The Westernized Asian Woman

Chinese women today have experienced movement in regard to the rights and privileges of women in society.  This has been particularly true during the latter part of the modern era of communism.  Women have continued to enjoy the political power as they did under Chairman Mao.  However, the women of China also begn to discover the influence of foreign music, movies, and popular western culture.  It has been during this period that Chinese women began to abandon the traditional fashion trends of old China.  They instead started to adopt the newer fashions which were largely imported from the western world. 

During this same period, Chinese women started to acquire new ideas about life and relationships.  These new ideas were never a part of traditional Chinese culture.  These ideas would include having the choice to marry the man of their choice, or to remain a single mom.  In the 1990s a growing number of women began to depart from China in large numbers for higher education and employment in the West.  As result, these women achieved more independence than the women of China had ever had before.  This sort of independence is totally out of harmony with with traditional Chinese society.  Women had to take care of themselves in foreign countries far removed from the land of China.  Not surprising is the fact that women have played an enormous role in the development and success of "Chinatowns" in many western cities.

So the Asian woman of China is poised to enjoy more freedom in relationships, employment, and life than many thought possible.  She is to be commended for the hard work, sacrifice, and determination that it has taken to journey this long and hard road.  It is still the middle of the story about the future of the Asian woman in the western world.  There is more to be written... much more!

Harlan Urwiler

For more information, please visit my website at:  http://www.myorientalgallery.com/.