Institute of Journalism and CommunicationChinese Academy of Social Sciences

P.O.Box 2011, Beijing 100026, P.R.ChinaTel and Fax: +8610-84251952

Email: buwei@public3.bta.net.cn

Women in the Chinese Media**

Bu Wei

May 1, 2000

* This paper was written under the auspices of the Project on LatinAmerica and the Pacific Rim at the University of California, SanDiego, where I was a visiting fellow between January 30 andMarch 14; financial support for the UCSD Project came from theFord Foundation, the Center for Global Partnership, and theUniversity of California.

2This paper will discuss ten images of women in the Chinese media. From agender perspective, three groups gender stereotypes, combiningstereotypes with gender equality; and gender equality - can be defined in theten images. The growth and decline of gender consciousness in each groupwill be analyzed. Through a brief review on the contemporary history ofwomens images in China, this paper will explore the meanings of the differenttypes of womens images.

BackgroundConsidering womens images in the Chinese media from 1994-2000, two keyfactors, which greatly influenced the issue before and after 1995, should bementioned. One is the development of the press and media industries, theother is the Womens Conference in Beijing in 1995.

The Development of the Press and Media IndustriesSince the beginning of the reformation and the opening-up policy in 1979, thepress and media industries have witnessed significant progress in China.

At the end of 1995, there were 1,202 wireless radio stations in China, 11.34times as many as 106 in 1978, broadcasting 13736 hours per day in average,and covered 78.7% of the national population of 1.2 billion. There were 187million radios possessed by the whole society and 16 radios possessed byevery 100 people1. And there were 837 TV stations in 1995, which was 22times as many as 38 in 1979, broadcasting 46,916 hours each week onaverage, and covered 84.7% population in the country. The possession of TVsets exceeds the number of radios. There were 286 million TV setspossessed by the whole society and 24 possessed by every 100 people2. In1996, the overall possession of TV sets amounted to 3.17 hundred million.The TV coverage reached 87.4% of the whole population and the number oftelevision audience is 10.94 hundred million in 1997.3. Before 1978, the mainnews media were radio and newspaper for Chinese people, but from 1980s to1990s, TV has become an important media.

Print media grew very fast at this stage as well. In 1996, 7,916 types ofperiodicals (7,918 in 1997) and 2,163 kinds of newspapers (2,149 in 1997)were published. The issuance of newspapers was 11.63 times as many as186 in 19784.

Meanwhile, new electronic media-video tape, recording cassette, VCD,electronic publications and Internet come into Chinese family life. In 1996,8,916 types of audio products (AT, CD and so on) were published and the totalamount was 146 million pieces/boxes. Moreover, 7,306 video products (VT,LD, and V-CD) were published and the total amount was 18.2381 million 1 The Beijing Broadcasting College, China Broadcasting Year Book, 19962 ditto3 Statistical Communique of the State Statistical Bureau of the People's Republic ofChina on the 1997 National Economic and Social Development, Business Weekly, March8-14, 1998.4 The Office of the Press and Publishing of China, China Publishing Year Book, 1997

3pieces/boxes5. Since April 1994, all kinds of Internet functions have beenintroduced into China. The electronic publications and Internet have beendeveloped in the high tide of universalizing the personal computer. At the endof 1996, there are 150 thousand Internet users in China. After three years, atthe end of 1999, the number of Internet users grew to 870 thousand6.

With significant changes both in quantity and quality of the content in theChinese media, the traditional press and media industries have experiencedgreat development. Before 1978, the media agencies were strictly under thecontrol of the government, as a result, most of the content in the media werelimited, of which most was used for political propaganda. But now, the mediacontent was influenced by many factors such as economic development,commercialism, local tradition, traditional culture, western media values, andthe need for an audience, in addition to the political environment. One of themost important factors is the need for an audience. Intense competitionamong media market promoted the media to become concerned for theiraudience. Because of this, many audience surveys were conducted after1980. It made media open more space for reflection and discussion on manyissues, and varieties of womens images entered into TV, newspapers,magazines, even CD-ROMs and Internet.

Since there is no tradition of media literacy or education in China, most ofpeople are not critical of media but very easy to believe in them. For Chinesepeople, media is powerful and has great influence on peoples ideas andconducts.

Influence of Womens Conference in BeijingIn 1995, the Womens Conference was held in Beijing. Before the Conference,many journalists automatically focused on women issues in the media andmade women issues become much more important than ever before. At thattime, most of journalists and writers didnt know background of genderconsciousness well, so the content about gender stereotypes and genderequality were presented together in the media. During the WomensConference, there were more than 70 forums about media and women in theNon-governmental Forum in Huairou, including the forum Media and Womenby the Women Journalists Association of Capital in China, and the forumWomens images in Film and TV by the China Film Association7. We shouldsay that these forums exerted great influence on Chinese women and media,especially The Platform for Action, which lists Women and Media as one ofthe 12 critical areas of concern under Strategic Objectives and Actions(Chapter 4). From 1995, some researchers published papers and articles,reflecting on the effect of mass media and criticized stereotypes, gender

5 Announcement made by Planning and Budgeting Department of the Administration forPress and Publication: 1996 National Situation on Video and Audio Publications, Pressand Publishing Journal, 4 April, 1997.6 According to statistics on Internet Annual Survey conducted by China InternetInformation Center in 1999.7 Bu Wei, Media and Women: the review on Media Issue in NGO Forums of The UNFourth World Women Conference, The Journal of International Communication, No 1,1996, p37-43

4discriminations, and women images as commodities in the Chinese media8. In1996, the Women Journalists Association of Capital in China initiated theWomens Media Monitoring Network. Special columns Media Watch, MediaThrough Our Eyes were opened on the China Womens News. From agender perspective, the network members challenged traditional stereotypesand gender discrimination in the news, ads, magazines, and other media.Many articles and research reports have been published9. Among them, threeimportant studies are as follows:

News. A content analysis10 on the news of 8 mainstream newspapers in 1996showed that 84% of newsmakers are men, 16% were women; 71% of allimages are men's, 29% were women's; 0.9% of news items related women'sissues or women's movement of a total 10,808 news items. In the world ofnews, men were concentrated at the decision-making level; the majority ofmale newsmakers were politicians, or heads of departments of thegovernment, organizations, and companies. Women in these categories werealso significant; but, at the same time, there were more unidentified femalesthan there are big shots; and about 11% of the female figures in the newswere simply family members (such as wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, andso on). In addition, more women were portrayed as actresses or athletes thanany other professional types. When women appeared in the news, they werelikely put in the pictures. Among all of the female images in the pictures,53.8% were young women. Ms. Feng Yuan, who conducted the study,concluded that there is unbalanced sex ratio in the world of news from officialnewspapers in China.

Ads. Compared with news, women image is highly visible in TV commercials.Conducted in 1996, an ads study11 indicated that among the 1,197 ads,35.8% (426) have one or more women's roles, 6.9% higher than thepercentage of ads with men's roles (343). The study has also found that 87%of the images are of beautiful young women out of the 517 women's roles.

