to economic market in reform. They aresuffering images
in the media.
Shop owner (Aa Chun) is the most complex role. As an ideal woman
image,she can sacrifice her life to lover, and at the same time,
she is a modernstrong-minded woman. Besides, she has also sexy
feature and can attractmen. Of course she is mans gift by God,
because she can satisfy mensneeds.
The above 8 types of roles have a common ground. They build
their lives onthe basis of others needs, mostly mens. They lost
themselves and cantrealize their own needs. Therefore, they dont
keep the initiative in their ownhands, and they cant make
independent choices. Strong-minded Womenseems independent, but we
still find that Strong-minded Women is judged bymens criteria.
First, people usually think that women are not equal to men
inabilities. If some women have the same abilities as men, they
becomeStrong-minded Women. That is why we dont call Strong-minded
men.Second, we can find that most Strong-minded Women have
madeachievements in areas traditionally dominated by males such as
science,technology, or business. If a woman is a good actress or
model or nurse,nobody call her Strong-minded Woman. Thus,
Strong-minded Woman isbestowed with the meaning like Men. Because
most people felt arepugnance to the Cultural Revolution, they
disliked Strong-minded Womenas well. In reality, when one calls a
woman Strong-minded Woman, it is truethat there are many complex
meanings, that can imply admiration, ridicule, orjealousy. At
least, people think that Strong-minded Woman does not havefeminine
characteristics. It means that Strong-minded Woman is notbeautiful,
doesnt care about her husband or children and does houseworkand so
on. In the media, when writers want to admire Strong-mindedWoman,
they must show Strong-minded Woman how to do housework forfamily
members or how to love her husband so that they can keep
balancewith reality. That is why we can see women scientists wash
vegetables on TVand hear from TV that she is a good wife, but never
men. In fact, it also hintsbroadly that housework is only womens
responsibility. Therefore, womeneither have a small independent
space after they have finished feminineduties or they are forced to
be strong because of poverty or difficulties likemost of female
workers or peasants, Strong-minded Women doesnt meangender
equality. The image maintains traditional culture in which
womenarrange their lives centered on men.
But, it is very different if Strong-minded Woman is related to
feminist. Thestory of Sportswoman is a good example. Women of this
category meet thesame problems as other women--- the contradiction
between career andfamily. But, she chose and kept her life through
consultation with husband.Though she didnt know what a feminist is,
she refused to stay centered onmen and she kept the initiative in
her own hands.
-
24
Though the term feminist didnt emerge in the text about her, the
womenwriter is classified into feminist in the sample. Because she
has gone beyondthe stage in which women are requested to have the
same abilities as men,and has been aware that a woman should be
independent from men to createher own life. It doesnt mean that
feminists must contradict with the role of thevirtuous wife and
caring mother. As the writer pointed out, if a woman caninitiate,
choose, and control her own live, she will be independent no
matterwhat she does.
Moreover, these 10 images can be classified into 4 groups
according tocharacteristics the images have:
1) Virtuous wife and caring mother: mother, wife, girl,
girlfriend, shop owner,peasant;2) Beauty: girl, movie star, shop
owner;3) Strong-minded Women: girlfriend, peasant, shop owner,
female worker, andsportswomen;4) Feminist: writer.
These four groups formed the picture of womens images in the
Chinesemedia. Traditional androcentric culture, modern
commercialization, theinfluence of Chinas socialist movement, and
western feminists mouldtogether the images of women in China.
Comparing with feminists, otherimages are not more independent from
men or the state. Feminist imagesacted independently and with the
initiative in their own hands, but their voiceis very weak now in
the Chinese media.
2. Why Are These Images?Why are images of mothers, wives, models
or movie stars, girls, girlfriendsand shop-owners more likely to
become stereotypic roles? From anandrocentric perspective in
society, mothers and wives fulfill only a subsidiaryrole in
families, so their primarily responsibility is to look after
family. Thoughbeautiful and sexy models and movie stars are not
family roles, they cansatisfy mens need of gazing. Thus the female
body is employed to stimulateconsumption of the audience. Girls and
girlfriends are taken as future mothersor beauties, so they are
represented in a more feminine manner in the media.At the same
time, androcentric culture doesnt give up the requirement thatwomen
should be good wives or mothers. Aa Chun is a typical role.
