Report Sexism in the Chinese Language Dali Tan In response to various efforts to rid language of sexism,! K. K. Ruthven, a self-styled male feminist, writes, “The phenomena feminists are con- cerned with have little to do with linguistic systems. . . . If the English language is felt to be sexist or ‘man-made,’ it must be because of how we use it rather than because of what it is.”? If Ruthven’s argument has some elements of truth for the English language, as the relatively quick success of feminists in altering standards of usage for the more blatantly discriminating aspects of English suggests, it is far from true for the Chinese language. First of all, the Chinese language has the same sexist vices as English in defining, deprecating, and ignoring women.’ Neutral occupational terms in Chinese need feminine modifiers if a woman holds the position (woman doctor, women engineer), whereas the term for a male doctor is without a gender modifier. When referring to the two sexes, males always come first: the idioms refer to men and women, husband and wife, father and mother, brothers and sisters, with the only exception being the polite form of address, “ladies and gentlemen,” borrowed from the West. In this way, language has helped to define women in their secondary place. Another aspect of defining in Chinese lies in the convention of naming. In Chinese culture there are usually different sets of names for women and for men. The traditional set for women is comprised of the ideal characteristics which men expect their women to have; for example, Xian (virtue), Jing (silent and still), Shu (beauty), Shan (slow and graceful in movement), and another Xian (gentle and refined). The character combinations for women’s names often fall into the noun + noun or adjective + noun formula: for example, Shuxian (beauty + virtue) or Correspondence and requests for rep Drive, #34, Hyattsville, Md. 20783. "TL would like to express my special thanks 10 Gris Miller of the English Department at Pomona College, Claremont, California for her help in the writing of this article. #K. K, Ruthven, Feminist Liverary Studies: An Duroducion (New York: Cambridge Un versity Press, 1984), 60. Joyce Penfield, Women and Language in Transition (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987}: Nancy M. Henley has categorized the many forms of sexism in language into three types: defining, deprecating, and ignoring. Penfield, Women and Language, 3. NWSA Journal, Vol. 2 No. 4, Autumn 1990, pp. 635-639 nts should be sent to Dali Tan, 3404 Tulane 635636 Dali Tan Jingéen (silent + fragrance). Other traditional names for girls are of flowers and jewels, such as Meilan (beautiful orchid) and Yuzhu (jade + pearl). In'sharp contrast, most of the traditional names for men are based on the verb + noun or adjective formula: Youcai (having talents), Zhifu (getting rich), Xiaozu (fulfilling filial duties to the ancestry). These names indicate and signify the parents’ expectations: women are expected to be, men to do. Corresponding to the imbalance of deprecating terms for women in English, Chinese also has more insulting terms for women than for men. To illustrate, the term “wife” has several deprecating synonyms in colloquial as well as in written vocabulary: “old woman” (even when she is a newlywed of twenty-three), “cheap inmate,” “rotten chaff” (a metaphor in Chinese meaning useless and worthless), “yellow-faced old “woman"’ also has woman,” “one who stays in my room.” ‘The term quite a few deprecating synonyms: “disastrous flood,” “tigress,” “female monster of the night,” ‘small demon,” and “fox demon.” In sharp contrast, there are no deprecating terms for man or husband. As in English, in Chinese trivialization often goes hand in hand with anything that is related to females. To illustrate, the term “little” accompanies many terms applied to females: “little girl,” “little gal,” “little wife,” “little old woman”; while the term “big” often appears before males: “big and fat son,” “big boy,” “big husband,” and “big man.” Women are commonly left out in the Chinese language, even though they constitute half of the race. “Man” in Chinese, as in English, is a generic term which can be used to refer to both sexes, whereas “woman” is always specific. This kind of practice helps to perpetuate the notion of male as norm, both at the conscious and subconscious level. In addition to sexism in idiomatic and grammar usage in Chinese, sexism can be found in the very structure of the written characters. For ‘example, the Chinese character for women is composed of a “female” part and a broom; in the character for wife, the “female” part holds a broom. In contrast, the character for man is composed of a character representing a rice field on the top and one representing strength at the bottom; the character for husband is composed of a man whose head is higher than the sky. In China, a broom is a worthless thing, while rice fields and strength are vital factors for the survival of an ancient agricultural society. Through the character for strength, men are identified with other positive qualities of character; for example, the character for strength appears in “meritorious deed,” “courage,” and “effect.” By implication, men are effective, courageous, and act meritoriously. The Chinese expression “value one’s own old broom” (cherish something of little value simply because it is one’s own) and the character for husband as written with a stroke higher than the sky (therefore what the husband says should go) vividly illustrate the sexistChinese Language 637 ideology which expects a woman to sweep the floor while her husband is the ultimate authority. The character for a man “to get married” is a sign meaning “to take” on the top, with the sign for “female” below it; the character for a woman “to get married” is “‘a female” on one side and “‘a family” on the other. Thus, marriage for a man means to take a woman, positioning her below his act of taking; marriage for a ‘woman means to go to another's (the man’s) family. Even some ostensibly positive and complimentary characters, like those for “good” and “won- derful,” on close analysis betray sexist or prejudicial ideology. The character for “good” is composed of a female and a son: 2 woman who bears a son is good. The character