The statistics indicated that 33.7% or one third of the commercials includestereotypes or gender discrimination. Although very few images representinggender equality can be found in the commercials, they are better than nothing.Compared with gender-related roles invisible 64.7% in commercials and33.7% in stereotyping commercials, only 1.6% images with gender equalitycan be found in commercials.

8 Most of articles or papers were published on China Womens News and Collection ofWomens Studies sponsored by All-China Womens Federation. Such as: Huang Mei,Analysis on Young Women Images in the Media, No. 2, 1996, Collection of WomensStudies; Jin Yihong, Womens Magazine Dont Lost Gender Consciousness for business,24th Feb.,1997, China Womens News.9 Bu Wei, Gender and Communication Policy for China, Engendering CommunicationPolicy in Asia, p8688, The Asian Network of Women in Communication, New Delhi andthe World Association for Christian Communication, London, 199710Feng Yuan, Chinas Establishmental Newspapers: The Gender Map and Beyond,unpublished.11 Liu Bohong, Bu Wei, The Research Report on Womens Images in TV Commercials inChina, Journalism & Communication, No.1, 1997, p4558.

5Magazine Womens FriendsIn the content analysis in Womens Friends from 1990-199612, the statisticsshows that in all gender-related articles 6.3% contain sexist content, while12.6% represent gender equality, and 11.4% are a mixture of genderstereotypes and equality (69.7% articles are not gender-related).

Another important finding in the study is that those articles dealing withwomen's roles are very gender-related. The statistics is showed as table 1.

Table 1: Correlation about Women's roles and Gender-Related in articlesNo womens roles Womens roles Total (1168)

No gender-related 71.4% 28.6% 833Gender-related 37.3% 62.7% 335

Chi-square = 116.164.04 Sig=.0000

It can be concluded that women are almost invisible and greatly marginalizedin the news but are highly visible in commercials. When media content containhuman roles, especially women's roles, more gender-related content arerepresented. The gender-related content includes more stereotypes as well asgender equality in the Ads and news. For magazine, some content combiningstereotypes with gender equality are found in the studies

In the above-mentioned view, the study will not provide a quantitative orcomparative analysis to find difference between male and female roles in themedia. This paper will focus on the analysis of womens images in theChinese media. It will describe and analyze three situationsgenderstereotype, combining stereotype with equality, and gender equality in themedia; discuss the meaning of womens images; and explore the reasonsabout womens images represented in the media.

Methodology

1. Gender Perspective and CommunicationOne of contribution of Western feminist theories is try to separate sex fromgender, while sex refers to the biological difference between female andmale, gender means the socially and culturally constructed perceptions,expectation, request, and evaluation based on the differences between thetwo sexes. The concept of gender clearly shows that sex stereotypes are nota natural result but shaped by social culture. As a social structure, gendercan be changed even eradicated13. Although it is difficult to find a sharpdistinction between gender and sex empirically, gender has been supportedby some researches in psychology, anthropology, sociology and other fields. Itchallenged the persistent biological determinism and has been enrolled in theanalytical category or research perspective in social sciences.

12 Bu Wei, An Analysis on Gender in the Magazine Womens Friends, 1997,unpublished.13 English-Chinese Lexicon of Women and Law, edited by Sharon K. Hom & XinChunying, UNESCO Publishing, China Translation and Publishing Corporation, 1995,145147.

6Gender difference is usually conveyed and consolidated in social systems andsocialization. Mass media, as part of the social systems as well as one of thesocialization factors, has dual effects on the audience. On the one hand,gender exists in society. Mass media based on commercialization surelyreflects gender difference if it goes after mass identity. On the other hand,mass media is also an important source of gender construction. It promotes toshape and to intensify social stereotypes or gender consciousness. In otherwords, media is capable of building gender meaning and pattern to each sex.For example, advertisements always take advantage of the values andpremises that are most familiar to the receivers, that is to say, the dominantideology in the society, to ascribe gender meaning and patterns. Women areoften portrayed as young, beautiful, gentle and obedient. In turn, mediadescriptions of women are frequently internalized into social expectations inthe minds of the audience and eventually exert influence on their perceptionsof gender and their own behaviors.

Therefore, media are perceived as the main instruments in conveyingrespectively stereotypical, patriarchal and hegemonic values about womenand femininity14. Moreover, in modern society we can see dominant ideologyhas been translated into the common sense of the audience. That is whyfeminist media study is always critical and analytic.

2. Research Resource and SamplesGenerally speaking, media content can be divided into two kinds: narrativeliterature such as films or TV serials and non-narrative such as news, Ads,personage reports, comments, essays and so on. The latter content will bediscussed in the paper.

Media resource mainly comes from five studies that were conducted from1994 to 2000 as follows:

A. Womens Images in TV Commercial of China, Journalism andCommunication, No.1, 1997, by Liu Bo Hong and Bu Wei

B. An Analysis on Gender in the Womens Friends Magazine, 1997, by BuWei, unpublished

C. A Research Report on China TV Programs for Women, 1998, by BuWei and Liu Xiao Hong, unpublished

D. Gender and Media Criticism, Ways, No.6, 1997, by Bu WeiE. Girls' Images in the Mainstream Newspapers, 2000, by Bu Wei,

unpublished

In China, most media are public media sponsored by central and localgovernments, and 47 papers and magazines for women are by All-ChinaWomens Federation and local womens federation. Besides, some publicmedia also have special programs for women. Considering balance amongtypes of media, different sponsors, and content in the media, I made

14 Liesbet van Zoonen, Feminist Perspectives on the Media, P41, Mass Media andSociety, edited by James Curran and Michael Gurevitch, 1991, Edward Arnold, a divisionof Hodder Headline PLC, UK.

7choices as follows:Table 2 studies (19942000)

Content PM or WMSpecifically

For women ornot

Sample*

Ads TV / PM NoNational Sample

1197 Adsfrom 10 TV stations (1994)

News Papers / PM No

146 news items about girl childfrom the Peoples Daily (Jan.

1,1996 March 31,2000);286 news items about childrenfrom 6 mainstream newspapers

30 May to 2 June in 1996,1997,1998, and 1999

Documentaries InterviewTalk show

TV /PM YesNational Sample450minutes from

3 TV stations(1998)

ArticlesEssays

And othersMagazines /

WM Yes

Womens Friends(1990-1996)1104 articles

from 28 issues

PM= Public MediaWM= media sponsored by Womens Federation

Perhaps it is not a representative sample because the sample is composedof four samples. But it is possible that it provides a relatively reliable pictureof the situation on the basis of considering media types, content, audience,and sponsors. For making up some loss, I will mention other resource aboutgender in the Chinese media also.

3. Analytic MethodsBasically, the text analysis method is employed in the study. Although it is nota complete and strict text because we will discuss many texts, the study willshow social ideology in texts and point out unequal power relationshipbetween men and women.

According to discussion above, three situations exist in the Chinese media, soall images will be divided into three groups on the basis of the feminist genderconsciousness:1. Representing Stereotypes2. Combining Stereotypes and Gender Equality3. Representing Gender Equality

I will choose some images as cases from the above samples to do criticalanalysis in every group. The characteristics of these kinds of images are:1. The same meaning of images (like mothers love) is repeated many times in

the media;2. Most of audience is familiar with these images or these images have greatly

influenced on audience.3. Very little people have criticized these images.Thus, 10 images like mother, wife, girl, girl friend, movie star, woman shop

8owner, female worker, rural woman, woman writer, and sportswoman werediscussed in the paper.

