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Eve Leung posted an update 8 years, 9 months ago
Just want to express this culture thing towards the Gender issue.
As in Chinese culture, the time before Three Kingdom period (AD 184/220–280), when a man serve the imperial court, they often learn martial arts, war tactic, we call it 武 , it associate with Kongfu fighting, sword wielding, physical strength, leading an army etc., also the art of education, literature, history and political study, some individual may also study astronomy and alchemy, as well as music, we call it 文, if a man is called 文武雙全 (with both quality) is a great complement and achievement, very common before AD184, give example – Cao Cao and Zhou Yu, also Guo Jia was another case of extreme intellectual aspect, if he wasn’t die at an extreme young age (37), Cao Cao would have united China, there wouldn’t be a Three Kingdom history, and he wouldn’t being beat the hell out during the Battle of Red Cliffs. If anyone watch those Chinese movie base on historical event, one will not hard to find that all the men works for the imperial court often carry a sword, it is NOT meant for decoration, they know how to use it! It also an indication of this person capable of leading army to battle!
In later period of Chinese history, the division of both aspect became very obvious since the Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907), 文官 only doing internal management and political negotiation etc., 武將 only training army and fighting war etc.
The reason I explain this because physical strength or the way western culture view of so call manly behave in Chinese culture often associate – less intellectual capacity LOL
However, a guy has more education, more intellectual capacity often appreciate among the Chinese, less physical strength always associate with less hard laboring work and more with study, more study means more wisdom, also chance to work at the imperial court, symbolize the prosperity of the family. If a woman chose a husband in old time, they were more often pick a guy with less physical strength more education, 文武雙全 (with both quality) was extremely rare after AD 618.
Just look at the Chinese folk art, specially the Chinese Opera, most of the guy in the play which associate with well education charterer, they are acting very feminine, however, does that mean these guy are not manly? That is a very big misconception, they may act very feminine in the eye of westerner, in fact the Chinese consider that is an act of a gentlemen, it has NOTHING to do with feminine at all, these guy can be very bold and manly in many aspect, they willing to die for their principle, one the most important principle 士可殺不可辱 (direct translation – a gentleman can be kill but shouldn’t be insulted), another one is 死可以輕如羽毛, 也可以重如泰山 (death can be as light as a feather, or can be as heavy as mountain Tai). Therefore, most of the educated Chinese doesn’t have gender orientation problem as much as the western culture, I would not said it is NON, only less.
But then again, don’t take my word for it, just do your own home work.
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I forgot to add, the six thousand years of Chinese culture was wipe out during the 10 years culture revolution, R.I.P.
Even if there still some small essence of that culture still mingling deep in the Chinese culture somewhere, I mean deep, means extremely deep, extremely hard to find, the new generation no longer see the Chinese ancient culture or value as a form of ancient wisdom, it also getting worse and worse, most likely eventually lost in time. If Dr. Farrell said the Chinese government very interest with Western religion or culture, I suspect that could be a indication of the government also seeing the crisis they facing for the New Chinese Generation, they are now try to save or create a new type of culture for their children, unfortunately they do not wish to revisit the old Chinese tradition, because during Culture Revolution, Confucius and Taoism been heavily attacked and destroy, by resurrecting these ideology will mean that the Chinese government acknowledged the Culture Revolution was a biggest mistake they have made, there is NO way they will admit that.
Thank you for sharing this aspect of Chinese culture. I was not aware of this.
They need to find a way to make a failure look like a flawless victory in order to make it look like they didnt fail. Can they reconcile with the culture of they’re own ancestors?