1987_03 The Daily Collegian March 1987

              Page 4
= Thursday, March 12,1987 :
Women in China make headway
ByHanliMoored
Staff Writer
Women in China have come a long way
from the time when women were
considered evil if their husbands died
before them to the present where women
are becoming judges and governors,
visiting professor Zhou Ding Zhi said
Tuesday.
Zhi, who teaches The Image"^ Women
in Contemporary Chinese Literature" at
CSUF, said the practice of foot binding
started in the 10th century.
They (young girls) were made to walk
in small shoes, so their feet would be only
three inches long."
According to Zhi, "small feet were
pleasing to the men. Middle class and
upper class (women) had their feet bound
up." The lower class women could not wear
small shoes because they had to work on
the fields, Zhi said.
The small shoes would have wooden
heels so it would be difficult to walk —
so a woman would not run away," Zhi said
"In old China, we had divorce which
only applied to men and not women. A
husband could divorce his wife on any
pretext
The husband would just send his wife
to her parents house and her family would
look    down    on    her   because    she    was
considered evil to make her husband leave
her," Zhi said.
Zhi said chosing a husband was out of
question because marriages were arranged.
A women could not marry again after she
was divorced or until after her husband
died.
All this misery for women started m the
11th'century, but was partly abolished in
the 15th century, she said.
"Still it was shameful for a woman to
live after her husband died. She committed
suicide by hangmg herself or by starving
herelf to death."
She concluded that women were ready to
die.
"In olden China, women had no right to
education," Zhi said. 'If a woman was bom
to a scholar, she could leam to write
poetry. But she had no use for it because
she couldn't develop it"   c'- -   \,
According to Zhi, women*bad no right
to property, "Even the dowry 'she brought
with her was, after marriage, owned by the
husband.,"she said.
Throughout their lives, women served
and were dependent on men, Zhi said.
"Before she was married she served and
was dependent on her father. After
marriage, she was dependent on her
husband, and after she became a widow she
served and was dependent on her son.
"All marriages before this century were (
arranged,"   Zhi   said.   "The   man   and   the
women did not see each other until their
weddmg night."
According to Zhi, women's misery
changed in 1911 when a democratic
revolution took place and both men and
women struggled for women's rights. \
"In the first half of the 20th century,
the light industry was developed, so the
women went to factory. Men liked to hire
women because they paid them little," Zhi
said.
In 1949. there were 600.000 women
working. In 1982, there were 41.99
million, and in 1985 there were 43
million women workkg, Zhi said.       "    v
Over the past 10 years, the Chinese
government has allowed women^to do any
kind of jo° except jobs a woman cannot
do. like lifting heavy weights, Zhi said.
Zhi cited statistics to show that today's
women in China have more rights.
Accordmg to Zhi, women constitute 35
percent of the school teachers at various
levels, 31 or 32 percent of the scientists
are women, 5,600 women are judges and
1,200 are lawyers.
Zhi added that the number of women in
each of the mentioned catagories may be
higher because the statistics arc two years
old.
She went on to say that China today
has one woman governor, six women
provincial governors, three women
ministers and eight women vice ministers.
Today, women have every right to own
property and "Now. a lot of women own
private stores and factories," Zhi said.
'There arc now a lot of opportunities
for women. Many young women are very
good managers. There are plenty of
opportunities for women to give full play
to their knowledge and intelligence."
In 1953 the marriage law giving
women a right to ask for a divorce was
passed.
"In 1953, after wide publicity of the
law, a' lot of women applied for divorce,"
she said. That year over one million cases
of divorce were filed, she said. According
to Zhi that was not a high percentage of
the whole population.
In Peking today, where life is very���advanced, the divorce rate is 2.66 percent.
In China, the divorce rate is 0.75 percent,
she said.
Talking on the topic of high population
of China, Zhi said, 'In the first years of
the 1970's, birth control was introduced,
but due to the cultural revolution, schools
and businesses, were closed — so people
found more time to give birth."
In 1979, birth control use was popular,
according to Zhi.
Today in China," Zhi said, "Young
husbands and wives share the house work.
Nobody owned a private car until recently.
Still, people ^avel by bus and bicycle,"
she said
Comedienne bombs nukes with humor
Barbara George proves activists have a lighter side
By Tim Hurrianko
Staff writer
Actress and activist Barbara George
brought her one-woman show "Everything
I Ever Wan|ed-To Ask About Nukes And
Was Afraid To Know." to CSUF Wednesday
night as part of the National Women's
'Herstory' month celebration.
George, who wrote the show which is
billed as a comedy-horror, has been
performing for peace and women's groups
since 1982 when she launched her act in
New York.
1 wrote it originally as an anti-nuclear
power concentration," said George, "and
there was always some weapons and
nuclear waste issues m it, but I wrote it
the year there was a big switch over in
1982 when the disarmament movement
took off. I felt half of my show was
obsolete with the disarmament people."
After performing the show "a lot" in
New York during 1982, a pregnancy and
kjury forced heT to discontinue the show
until 1983.
George is an actress and comedian who
trained at Chicago's famed Second City
Workshop which has produced such talents
as John Belushi and Bill Murray. She
graduated from Stanford University and has
written and performed whh Women's
Experimental Theatre.
She became involved with the anti-
nuclear movement in 1978, in the
campaign to stop the Shoreham nuclear
powerplant
"After being an actress for a while,"
George said, "I decided that I wanted* to
look around and see what I could do in the
world and the first tiring that came
jumping out at me was that I wanted to be
politically active in the anti-nuclear
movement."
In addition to her show, George has
coordinated several major demonstrations
in New York in the last two years with the
Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Harbor,
protesting plans lo base a nuclear Cruise
missile-armed fleet in New York.
As part of the protest, George travelled
6,000 miles across the country with a full-
size replica of a cruise missile on her
1959 paneled truck.
T got a great response to it wherever I
went," George said, "even in some areas
that were considered red-neck, people were
flashmg me the peace sign."
For the last two years, most of her time
was spent on touring with the show and
helping with fundraising for the groups
which sponsor her.
In the process, the show has undergone
"five major overhauls." according to
George, so now, it is totally different from
the original.
The characters are the same," George
said, "the main revisions are with the
lines m the show."
George believes the show needed to be
done with a comical slant in order to have
a big impact on the audience.
The issue itself is depressing enough,"
said George, "most people think of
activists as depressing people, so I wanted
to write this since it .shows activists
havkg  fun.  A  lot  of  the jokes.  I  heard
from the groups that I have been involved
with"
Some of the groups which have
sponsored George include the Alliance for
Peace. National Organization for Women
and. the Flagstaff Peace and Justice
Coalition.
"For the last year and a half." George
said, "every show I have done was at the
request of groups which asked me to come
out and perform — I haven't had to book
my own appearances."
During the year she toured with the
cruise missile, one of her stops was in
New York where she held a rally for a
week a: Grand Central Station.
With the help of a friend who had a
"gung-ho, Rambo-type son in the air
force' and was sick of it, she side-stepped
the bureaucracy and received the permit
that was not valid during rush hours or
overnight. ,
"She was reedy to dp anything for me,"
George said, ^-"so^ she arranged for me to
check   my   missile   overnight   in   the   bag
CASINO NIGHT
"The Blue Hawaiian"
If you are interested in being a
dealer or waitress for Casino
Night, there will be a meeting
in Commons Gameroom on
Thurs. March 12, at 7:00 p.m.
COME JOIN THE FUN!
SSintaqe Days
California State University. Fresno
CAMPUS VIDEO CENTER
v.
W\
KENNEL
BOOKSTORE