A Chinese Encounter

Passiveness [is] one of the most remarkable characteristics Chinese girls possess. [With] this tradition being embellished as "demure," girls go about contained, dreaming, waiting: to be followed by boys, to have a happy marital life, to be helped, to be asked and to be granted. Though this hackneyed notion has long been criticized, the societal relationship network by which girls are trapped is still so binding and suffocating, that attempts to transcend the limitation is to risk of being accused as "improper" and "wild." What an impoverishment! Trying to break away from this stronghold, I also cannot succeed. I am not alone in envying the ease and confidence with which Western women behave themselves; in feeling that if the meeting had dispensed with the presence of other Chinese women, I would have acted more at home. I should have poured out my questions about what is "communication" as a special field (for a corresponding department is still lacking in China), how you came up with the idea of a magazine solely edited by girls, and how [Sara] and her friends initiated a model UN at their school, etc. But I felt the eyes of other Chinese, invisible yet still existing, on me; I felt an "identity crisis" -- a contagion a woman from an inferior culture can hardly avoid when facing, for instance, Western women, who have a superior culture at their back. Perhaps this is what the Chinese students wanted from the GIF girls -- a "contagion" of some sort. The GIF girls did indeed talk about democracy, having a voice, and making a difference. One of the Chinese girls acknowledged that she would like to be part of political activity, but doubted that she could make a difference in China's future: "I'm just one person. No one is going to listen to me, to pay attention to me." Our girls tried to persuade her that one person could indeed have an impact.