Looking Back at Home

My hometown is a village outside of Putian, Fujian, China. It’s one of the most culturally preserved areas in China, where clan shrines and statues of Guanyin Bodhisattva are ubiquitous. At the same time, it is a coastal city that’s highly developed economically, with shoe-making as its core industry. Therefore, Putian is a place where tradition and modernity fiercely collide. As a woman from this region, my upbringing was colored by the conflict between traditional notions of women’s roles in society and the concept of gender equality brought about by modern industrial civilization. Men were not seen during the day in the village where I lived as a child. They went to the shoe factory, to other cities, or worked abroad. They had the freedom to navigate the currents of their lives as they saw fit. Many women in my village did not. They were confined by their families and to the land. They not only had no opportunities to receive a good education but also had little to no occupational freedoms as well. The yard under the eaves was their only workplace. They cleaned the yard, planted vegetables, did laundry, and cooked. They were sometimes able to perform some miscellaneous tasks, such as weaving straw shoes and applying pesticides to other villagers’ vegetable fields, but the pay for these tasks was far less than men made in the factories. I don't know their thoughts on happiness, but this is how women live there even today.