Institute of Journalism and Communication Chinese Academy of Social Sciences P.O.Box 2011, Beijing 100026, P.R.

China Tel and Fax: +8610-84251952 Email: buwei@public3.bta.net.cn

Women in the Chinese Media

Bu Wei
May 1, 2000

This paper was written under the auspices of the Project on Latin America and the Pacific Rim at the University of California, San Diego, where I was a visiting fellow between January 30 and March 14; financial support for the UCSD Project came from the Ford Foundation, the Center for Global Partnership, and the University of California.

This paper will discuss ten images of women in the Chinese media. From a gender perspective, three groups gender stereotypes, combining stereotypes with gender equality; and gender equality - can be defined in the ten images. The growth and decline of gender consciousness in each group will be analyzed. Through a brief review on the contemporary history of womens images in China, this paper will explore the meanings of the different types of womens images.

Background
Considering womens images in the Chinese media from 1994-2000, two key factors, which greatly influenced the issue before and after 1995, should be mentioned. One is the development of the press and media industries, the other is the Womens Conference in Beijing in 1995. The Development of the Press and Media Industries Since the beginning of the reformation and the opening-up policy in 1979, the press and media industries have witnessed significant progress in China. At the end of 1995, there were 1,202 wireless radio stations in China, 11.34 times as many as 106 in 1978, broadcasting 13736 hours per day in average, and covered 78.7% of the national population of 1.2 billion. There were 187 million radios possessed by the whole society and 16 radios possessed by every 100 people1. And there were 837 TV stations in 1995, which was 22 times as many as 38 in 1979, broadcasting 46,916 hours each week on average, and covered 84.7% population in the country. The possession of TV sets exceeds the number of radios. There were 286 million TV sets possessed by the whole society and 24 possessed by every 100 people2. In 1996, the overall possession of TV sets amounted to 3.17 hundred million. The TV coverage reached 87.4% of the whole population and the number of television audience is 10.94 hundred million in 1997.3. Before 1978, the main news media were radio and newspaper for Chinese people, but from 1980s to 1990s, TV has become an important media. Print media grew very fast at this stage as well. In 1996, 7,916 types of periodicals (7,918 in 1997) and 2,163 kinds of newspapers (2,149 in 1997) were published. The issuance of newspapers was 11.63 times as many as 186 in 19784. Meanwhile, new electronic media-video tape, recording cassette, VCD, electronic publications and Internet come into Chinese family life. In 1996, 8,916 types of audio products (AT, CD and so on) were published and the total amount was 146 million pieces/boxes. Moreover, 7,306 video products (VT, LD, and V-CD) were published and the total amount was 18.2381 million
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The Beijing Broadcasting College, China Broadcasting Year Book, 1996 ditto 3 Statistical Communique of the State Statistical Bureau of the People's Republic of China on the 1997 National Economic and Social Development, Business Weekly, March 8-14, 1998. 4 The Office of the Press and Publishing of China, China Publishing Year Book, 1997
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pieces/boxes5. Since April 1994, all kinds of Internet functions have been introduced into China. The electronic publications and Internet have been developed in the high tide of universalizing the personal computer. At the end of 1996, there are 150 thousand Internet users in China. After three years, at the end of 1999, the number of Internet users grew to 870 thousand6. With significant changes both in quantity and quality of the content in the Chinese media, the traditional press and media industries have experienced great development. Before 1978, the media agencies were strictly under the control of the government, as a result, most of the content in the media were limited, of which most was used for political propaganda. But now, the media content was influenced by many factors such as economic development, commercialism, local tradition, traditional culture, western media values, and the need for an audience, in addition to the political environment. One of the most important factors is the need for an audience. Intense competition among media market promoted the media to become concerned for their audience. Because of this, many audience surveys were conducted after 1980. It made media open more space for reflection and discussion on many issues, and varieties of womens images entered into TV, newspapers, magazines, even CD-ROMs and Internet. Since there is no tradition of media literacy or education in China, most of people are not critical of media but very easy to believe in them. For Chinese people, media is powerful and has great influence on peoples ideas and conducts. Influence of Womens Conference in Beijing In 1995, the Womens Conference was held in Beijing. Before the Conference, many journalists automatically focused on women issues in the media and made women issues become much more important than ever before. At that time, most of journalists and writers didnt know background of gender consciousness well, so the content about gender stereotypes and gender equality were presented together in the media. During the Womens Conference, there were more than 70 forums about media and women in the Non-governmental Forum in Huairou, including the forum Media and Women by the Women Journalists Association of Capital in China, and the forum Womens images in Film and TV by the China Film Association7. We should say that these forums exerted great influence on Chinese women and media, especially The Platform for Action, which lists Women and Media as one of the 12 critical areas of concern under Strategic Objectives and Actions (Chapter 4). From 1995, some researchers published papers and articles, reflecting on the effect of mass media and criticized stereotypes, gender
Announcement made by Planning and Budgeting Department of the Administration for Press and Publication: 1996 National Situation on Video and Audio Publications, Press and Publishing Journal, 4 April, 1997. 6 According to statistics on Internet Annual Survey conducted by China Internet Information Center in 1999. 7 Bu Wei, Media and Women: the review on Media Issue in NGO Forums of The UN Fourth World Women Conference, The Journal of International Communication, No 1, 1996, p37-43
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discriminations, and women images as commodities in the Chinese media8. In 1996, the Women Journalists Association of Capital in China initiated the Womens Media Monitoring Network. Special columns Media Watch, Media Through Our Eyes were opened on the China Womens News. From a gender perspective, the network members challenged traditional stereotypes and gender discrimination in the news, ads, magazines, and other media. Many articles and research reports have been published9. Among them, three important studies are as follows: News. A content analysis10 on the news of 8 mainstream newspapers in 1996 showed that 84% of newsmakers are men, 16% were women; 71% of all images are men's, 29% were women's; 0.9% of news items related women's issues or women's movement of a total 10,808 news items. In the world of news, men were concentrated at the decision-making level; the majority of male newsmakers were politicians, or heads of departments of the government, organizations, and companies. Women in these categories were also significant; but, at the same time, there were more unidentified females than there are big shots; and about 11% of the female figures in the news were simply family members (such as wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, and so on). In addition, more women were portrayed as actresses or athletes than any other professional types. When women appeared in the news, they were likely put in the pictures. Among all of the female images in the pictures, 53.8% were young women. Ms. Feng Yuan, who conducted the study, concluded that there is unbalanced sex ratio in the world of news from official newspapers in China. Ads. Compared with news, women image is highly visible in TV commercials. Conducted in 1996, an ads study11 indicated that among the 1,197 ads, 35.8% (426) have one or more women's roles, 6.9% higher than the percentage of ads with men's roles (343). The study has also found that 87% of the images are of beautiful young women out of the 517 women's roles. The statistics indicated that 33.7% or one third of the commercials include stereotypes or gender discrimination. Although very few images representing gender equality can be found in the commercials, they are better than nothing. Compared with gender-related roles invisible 64.7% in commercials and 33.7% in stereotyping commercials, only 1.6% images with gender equality can be found in commercials.
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Most of articles or papers were published on China Womens News and Collection of Womens Studies sponsored by All-China Womens Federation. Such as: Huang Mei, Analysis on Young Women Images in the Media, No. 2, 1996, Collection of Womens Studies; Jin Yihong, Womens Magazine Dont Lost Gender Consciousness for business, 24th Feb.,1997, China Womens News. 9 Bu Wei, Gender and Communication Policy for China, Engendering Communication Policy in Asia, p8688, The Asian Network of Women in Communication, New Delhi and the World Association for Christian Communication, London, 1997 10 Feng Yuan, Chinas Establishmental Newspapers: The Gender Map and Beyond, unpublished. 11 Liu Bohong, Bu Wei, The Research Report on Womens Images in TV Commercials in China, Journalism & Communication, No.1, 1997, p4558.
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Magazine Womens Friends In the content analysis in Womens Friends from 1990-199612, the statistics shows that in all gender-related articles 6.3% contain sexist content, while 12.6% represent gender equality, and 11.4% are a mixture of gender stereotypes and equality (69.7% articles are not gender-related). Another important finding in the study is that those articles dealing with women's roles are very gender-related. The statistics is showed as table 1.
Table 1: Correlation about Women's roles and Gender-Related in articles No womens roles Womens roles Total (1168) No gender-related 71.4% 28.6% 833 Gender-related 37.3% 62.7% 335 Chi-square = 116.164.04 Sig=.0000