I. Review: Contemporary History of Womens Images in China

It is true that womens image originates from womens roles in our society. SoI would like to use four key terms to indicate womens roles in China as astarting point for discussion on womens images in my historic review.

1. WomanFor the term of woman, there are two forms of address employed by someChinese people15. One is Funuu that contains complex historic and culturalmeaning. Funuu were kept at the bottom of society for a long time, and wereconsidered miserable and backward objects liberated by the Communistrevolution in old China. After the revolution in 1949, women are given equallegal rights with men and most women have their jobs. But Funuu has been adisdainful term, which still means a woman who is married, old, backward,conservative, ignorant (or even stupid), and stays in her home as a housewife.Though official documents or media often mention Funuu as a generaldesignation, most women, especially those city women dont like to callthemselves Funuu. Another form is Nuuxing. In contrast to Funuu, Nuuxingmeans professional, young, educated well, revolutionary, independent evenfashionable. Nuuxing usually have a good job in society. From 1949, somewomen want to sever relation with Funuu identity, become a Nuuxing or newNuuxing, but they were placed in a dilemma. Women have been requested tobe like Funuu in homes and like men in their workplaces until 1979. Evenmarriage and reproduction were taken as a part of revolutionary contributionsbut its position was much lower that other jobs. Everything women did was forthe revolution such as Glory Mother16 in the 1950s and Put Birth Controlinto Practice for the Revolution17 in the 1970s. The Chinese revolutioncontains women and womens movement, Nuuxing has a very smallindependent space18.

2. From Iron Maiden (Tie Gu Niang) to Strong-minded Woman (Nu QiangRen)

During the Cultural Revolution (19661976), womens identity as mother andwife in the private sphere was almost covered. Since Maos slogan that Thetime is different, and male and female become the same had influenced 15 Some Chinese people means city women, especially women who had educated well.These women also are main audience of media. We dont know other womens ideasabout women, it is a shortcomings in the study.16 In 1950s, state called women to learn from Soviet Mother and birth more childrenbecause socialist construction need more labor force. Those mothers who have morechildren were taken as glory mother.17 More details is analyzed in the Picturing Power in the Peoples republic of ChinaPosters of the Cultural Revolution edited by Harriet Evans and Stephanie Donald, Page12, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 1999.18 About discussion on Funuu term, I consulted a paper by Li Xiao Jiang With WhatDiscourse We Think Women? edited by Qiu Ren Zong, Chinese Women and FeministThought, China Social Sciences Publishing House, 1998, p97-113.

9Chinese society. The revolution and the socialist construction required a moremasculine style, so the ideal image of women was required to be like a man.Women had to do hard work according to mens standard, and their thoughts,conduct, ability, and even body shape and dress were like that of men. As aresult, some Iron Maiden Team or March Eighth Team became a trend at thattime. I dont think that it is equal between both women and men though itseems equal on the surface. To be an iron maiden means that women enterinto social mainstream only as man can. Even though women have enteredinto the social mainstream or revolutionary team, it is very possible that herrole is still traditional. For example, women solders sewed clothes for mensolders in the famous Ballet Red Detachment of the Womens Army during theCultural Revolution. In other words, women had to conform to mens standardand think that men were superior. Compared with men, women found theirown weaknesses, and then overcame these weaknesses. It was mainly acultural autocracy because these changes came at the revolutions demandrather than by the womens choice on their own initiative.

When the Cultural Revolution was over, Chinese people formed a violentrebounding attitude toward iron women. The typical masculine men andtypical feminine women were praised highly in the media. Especially forwomen, adopting feminine characteristics such as tender, beautiful, passive,dependent and so on has become a central pursuit. This is nothing strangebecause, with the revolution, feminine characteristics were lost whilemasculine ones were kept in society. Women, and even men, needed torecover the right of choice as a compensation. Nevertheless, women aredifferent. When some women choose careers as their own pursuit and havegreat achievements in the areas traditionally dominated by males, they arecalled Strong-minded Women in the 1980s. The image of the Strong-minded Woman has replaced the Iron Maiden now. It no longer refers to arevolutionary woman, but means a professional woman. In fact, Strong-minded Women shares similar features with the Iron Maiden, in which womenenters into areas traditionally dominated by males. In the case of the IronMaiden this entails physical labor while Strong-minded Women take onintelligent or business activities. But today, Strong-minded Women are not aswelcomed as the Iron Maiden. As an invader, people naturally think thatStrong-minded Women lack femininity. This has formed an invisible pressureon women. So, In China, nobody, not even famous women, wants to be aStrong-minded Woman.

3. Virtuous Wife and Caring Mother (Xian qi liang mu)Womens images (Nuuxing Xingxiang) have been a big issue in the Chinesemedia from the 1980s to 1990s. As the above mentioned, rebounding fromthe Cultural Revolution, the traditional womens roles (virtuous wife and caringmother) have re-entered our society; while modern beauties and sexy imageshave arisen on television, on the covers of magazines and in somenewspapers, and have gradually become the dominant images. Virtuous Wifeand Caring Mother reflect traditional feminine characteristics, and beautiesand sexy images reflect more modern ones. In addition to the Strong-mindedWomen dilemma, two images left many women felt puzzled. How does a

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woman be a woman today? What are our images today? The discussion onthe role of women and womens image was initiated by the Journal of ChinasWomen, China Womens News, Workers Daily, Guangming Daily andothers19.

Most discussion focused on whether women should be strong-minded or justremain as a Virtuous Wife and Caring Mother. Because of womensreproductive ability, they are taken as innately virtuous wives and caringmothers, and not suited as professional women in society. Someone evenproposed that a woman should sacrifice her career to ensure her husbandssuccess (Er Bao Yi). This idea is well reflected in the common slogan Behindeach successful man, you will find a virtuous and great wife. Some womenwanted a compromise proposal in which they will be strong-minded in theircareers and to be good a wife in their family, but it was refused by most ofwomen because they will meet a heavy double burden in that situation.

In the discussion, the need for state, economic development, and the needs ofmen were emphasized repeatedly and womens need and initiative weregreatly ignored. Some papers and articles suggested that women go home tobe virtuous wives and caring mothers so that more positions for men areavailable and the states employment crisis is resolved 20.

It seems that the traditional feminine image contradicts with that of the Strong-minded Women. However, neither refuses modern femininity. We can see thatstrong-minded women use make-up when they are represented on TV orother media, and in public, wives and mothers also hope that they becomemore beautiful and young through some artificial means. As replenishment,modern femininity makes strong-minded women more feminine and wives andmothers more modern, so that their roles will meet with the social requests.

