Women have always been the most neglected group in Chinese history

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God created humans long time ago, and we spread ourselves around the globe as time goes by. Humans were supposed to be equal under God, but soon after the diversities of cultures developed and that became another story. There is a great notation for Chinese culture which is the inequality between men and women. The story “In Broad Daylight”, by Ha Jin, is about a woman who offended the rules of her village and was criticized in a parade. The following paragraphs are about the different interpretations of the story, such as, cultural and historical view point. *

First of all, starting from the cultural view point, women have always been the most neglected group in Chinese history, they were not allowed to have social status and they would undergo serious punishments once they had violated the laws. In the story, the main character, Mu Ying, who was an adulteress and was criticized in front of the villagers. “Mu was being brought out through a large crowd at the front gate.”(565). In front of the crowd, Mu Ying was stroke with hammers, stones. The villagers even cursed Mu to be a fox spirit, in which the fox spirit always lured men in ancient Chinese stories. Mu lost all her respects in front of the crowd and she was hurt deeply in a sense of her physical body and mental feelings. Moreover, the punishments between men and women were very different. For men, the executioners usually just beheaded them if they were involved adultery. Though, for women, they were executed on Heaven Lamp.

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[…She was hung naked upside down above a wood fire whose flames could barely touch her scalp. And two men flogged her away with whips made of bulls’ penises. Meanwhile she screamed for help and the whole town could hear her. Since the fire merely scorched her head, it took at last half a day for her to stop shrieking and a day and a night to die completely…] (564-565)

Old Chinese villagers considered Heaven Lamp as a punishment justified by Heaven, and they named it by Heaven Lamp.

        Also, in Chinese history, women were not allowed to have ...

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