It can be concluded that women are almost invisible and greatly marginalized in the news but are highly visible in commercials. When media content contain human roles, especially women's roles, more gender-related content are represented. The gender-related content includes more stereotypes as well as gender equality in the Ads and news. For magazine, some content combining stereotypes with gender equality are found in the studies In the above-mentioned view, the study will not provide a quantitative or comparative analysis to find difference between male and female roles in the media. This paper will focus on the analysis of womens images in the Chinese media. It will describe and analyze three situationsgender stereotype, combining stereotype with equality, and gender equality in the media; discuss the meaning of womens images; and explore the reasons about womens images represented in the media.

Methodology
1. Gender Perspective and Communication One of contribution of Western feminist theories is try to separate sex from gender, while sex refers to the biological difference between female and male, gender means the socially and culturally constructed perceptions, expectation, request, and evaluation based on the differences between the two sexes. The concept of gender clearly shows that sex stereotypes are not a natural result but shaped by social culture. As a social structure, gender can be changed even eradicated13. Although it is difficult to find a sharp distinction between gender and sex empirically, gender has been supported by some researches in psychology, anthropology, sociology and other fields. It challenged the persistent biological determinism and has been enrolled in the analytical category or research perspective in social sciences.
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Bu Wei, An Analysis on Gender in the Magazine Womens Friends, 1997, unpublished. 13 English-Chinese Lexicon of Women and Law, edited by Sharon K. Hom & Xin Chunying, UNESCO Publishing, China Translation and Publishing Corporation, 1995, 145147.
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Gender difference is usually conveyed and consolidated in social systems and socialization. Mass media, as part of the social systems as well as one of the socialization factors, has dual effects on the audience. On the one hand, gender exists in society. Mass media based on commercialization surely reflects gender difference if it goes after mass identity. On the other hand, mass media is also an important source of gender construction. It promotes to shape and to intensify social stereotypes or gender consciousness. In other words, media is capable of building gender meaning and pattern to each sex. For example, advertisements always take advantage of the values and premises that are most familiar to the receivers, that is to say, the dominant ideology in the society, to ascribe gender meaning and patterns. Women are often portrayed as young, beautiful, gentle and obedient. In turn, media descriptions of women are frequently internalized into social expectations in the minds of the audience and eventually exert influence on their perceptions of gender and their own behaviors. Therefore, media are perceived as the main instruments in conveying respectively stereotypical, patriarchal and hegemonic values about women and femininity14. Moreover, in modern society we can see dominant ideology has been translated into the common sense of the audience. That is why feminist media study is always critical and analytic. 2. Research Resource and Samples Generally speaking, media content can be divided into two kinds: narrative literature such as films or TV serials and non-narrative such as news, Ads, personage reports, comments, essays and so on. The latter content will be discussed in the paper. Media resource mainly comes from five studies that were conducted from 1994 to 2000 as follows: A. Womens Images in TV Commercial of China, Journalism and Communication, No.1, 1997, by Liu Bo Hong and Bu Wei B. An Analysis on Gender in the Womens Friends Magazine, 1997, by Bu Wei, unpublished C.A Research Report on China TV Programs for Women, 1998, by Bu Wei and Liu Xiao Hong, unpublished D.Gender and Media Criticism, Ways, No.6, 1997, by Bu Wei E. Girls' Images in the Mainstream Newspapers, 2000, by Bu Wei, unpublished In China, most media are public media sponsored by central and local governments, and 47 papers and magazines for women are by All-China Womens Federation and local womens federation. Besides, some public media also have special programs for women. Considering balance among types of media, different sponsors, and content in the media, I made
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Liesbet van Zoonen, Feminist Perspectives on the Media, P41, Mass Media and Society, edited by James Curran and Michael Gurevitch, 1991, Edward Arnold, a division of Hodder Headline PLC, UK.
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choices as follows:

Table 2 studies (19942000)

Content PM or WM Specifically For women or not No Sample National Sample 1197 Ads from 10 TV stations (1994) 146 news items about girl child from the Peoples Daily (Jan. 1,1996 March 31,2000); 286 news items about children from 6 mainstream newspapers 30 May to 2 June in 1996, 1997,1998, and 1999 National Sample450minutes from 3 TV stations (1998) Womens Friends (1990-1996) 1104 articles from 28 issues

Ads

TV / PM

News

Papers / PM

No

Documentaries Interview Talk show Articles Essays And others

TV /PM

Yes

Magazines / WM

Yes

PM= Public Media WM= media sponsored by Womens Federation

Perhaps it is not a representative sample because the sample is composed of four samples. But it is possible that it provides a relatively reliable picture of the situation on the basis of considering media types, content, audience, and sponsors. For making up some loss, I will mention other resource about gender in the Chinese media also. 3. Analytic Methods Basically, the text analysis method is employed in the study. Although it is not a complete and strict text because we will discuss many texts, the study will show social ideology in texts and point out unequal power relationship between men and women. According to discussion above, three situations exist in the Chinese media, so all images will be divided into three groups on the basis of the feminist gender consciousness: 1. Representing Stereotypes 2. Combining Stereotypes and Gender Equality 3. Representing Gender Equality I will choose some images as cases from the above samples to do critical analysis in every group. The characteristics of these kinds of images are: 1.The same meaning of images (like mothers love) is repeated many times in the media; 2.Most of audience is familiar with these images or these images have greatly influenced on audience. 3.Very little people have criticized these images. Thus, 10 images like mother, wife, girl, girl friend, movie star, woman shop
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owner, female worker, rural woman, woman writer, and sportswoman were discussed in the paper.

