A few foreign friends here have pointed something out to me, of Chinese cities and people: in the west (and South Asia and Africa and elsewhere), if an attractive woman walks down the street, especially with some skin exposed, at least one male's eyes (and usually more) are sure to follow. In China, my interlocutors have never seen this; Chinese men, for the most part, hardly raise an eyebrow in such situations.
I asked a few Chinese and Chinese-American friends about this, and they gave me similar answers: Chinese men are simply not as sexualized as their non-Chinese counterparts. Even when young Chinese couples express affection (kissing or hugging, usually little more), which is quite frequent, it comes from sentimentality and not emotion. But the act is not sexualized the way it might be elsewhere.
To this, a few of my interlocutors added that Chinese men are simply less aggressive than their western counterparts, on the whole. In part due to this---and in part due to a strong police and spatial planning culture that enforce public safety---my Chinese-American and foreign female friends have said that, for the most part, they feel more comfortable walking down many Chinese streets at any time of day or night, with or without a companion, wearing just about anything, than they do in many other cities. In other places, they feel they have to be vigilant, on alert, or at least a little stressed from fear at times. This, of course, changes in places where the streets are wider, darker, and less trafficked.
All this is, of course, anecdotal. But still worthy of sharing, I thought.
I asked a few Chinese and Chinese-American friends about this, and they gave me similar answers: Chinese men are simply not as sexualized as their non-Chinese counterparts. Even when young Chinese couples express affection (kissing or hugging, usually little more), which is quite frequent, it comes from sentimentality and not emotion. But the act is not sexualized the way it might be elsewhere.
To this, a few of my interlocutors added that Chinese men are simply less aggressive than their western counterparts, on the whole. In part due to this---and in part due to a strong police and spatial planning culture that enforce public safety---my Chinese-American and foreign female friends have said that, for the most part, they feel more comfortable walking down many Chinese streets at any time of day or night, with or without a companion, wearing just about anything, than they do in many other cities. In other places, they feel they have to be vigilant, on alert, or at least a little stressed from fear at times. This, of course, changes in places where the streets are wider, darker, and less trafficked.
All this is, of course, anecdotal. But still worthy of sharing, I thought.
I think that's wonderful. There is nothing worse for a woman than to feel unsafe or that she can't walk down the streets alone, even in broad daylight, or with a male friend, as the Delhi rape case proved to us. While I can't comment on whether or not Chinese men are or aren't as sexualized as their male counterparts in other countries, I am grateful that the country has made it one where a woman feels comfortable. Did you find this all over China throughout your travels or just in certain parts?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments, Fat Sister. I absolutely agree that that ought to be one of the first priorities of city governments, managers, planners, and residents everywhere. And how places are designed really affect that.
DeleteEven in Hong Kong---which is far more democratic than Mainland China, so you can't credit the police state---women have told me, at least, that they feel safe. One lady there told me that there was "once" an incident of groping on the subway and news about it went viral. If an incident is that big a deal, I guess it tells you how uncommon it is, which is excellent.
That said, in China as a whole, there's a lot more that happens that we don't know about. I've got a blog post forthcoming about a conversation I had with the director of the UN Women office in Beijing, which will shed some light on that.