Since 1949, women have been entitled equal rights in political,
economic, andfamily spheres and equal pay for the equal work. Most
women have movedout of their homes and have a job or took part in
the labor force. A statistic in1992 indicates that the rate of
employment among women above 15 years oldis 72.33%36. When the
media describes female workers or peasants as themain force among
women for economic construction in China, the media
36 The Situation of Chinese Women by the Information Office of
the State Council of thePeoples Republic of China, Page 15,
1994
-
25
inevitably displays womens achievement in the socialist
construction, if mediacan truly reflect reality. But when the media
explains female workers andpeasants issues in accordance with
social value of mainstream, gender biascan be found.
Sportswomen occupy a special group in China. From 1949 to
1993,sportswomen had greater achievements than sportsmen in
swimming,volleyball, soccer and some other games. In China, 59% of
worldchampionships out of a total of 755 were won by women, and 63%
worldrecords, out of a total of 725 were broken and exceeded by
women37.Women have risen and men declined describes the situation
well. Manysportswomen are independent from men and joined fair
competition in thefield. Their special experience made them
different from other women andstronger than other women. Like
sportswomen, women writers are also in aspecial group. Their
travel, experience and consideration of womens lifevalue enable
them to easily find womens problems in the society, andbecome
writers who have feminist thoughts. Thus, they can issue
differentvoice in the media.
It is clear that the relationship between the medias reality and
social realitywere involved in the discussion. When the media
reflects reality well, genderstereotypes and gender equality in
reality would be represented into media;but when the media focuses
on some issues and stress certain ideas (likeshowing women woman
scientist washes vegetables on TV), perhaps morestereotypes are
represented in media than in reality. It is another big issueand
needs further discussion.
IV. Conclusion
Womens images in the Chinese media are diversified. Under the
influence oftraditional culture, Communist ideology and western
values, not only variedwomens images shown in the media, but also
many different gendercharacteristics were represented into the
image. From gender perspective,womens images can be divided into
three groups in the study. (1) In the textswith stereotypes, most
of the women roles are family roles or young and prettygirls.
Womens appearance, characteristics and life value are viewed
fromandrocentrism. It means women must meet with mens needs for an
objectupon which to gaze, appreciation and sacrifice. It denies
womensindependent selfhood, and shows unequal power structures
between womenand men. (2) Mixture texts combing stereotypes and
gender equality mainlyrepresented female peasants and workers who
have personal history ofstruggle. On the one hand, mass media made
visible efforts from femalepeasants and workers, confirm their
contribution to society or family, reflectinggender equality. But
on the other hand, media greatly ignored womens rights,independence
and person-hood. (3) Roles appearing in the texts with
genderequality are sportswomen and women writer. They are capable
of choosingand arranging their own life. They challenge gender
discrimination and
37 Ditto, Page 26, 1994
-
26
stereotypes, and affirm womens subjectivity, selfconsciousness
andindependence.
According to characteristics of womens images, virtuous wives
and caringmothers, beauties, Strong-minded Women and feminists
formed the picture ofwomens images in the Chinese media. We can see
that traditionalandrocentric culture, modern commercialization, the
socialist womensmovement, and feminism mould together the images of
women in China. Inthe four images, only the feminist image acted
independently and with theinitiative in their own hands, though the
voice is very weak now and even theterm of feminist is almost
invisible in the Chinese media.
* About Sample1.TV Ads SampleThis is a national sample within
mainstream media in Chinas Cities. According to the
geographicdistribution, level of economic development and cultural
features, 10 TV stations in five cities composedthe sample station.