I. Review: Contemporary History of Womens Images in China

It is true that womens image originates from womens roles in our society. So I would like to use four key terms to indicate womens roles in China as a starting point for discussion on womens images in my historic review. 1. Woman For the term of woman, there are two forms of address employed by some Chinese people15. One is Funuu that contains complex historic and cultural meaning. Funuu were kept at the bottom of society for a long time, and were considered miserable and backward objects liberated by the Communist revolution in old China. After the revolution in 1949, women are given equal legal rights with men and most women have their jobs. But Funuu has been a disdainful term, which still means a woman who is married, old, backward, conservative, ignorant (or even stupid), and stays in her home as a housewife. Though official documents or media often mention Funuu as a general designation, most women, especially those city women dont like to call themselves Funuu. Another form is Nuuxing. In contrast to Funuu, Nuuxing means professional, young, educated well, revolutionary, independent even fashionable. Nuuxing usually have a good job in society. From 1949, some women want to sever relation with Funuu identity, become a Nuuxing or new Nuuxing, but they were placed in a dilemma. Women have been requested to be like Funuu in homes and like men in their workplaces until 1979. Even marriage and reproduction were taken as a part of revolutionary contributions but its position was much lower that other jobs. Everything women did was for the revolution such as Glory Mother16 in the 1950s and Put Birth Control into Practice for the Revolution17 in the 1970s. The Chinese revolution contains women and womens movement, Nuuxing has a very small independent space18. 2. From Iron Maiden (Tie Gu Niang) to Strong-minded Woman (Nu Qiang Ren) During the Cultural Revolution (19661976), womens identity as mother and wife in the private sphere was almost covered. Since Maos slogan that The time is different, and male and female become the same had influenced
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Some Chinese people means city women, especially women who had educated well. These women also are main audience of media. We dont know other womens ideas about women, it is a shortcomings in the study. 16 In 1950s, state called women to learn from Soviet Mother and birth more children because socialist construction need more labor force. Those mothers who have more children were taken as glory mother. 17 More details is analyzed in the Picturing Power in the Peoples republic of China Posters of the Cultural Revolution edited by Harriet Evans and Stephanie Donald, Page 12, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 1999. 18 About discussion on Funuu term, I consulted a paper by Li Xiao Jiang With What Discourse We Think Women? edited by Qiu Ren Zong, Chinese Women and Feminist Thought, China Social Sciences Publishing House, 1998, p97-113.
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Chinese society. The revolution and the socialist construction required a more masculine style, so the ideal image of women was required to be like a man. Women had to do hard work according to mens standard, and their thoughts, conduct, ability, and even body shape and dress were like that of men. As a result, some Iron Maiden Team or March Eighth Team became a trend at that time. I dont think that it is equal between both women and men though it seems equal on the surface. To be an iron maiden means that women enter into social mainstream only as man can. Even though women have entered into the social mainstream or revolutionary team, it is very possible that her role is still traditional. For example, women solders sewed clothes for men solders in the famous Ballet Red Detachment of the Womens Army during the Cultural Revolution. In other words, women had to conform to mens standard and think that men were superior. Compared with men, women found their own weaknesses, and then overcame these weaknesses. It was mainly a cultural autocracy because these changes came at the revolutions demand rather than by the womens choice on their own initiative. When the Cultural Revolution was over, Chinese people formed a violent rebounding attitude toward iron women. The typical masculine men and typical feminine women were praised highly in the media. Especially for women, adopting feminine characteristics such as tender, beautiful, passive, dependent and so on has become a central pursuit. This is nothing strange because, with the revolution, feminine characteristics were lost while masculine ones were kept in society. Women, and even men, needed to recover the right of choice as a compensation. Nevertheless, women are different. When some women choose careers as their own pursuit and have great achievements in the areas traditionally dominated by males, they are called Strong-minded Women in the 1980s. The image of the Strongminded Woman has replaced the Iron Maiden now. It no longer refers to a revolutionary woman, but means a professional woman. In fact, Strongminded Women shares similar features with the Iron Maiden, in which women enters into areas traditionally dominated by males. In the case of the Iron Maiden this entails physical labor while Strong-minded Women take on intelligent or business activities. But today, Strong-minded Women are not as welcomed as the Iron Maiden. As an invader, people naturally think that Strong-minded Women lack femininity. This has formed an invisible pressure on women. So, In China, nobody, not even famous women, wants to be a Strong-minded Woman. 3. Virtuous Wife and Caring Mother (Xian qi liang mu) Womens images (Nuuxing Xingxiang) have been a big issue in the Chinese media from the 1980s to 1990s. As the above mentioned, rebounding from the Cultural Revolution, the traditional womens roles (virtuous wife and caring mother) have re-entered our society; while modern beauties and sexy images have arisen on television, on the covers of magazines and in some newspapers, and have gradually become the dominant images. Virtuous Wife and Caring Mother reflect traditional feminine characteristics, and beauties and sexy images reflect more modern ones. In addition to the Strong-minded Women dilemma, two images left many women felt puzzled. How does a
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woman be a woman today? What are our images today? The discussion on the role of women and womens image was initiated by the Journal of Chinas Women, China Womens News, Workers Daily, Guangming Daily and others19. Most discussion focused on whether women should be strong-minded or just remain as a Virtuous Wife and Caring Mother. Because of womens reproductive ability, they are taken as innately virtuous wives and caring mothers, and not suited as professional women in society. Someone even proposed that a woman should sacrifice her career to ensure her husbands success (Er Bao Yi). This idea is well reflected in the common slogan Behind each successful man, you will find a virtuous and great wife. Some women wanted a compromise proposal in which they will be strong-minded in their careers and to be good a wife in their family, but it was refused by most of women because they will meet a heavy double burden in that situation. In the discussion, the need for state, economic development, and the needs of men were emphasized repeatedly and womens need and initiative were greatly ignored. Some papers and articles suggested that women go home to be virtuous wives and caring mothers so that more positions for men are available and the states employment crisis is resolved 20. It seems that the traditional feminine image contradicts with that of the Strongminded Women. However, neither refuses modern femininity. We can see that strong-minded women use make-up when they are represented on TV or other media, and in public, wives and mothers also hope that they become more beautiful and young through some artificial means. As replenishment, modern femininity makes strong-minded women more feminine and wives and mothers more modern, so that their roles will meet with the social requests. 4. Feminist When the term feminist entered into China from 1995, most people did not like it. They though of it as reflecting the strong-minded women image. It was considered to be dangerous, because feminist would want more rights than men or would want to share rights and power with men. Thus in China, the common understanding for feminist is a radical even terrible woman. Scholars also debated the translation of feminist. In Chinese, there are two translations for feminist. One is Nv Xing Zhu Yi Zhe, that has a less political, but more feminine meaning. Another is Nu Quan Zhu Yi Zhe that means womens rights and power. In the Chinese context, womens primary problem is fighting for rights or separating women from the state and revolution and this is very controversial21. Nu Quan Zhu Yi Zhe is considered western, and implies women want rights and powers. But in China, the 1949 revolution gave equal
Edited by Womens Study Institute of All-China Womens Federation, Reference on Womens Studies, 1999, unpublished. 20 Lin Song Le, Discussions on Gender Roles, Equality and Development, edited by Li Xiao Jiang, Zhu Hong and Dong Xiu Yu, San Lian Shu Dian, 1997, p385-388. 21 Li Xiao Jiang, With What Discourse We Think Woman, Chinese Women and Feminist Thought, Edited by Qiu Ren Zong, China Social Sciences Publishing House, 1998, p97 113.
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legal rights to women. All womens movements are closely related to state and social development. Therefore, for Chinese women, perhaps they need independence from the state and recover their self-consciousness and ability to decide for themselves. In this sense, Nu Xing Zhu Yi Zhe is better. We can see that womens images in contemporary history are complex because many terms like Funuu, Nuu Xing, Iron Maiden, Strong-minded Woman, Virtuous Wife and Caring Mother, and feminists can explain a part of womens images in China. Moreover, these terms have interweaving historic relations, and influence each other. But we still find a clue for understanding womens images as follows: Funuu Nuuxing

