To what extent are the experiences and attitudes of Yang Digong and Li Zucui typical of life in modern China?

        The living standard of Yang Digong is very typical in his ‘upper-class group’ although the group itself is not typical in comparison to the lower class (peasants) and middle class (average working people) groups which over rule it.  Digong lives in the city with his wife and son. He is a typical businessman that now is suspicious of all things Western, which is typical for Yang’s generation.

In contrast to this I feel that Li Zucui is more typical. To start off with she was brought up in a lower class family who lived in the countryside and was obviously very poor. The evidence I have used from the text to show that she was born into a poor family is that fact that she was the victim of an arranged marriage whereby she was sold to a man she didn’t even know for a mere 2.300 Yuan (177 pounds.) This proves what little importance Li was to the family.  Life in modern China was hard enough for women as they were treated as second-class citizens and faced discrimination and poverty; in fact if a woman knew she was pregnant with a female baby then the foetus was immediately aborted. Li, being illiterate, somehow managed to send a letter to a woman’s magazine explaining her many problems, without her husband’s knowledge. In the letter, sent on July 28th, she says how she tried going back to her family and told them of how her husband would use violence against her, but they harshly said that is she did not return to him they would disown her.

        It is the famous quote from Mao Tse-tung that states ‘women hold up half the sky’, which means women have an equal role to play alongside men. This is ridiculous as 600 million of Chinas women are still facing discrimination and poverty. One-third of all women are not able to read or write, it is a fact that women do sixty per-cent of the farming, women’s salaries are significantly less than men’s and many women are sold to man as their brides or trapped in the marriage payment system, this does not seem like equal rights. Almost two thirds of Chinas populations are facing poverty so Li’s living standards are typical. Like many in the younger generation she also faced discrimination, poverty, was sold as a bride and had to deal with extreme violence from her husband, this was also typical.

        So, by analyzing both these two people I can see that Li’s attitudes and experiences are much more typical than Yang. Li lived in poverty, like millions of the Chinese public whereas Yang leads a good life in which he earned enough money to support his family and dine in restaurants. Li was not interested in politics, mainly due to the fact that she was illiterate and did not tend to follow those types of things. Yang, in his younger days, was interested in politics and was concerned about how China was run but now he is apolitical and only worry about supporting his family. They are both typical in their own ways.