• Son of Florida Gov. Bush Arrested The youngest son of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was arrested early Friday and charged with public intoxication and resisting arrest.
• New Draft Document Sheds Gleam of Hope China set forth a new draft common document Friday, shedding a gleam of hope that the nuclear talks could avert a breakdown amid great differences.
• Cheney to Have Surgery Next Weekend US Vice President Dick Cheney will undergo an elective surgery next weekend to treat an aneurysm in an artery behind his right knee.
• Ballet Concludes French Culture Year A performance of Paris Opera Ballet, one of the top four ballet troupes worldwide, was staged Friday evening at Beijing Exhibition Hall Theater, to mark the concluding French Culture Year falling on last October.
Gender equality is currently a great pursuit for many women throughout the world, and China is no exception.
Finally, and perhaps most relevantly to modern day China, a woman may be so sexually passive as to jeopardize her marriage. These personal feminine woes reflect the devastating effects that traditional norms and patriarchal culture have had on all human beings, but especially upon women. Furthermore, Wang considers that these women's tragic stories are brought about by a male-dominated society, which decides the different roles of the two sexes.
"The congenital physical difference in the two sexes causes the inequalities in sex and child-bearing. Then the achieved distinction between genders, as regulated by social norms, designs the different social roles that are to be played by the male and female. This therefore places even heavier shackles upon women. Why should boys play with toy guns, and girls play with dolls, and are they subsequently shaped into different personalities?"
Wang says that there are many new problems appearing under a market economy system, which could possibly have even more serious consequences than the problems of the past.
"This inequality infiltrates into every aspect of life. For example, women are 'being watched.' A standard for 'beauty' is established by the male, which most women cannot obtain. Plastic surgery, especially breast enhancement, is a new form of discrimination against the female in these contemporary times. We used to criticize the cruelty of foot-binding for young girls in feudal China, but in fact there is no difference between foot-binding and breast enhancement; they both destroy the natural beauty of women in order to cater to the tastes and standards of men."
Having said that there is no difference between these two practices, Wang notes that girls were previously forced into foot-binding by their parents, whereas many now voluntarily choose breast enhancement. According to her way of thinking, this is certainly retrogression, rather than progression.
When it comes to the current popularity of so many female writers, Wang Zhousheng takes a logical approach. She doesn't agree with those who talk about "female literature," which she considers a fairly useless term. For her what matters is the stance that the writer adopts, and instead of looking at "female literature," we should be looking for "feminist literature."
"As a female writer, it's not enough to just take on the stance of a female. First of all, we should adopt the female stance in order to speak for those who are being dominated. However, we even need to surpass this and to take up the stance of people as a whole, so that we can speak for all human beings."
Perhaps most of all, Wang Zhousheng hopes that her novel can trigger thoughts on how women can achieve true emotional and sexual equality with men. She sees it as a problem that more people first need to pay attention to before society can realize not only the seriousness of gender inequality but also how it can be solved. Wang thinks that there is still a long way to go.
"We have introduced many Western social theories, but few of them are related to women and gender studies. Many intellectuals, especially the males, feel that women's liberation is not that important and now women can do the same work as men, but this is only a superficial phenomenon. Moreover, the liberation of women can only be completed through our own efforts, so we all need to think more about it."
Finally, she points out that we must admit the physical difference of the two sexes, and pursue real equality, before woman and man can realize that when it comes to the heart, they are both equal.
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Producer: Liang Tao & Wei Xiangnan 