4. FeministWhen the term feminist entered into China from 1995, most people did not likeit. They though of it as reflecting the strong-minded women image. It wasconsidered to be dangerous, because feminist would want more rights thanmen or would want to share rights and power with men. Thus in China, thecommon understanding for feminist is a radical even terrible woman. Scholarsalso debated the translation of feminist. In Chinese, there are two translationsfor feminist. One is Nv Xing Zhu Yi Zhe, that has a less political, but morefeminine meaning. Another is Nu Quan Zhu Yi Zhe that means womens rightsand power. In the Chinese context, womens primary problem is fighting forrights or separating women from the state and revolution and this is verycontroversial21. Nu Quan Zhu Yi Zhe is considered western, and implieswomen want rights and powers. But in China, the 1949 revolution gave equal

19 Edited by Womens Study Institute of All-China Womens Federation, Reference onWomens Studies, 1999, unpublished.20 Lin Song Le, Discussions on Gender Roles, Equality and Development, edited by LiXiao Jiang, Zhu Hong and Dong Xiu Yu, San Lian Shu Dian, 1997, p385-388.21 Li Xiao Jiang, With What Discourse We Think Woman, Chinese Women and FeministThought, Edited by Qiu Ren Zong, China Social Sciences Publishing House, 1998, p97113.

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legal rights to women. All womens movements are closely related to stateand social development. Therefore, for Chinese women, perhaps they needindependence from the state and recover their self-consciousness and abilityto decide for themselves. In this sense, Nu Xing Zhu Yi Zhe is better.

We can see that womens images in contemporary history are complexbecause many terms like Funuu, Nuu Xing, Iron Maiden, Strong-mindedWoman, Virtuous Wife and Caring Mother, and feminists can explain a part ofwomens images in China. Moreover, these terms have interweaving historicrelations, and influence each other. But we still find a clue for understandingwomens images as follows:

Funuu Nuuxing

Virtuous wife Modern Beauty strong-minded women feministsCaring mother

Clearly, Funuu represent traditional role in the private sphere, while Nuuxing ismore independent in public sphere. Of course it doesnt mean that thedifference is absolute.

Besides, Strong-minded Women has some big differences with feminists,their characteristics are as follows:

Strong-minded Woman Feminists Have abilities like men Keep the initiative in ones own hands Personal struggle Womens overall interests Almost passive under the pressure Active, proceed and have of society and others gender consciousness

Unlike Strong-minded Women, Feminists keep the initiative in their own handsrather than claim to have more ability than men; are concerned aboutwomens interests as a whole rather than only emphasize personal struggle.Feminists have more gender consciousness, so they are active, but mostStrong-minded Women began their personal struggle under the pressure ofsocial or other factors. Therefore, Strong-minded Women are very differentfrom feminists.

II. Gender in the Media

1. Gender stereotypes in the media

The term Stereotype, taken from printing, denotes something fixed andlacking in originality. As an ideological discursive strategy, stereotype reinforcethe dominant discourse through categorizing the roles and characteristics ofwomen which are viewed as essentially different from those of men. Withinthis dichotomous opposition the feminine is categorized as inferior, while the

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masculine is valorized. The stereotyped ideal woman is the nurturing wife,mother or muse constructed through the scopic gaze of the male22. In thiscontext, womens needs and subjectivity are greatly ignored, and femininity,based on stereotypes shaped by social culture, is stressed repeatedly.Stereotypic images are mainly mother, wife, girl, girlfriend, movie star andothers in Chinese media.

1. MotherMother's love is often used as a topic in the media including news, ads, andmagazines. When media talk about mothers, they speak highly of mothersdedication for her family in almost all reports. Mother's love is great becauseit is self-giving. Most articles and news in the media never talk about mothersown person-hood, social role, personality, interests, personal developmentand rights to life selection. In fact, media suggested that self-development isnot significant when a woman become a mother. Sometimes mothers in themedia are poor, and occupy lower social positions, but they have sacrificedthemselves in order to their sons have more bright future and higher socialposition.

2. WifeSimilar to mothers, the wifes role also implies dedicating herself to her family.The mother sacrifices herself for her children and the wife sacrifices herself forher husband. Most media highly praised women who sacrifice their lifetimeand devote themselves to household work so as to ensure their husbandssuccess. This idea is well reflected in the popular slogans Behind eachsuccessful man, a virtuous wife can be found. and in the propaganda onwomen models Solders Wife (Jun Sao) conducted by media. There weremany details about family life in the media, including wife served as a servantand cooker and secretary for her husband. For example, a man expressed hisgratitude to his wife in a letter, because the wife said to her husband, if it isnecessary that one sacrifice for another between us, I will sacrifice myself tobe a virtuous wife and caring mother. The husband said that he thanked hiswife because she really fulfilled her promise.23

The study on TV commercials24 showed that a womans position is withinfamily. Of the commercials with identifiable show-up spots, female rolestypically show up in two kinds of scenes: the family which accounts for 50.8%of the total; big or top grade entertainment centers which account for 30.2%,and others are 19%.

Women play the leading role mainly in commercials for clothing andcosmetics, family appliances as well as food and drinks, and percentages are60.8%, 44.7% and 35% of the total (including advertisements involving nohuman roles) respectively. For example, all the commercials for washingmachines and detergents in all five regions have women as the leading 22 Edited by Sarah Gamble, Critical Dictionary of Feminism and Postfeminism ,Routledge, New York, 1999, p323.23 Writing to My Wife from Afar, Womens Friend, No.3, 1992, p32.24 Liu Bohong & Bu Wei, Womens Images in the TV Commercials in China, Journalism &Communication, No.1, 1997.

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household roles. But male voices appear more often than that of femalevoices in all categories of commercial except for those for public welfare. Menare dominant not only in knowledge and the intellectual world (like ads for Sci-tec and electronic products, 85.1% of voice are mens) also in family. Mennarrators in the ads for clothing and cosmetics, household wares orappliances, food and drinks are 69.6%, 74.4% and 75.5% respectively. Thegeneral pattern is to have men tell women how to wash cloth, how to sweepthe floor and so on.

Today, most of women have their own jobs. Media still suggested thathousehold duties are the wifes responsibility. These kinds of reports aboutfamous and successful women always stress it, so many successful womenoften feel uneasy and used to apologize to their husbands for being too busywith their work to do more household. If a woman makes great achievementsand is famous, media journalists used to ask her how she managed tobalance work and housework, whether her husband were satisfied with her,and whether she is a good wife. It reminds women that wifes primary duty islooking after her family. A good woman must be a good wife, if she issuccessful in society and simultaneously is good wife in her family, she is agood woman. A woman will not be considered as a woman if her husbanddoes more housework. It is very different from the evaluation of a successfulman.

3. GirlfriendGirlfriends in the media arouse peoples imagination of young, beautiful andvirtuous girls. Besides young and beautiful characteristics, their role is muchlike the wifes. That is to say they usually dedicate themselves to theirboyfriends career. In a male writers story about his girlfriend, he describesthe only reason to love a directors daughter is that he wants to be an actor.The girl knew the truth but she decided to help her boyfriend. The manhighly praised her girlfriends selflessness and said that girlfriends love hadbecome his stepping-stone25.

