The White Swan, Essay Example

What is Emily Honig’s explanation for the behavior of the female Red Guards?

Following the ideals of Mao on the emergence of relative equality among men and women especially among comrades; Honig describes the female Red Guards to be the epitome of such equality among men and women especially during the era of Cultural Revolution in China. To Honig, this idea marks the overall value of history as it makes a distinct impact on how the vision about women is actually realized especially in relation to the literary forms that have been created during the said era. The Wild Swans by Jung Chang does provide a clear picture of this particular element especially for the sake of providing a distinct description of how women were treated and given the chance to realize their worth accordingly.

How does Jung Chang’s personal description of that time add nuance and detail to Honig’s article? Do the two complement or contradict each other?

The works of Jung Chang and Emily Honig do provide distinct indication on how the women in China took differential stand in the society based on history. Practically, as Honig describes, women are given the chance to take on larger responsibilities that used to be for the men alone. This idea is supported well by the condition by which Jung Chang tried to describe the developments and changes on how the three generation of Chinese women faced the different cultural changes that occurred in the history of the nation.

Practically, it could be observed that with the changes of tides and turns in China’s history, the worth of women in the society has been slowly being realized because of the emergence of women-heroes who wanted to make a change in the situation. What makes the overall picture more vivid is the fact that the people during the time were still trying to make meaning out of the many things that have been occurring in the history of the country. It could be realized that somehow, China’s overall history presents the consideration over how gender differences are dealt with accordingly. It is with this pattern in history that makes a mark on how the modern culture in the country does provide a proper assumption of how the realization on the role and worth of the women in the Chinese society.

What does each of these two different sources of information about the Cultural Revolution contribute to your understanding of this period of Chinese history and women’s role in it? Are they equally valid? Why or why not?

While Chang’s autobiography of the three different generation of Chinese women present a distinct course of change on how women are perceived by others and how women perceived themselves accordingly. It could be realized that somehow, the realization on this matter does provide a distinct manner by which gender and Cultural Revolution become the turning point of development and progress in the country. Considerably, the life of the Chinese women at present is far much better that it has ever been in the past. In a way, Honig and Chang’s accounts prove that the road towards the recognition of women’s worth in the society and their contribution to the progress that the country hopes to embrace accordingly.

Overall, although coming from different perspectives of seeing how the history of China developed through time, Honig and Chang were both able to give distinct indication on how modern living does create a massive indication on how the history has taken into account different options of adjustments that are basically able to make a distinct impact on how the different generations perceive the value of gender differences and cultural adjustments through time.

References

Jung Chang: Wild Swans Three Daughters of China Chinese”. The Chinese Bookshop.

Honig. E. Emily Honig, “The Life of a Slogan: Maoism, Gender, and the Cultural Revolution” http://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/event/emily-honig-life-slogan-maoism-gender-and-cultural-revolution. (Retrieved on October 10, 2014).