Virtuous wife Modern Beauty strong-minded women Caring mother

feminists

Clearly, Funuu represent traditional role in the private sphere, while Nuuxing is more independent in public sphere. Of course it doesnt mean that the difference is absolute. Besides, Strong-minded Women has some big differences with feminists, their characteristics are as follows: Strong-minded Woman Feminists Have abilities like men Keep the initiative in ones own hands Personal struggle Womens overall interests Almost passive under the pressure Active, proceed and have of society and others gender consciousness Unlike Strong-minded Women, Feminists keep the initiative in their own hands rather than claim to have more ability than men; are concerned about womens interests as a whole rather than only emphasize personal struggle. Feminists have more gender consciousness, so they are active, but most Strong-minded Women began their personal struggle under the pressure of social or other factors. Therefore, Strong-minded Women are very different from feminists.

II. Gender in the Media

1. Gender stereotypes in the media The term Stereotype, taken from printing, denotes something fixed and lacking in originality. As an ideological discursive strategy, stereotype reinforce the dominant discourse through categorizing the roles and characteristics of women which are viewed as essentially different from those of men. Within this dichotomous opposition the feminine is categorized as inferior, while the
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masculine is valorized. The stereotyped ideal woman is the nurturing wife, mother or muse constructed through the scopic gaze of the male22. In this context, womens needs and subjectivity are greatly ignored, and femininity, based on stereotypes shaped by social culture, is stressed repeatedly. Stereotypic images are mainly mother, wife, girl, girlfriend, movie star and others in Chinese media. 1. Mother Mother's love is often used as a topic in the media including news, ads, and magazines. When media talk about mothers, they speak highly of mothers dedication for her family in almost all reports. Mother's love is great because it is self-giving. Most articles and news in the media never talk about mothers own person-hood, social role, personality, interests, personal development and rights to life selection. In fact, media suggested that self-development is not significant when a woman become a mother. Sometimes mothers in the media are poor, and occupy lower social positions, but they have sacrificed themselves in order to their sons have more bright future and higher social position. 2. Wife Similar to mothers, the wifes role also implies dedicating herself to her family. The mother sacrifices herself for her children and the wife sacrifices herself for her husband. Most media highly praised women who sacrifice their lifetime and devote themselves to household work so as to ensure their husbands success. This idea is well reflected in the popular slogans Behind each successful man, a virtuous wife can be found. and in the propaganda on women models Solders Wife (Jun Sao) conducted by media. There were many details about family life in the media, including wife served as a servant and cooker and secretary for her husband. For example, a man expressed his gratitude to his wife in a letter, because the wife said to her husband, if it is necessary that one sacrifice for another between us, I will sacrifice myself to be a virtuous wife and caring mother. The husband said that he thanked his wife because she really fulfilled her promise.23 The study on TV commercials24 showed that a womans position is within family. Of the commercials with identifiable show-up spots, female roles typically show up in two kinds of scenes: the family which accounts for 50.8% of the total; big or top grade entertainment centers which account for 30.2%, and others are 19%. Women play the leading role mainly in commercials for clothing and cosmetics, family appliances as well as food and drinks, and percentages are 60.8%, 44.7% and 35% of the total (including advertisements involving no human roles) respectively. For example, all the commercials for washing machines and detergents in all five regions have women as the leading
Edited by Sarah Gamble, Critical Dictionary of Feminism and Postfeminism , Routledge, New York, 1999, p323. 23 Writing to My Wife from Afar, Womens Friend, No.3, 1992, p32. 24 Liu Bohong & Bu Wei, Womens Images in the TV Commercials in China, Journalism & Communication, No.1, 1997.
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household roles. But male voices appear more often than that of female voices in all categories of commercial except for those for public welfare. Men are dominant not only in knowledge and the intellectual world (like ads for Scitec and electronic products, 85.1% of voice are mens) also in family. Men narrators in the ads for clothing and cosmetics, household wares or appliances, food and drinks are 69.6%, 74.4% and 75.5% respectively. The general pattern is to have men tell women how to wash cloth, how to sweep the floor and so on. Today, most of women have their own jobs. Media still suggested that household duties are the wifes responsibility. These kinds of reports about famous and successful women always stress it, so many successful women often feel uneasy and used to apologize to their husbands for being too busy with their work to do more household. If a woman makes great achievements and is famous, media journalists used to ask her how she managed to balance work and housework, whether her husband were satisfied with her, and whether she is a good wife. It reminds women that wifes primary duty is looking after her family. A good woman must be a good wife, if she is successful in society and simultaneously is good wife in her family, she is a good woman. A woman will not be considered as a woman if her husband does more housework. It is very different from the evaluation of a successful man. 3. Girlfriend Girlfriends in the media arouse peoples imagination of young, beautiful and virtuous girls. Besides young and beautiful characteristics, their role is much like the wifes. That is to say they usually dedicate themselves to their boyfriends career. In a male writers story about his girlfriend, he describes the only reason to love a directors daughter is that he wants to be an actor. The girl knew the truth but she decided to help her boyfriend. The man highly praised her girlfriends selflessness and said that girlfriends love had become his stepping-stone25. Sometimes girlfriends are students in universities. In the Womens Friend sample, 13.8% of these roles are female students. They are young, romantic, knowledgeable, virtuous, tender and passive. In an article, a female student described her transition from tomboy to Fair Maiden (Shunuu). She explained that she could not find a boyfriend if she keeps her personality and freedom. She has to change herself and become a tender and virtuous girl. When she tried hard to do it, a good man would find her and love her. Fair Maiden means that a girl is well-educated and very traditional. Men like this because the dual characteristics are beneficial to men. 4.Girl Images of girls in the media fall into two categories. One is the city image that shows girls as naive, innocent, pure, beautiful and happy. Their images are always represented in news reports about various festivals. Following pictures26 showing typical city images.
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Lan Ni, Womens Friend, No. 3, 1992, p 37. China Womens News, June 1, 1999.
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Another image is the rural image. After 1995, young girls development in rural areas has become an important issue in the media. But the content analysis about Peoples Daily (from Jan 1, 1996 to March 31, 2000) showed that 82% of girls images are passive. Among them, 33% of the images depict girls receiving financial aide because their family cant afford for them to go to school; 46% of the images convey sympathy because of their unlucky experience. In 6 news items girls are participants, but they are still passive. This kind of news showed that girls are always invited by some agencies to attended some festival activities. They are only onlookers in news. As audience, we can see sponsors love, but we cant find girls experience,
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feelings, requests, and opinions. Girls are usually silent and there is nearly no voice from them27. Both images of girls have a common characteristicthey are passive. The city girl image is taken as an ornament for society or festival. The rural girl image is taken as a mean of representing adults morals superiority complex or advertisement. The slogan for rural girls education Todays Girl, Tomorrows Mother showed girls as tools. Many articles and news stories stressed that girls education is very important because a girl means a good mother who will have good children and good family. The slogan stressed girls future family role rather than girls rights. Girls should enjoy their education and development no matter whether they will be mothers or not. As a stereotype, the Mother role enveloped girls rights. Of course most girls are future mothers and they will give their contribution to childrens education, family economy, and community development if they had good educational background, but that is not the only reason why we must help them or that a girl should enjoy developmental rights. Education is a process of empowerment. Girls will obtain power and ability to make their own decisions in life through education.