Sometimes girlfriends are students in universities. In the Womens Friendsample, 13.8% of these roles are female students. They are young, romantic,knowledgeable, virtuous, tender and passive. In an article, a female studentdescribed her transition from tomboy to Fair Maiden (Shunuu). Sheexplained that she could not find a boyfriend if she keeps her personality andfreedom. She has to change herself and become a tender and virtuous girl.When she tried hard to do it, a good man would find her and love her. FairMaiden means that a girl is well-educated and very traditional. Men like thisbecause the dual characteristics are beneficial to men.

4.GirlImages of girls in the media fall into two categories. One is the city image thatshows girls as naive, innocent, pure, beautiful and happy. Their images arealways represented in news reports about various festivals. Followingpictures26 showing typical city images. 25 Lan Ni, Womens Friend, No. 3, 1992, p 37.26 China Womens News, June 1, 1999.

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Another image is the rural image. After 1995, young girls development in ruralareas has become an important issue in the media. But the content analysisabout Peoples Daily (from Jan 1, 1996 to March 31, 2000) showed that 82%of girls images are passive. Among them, 33% of the images depict girlsreceiving financial aide because their family cant afford for them to go toschool; 46% of the images convey sympathy because of their unluckyexperience. In 6 news items girls are participants, but they are still passive.This kind of news showed that girls are always invited by some agencies toattended some festival activities. They are only onlookers in news. Asaudience, we can see sponsors love, but we cant find girls experience,

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feelings, requests, and opinions. Girls are usually silent and there is nearly novoice from them27.

Both images of girls have a common characteristicthey are passive. Thecity girl image is taken as an ornament for society or festival. The rural girlimage is taken as a mean of representing adults morals superiority complexor advertisement.

The slogan for rural girls education Todays Girl, Tomorrows Mother showedgirls as tools. Many articles and news stories stressed that girls education isvery important because a girl means a good mother who will have goodchildren and good family. The slogan stressed girls future family role ratherthan girls rights. Girls should enjoy their education and development nomatter whether they will be mothers or not. As a stereotype, the Mother roleenveloped girls rights. Of course most girls are future mothers and they willgive their contribution to childrens education, family economy, and communitydevelopment if they had good educational background, but that is not the onlyreason why we must help them or that a girl should enjoy developmentalrights. Education is a process of empowerment. Girls will obtain power andability to make their own decisions in life through education.

5. Movie Stars or ModelsMovie or TV stars and models are popular images in the media. The study onWomens Friends pointed out that 24.1% of women's roles are movie stars ormodels28.

We can see that mass media are more interesting in description Stars ormodels appearance, body shape, voice and feeling than their performance oracting. Beautiful and sexy is usually the focus of description and comment.For example, a writer enumerated 41 reasons for top 20 women stars. Amongthem, only 3 are related to performance, other comments describe a sexysmile, sexy femininity, sexy lips which arouse imagination, stimulating bodyand expression and so on. The writer chose Li Zhi to be a star because she ismans hope by God29. In another article, the writer described some famousmen choosing the Top 4 Beautiful Legs. These men in Hong Kong praisedthat charming legs will attract the focus of mens eyes30. A woman star is nota whole person. She is cut into a part of her body for mens admiration. Asaesthetic subjects, men have power to nit-pick. Thus their expatiation onwomens appearance and body shape virtually controls women.

6.Female Shop OwnerAa ChunThe image of the female shop owner was taken from the leading lady AaChun in a TV series named Beijinger is in the New York broadcast in 1994.

27 Girls Images in the Mainstream Newspapers, 2000, Bu Wei, unpublished

28 Bu Wei, An Analysis on Gender in the Magazine Womens Friends, 1997,unpublished.29 20 Top Women Movie Star, Womens Friends, No. 4, 1990, p35.30 4 Top Beautiful Legs in Hong Kong, Womens Friends, No. 4, 1993, p46.

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Aa Chun owned a small shop and also was portrayed in the series as a lover.There were many comments on Aa Chun in the media in the 1990s,because Aa Chun is taken as a perfect woman image who has dual traditionaland modern characteristics. Aa Chun is beautiful, kindhearted, deeplyconscious of the righteousness of a cause, self- sacrificial, but someonepointed out that it is not enough to be a good woman. Only traditional roleallows men to feel weary. An article summarized that Aa Chun has modernfour feelings (si qing) besides traditional characteristics as follows:

True feeling (Zhen Qing) -- - womens love for men is unconditional;Only feeling (Zhuan Qing) -- - womens love for men is unchangeable in herlife;Inciting feeling (Shan Qing) -- women can incite mens love and desire;And amorous feeling (Feng Qing)-- women should be flirtatious but inexcellent taste. 31

Comments on Aa Chun conveyed that women should learn to meet mensdifferent needs. In the relationship between women and men, men havepower to pick up or appreciate women, while women are passive anddependent.

It is noticeable that there are two kinds of role in text with gender stereotypes.One is mother or wife or girlfriend, in a family role, sacrificing themselves totheir children or husbands. Another is star or female student, as a beauty, theyare gazed upon by men. Aa Chun, as a lover, contains characteristics of twokinds. Girl images are also beautiful, naive, weak and passive. Sometimesthey are taken as a tool. Womens appearance, character and life value isviewed from an androcentric position, namely that they must meet mensneeds of gaze, appreciate and sacrifice. It denies womens independentselfhood, and shows inequality between women and men.

2. Text That Combing Gender Stereotypes and Gender Equality

Different from images containing gender stereotypes, most images ofpeasants and workers contain a mixture of gender stereotypes and equality.

7. Rural WomenRural women are often represented in two kinds of roles in the media. One isthe image of being very poor. Journalists or writers may describe miserablestories about them. Another image is that of being successful. journalists orwriters may tell you stories in which rural woman make great achievementsthrough their very hard efforts. Readers cant believe that a rural, evenilliterate woman can have such achievements that change her and her familysfuture. Of course both roles have news value. In addition, the latter one hasbeen encouraged by the news policy propaganda by positive examples"(zheng mian xuan chuan) in China. So rural women are visible in mainstreammedia including city magazine such as Womens Friend. It is of equalsignificance that while media made rural women visible and reflected their

31 The God Give Women Four Feelings, Womens Friends, No.2, 1995, p62.

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situation, it is not complete enough, since the media still places value on thefact that rural women sacrifice themselves for their family or village. Forexample, some writers challenged the popular slogan Behind eachsuccessful man, you will find a virtuous wife when they talk about severalrural womens stories in an article why do great women stand behind men inWomens Friends.32 They suggested that successful mens wives shouldaccept honor from society along with their husbands, if society really praiseswives for their housework and support. But at the same time, these writersappreciated womens dedication to their career even when those wives aremore much capable than her husband. A rural woman who does all thehousework, earns money for her husband, willingly endures her husbandsbad temperament is called a virtuous wife in the article. Generally speaking, inthe countryside, women have a lower position than city women. But whenmedia talk about development, rural womens rights, independence andperson-hood are still greatly ignored. It sounds like only when women supporttheir husbands can they get their interests from economic reform, or womencontribute themselves to society through contributing themselves to theirhusband. Thus, a woman is still not an independent person.

8. Female Laid off WorkersLike images of rural women in the media, media have made female laid offworkers visible and represented their images in a positive light. We willanalyze a program from the Women & Children Channel of the Sichuan CableTV.

