Comment

Actions are more important than words

By Wang Chao (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-28 11:09

Recently a lawyer named Ye Mantian wrote a blog, pointing out that 16 written Chinese characters discriminated against women. The written characters carried meanings that mostly relate to such things as "cheating", "bad" and other negative meanings, and they all share a character component meaning "woman".

Ye thinks that the "woman" component could create negative connotations for women in people's sub-consciousness and said those feminine components of the written characters should be removed.

I think Ye's intentions were good but the suggestion is ridiculous. Women's image is created by factors including education, tradition and even the media. I don't think a written character plays such an important role in this process.

Maybe at the moment when these 16 characters were created, they bore some discrimination against women; but over time, the characters have become more of a symbol than pure "discrimination".

If Ye said such a change would reduce rape by 20 percent, it would be a laughable idea. In reality, do people really relate "cheating" and "bad behavior" right away with women? I don't think so. I am not a feminist, but when mentioning "cheating", my first thought is still "men". I guess people are more aware of facts than "components".

Besides, Chinese women are enjoying equal rights as men in China.

When I was in the US, I never saw a man cooking dishes every day like Chinese men do in many Chinese families, and there are many more female vice-mayors in China than in other countries.

I admit that these written characters discriminate against women, but I suggest that we look at this issue in a historical context and have a little confidence.

If we want to stop discrimination, we should work more on institutional factors including legislation and education, rather than simply changing the composition of these written characters.