5. Movie Stars or Models Movie or TV stars and models are popular images in the media. The study on Womens Friends pointed out that 24.1% of women's roles are movie stars or models28. We can see that mass media are more interesting in description Stars or models appearance, body shape, voice and feeling than their performance or acting. Beautiful and sexy is usually the focus of description and comment. For example, a writer enumerated 41 reasons for top 20 women stars. Among them, only 3 are related to performance, other comments describe a sexy smile, sexy femininity, sexy lips which arouse imagination, stimulating body and expression and so on. The writer chose Li Zhi to be a star because she is mans hope by God29. In another article, the writer described some famous men choosing the Top 4 Beautiful Legs. These men in Hong Kong praised that charming legs will attract the focus of mens eyes30. A woman star is not a whole person. She is cut into a part of her body for mens admiration. As aesthetic subjects, men have power to nit-pick. Thus their expatiation on womens appearance and body shape virtually controls women. 6.Female Shop OwnerAa Chun The image of the female shop owner was taken from the leading lady Aa Chun in a TV series named Beijinger is in the New York broadcast in 1994.
27 28

Girls Images in the Mainstream Newspapers, 2000, Bu Wei, unpublished

Bu Wei, An Analysis on Gender in the Magazine Womens Friends, 1997, unpublished. 29 20 Top Women Movie Star, Womens Friends, No. 4, 1990, p35. 30 4 Top Beautiful Legs in Hong Kong, Womens Friends, No. 4, 1993, p46.
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Aa Chun owned a small shop and also was portrayed in the series as a lover. There were many comments on Aa Chun in the media in the 1990s, because Aa Chun is taken as a perfect woman image who has dual traditional and modern characteristics. Aa Chun is beautiful, kindhearted, deeply conscious of the righteousness of a cause, self- sacrificial, but someone pointed out that it is not enough to be a good woman. Only traditional role allows men to feel weary. An article summarized that Aa Chun has modern four feelings (si qing) besides traditional characteristics as follows: True feeling (Zhen Qing) -- - womens love for men is unconditional; Only feeling (Zhuan Qing) -- - womens love for men is unchangeable in her life; Inciting feeling (Shan Qing) -- women can incite mens love and desire; And amorous feeling (Feng Qing)-- women should be flirtatious but in excellent taste. 31 Comments on Aa Chun conveyed that women should learn to meet mens different needs. In the relationship between women and men, men have power to pick up or appreciate women, while women are passive and dependent. It is noticeable that there are two kinds of role in text with gender stereotypes. One is mother or wife or girlfriend, in a family role, sacrificing themselves to their children or husbands. Another is star or female student, as a beauty, they are gazed upon by men. Aa Chun, as a lover, contains characteristics of two kinds. Girl images are also beautiful, naive, weak and passive. Sometimes they are taken as a tool. Womens appearance, character and life value is viewed from an androcentric position, namely that they must meet mens needs of gaze, appreciate and sacrifice. It denies womens independent selfhood, and shows inequality between women and men. 2. Text That Combing Gender Stereotypes and Gender Equality Different from images containing gender stereotypes, most images of peasants and workers contain a mixture of gender stereotypes and equality. 7. Rural Women Rural women are often represented in two kinds of roles in the media. One is the image of being very poor. Journalists or writers may describe miserable stories about them. Another image is that of being successful. journalists or writers may tell you stories in which rural woman make great achievements through their very hard efforts. Readers cant believe that a rural, even illiterate woman can have such achievements that change her and her familys future. Of course both roles have news value. In addition, the latter one has been encouraged by the news policy propaganda by positive examples" (zheng mian xuan chuan) in China. So rural women are visible in mainstream media including city magazine such as Womens Friend. It is of equal significance that while media made rural women visible and reflected their
31

