How has the traditional notion of male dominance and gender ideology within Chinese

society affected the way women are perceived in contemporary China?

Asia Society. 2014. Women in Traditional China. Retrieved from
http://asiasociety.org/countries/traditions/women-traditional-china?page=0,0
I first used Google and came across this page. In an effort to discover how women are
perceived in contemporary China, I thought it would be beneficial to first learn about how
women were perceived in the past throughout history. I thought if I could learn about this, I
would then be able to better understand how their role as women has evolved in comparison to
the role of men. For this reason, I was attracted to this specific resource as the title caught my
eye with clear reference to Traditional China. I therefore clicked on this link expecting a brief
overview of womens roles in the earlier years when traditions were strictly followed. A such, I
was quite satisfied with the result. This resource was able to give me a good general overview
of how women were perceived in the earlier centuries and why they were perceived that way.
On the other hand, it was perhaps too brief and it would have been preferable if it went into
more depth. Furthermore, as it is essentially an excerpt from an established organisations
website, I expect the information posted to be of high reliability.
Branigan, T. (2011, November 3). Chinas great gender crisis. The Guardian. Retrieved from
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/02/chinas-great-gender-crisis
I also found this resource on Google while searching for female-related resources in relation to
China. It initially appealed to me due to its title, which left me curious and genuinely intrigued as
to what it pertained to. As such, this led me to assume the obvious, that it may be related to a
problem of some sort concerning the men and women of China. Unsure of whether it was
relevant to my topic, I clicked on it with no high expectations. Surprisingly, I found this article
insightful and the issues brought up piqued my interest. This article gave relatively good insight
into the gender discrimination that occurs in China and allowed me to view this topic from a
different perspective. In particular, it made me consider the influence of the one-child policy
implemented in 1979 and the traditional preference for male births. While this is in no way a
poor article, it may have perhaps been better if the article were more objective as opposed to
the subjective route the author took. Moreover coming from a well-know news orientated
website, I expect these writers to be educated in their subjects therefore I believe this is a
relatively reliable source.
Leung, A. S. (2003). Feminism in Transition: Chinese Culture, Ideology and the Development of
the Womens Movement in China. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 20, 359-374.
doi: 10.1023/A:1024049516797
I found this journal article while browsing for resources through the La Trobe library search
engine. The title itself was very intriguing and happened to catch my eye on the basis of it
pertaining to the womens movement in China. I was not completely sure with what I was to
expect, but I was quite satisfied with what I had found. This article briefly analyzes various
significant events and time periods throughout Chinese history and addresses their influence on
gender equality, womens status, and how women in China were generally perceived in the
past. As such, I found this text to be a great indicator of how past conceptions of women have
influenced the way women are perceived in China today. I thus found this resource quite useful
and relevant to my topic. As it was straightforward and very informative, I did not find much fault
in this article in terms of negatives. Moreover the writer came across as being very well
educated on this topic based on the content, therefore I believe it to be reliable.

Li, Yuhui. (2000). Womens Movement and Change of Womens Status in China. Journal of
International Womens Studies, 1, 30-40. Retrieved from
http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol1/iss1/3
I came across this resource on Google Scholar. This journal article appealed to me due to its
title, as I was previously unaware of any form of womens movement in China. I was thus
genuinely interested to learn more about this subject and I believed that this knowledge could
further direct me in relation to my topic. Based on the title alone, I had expected a brief overview
of the evolution of womens status in China. Further, I expected it to give me a better
understanding of how the perception of women has evolved through demonstrations such as
the womens movement. I was delighted upon reading it, as it was able to give me great insight
into various issues relevant to my topic. It particularly shed light on various events pertaining to
the Chinese womens movement, which I genuinely found interesting. As such, I found no
distinct faults in this article as it covered various relevant topics that I found very useful. I also
have no doubts in relation to its reliability as the content was thorough, well thought out and it
was obvious that the writer was educated in this subject.
Tatlow, D. K. (2012, March 6). Chinese Womens Progress Stall on Many Fronts. The New York
Times. Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/world/asia/chinese-womens-progress-stalls-invaried-standards.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
In an attempt to narrow in on the womens movement in China, I came across this article on
Google. What first caught my attention was the phrase in the title, womens progress stalls,
which made me assume that I was about to read about how and why this is exactly happening
and affecting women throughout China. As I generally do not expect very much from articles, I
was pleasantly surprised and satisfied with the content. This article left me quite shocked and
almost disgusted with how these women in China are treated despite being in modern day
society. Nonetheless, this piqued my interest in this topic further. The article addresses the
discrimination and sly tactics used by the government against women, including the gender
inequality in employment. I found this text quite insightful and was a good indicator of how this
issue is being perceived in modern day China. On the other hand, it seemed to lack depth as it
was somewhat brief and I would have liked to learn more. Also coming from a well-known news
orientated website that many turn to, I recognize it as being relatively reliable as it should be.
Conclusion
Overall, this research process helped me refine my research question down to some very
interesting yet relevant issues that I was initially unaware of. Through this, I was able to get a
general overview of what my topic is comprised of, and from there I have been able to narrow it
down to the most influential issues or historical demonstrations relevant to my topic. A few
sources that I read did happen to conform to my expectations, while many surprised me in a
positive manner. I unexpectedly found great material, which ultimately helped me with tackling
my topic. There was however some material that I chose not to include in my resources as they
simply lacked a lot of depth, despite being quite informative overall. The article No Concensus:
China Debate on Womens Roles found on The Wall Street Journal was indeed informative, yet
I felt it lacked depth in the subject and was too brief in order to extract useful information. The
same would apply to the background essay titled, Womens roles in China by Cara Abraham.
While both sources were relevant to my topic, they did not stand out as exceptional sources I
felt necessary to include.