The ten shows are a series on laid-off women workers entitled Walk Out,There Is the Sky Ahead. We choose four shows as analytical examplebecause four women have different characteristics as examples of re-employment, whose basic conditions are indicated in Table 3.

Table 3 An Analysis of Womens Programs of theWomen & Children Channel of the Sichuan Cable TV

Index Worker 1 Worker 2 Worker 3 Worker 4new job Saleswoman

of lifeinsurance

owner &photographer

grocery vendor sales manager

age middle aged Middle aged older middle agedappearance Mediocre mediocre mediocre mediocreBody shape Medium medium a bit plump medium

type ofpersonality

Educatedwith no

professionalskill

Educated withprofessional skill

uneducated noprofessional

skill

educated andprofessional

skill

viewsexpressed

Womenshould learnfrom theirstruggle to

survive

Work hard to intheir pioneerwith specialty

dont be shy tostart over again

where theresa will, there is away to survive

32 Why Do Great Women Stand Behind Men, Womens Friends, No.2, 1995, p12.

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way ofpresentation

Arduouscourse to selllife insurance

Emotionalrecalling

sorting outvegetables

handlingbusiness in

office

conflicts

Frustrated atbeing laid off,

new jobchallenging

Husband andwife both were

laid off

both man andwoman were

laid off as theyneared

retirement, lifeis hard

how to fact thereality

social values

one must lovewhatever sheis hired to do

Being laid offone should tapher potential

with theunemployment

experience

one mustendure

hardships afterunemployed

one must bewilling to do

ordinary workregardless ofpayment ,asthe gold will

always glisten

As indicated in Table 3, the program producers are much concerned withordinary womens fates, and the anchor emphasized time and again that theprograms we produce are about grassroots working women. In this series, allthe women are represented as in their middle or elder ages (In reality, mostlaid-off women workers are in or above middle age), whose shapes aremedium or slightly plump. Unlike some womens programs that tend to showmore interest in good-looking, and white-collar office young women who arefashionably dressed, the journalists worked in the program are moreconcerned with the surviving conditions of women in difficulties and theirpossible future, and full of encouragement to them.

What the programs advocated are as follows: One in adverse environment should not wait for or rely on others but muststruggle and study hard and must learn and make perfect herself perfect inthe struggle (from the saleswoman of life insurance);

So long as you start over and over again so that you can always find yourplace for survival. It is necessary to endure hardships and walk aheadbravely (from the grocery vendor);

There is nothing to fear when you get laid off. What you fear should be yourown passiveness, and Being laid off offers you an opportunity to test yourselfin every respect, but you must not aim too high and you should be willing todo ordinary work (from the sales manager).

Through the experiences of four women who are or not educated and have ordo not have professional skill, the producers tried to show that whatever thecase, so long as one tries hard and does not wait passively, one can get towork again and rediscover her happiness. Perhaps it is too high a standard formost women. Because personal success depends on both personal effortsand social conditions.

The laid-off women workers were presented as a topic based on the

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assumption that more female than male workers have been laid off and it ismore difficult for women to be rehired than men. Why is it? Some studiesindicated that womens family burdens are highly related to their ability, whichin turn may affect their employment33. This is not only a problem of womenthemselves, but also a social problem.

In discussing the issue of women being laid off, such programs describedmore about womens personal struggles rather than paid attention to genderequity. Whether they have equal opportunities and rights to choose with menthrough their personal struggle merit media attention. If not, it will be likely thatwe are blaming laid off women workers, implying that they are nothardworking enough and it is their own fault if they fail to find a new job. As aresult, Laid off women workers are likely to be regarded as a SocialProblem.

Many programs or articles and reports often use words like Staunch,Earnest and down-to-earth, Hardworking, and Simple to presentsuccessful female workers story. It should be pointed out that such words arethe most commonly used expressions for Chinese women. In the series, theanchor emphasized that Earnest and down-to-earth, hardworking areunique characteristics for Chinese women. When covering the issues ofgetting laid off women workers reemploy the media love to stress that womenworkers should be realistic. In this context, womens pursuits forindependence, equal opportunities, individual choice and positive tests of newexperience might be neglected. It is really worthy of discussion for womensprograms to decide from which perspective to cover the personal struggle ofLaid off women workers.

3. Gender EqualityIn the gender equality content, media challenge gender stereotype, and affirmwomens subjectivity, self-consciousness and independence. The text withgender equality represented a diversity of womens image. Women are notonly wives or mothers but also any person they want to be.

9. SportswomanSportswomen are much easier to be seen as independent images, becausethey have their own careers, and rely on more fairly competitive system todecide their position in sport career. An article Love in the Shooting Rangefrom Womens Friends showed the life of a couple who are shootingchampions in Shannxi Province. Having married and given birth to a baby,they have to make decision just like most of Chinese people. In the traditionalgender division of labor, wives have to give up their own career to supporttheir husbands success. But, considering the wife had the same bright future

33 Women Work Committee of the Central Committee of the Chinese Public Party andthe Women Studies Institute of All-China Women Federation: On the Laying Off ofWomen Workers -- A Survey Report on Re-employment Situation, Collection ofAcademic Reports on Women Studies, edited by Women Studies Institute, All-ChinaWomen Federation, 1998.

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as the husband in shooting, they help each other in life and decided tocontinue shooting together. The writer complimented their real and equallove34.

10. Woman WriterSome women writers in China pay more attention to gender issue. Hu Xin, amiddle-aged writer is an interview program on CCTV35. The anchor askedthree questions in the talk show:

Q: Why did you start writing after you reached your middle age?Hu: I did not ponder on many questions until I reached my middle age. Forinstance, in the novel of Entering the Middle Age, it is the man who sacrificeshimself to the woman. If the woman sacrifices herself to the man, the novelmay not be so sensational. I also pondered on many other things aboutwomen and wanted to speak them out, pour out, so I began to write novels.

Q: What kind of women do you most respect?Hu: Ordinary women who know what they should do. Womens independencedoes not mean being antagonistic to men. Women and men are just like thestructure of the Chinese character Ren or Human beings, which relies onthe mutual support. Independence has a two-fold meaning, which is that oneshould not be dependent on man, nor should she Selflessly sacrifice herselfto man. Women should not lose themselves. Half of the military medalbelongs to me, while the other half belongs to you. But after all it is won bythe man. Even the husband and daughter would not regard your sacrifices asvaluable. Some couples used to stand on the same starting point, but thewomen sacrificed their own career for the men. When the men get itdeveloped, they feel the women no long match them and want to divorce thewomen. In the old days people would reproach the men, saying they wereUngrateful, and showing sympathy for the women. But now people wouldthink the women deserved it since they gave up themselves.

Q: How should a man approach womens independence?Hu: Womens independence does not lie in the fact whether your are marriedor not, whether you have a child or not, whether you do housework or not. Itlies in that whether it is your own choice or not, rather than a choice made foryou by the man. The man should not assume that it doesnt matter if youshould have a child or not. It matters very much. If the woman does not wantto have a child, is unwilling to do the washing, or if she likes computers, youcannot say she is not a woman. There are various men and there are variouswomen. So men should also readjust themselves psychologically and changetheir values.