The God Give Women Four Feelings, Womens Friends, No.2, 1995, p62.
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situation, it is not complete enough, since the media still places value on the fact that rural women sacrifice themselves for their family or village. For example, some writers challenged the popular slogan Behind each successful man, you will find a virtuous wife when they talk about several rural womens stories in an article why do great women stand behind men in Womens Friends.32 They suggested that successful mens wives should accept honor from society along with their husbands, if society really praises wives for their housework and support. But at the same time, these writers appreciated womens dedication to their career even when those wives are more much capable than her husband. A rural woman who does all the housework, earns money for her husband, willingly endures her husbands bad temperament is called a virtuous wife in the article. Generally speaking, in the countryside, women have a lower position than city women. But when media talk about development, rural womens rights, independence and person-hood are still greatly ignored. It sounds like only when women support their husbands can they get their interests from economic reform, or women contribute themselves to society through contributing themselves to their husband. Thus, a woman is still not an independent person. 8. Female Laid off Workers Like images of rural women in the media, media have made female laid off workers visible and represented their images in a positive light. We will analyze a program from the Women & Children Channel of the Sichuan Cable TV. The ten shows are a series on laid-off women workers entitled Walk Out, There Is the Sky Ahead. We choose four shows as analytical example because four women have different characteristics as examples of reemployment, whose basic conditions are indicated in Table 3. Table 3 An Analysis of Womens Programs of the Women & Children Channel of the Sichuan Cable TV Index Worker 1 Worker 2 Worker 3 Worker 4 new job Saleswoman owner & grocery vendor sales manager of life photographer insurance age middle aged Middle aged older middle aged appearance Mediocre mediocre mediocre mediocre Body shape Medium medium a bit plump medium Educated with uneducated no educated and type of Educated professional skill professional professional personality with no professional skill skill skill Women Work hard to in dont be shy to where theres views should learn their pioneer start over again a will, there is a expressed from their with specialty way to survive struggle to survive
32

Why Do Great Women Stand Behind Men, Womens Friends, No.2, 1995, p12.
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way of presentation

conflicts

Arduous course to sell life insurance Frustrated at being laid off, new job challenging

Emotional recalling Husband and wife both were laid off

sorting out vegetables both man and woman were laid off as they neared retirement, life is hard one must endure hardships after unemployed

handling business in office how to fact the reality

one must love whatever she is hired to do social values

Being laid off one should tap her potential with the unemployment experience

one must be willing to do ordinary work regardless of payment ,as the gold will always glisten

As indicated in Table 3, the program producers are much concerned with ordinary womens fates, and the anchor emphasized time and again that the programs we produce are about grassroots working women. In this series, all the women are represented as in their middle or elder ages (In reality, most laid-off women workers are in or above middle age), whose shapes are medium or slightly plump. Unlike some womens programs that tend to show more interest in good-looking, and white-collar office young women who are fashionably dressed, the journalists worked in the program are more concerned with the surviving conditions of women in difficulties and their possible future, and full of encouragement to them. What the programs advocated are as follows: One in adverse environment should not wait for or rely on others but must struggle and study hard and must learn and make perfect herself perfect in the struggle (from the saleswoman of life insurance); So long as you start over and over again so that you can always find your place for survival. It is necessary to endure hardships and walk ahead bravely (from the grocery vendor); There is nothing to fear when you get laid off. What you fear should be your own passiveness, and Being laid off offers you an opportunity to test yourself in every respect, but you must not aim too high and you should be willing to do ordinary work (from the sales manager). Through the experiences of four women who are or not educated and have or do not have professional skill, the producers tried to show that whatever the case, so long as one tries hard and does not wait passively, one can get to work again and rediscover her happiness. Perhaps it is too high a standard for most women. Because personal success depends on both personal efforts and social conditions. The laid-off women workers were presented as a topic based on the
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assumption that more female than male workers have been laid off and it is more difficult for women to be rehired than men. Why is it? Some studies indicated that womens family burdens are highly related to their ability, which in turn may affect their employment33. This is not only a problem of women themselves, but also a social problem. In discussing the issue of women being laid off, such programs described more about womens personal struggles rather than paid attention to gender equity. Whether they have equal opportunities and rights to choose with men through their personal struggle merit media attention. If not, it will be likely that we are blaming laid off women workers, implying that they are not hardworking enough and it is their own fault if they fail to find a new job. As a result, Laid off women workers are likely to be regarded as a Social Problem. Many programs or articles and reports often use words like Staunch, Earnest and down-to-earth, Hardworking, and Simple to present successful female workers story. It should be pointed out that such words are the most commonly used expressions for Chinese women. In the series, the anchor emphasized that Earnest and down-to-earth, hardworking are unique characteristics for Chinese women. When covering the issues of getting laid off women workers reemploy the media love to stress that women workers should be realistic. In this context, womens pursuits for independence, equal opportunities, individual choice and positive tests of new experience might be neglected. It is really worthy of discussion for womens programs to decide from which perspective to cover the personal struggle of Laid off women workers.

3. Gender Equality In the gender equality content, media challenge gender stereotype, and affirm womens subjectivity, self-consciousness and independence. The text with gender equality represented a diversity of womens image. Women are not only wives or mothers but also any person they want to be. 9. Sportswoman Sportswomen are much easier to be seen as independent images, because they have their own careers, and rely on more fairly competitive system to decide their position in sport career. An article Love in the Shooting Range from Womens Friends showed the life of a couple who are shooting champions in Shannxi Province. Having married and given birth to a baby, they have to make decision just like most of Chinese people. In the traditional gender division of labor, wives have to give up their own career to support their husbands success. But, considering the wife had the same bright future
33

Women Work Committee of the Central Committee of the Chinese Public Party and the Women Studies Institute of All-China Women Federation: On the Laying Off of Women Workers -- A Survey Report on Re-employment Situation, Collection of Academic Reports on Women Studies, edited by Women Studies Institute, All-China Women Federation, 1998.
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as the husband in shooting, they help each other in life and decided to continue shooting together. The writer complimented their real and equal love34. 10. Woman Writer Some women writers in China pay more attention to gender issue. Hu Xin, a middle-aged writer is an interview program on CCTV35. The anchor asked three questions in the talk show: Q: Why did you start writing after you reached your middle age? Hu: I did not ponder on many questions until I reached my middle age. For instance, in the novel of Entering the Middle Age, it is the man who sacrifices himself to the woman. If the woman sacrifices herself to the man, the novel may not be so sensational. I also pondered on many other things about women and wanted to speak them out, pour out, so I began to write novels. Q: What kind of women do you most respect? Hu: Ordinary women who know what they should do. Womens independence does not mean being antagonistic to men. Women and men are just like the structure of the Chinese character Ren or Human beings, which relies on the mutual support. Independence has a two-fold meaning, which is that one should not be dependent on man, nor should she Selflessly sacrifice herself to man. Women should not lose themselves. Half of the military medal belongs to me, while the other half belongs to you. But after all it is won by the man. Even the husband and daughter would not regard your sacrifices as valuable. Some couples used to stand on the same starting point, but the women sacrificed their own career for the men. When the men get it developed, they feel the women no long match them and want to divorce the women. In the old days people would reproach the men, saying they were Ungrateful, and showing sympathy for the women. But now people would think the women deserved it since they gave up themselves. Q: How should a man approach womens independence? Hu: Womens independence does not lie in the fact whether your are married or not, whether you have a child or not, whether you do housework or not. It lies in that whether it is your own choice or not, rather than a choice made for you by the man. The man should not assume that it doesnt matter if you should have a child or not. It matters very much. If the woman does not want to have a child, is unwilling to do the washing, or if she likes computers, you cannot say she is not a woman. There are various men and there are various women. So men should also readjust themselves psychologically and change their values. From the above three questions and answers, we can see that Hu Xin is a woman who has gender consciousness and can challenge traditional stereotypes and discriminations.
Love in the Shooting Range, Womens Friends, No.7,1990, p14. A Research Report on China TV Programs for Women, 1998, by Bu Wei and Liu Xiao Hong, unpublished
35 34

