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Good News and Wishes in my Prayer Reading below news makes me happy for my country, and countryside people. A beautiful landscape spread b4 me, new schools, hospitals, roads, happy , women, men, along side paddy fields, fields, and green green rivers & mounts. And it reminds me of the sequence of my wishes and prayers every time I seriously make in a temple. Some other bloggers (Davinci&?) have discussion abt sequence/priority in life for five elements: love, family, pride, career, money. Now my turn but another subject: First, I wish and pray for myself and family’s good health, happiness and fortune (not much, enough for a happy life’s OK). Friends and relatives also flash into my prayer. Secondly, I wish and pray for our country and people’s property and safety. Thirdly, I wish and pray for the world’s peace and affluency. Selfishness is human's nature. I am not exceptional. So the wishes come by this order all the time - fm the smallest unit of a society ‒ my family, my family is one of the country, China is one member in the world family. Therefore, neither one lacking in my prayer’s good wishes is not proper, because each one exists within and influences each other. But why don’t I put the wishes upside down, first the world, second the country, last but not least, the family n self. The world is the biggest universe, then a country,a family, a person. If the world’s in bad shape China will not in good. If China not good, so does my family and myself. Why I always choose the sequence from individual, small unit to big union? Can I change it next time when I pray? I guess I cant. Because I am ….ha! What do you think? ------------- Encl. Abbrv. news China shifts focus to poor with 'New Deal' Source: Chinadaily.com (AP) Updated: 2006-03-11 09:58 BEIJING (AP) _ Chinese government have launched their most ambitious initiative in decades, promising billions of dollars in social spending and farm aid this week to help the 800 million people in its neglected countryside catch up with its booming cities. The blueprint unveiled at the meeting of China's parliament rivals U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's job-creating New Deal of the 1930s in scale, and is aimed at easing mounting tensions over the growing gap between China's rich and poor. But Beijing faces daunting challenges making it work in the countryside, where control over local leaders is limited, abuses are common and anger at corruption and land seizures is rising. The plan for a "new socialist countryside" promises new schools, hospitals, roads and other aid to the countryside, where many people are as poor as ever while a small elite have prospered from two decades of economic reform. The programs are the starting point of what the ruling party has said will be an effort lasting at least a decade to shift development resources to the countryside. "China is now standing at a new historical starting point," Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday in a speech to parliament delegates. ------- 
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You cherish very good wishes. Noble thought. And if everybody prayed for the world first and for themselves last, prayers might at last work... But this cannot achieve. Pls see Munich. Self n home exist first, w/o them, country and world is an empty word. And Im not worse. Some ppl never think abt small unit and big union execpt themselves. Every Lunar Jan. 24 is the day that Kum Yam opens the treasury house. It's a big event. I heard guys praying for 3 millions this year. But if 3 m means to them, why not?
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3/11/2006 2:34 pm |
For Chinese Women, a Long March by Dinah Eng Spring 2003 The long march toward women's equality is at the heart of a project that documents women's issues in China, and, for those involved, the effort has become a vehicle for greater cross-cultural understanding between Chinese women writers and their Western counterparts. The voices in Half the Sky: Chinese Women Then and Now, an anthology of writings from a feminist perspective to be published by The Feminist Press next year, speak of a culture where women have long been subservient to men, and where many still struggle for validation today. The essays by Chinese women were assembled for publication with help from a Ford Foundation grant. The Feminist Press, based in New York City, is a nonprofit, educational publisher of works that aim to restore and preserve the history and culture of women everywhere. "This grew out of the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing," says Shirley Mow, co-editor of the book with Tao Jie, professor of English literature at Peking University, and Zheng Bijun, professor of history at the university and former director of its Women's Center. The editors at The Feminist Press decided to produce an anthology of Chinese women's writing, Mow says, because "a lot of what is written about China is done by Americans or Westerners. We wanted to hear the voices of Chinese women." Mow, an educational consultant based in the United States, and Florence Howe, founder and former publisher and director of The Feminist Press, worked with the Women's Center at Peking University to find scholars, activists and government