Rapid Change in Social Issues.

While reading the text required for our course Wild Swans, I noticed a rapid change of social attitude towards women and young boys and girls. Although I have not reached the life of the narrator, the change of lifestyles between her grandmother, and mother has been astonishing. This is of course compared with previous generations of Chinese attitude and treatment of women spanning centuries if not millennia.

During the youth of the grandmother women were considered more as a piece of property, less than human. This description is not limited to the roles of concubines, but also to a man’s wife. The importance of a woman with respect to the importance of a man was in no means comparable. Women seemed to be seen as more of a mix of art and factories in which to produce heirs.

Although this had been an engrained tradition in much of China, the attitudes towards women began to change upon the dawning of the twentieth century. Later in the life of the Grandmother, she found a husband that would seriously consider her feelings over other men. This was evident when he distanced himself from his sons to marry her.

The Narrator’s mother had not suffered the same hardships that the grandmother had in her youth.

The narrator’s mother did not have a purely arranged marriage, and she was not courted to a much younger boy so that she could help “Bring him up” as was the custom described by the narrator. She had many young men she considered, but her parents did not force her into a marriage that they knew she would not enjoy as a free woman. She also did not have to marry as young as her mother did. The mother was allowed to obtain an education that would allow her to gain a career outside of a household. I have been very impressed by the social behavior of the Chinese portrayed in this text, and the willingness to adapt to situations accordingly.