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The table 4 displays the 10 type women images in the Chinese media:

Table 4 Characteristics of Womens Images

Types Roles 1.Mother 2.Wife Main Characteristics Self-giving Self-Sacrificial Have good background Educated well Young and romantic Self-sacrificial Fair maiden Tender Naive, innocent Virtuous Beautiful Passive Acceptor Future mother (tool of reproduction) Beautiful and Sexy Tender Flirtatious Self-sacrificial Clever and capable Poor but work hard Contributive Successful Attach themselves to their husbands or family or society Not independent Not related to womens right Staunch Earnest down-to-earth Hardworking Simple Contributive Independent But not related to womens right Independent Challenging Self-decided Initiative Equal with men Independent Challenging Self-decided Initiative Has Gender Consciousness

4. Girlfriend

Gender Stereotypes

4.Girl

5.Movie stars or models 6.Shop owner (Aa Chun)

7.Rural women Text that Combing Gender Stereotypes And Gender Equality 8.Female workers

9.Sportswoman Gender Equality 10.Woman Writers

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III. Discussion
Womens Images in the Chinese media are showed as follows: Traditional Funuu Modern Nuuxing

Virtuous wife Caring mother

beauty

strong-minded feminists women

1.wife 2.mother

3.model

4.girl 5. shop owner 9.sporter 6.girlfriend 7.peasant 8.female worker 1.Meaning of Womens Images We can see that the roles of mother and wife are limited in the frame of stereotype. The writers subconsciously showed that mother and wifes contribution and sacrifice to husbands or children in the media. The identity of mother and wife means that women no longer belong to themselves when they become mothers and wives. Their only duty is to contribute to the basis of the traditional sex division of labor. It is very different from the identity of husband and father. Model or film stars are usually viewed as Modern Nuuxing because they are public personages rather than traditional house wives. Their characteristics of strong-minded woman or professional women are greatly covered in the media, but their beautiful appearance and sexy body are stressed from mens perspective and employed to meet mens need of gaze. Girls role has feminine characters like Funuu such as naive, passive, beautiful and happy. They are weak and need help. Besides, they are taken as future mothers. Audience can not find their independent voice from media. Girlfriend and peasant are typical double roles in our society. In their career, they are Strong-minded Women, but their position or education background is employed to serve men. In their family, they must be virtuous wife and caring mother. 10.writer

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In the sample, female workers were not strongly taken as the role of good wife, but social expectation like down-to-earth, Hardworking, and Simple on female worker imply that women are more suited for simple and inferior labor. Under the pressure of survive, they were forced to be independent from men or society, adapt themselves to economic market in reform. They are suffering images in the media. Shop owner (Aa Chun) is the most complex role. As an ideal woman image, she can sacrifice her life to lover, and at the same time, she is a modern strong-minded woman. Besides, she has also sexy feature and can attract men. Of course she is mans gift by God, because she can satisfy mens needs. The above 8 types of roles have a common ground. They build their lives on the basis of others needs, mostly mens. They lost themselves and cant realize their own needs. Therefore, they dont keep the initiative in their own hands, and they cant make independent choices. Strong-minded Women seems independent, but we still find that Strong-minded Women is judged by mens criteria. First, people usually think that women are not equal to men in abilities. If some women have the same abilities as men, they become Strong-minded Women. That is why we dont call Strong-minded men. Second, we can find that most Strong-minded Women have made achievements in areas traditionally dominated by males such as science, technology, or business. If a woman is a good actress or model or nurse, nobody call her Strong-minded Woman. Thus, Strong-minded Woman is bestowed with the meaning like Men. Because most people felt a repugnance to the Cultural Revolution, they disliked Strong-minded Women as well. In reality, when one calls a woman Strong-minded Woman, it is true that there are many complex meanings, that can imply admiration, ridicule, or jealousy. At least, people think that Strong-minded Woman does not have feminine characteristics. It means that Strong-minded Woman is not beautiful, doesnt care about her husband or children and does housework and so on. In the media, when writers want to admire Strong-minded Woman, they must show Strong-minded Woman how to do housework for family members or how to love her husband so that they can keep balance with reality. That is why we can see women scientists wash vegetables on TV and hear from TV that she is a good wife, but never men. In fact, it also hints broadly that housework is only womens responsibility. Therefore, women either have a small independent space after they have finished feminine duties or they are forced to be strong because of poverty or difficulties like most of female workers or peasants, Strong-minded Women doesnt mean gender equality. The image maintains traditional culture in which women arrange their lives centered on men. But, it is very different if Strong-minded Woman is related to feminist. The story of Sportswoman is a good example. Women of this category meet the same problems as other women--- the contradiction between career and family. But, she chose and kept her life through consultation with husband. Though she didnt know what a feminist is, she refused to stay centered on men and she kept the initiative in her own hands.
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Though the term feminist didnt emerge in the text about her, the women writer is classified into feminist in the sample. Because she has gone beyond the stage in which women are requested to have the same abilities as men, and has been aware that a woman should be independent from men to create her own life. It doesnt mean that feminists must contradict with the role of the virtuous wife and caring mother. As the writer pointed out, if a woman can initiate, choose, and control her own live, she will be independent no matter what she does. Moreover, these 10 images can be classified into 4 groups according to characteristics the images have: 1) Virtuous wife and caring mother: mother, wife, girl, girlfriend, shop owner, peasant; 2) Beauty: girl, movie star, shop owner; 3) Strong-minded Women: girlfriend, peasant, shop owner, female worker, and sportswomen; 4) Feminist: writer. These four groups formed the picture of womens images in the Chinese media. Traditional androcentric culture, modern commercialization, the influence of Chinas socialist movement, and western feminists mould together the images of women in China. Comparing with feminists, other images are not more independent from men or the state. Feminist images acted independently and with the initiative in their own hands, but their voice is very weak now in the Chinese media.