4878 Ads from 6pm to 10pm on the third and fourth day of each month
from Augustto December in 1994 were collected. Based on the minimum
sample size required of the simplestrandom sampling and with
confidence at 95 % and maxim tolerance at 3%, the equidistant
sampling(including Ads repeated in different TV stations) was made
in the light of the percentage of the samplesize to the total
number of Ads. The sample situation is shown as the table
below:
Sample on TV AdsRegions Features Sample
SizeCCTV, Beijing TV The capital, relatively developed
economically,
representing the culture of the Central Plain or center ofthe
country
270
Shanghai TV1,Dongfang TV
East China, developed economically, representing thecultrue
typical of the coastal region
282
Gansu TV,Lanzhou TV
Northwest China, underdeveloped economically,representing the
cultrue of the West
146
Guangdong TV,Guangzhou TV
South China, pilot region for economic reforms,
developedeconnomically, representing the culture of the region
southof Nanling Mountain
172
Liaoning TV, Shenyang TV
Northeast China, relatively developed economically,representing
the culture of the Songhuajiang and LiaoheRiver
327
10 stations in total 1197
2.Sample on TV Program for WomenSince there was no special
statistics on programs for women available before, we conducted
telephonesurveys on all the 32 central, provincial and municipal TV
stations around the country in 1998. Up toOctober 1998, 7 or 22% of
the 32 TV stations at the central, provincial and municipal levels
establishedtheir special programs for women, while 25 or 78% of the
stations did not have such programs.The three TV stations chosen
for the case study are CCTV, Liaoning TV and the Women &
ChildrenChannel of the Sichuan Cable TV. Among them CCTV is the
only national TV network in China, theWomen & Children Channel
of the Sichuan Cable TV is the only provincial channel specially
for women,while Liaoning TV womens Program is chosen at random
among the six provincial stations that haveprograms for women. The
case study includes two parts: an analysis of the text on the
programscontent and an interview with the producers.3.Womens
Magazine SampleIn China, almost womens magazines are sponsored by
local Womens Federation. Founded in July1988, Women Friends is a
monthly run by the Shaanxi Womens Federation. In the 1990s, it
hasmaintained the largest circulation of the 40 leading womens
magazines. It exerts a great influence onwomen, especially young
women. Its average printing in 1992 was 840,000 copies per issue
and morethan 1 million copies per issue during 19931994. Though its
circulation declined in 1995 to 850,000and in 1997 to 570,000, the
magazines circulation still leads other womens magazines, see
followingtable.
19931995 Womens Magazines of Big Circulation (Unit: 10000)
-
27
Year/Magazines Womens
FriendsWomensLife
Family BosomFriends
ChinaWomen
1993 130 77 244 80 431994 110 49 245 95 341995 85 58 242 128
34Average copies per issue 108.33 61.3 243.167 71 37(Source: China
Publishing Yearbook by National Office of Press and Publishing,
1994, 1995, and 1996)
It is clear that circulation of Womens Friends is most unless
Family from 1993 to 1994. In contrast toWomens Friends, the Family
prefers content about family and childrens education to content
aboutreflection on womens issues. Compared with other women
magazines, Women Friends carries moreinformation containing gender
consciousness and shows greater solicitude for women themselves.
JudyBolumbaum, Vice Director of the Journalism & Communication
Institute of Iowa University in US, oncemade a comment on the
magazine. She said: Womens publications in Chinas reform are very
differentfrom each other in terms of quality, content, style and
focus. Many of them are full of soft news aboutholidays, families
and fashion, and are basically interchangeable. But there is an
exception with its ownunique character. That is Women Friends.
Published in Xian, Shaanxi Province, the readers of themagazine are
all over China. It has a humorous style and lays more stress than
other womensmagazines on dealing with controversial problems(Judy
BolumbaumAn Analysis on Media Industriesin China, Journalism and
Communication, No. 1, 1996). Therefore, 84 issues of Womens Friends
from1990 to 1996 were chosen as sampling frame. Among them 28
issues with 1104 articles or essayscomposed a random sample.