From the above three questions and answers, we can see that Hu Xin is awoman who has gender consciousness and can challenge traditionalstereotypes and discriminations. 34 Love in the Shooting Range, Womens Friends, No.7,1990, p14.35 A Research Report on China TV Programs for Women, 1998, by Bu Wei and Liu XiaoHong, unpublished

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The table 4 displays the 10 type women images in the Chinese media:Table 4 Characteristics of Womens Images

Types Roles Main Characteristics1.Mother Self-giving2.Wife Self-Sacrificial

4. Girlfriend

Have good backgroundEducated well

Young and romanticSelf-sacrificialFair maiden

Tender

4.Girl

Naive, innocentVirtuousBeautifulPassiveAcceptor

Future mother (tool ofreproduction)

5.Movie stars or models Beautiful and Sexy

GenderStereotypes

6.Shop owner(Aa Chun)

TenderFlirtatious

Self-sacrificialClever and capable

7.Rural women

Poor but work hardContributiveSuccessful

Attach themselves to theirhusbands or family or society

Not independentNot related to womens rightText that Combing

Gender StereotypesAnd

Gender Equality

8.Female workers

StaunchEarnest

down-to-earth HardworkingSimple

ContributiveIndependent

But not related to womensright

9.Sportswoman

IndependentChallengingSelf-decided

InitiativeEqual with menGender

Equality

10.Woman Writers

IndependentChallengingSelf-decided

InitiativeHas Gender Consciousness

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III. Discussion

Womens Images in the Chinese media are showed as follows:

Traditional Modern Funuu Nuuxing

Virtuous wife beauty strong-minded feministsCaring mother women

1.wife 2.mother 3.model

4.girl

5. shop owner 9.sporter

6.girlfriend 10.writer 7.peasant 8.female worker

1. Meaning of Womens Images

We can see that the roles of mother and wife are limited in the frame ofstereotype. The writers subconsciously showed that mother and wifescontribution and sacrifice to husbands or children in the media. The identity ofmother and wife means that women no longer belong to themselves whenthey become mothers and wives. Their only duty is to contribute to the basisof the traditional sex division of labor. It is very different from the identity ofhusband and father.

Model or film stars are usually viewed as Modern Nuuxing because they arepublic personages rather than traditional house wives. Their characteristics ofstrong-minded woman or professional women are greatly covered in themedia, but their beautiful appearance and sexy body are stressed from mensperspective and employed to meet mens need of gaze.

Girls role has feminine characters like Funuu such as naive, passive,beautiful and happy. They are weak and need help. Besides, they are takenas future mothers. Audience can not find their independent voice from media.

Girlfriend and peasant are typical double roles in our society. In their career,they are Strong-minded Women, but their position or education background isemployed to serve men. In their family, they must be virtuous wife and caringmother.

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In the sample, female workers were not strongly taken as the role of goodwife, but social expectation like down-to-earth, Hardworking, and Simpleon female worker imply that women are more suited for simple and inferiorlabor. Under the pressure of survive, they were forced to be independent frommen or society, adapt themselves to economic market in reform. They aresuffering images in the media.

Shop owner (Aa Chun) is the most complex role. As an ideal woman image,she can sacrifice her life to lover, and at the same time, she is a modernstrong-minded woman. Besides, she has also sexy feature and can attractmen. Of course she is mans gift by God, because she can satisfy mensneeds.

The above 8 types of roles have a common ground. They build their lives onthe basis of others needs, mostly mens. They lost themselves and cantrealize their own needs. Therefore, they dont keep the initiative in their ownhands, and they cant make independent choices. Strong-minded Womenseems independent, but we still find that Strong-minded Women is judged bymens criteria. First, people usually think that women are not equal to men inabilities. If some women have the same abilities as men, they becomeStrong-minded Women. That is why we dont call Strong-minded men.Second, we can find that most Strong-minded Women have madeachievements in areas traditionally dominated by males such as science,technology, or business. If a woman is a good actress or model or nurse,nobody call her Strong-minded Woman. Thus, Strong-minded Woman isbestowed with the meaning like Men. Because most people felt arepugnance to the Cultural Revolution, they disliked Strong-minded Womenas well. In reality, when one calls a woman Strong-minded Woman, it is truethat there are many complex meanings, that can imply admiration, ridicule, orjealousy. At least, people think that Strong-minded Woman does not havefeminine characteristics. It means that Strong-minded Woman is notbeautiful, doesnt care about her husband or children and does houseworkand so on. In the media, when writers want to admire Strong-mindedWoman, they must show Strong-minded Woman how to do housework forfamily members or how to love her husband so that they can keep balancewith reality. That is why we can see women scientists wash vegetables on TVand hear from TV that she is a good wife, but never men. In fact, it also hintsbroadly that housework is only womens responsibility. Therefore, womeneither have a small independent space after they have finished feminineduties or they are forced to be strong because of poverty or difficulties likemost of female workers or peasants, Strong-minded Women doesnt meangender equality. The image maintains traditional culture in which womenarrange their lives centered on men.

But, it is very different if Strong-minded Woman is related to feminist. Thestory of Sportswoman is a good example. Women of this category meet thesame problems as other women--- the contradiction between career andfamily. But, she chose and kept her life through consultation with husband.Though she didnt know what a feminist is, she refused to stay centered onmen and she kept the initiative in her own hands.

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Though the term feminist didnt emerge in the text about her, the womenwriter is classified into feminist in the sample. Because she has gone beyondthe stage in which women are requested to have the same abilities as men,and has been aware that a woman should be independent from men to createher own life. It doesnt mean that feminists must contradict with the role of thevirtuous wife and caring mother. As the writer pointed out, if a woman caninitiate, choose, and control her own live, she will be independent no matterwhat she does.

Moreover, these 10 images can be classified into 4 groups according tocharacteristics the images have:

1) Virtuous wife and caring mother: mother, wife, girl, girlfriend, shop owner,peasant;2) Beauty: girl, movie star, shop owner;3) Strong-minded Women: girlfriend, peasant, shop owner, female worker, andsportswomen;4) Feminist: writer.

These four groups formed the picture of womens images in the Chinesemedia. Traditional androcentric culture, modern commercialization, theinfluence of Chinas socialist movement, and western feminists mouldtogether the images of women in China. Comparing with feminists, otherimages are not more independent from men or the state. Feminist imagesacted independently and with the initiative in their own hands, but their voiceis very weak now in the Chinese media.

2. Why Are These Images?Why are images of mothers, wives, models or movie stars, girls, girlfriendsand shop-owners more likely to become stereotypic roles? From anandrocentric perspective in society, mothers and wives fulfill only a subsidiaryrole in families, so their primarily responsibility is to look after family. Thoughbeautiful and sexy models and movie stars are not family roles, they cansatisfy mens need of gazing. Thus the female body is employed to stimulateconsumption of the audience. Girls and girlfriends are taken as future mothersor beauties, so they are represented in a more feminine manner in the media.At the same time, androcentric culture doesnt give up the requirement thatwomen should be good wives or mothers. Aa Chun is a typical role.

