Event Title
Ban Zhao: A Study in Chinese Gender Roles
Presentation Type
Oral and/or Visual Presentation
Presenter Major(s)
Communications - Communication Studies, Chinese Studies
Mentor Information
Yan Liang
Department
Modern Languages and Literatures
Location
Kirkhof Center 1104
Start Date
11-4-2012 1:00 PM
Keywords
Culture, Gender
Abstract
Ban Zhao (45-116 CE) is one of the most influential women writers in Chinese history. She represents a strong-willed, well-educated, and talented woman in her writings, and her achievements show everyone that women are talented, and they can be ambitious and successful. However, her work Precepts for My Daughters teaches women to be submissive and accept that their husbands can have concubines, while as wives they must remain faithful. In Ban Zhao's opinion, women have to keep in mind that their husbands are on the top of the pyramid of authority in the family, and women have to show respect to their father, brothers, and all the other male relatives. In my opinion, Ban Zhao's Precepts for My Daughters goes against how she represented herself in her writings. Unfortunately, this work "marks the beginning of a tradition of moral tracts written for women by women, in which the subordination of women to men is presented as an accepted fact of life" (Grant & Idema, 33).
Ban Zhao: A Study in Chinese Gender Roles
Kirkhof Center 1104
Ban Zhao (45-116 CE) is one of the most influential women writers in Chinese history. She represents a strong-willed, well-educated, and talented woman in her writings, and her achievements show everyone that women are talented, and they can be ambitious and successful. However, her work Precepts for My Daughters teaches women to be submissive and accept that their husbands can have concubines, while as wives they must remain faithful. In Ban Zhao's opinion, women have to keep in mind that their husbands are on the top of the pyramid of authority in the family, and women have to show respect to their father, brothers, and all the other male relatives. In my opinion, Ban Zhao's Precepts for My Daughters goes against how she represented herself in her writings. Unfortunately, this work "marks the beginning of a tradition of moral tracts written for women by women, in which the subordination of women to men is presented as an accepted fact of life" (Grant & Idema, 33).