for “wonderful” is structured with a female on one side and young (an adjective) on the other: a young woman is wonderful. Feminist analysis provides everyone with the tools for recognizing and understanding the depth of sexism in Chinese or any other language. Chinese orthography uses the character “female” as a component part for constructing words that either have a derogatory meaning or rep- resent patriarchal standards of femininity. Examples of derogatory words include: “treacherous” (woman + to do), “ nn” (woman + to- gether), “go whoring” (woman + money), “curry favor with” (woman + eyebrow), “jealous” (woman + disease), “finicky” (woman + false), “impair” (woman + square), “slave” (woman + again), “‘evil spirit” (woman + death). Words using “women” that indicate how women should behave include: “act in submission” (crop + woman), “decoration” (clothing + woman), “‘complaisant” (woman + like [as]), “beautiful” (woman + to give, a woman who gives and sacrifices is beautiful), “charming” (woman + nothing, a woman who is nothing will be deemed charming), “peace and security” (woman under a household, signifying that only when women stay in the home will there be “peace and security” in the country), and “pleasantness” (woman + tail, implying that a woman is pleasant only when she is as submissive as a tail to the head). To verify the historical and systematic embedding of sexism in the Chinese writing system, one need only turn to Suo Wen Jie Chi by Xu Shen (composed between 100 and 121 4.v. and printed in 987 .0.), which is the most ancient and authoritative work in China about the ‘etymology of Chinese characters.‘ In it the author writes: “All characters that represent characteristics which women have or should have are composed with a female as a radical.” Xu Shen, for example, considers “envy” “characteristic of woman,” and hence explains that the character is composed of a female radical and a household because “a wife envies u Shen, Suo Wen Jie Chi (987 .0.: reprint, Beijing: China Publishing House, 1965), * Xu Shen, Suo Wen fie Chi, 258.638 Dali Tan her husband.”* The word “improper” is composed of escape on the top and a female at the bottom because if a woman escapes from her father or husband or son, it might lead to chaos: it would be an “improper” act. In this context, Xu Shen also writes: “Chaos is char- acteristic of women.”? “Avaricious” contains woods on the top and a female at the bottom because “greediness is characteristic of women."* The adjective “like” (or “‘as”) is composed of a female radical and a mouth, because as the author puts it ““Xu Kai said women should follow the teachings of their fathers and the orders of their husbands, therefore, take their meaning from their (men's) mouths."? Although Xu Shen is merely interpreting the characters, not composing them, he points out systematically what already exists in the language. Thereby, he both illuminates and authorizes the sexist patterns already set in the Chinese writing system. Given the implicit and explicit sexism in the Chinese written language, it can be both consciously and unconsciously hard for a woman to feel at ease using this language to articulate a positive sense of herself. It seems reasonable to postulate that the physical existence of a female sign in characters embodying a sexist ideology inevitably affects and influences those people who are daily exposed to this language system, even though the effects may remain entirely subconscious. It is exactly in this subconscious influence that the greatest danger lies because while it works in a vicious cycle to perpetuate sex bias, it is very difficult to bring its power to light. In November 1987, when I put forward my hypothesis about sexism in Chinese written characters at a national symposium celebrating the 140th anniversary of the publication of Char- lotte Bronté’s Jane Eyre and Emily Bronté’s Wuthering Heighis, sponsored by the Foreign Literature Research Institute at China Institute of Social Sciences in Beijing, most of the women in the audience concurred with my hypothesis: however, the men in the audience tended to feel it was of slight importance. When I came to the United States and studied the history of Anglo-American women's struggles with sexism in the English language, I found that this phenomenon of dismissing sexism in language as a trivial matter was by no means unique. Feminists in the United States have been working hard to make English gender- equal and to prove the negative results against woman of using scxist language. They have listed sex-biased words to be avoided and proposed © Xu Shen, Suo Wen fie Chi, 268. 7 Xu Shen, Suo Wow ‘ie Chi, 263 © Xu Shen, Suv Won fie Chi, 264 °'Xu Shen, Suo Wen ‘fie Chi, 162.Chinese Language 639 gender-neutral usages.'° Anglo-American feminists have done extensive empirical work on women’s and men’s use of language, while the French feminists have theorized about the relation of language to patriarchy and of women to language." Although there exists a great diversity in French feminists’ theories of how one may resist patriarchal language, they all agree that symbolism-centered language has helped men to control the world. In addition, they all endeavor to establish a separate linguistic identity for women, one which will exemplify rather than deny sexual difference. 1 hope that a similar process will be begun and eventually have some similar effects in Chinese, although greater com- plications and more profound embedding of sexism in the language necessitate that the process be much slower. Western feminist research and analysis, combined with practical experience in transforming sexist language, will help Chinese women in their efforts to make the Chinese language gender-equal. ™ Casey Miller and Kate Swift, Handbvok of Nowsexise Writing (New York: Lippincott and Crowell, 1980): and Rosalie Maggio, Nonsexia Word Finder: A Dictionary of Gender-frer Usage (Phoenix, Ariz: Oryx Press, 1987) are two of many guides (o nonsexist language use, "For examples sce, Dennis E. Baron, Gramuar and Gender (New Haven, Conn. Yale University Press, 1986); Deborah Cameron, Feminism and Linguistic Theory (New York: St Martin's Press, 1985): and Dale Spender, Man Made Language (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980),