2. Why Are These Images? Why are images of mothers, wives, models or movie stars, girls, girlfriends and shop-owners more likely to become stereotypic roles? From an androcentric perspective in society, mothers and wives fulfill only a subsidiary role in families, so their primarily responsibility is to look after family. Though beautiful and sexy models and movie stars are not family roles, they can satisfy mens need of gazing. Thus the female body is employed to stimulate consumption of the audience. Girls and girlfriends are taken as future mothers or beauties, so they are represented in a more feminine manner in the media. At the same time, androcentric culture doesnt give up the requirement that women should be good wives or mothers. Aa Chun is a typical role. Since 1949, women have been entitled equal rights in political, economic, and family spheres and equal pay for the equal work. Most women have moved out of their homes and have a job or took part in the labor force. A statistic in 1992 indicates that the rate of employment among women above 15 years old is 72.33%36. When the media describes female workers or peasants as the main force among women for economic construction in China, the media
36

The Situation of Chinese Women by the Information Office of the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China, Page 15, 1994
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inevitably displays womens achievement in the socialist construction, if media can truly reflect reality. But when the media explains female workers and peasants issues in accordance with social value of mainstream, gender bias can be found. Sportswomen occupy a special group in China. From 1949 to 1993, sportswomen had greater achievements than sportsmen in swimming, volleyball, soccer and some other games. In China, 59% of world championships out of a total of 755 were won by women, and 63% world records, out of a total of 725 were broken and exceeded by women37. Women have risen and men declined describes the situation well. Many sportswomen are independent from men and joined fair competition in the field. Their special experience made them different from other women and stronger than other women. Like sportswomen, women writers are also in a special group. Their travel, experience and consideration of womens life value enable them to easily find womens problems in the society, and become writers who have feminist thoughts. Thus, they can issue different voice in the media. It is clear that the relationship between the medias reality and social reality were involved in the discussion. When the media reflects reality well, gender stereotypes and gender equality in reality would be represented into media; but when the media focuses on some issues and stress certain ideas (like showing women woman scientist washes vegetables on TV), perhaps more stereotypes are represented in media than in reality. It is another big issue and needs further discussion.

IV. Conclusion
Womens images in the Chinese media are diversified. Under the influence of traditional culture, Communist ideology and western values, not only varied womens images shown in the media, but also many different gender characteristics were represented into the image. From gender perspective, womens images can be divided into three groups in the study. (1) In the texts with stereotypes, most of the women roles are family roles or young and pretty girls. Womens appearance, characteristics and life value are viewed from androcentrism. It means women must meet with mens needs for an object upon which to gaze, appreciation and sacrifice. It denies womens independent selfhood, and shows unequal power structures between women and men. (2) Mixture texts combing stereotypes and gender equality mainly represented female peasants and workers who have personal history of struggle. On the one hand, mass media made visible efforts from female peasants and workers, confirm their contribution to society or family, reflecting gender equality. But on the other hand, media greatly ignored womens rights, independence and person-hood. (3) Roles appearing in the texts with gender equality are sportswomen and women writer. They are capable of choosing and arranging their own life. They challenge gender discrimination and
37

Ditto, Page 26, 1994

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stereotypes, and affirm womens subjectivity, selfconsciousness and independence. According to characteristics of womens images, virtuous wives and caring mothers, beauties, Strong-minded Women and feminists formed the picture of womens images in the Chinese media. We can see that traditional androcentric culture, modern commercialization, the socialist womens movement, and feminism mould together the images of women in China. In the four images, only the feminist image acted independently and with the initiative in their own hands, though the voice is very weak now and even the term of feminist is almost invisible in the Chinese media.

About Sample

1.TV Ads Sample

This is a national sample within mainstream media in Chinas Cities. According to the geographic distribution, level of economic development and cultural features, 10 TV stations in five cities composed the sample station. 4878 Ads from 6pm to 10pm on the third and fourth day of each month from August to December in 1994 were collected. Based on the minimum sample size required of the simplest random sampling and with confidence at 95 % and maxim tolerance at 3%, the equidistant sampling (including Ads repeated in different TV stations) was made in the light of the percentage of the sample size to the total number of Ads. The sample situation is shown as the table below:

Sample on TV Ads
Regions CCTV, Beijing TV Shanghai TV1, Dongfang TV Gansu TV, Lanzhou TV Guangdong TV, Guangzhou TV Liaoning TV, Shenyang TV 10 stations in total Features The capital, relatively developed economically, representing the culture of the Central Plain or center of the country East China, developed economically, representing the cultrue typical of the coastal region Northwest China, underdeveloped economically, representing the cultrue of the West South China, pilot region for economic reforms, developed econnomically, representing the culture of the region south of Nanling Mountain Northeast China, relatively developed economically, representing the culture of the Songhuajiang and Liaohe River Sample Size 270 282 146 172 327 1197

2.Sample on TV Program for Women

Since there was no special statistics on programs for women available before, we conducted telephone surveys on all the 32 central, provincial and municipal TV stations around the country in 1998. Up to October 1998, 7 or 22% of the 32 TV stations at the central, provincial and municipal levels established their special programs for women, while 25 or 78% of the stations did not have such programs. The three TV stations chosen for the case study are CCTV, Liaoning TV and the Women & Children Channel of the Sichuan Cable TV. Among them CCTV is the only national TV network in China, the Women & Children Channel of the Sichuan Cable TV is the only provincial channel specially for women, while Liaoning TV womens Program is chosen at random among the six provincial stations that have programs for women. The case study includes two parts: an analysis of the text on the programs content and an interview with the producers.

3.Womens Magazine Sample

In China, almost womens magazines are sponsored by local Womens Federation. Founded in July 1988, Women Friends is a monthly run by the Shaanxi Womens Federation. In the 1990s, it has maintained the largest circulation of the 40 leading womens magazines. It exerts a great influence on women, especially young women. Its average printing in 1992 was 840,000 copies per issue and more than 1 million copies per issue during 1993 1994. Though its circulation declined in 1995 to 850,000 and in 1997 to 570,000, the magazines circulation still leads other womens magazines, see following table. 19931995 Womens Magazines of Big Circulation (Unit: 10000)

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Year/Magazines

Womens Womens Family Bosom China Friends Life Friends Women 1993 130 77 244 80 43 1994 110 49 245 95 34 1995 85 58 242 128 34 Average copies per issue 108.33 61.3 243.167 71 37 (Source: China Publishing Yearbook by National Office of Press and Publishing, 1994, 1995, and 1996) It is clear that circulation of Womens Friends is most unless Family from 1993 to 1994. In contrast to Womens Friends, the Family prefers content about family and childrens education to content about reflection on womens issues. Compared with other women magazines, Women Friends carries more information containing gender consciousness and shows greater solicitude for women themselves. Judy Bolumbaum, Vice Director of the Journalism & Communication Institute of Iowa University in US, once made a comment on the magazine. She said: Womens publications in Chinas reform are very different from each other in terms of quality, content, style and focus. Many of them are full of soft news about holidays, families and fashion, and are basically interchangeable. But there is an exception with its own unique character. That is Women Friends. Published in Xian, Shaanxi Province, the readers of the magazine are all over China. It has a humorous style and lays more stress than other womens magazines on dealing with controversial problems(Judy Bolumbaum An Analysis on Media Industries in China, Journalism and Communication, No. 1, 1996). Therefore, 84 issues of Womens Friends from 1990 to 1996 were chosen as sampling frame. Among them 28 issues with 1104 articles or essays composed a random sample.

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