Since 1949, women have been entitled equal rights in political, economic, andfamily spheres and equal pay for the equal work. Most women have movedout of their homes and have a job or took part in the labor force. A statistic in1992 indicates that the rate of employment among women above 15 years oldis 72.33%36. When the media describes female workers or peasants as themain force among women for economic construction in China, the media

36 The Situation of Chinese Women by the Information Office of the State Council of thePeoples Republic of China, Page 15, 1994

25

inevitably displays womens achievement in the socialist construction, if mediacan truly reflect reality. But when the media explains female workers andpeasants issues in accordance with social value of mainstream, gender biascan be found.

Sportswomen occupy a special group in China. From 1949 to 1993,sportswomen had greater achievements than sportsmen in swimming,volleyball, soccer and some other games. In China, 59% of worldchampionships out of a total of 755 were won by women, and 63% worldrecords, out of a total of 725 were broken and exceeded by women37.Women have risen and men declined describes the situation well. Manysportswomen are independent from men and joined fair competition in thefield. Their special experience made them different from other women andstronger than other women. Like sportswomen, women writers are also in aspecial group. Their travel, experience and consideration of womens lifevalue enable them to easily find womens problems in the society, andbecome writers who have feminist thoughts. Thus, they can issue differentvoice in the media.

It is clear that the relationship between the medias reality and social realitywere involved in the discussion. When the media reflects reality well, genderstereotypes and gender equality in reality would be represented into media;but when the media focuses on some issues and stress certain ideas (likeshowing women woman scientist washes vegetables on TV), perhaps morestereotypes are represented in media than in reality. It is another big issueand needs further discussion.

IV. Conclusion

Womens images in the Chinese media are diversified. Under the influence oftraditional culture, Communist ideology and western values, not only variedwomens images shown in the media, but also many different gendercharacteristics were represented into the image. From gender perspective,womens images can be divided into three groups in the study. (1) In the textswith stereotypes, most of the women roles are family roles or young and prettygirls. Womens appearance, characteristics and life value are viewed fromandrocentrism. It means women must meet with mens needs for an objectupon which to gaze, appreciation and sacrifice. It denies womensindependent selfhood, and shows unequal power structures between womenand men. (2) Mixture texts combing stereotypes and gender equality mainlyrepresented female peasants and workers who have personal history ofstruggle. On the one hand, mass media made visible efforts from femalepeasants and workers, confirm their contribution to society or family, reflectinggender equality. But on the other hand, media greatly ignored womens rights,independence and person-hood. (3) Roles appearing in the texts with genderequality are sportswomen and women writer. They are capable of choosingand arranging their own life. They challenge gender discrimination and

37 Ditto, Page 26, 1994

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stereotypes, and affirm womens subjectivity, selfconsciousness andindependence.

According to characteristics of womens images, virtuous wives and caringmothers, beauties, Strong-minded Women and feminists formed the picture ofwomens images in the Chinese media. We can see that traditionalandrocentric culture, modern commercialization, the socialist womensmovement, and feminism mould together the images of women in China. Inthe four images, only the feminist image acted independently and with theinitiative in their own hands, though the voice is very weak now and even theterm of feminist is almost invisible in the Chinese media.

* About Sample1.TV Ads SampleThis is a national sample within mainstream media in Chinas Cities. According to the geographicdistribution, level of economic development and cultural features, 10 TV stations in five cities composedthe sample station. 4878 Ads from 6pm to 10pm on the third and fourth day of each month from Augustto December in 1994 were collected. Based on the minimum sample size required of the simplestrandom sampling and with confidence at 95 % and maxim tolerance at 3%, the equidistant sampling(including Ads repeated in different TV stations) was made in the light of the percentage of the samplesize to the total number of Ads. The sample situation is shown as the table below:

Sample on TV AdsRegions Features Sample

SizeCCTV, Beijing TV The capital, relatively developed economically,

representing the culture of the Central Plain or center ofthe country

270

Shanghai TV1,Dongfang TV

East China, developed economically, representing thecultrue typical of the coastal region

282

Gansu TV,Lanzhou TV

Northwest China, underdeveloped economically,representing the cultrue of the West

146

Guangdong TV,Guangzhou TV

South China, pilot region for economic reforms, developedeconnomically, representing the culture of the region southof Nanling Mountain

172

Liaoning TV, Shenyang TV

Northeast China, relatively developed economically,representing the culture of the Songhuajiang and LiaoheRiver

327

10 stations in total 1197

2.Sample on TV Program for WomenSince there was no special statistics on programs for women available before, we conducted telephonesurveys on all the 32 central, provincial and municipal TV stations around the country in 1998. Up toOctober 1998, 7 or 22% of the 32 TV stations at the central, provincial and municipal levels establishedtheir special programs for women, while 25 or 78% of the stations did not have such programs.The three TV stations chosen for the case study are CCTV, Liaoning TV and the Women & ChildrenChannel of the Sichuan Cable TV. Among them CCTV is the only national TV network in China, theWomen & Children Channel of the Sichuan Cable TV is the only provincial channel specially for women,while Liaoning TV womens Program is chosen at random among the six provincial stations that haveprograms for women. The case study includes two parts: an analysis of the text on the programscontent and an interview with the producers.3.Womens Magazine SampleIn China, almost womens magazines are sponsored by local Womens Federation. Founded in July1988, Women Friends is a monthly run by the Shaanxi Womens Federation. In the 1990s, it hasmaintained the largest circulation of the 40 leading womens magazines. It exerts a great influence onwomen, especially young women. Its average printing in 1992 was 840,000 copies per issue and morethan 1 million copies per issue during 19931994. Though its circulation declined in 1995 to 850,000and in 1997 to 570,000, the magazines circulation still leads other womens magazines, see followingtable.

19931995 Womens Magazines of Big Circulation (Unit: 10000)

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Year/Magazines Womens

FriendsWomensLife

Family BosomFriends

ChinaWomen

1993 130 77 244 80 431994 110 49 245 95 341995 85 58 242 128 34Average copies per issue 108.33 61.3 243.167 71 37(Source: China Publishing Yearbook by National Office of Press and Publishing, 1994, 1995, and 1996)

It is clear that circulation of Womens Friends is most unless Family from 1993 to 1994. In contrast toWomens Friends, the Family prefers content about family and childrens education to content aboutreflection on womens issues. Compared with other women magazines, Women Friends carries moreinformation containing gender consciousness and shows greater solicitude for women themselves. JudyBolumbaum, Vice Director of the Journalism & Communication Institute of Iowa University in US, oncemade a comment on the magazine. She said: Womens publications in Chinas reform are very differentfrom each other in terms of quality, content, style and focus. Many of them are full of soft news aboutholidays, families and fashion, and are basically interchangeable. But there is an exception with its ownunique character. That is Women Friends. Published in Xian, Shaanxi Province, the readers of themagazine are all over China. It has a humorous style and lays more stress than other womensmagazines on dealing with controversial problems(Judy BolumbaumAn Analysis on Media Industriesin China, Journalism and Communication, No. 1, 1996). Therefore, 84 issues of Womens Friends from1990 to 1996 were chosen as sampling frame. Among them 28 issues with 1104 articles or essayscomposed a random sample.