officials who would be interested in submitting essays for an anthology. Mow and Howe traveled to Beijing last summer to conduct a writers' workshop with the Chinese writers and found it to be an eye-opening experience. "We're beginning to learn how to work together," Mow says. "The Chinese women have a different stylistic approach in their writing, coming slowly to the main question and revisiting the line of thought several times. We tried to convey that Westerners are used to reading a direct approach. "But we work to respect and honor each other's views, and this is paying off. They asked if we could simultaneously publish the book in Chinese, which we'll probably do. A lot of these issues have not come to the forefront before. The women in China always thought the government protected their rights, but as China becomes more globalized and privatized, they are realizing women are not always protected." The book examines the history of women in China, cultural images of women in literature, opera and mass media, issues of education, marriage and family, and the role of women in politics and the workplace. The essays, a combination of personal reflections and academic research, give a comprehensive look at the cultural, economic and political factors that have shaped women's lives in the world's most populous country. Some of the chapters are written in English. Others are English translations. Following are three excerpts from the book. The Changes In Chinese Women's Social Status As Seen Through Peking Opera (1790-1937) By Yufu Huang Peking opera, like other art forms, is derived from and has been deeply rooted in social life since its inception. Virtually every significant social change and major social custom in Chinese history has been portrayed on the Peking opera stage. Dominant social values and gender roles have also been espoused in its stories. For example, gender stereotypes dating from feudal China--such as the view that men are superior to and stronger than women--were fully displayed in this ancient art form. Library, Chinese Academy of Arts A male actor in costume for a female role in the Peking Opera production of "Concubine Mei." An examination of changes occurring within the Peking opera between 1790 and 1937 provides a rare glimpse of the transformation of female roles, both on and off the stage. This can be seen in three aspects: First, the importance of female roles in Peking opera repertoire increased. Male roles were the major roles in Peking opera from its inception. By the early 20th century, however, their importance in the plays was decreasing, in great part due to the contributions of Wang Yaoqing, the famous actor. By portraying female characters, Yaoqing greatly altered the accepted singing modes, performance styles and appearance of female characters, thereby improving the status of female roles in the repertoire. Second, since the beginning of the 20th century, women's images have been more positive in comparison with the female characters of Peking opera's early days. Now women were shown to be beautiful and affectionate, sensible and wise, with supreme talent and learning (Xishi in "A Story of Xishi") or highly skilled in the military arts (Hongxian in "Hongxian Steals the Box"). Also, many new plays protested against the maltreatment and persecution of women ("The Jade Hair Clasp"). In addition, for the first time in the history of Peking opera, women's search for love was depicted as something beautiful instead of licentious ("Face and Peach").The third, and most striking change in women's images in the Peking opera, was that there were more and more roles for women with natural, unbound feet.* As a prevalent social custom practiced for almost a thousand years in China, foot binding was shown on the opera stage by actors wearing qiao, a set of props worn on the feet to look like the bound feet of Chinese women. By the early 1900's, some actors playing female roles sought to abandon qiao in their performance. This is not only a significant reform in the ancient art of Peking opera, but also an indication that Chinese society was moving toward an eventual ban of the practice of footbinding. --Yufu Huang, Ph.D., is a senior research fellow and director of the department of research at the Center for Documentation and Information of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. * Foot binding, a Chinese custom begun in the T'ang Dynasty (618B.C.-906A.D.), was outlawed in 1911. Unnaturally tiny feet were a female beauty ideal accomplished by binding young girls' feet for several years in order to completely stop foot growth. Foot binding usually crippled its subjects for life. Gender Inequality in Education in Rural China By Danke Li In the early 1990's, the Women's Studies Center of the Beijing University, together with researchers from education and research institutes in three impoverished northwestern provinces (Ninxia, Gansu and Qinghai), conducted a large-scale project studying girls' education in poor rural regions. The result was the publication of an oral history on female education as told by rural girls, teachers and parents. The following story is told by a girl: "My name is Gao Caiqin and I am seventeen. My family lives in the Gao Village in Xiangnan township, Tongwei county of Gansu province. There are four children in our family, and I am the third one. I dropped out of school when I was in the second year of middle school. I will never forget what happened in the few days after the Chinese New Year in 1994. In the afternoon of the sixth day of the new year, I finished my winter break homework and began to make homework exercise books for the coming term. My father walked toward me and asked: 'What are you doing?' 'Making homework books for next term,' I said. My father then said: 'Who said that you are going to school? I don't have money to send you to school anymore.' I was so shocked I was dumbstruck. My mother got very upset and quarreled with my father and then left for her brother's house. With only my brother and me left at the house, my father scolded us angrily. He gave my brother the registration money and paid no attention to me. Then I realized it was true that my father would not let me go to school any more. Tears started to run out of my eyes. I tried many ways to go back to school. I tried to persuade my father to go out of town to work so that my mother would be in charge of our household decisions and would let me return to school. I also mobilized my grandmother and other relatives to persuade my father to let me return to school. However, all my efforts failed. "I continue to question why we girls cannot be like the boys and go to school and study. If you ask me what I want to do in the future, I can tell you that a person with some education always has her own idea. I don't want to just spend my life doing farm work. I want to learn some practical skills and do some professional work. Of course, I have a big wish--if opportunity allows, I want to go back to school." --Danke Li, Ph.D., is currently an assistant professor of history at Fairfield University in the United States. The Long March Women and the Chinese Women's Movement By Lily Xiao Hong Lee Bettmann/Corbis Dr. Yen Young, one of the women who participated in the Long March. In October 1934, 30 women began the monumental journey from Ruijin, Jiangxi province, that eventually came to be known as the Long March. Although there is no accurate figure on the total number of women who took part in the different stages of the Long March, it was probably in excess of a thousand. Why did all these women embark on such an arduous odyssey--one that had so tested the endurance of men? There must have been as many reasons as there were women. However, it seems to me that there is one thing linking all of them: a consciousness that women were being oppressed, and that Marxism offered them something better. This hope for a better life, I believe, is what motivated these women to become involved with the Chinese Communist Party. Because the Long March women had shown unbending loyalty to the party and had been effective in political work, they were the ones entrusted with organizing women after the Long March ended in Northern Shaanxi and throughout China once the C.C.P. took over the country. About two months before the mainstream Red Army marched out of Jiangxi, a regiment had been sent to do reconnaissance for the main group. This was the Red Sixth Regiment, headed by Ren Bishi and Xiao Ke. Five women marched with this regiment, including Li Zhen, and Ren Bishi's wife, Chen Congying. Chen Congying had been engaged to Ren Bishi when they were both very young. After Ren Bishi began underground party work in Shanghai, he recruited Chen as his trusted messenger. After two Shanghai members defected, Chen was arrested and went to jail with her three-month-old baby. She was rescued from Guomindang prison, and finally joined her husband in Jiangxi. During the Long March, she was head of the confidential documents bureau and hid on her person the secret code used to communicate with other Red Army outfits. Private Collection/Bridgeman Art Library The Long March, October 1934. Communist troops traveled 8,000 miles from southern Hunan province to join another Communist force on the Tibetan border. The Women's Anti-Japanese Vanguard Regiment was created from the independent women's regiment. When it crossed the Yellow River in late 1936, this regiment became isolated from the main Red Army and was then virtually annihilated by Muslim warlords, the Ma brothers, and their cavalry. The women fought desperately, first in Linze, then in Nijia Yingzi, and finally near Shiwo beside Qilian Mountain, until their ammunition ran out. Then they fought with sticks, stones, and finally with their bare hands. Ultimately, all were wounded, killed or captured. Many of the captured women were and horrifically killed. One source wrote: "The cold and steep peaks of Qilian Mountain stood in the stiff wind like iron men. They witnessed the cruelest and most poignant scene in the history of the Workers and Peasants Red Army. The battle song written in blood by the Women's Independent Regiment will forever echo in the mountains of the Qilian Range." --Lily Xiao Hong Lee lectures on Chinese literature at the Chinese Department of the University of Sydney, Australia, and is the author of numerous books and papers on Chinese women.
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...let your wishes come true for it will benefit your family and other people too in the process. Good luck...
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