Wei Niang & Nv Han Zi: Conventional thinking and underlying culture
Brief introduction
What is the antonym for Wei Niang? You might naturally pop up with the word: Nv Han Zi because you just saw the title. This is what we call as conventional thinking. Do you realize that there is rude gender logic to compare these two words? Have you ever, even for a second, thought about the underlying cultural values hidden in the logic?
什么是“伪娘”的反义词？也许第一个闪现在你脑海里的是“女汉子”， 这是因为你刚刚看到这篇文章的题目。这样的思维过程就是我们常说的惯性思维。你又是否意识到当我们轻率地比较这两个词时，我们其实无意识的采用着一种粗鲁的逻辑？而你，可曾用哪怕区区一秒思考过这错误逻辑下深藏的价值观？
When our teacher Bing told us to share our opinions about Wei Niang (伪娘) and Nv Han Zi (女汉子)，I did not expect that it will spark the firestorm of controversy in our group. I was talking eloquently about how Nv Han Zi, as a newly emerged word, breaks up the old gender stereotype while many boys strangely behave like girls, but suddenly one of my male classmate interrupted me,“Don’t you think it is unequal to put them together to compare? At least, I think Wei Niang contains too much negative things.” Next, a new question was proposed by another student,“Isn’t it interesting that girls like to claim themselves as Nv Han Zi but few boys want to be called as ‘Wei Niang’?”
It is indeed interesting and worth discussing.
Wei Niang, which originates in Japan, was firstly introduced to China as a term of ACGN (Animation, Comic, Game, and Novel). In China, however, it has quickly become a word of contempt to describe the so-called cissy which means men with feminine appearance and characters. Nv Han Zi, on the other hand, has originally designed for women who lack “traditional female characters” but is widely used as a friendly word or even as a word to praise women.
Let’s first spell out their superficial meanings respectively. Wei Niang is usually for those men who are biologically male but looks and acts like female. To clarify, Wei Niang still recognize themselves as male, which is different from the transgender group. This word often links to female characters such as sensitive, delicate, gentle and so on. It can be naturally deduced that because those men have some special characters which are recognized as female traits, they are disdained by our society. By analogy, Nv Han Zi is a word for those women who have masculine qualities such as strong and brave. Based on our own experiences, some women like to call themselves Nv Han Zi, and at the same time, when they are dubbed as Nv Han Zi by others, there is no evil intentions. However, few men like to claim themselves as Wei Niang and this word is viewed as a humiliation for them. It is a striking fact that women with manly characters are more acceptable while the opposite is not true.
Then, I want you to ask yourself again: Is the above reasoning rigorous enough? If your answer is yes, please recall the first question raised by my male classmate. Is it equal to compare these two words together and rashly conclude that manly women are more adorable than female men? What if I ask you to replace the word Nv Han Zi with Nan Ren Po (男人婆) which is a satiric description for manly female? What if I ask you to replace the word Wei Niang with a positive one like “gentleman”? By replacing the word we compare, our feelings change completely. When we talk about Nan Ren Po, most of us will label them as a “monster” or vividly depict them in your brain as a devil wears Prada. Nonetheless, if we have enough time to contemplate, it seems that the only difference between Nan Ren Po and Nv Han Zi is to what extent they share those so-called masculine traits.
Let’s assume “A” is a woman and “a” and “b” represents a man; axis X for female traits, axis B for male traits while line C (the blue line) is somewhere in the middle indicating a boundary hidden in people’s potential consciousness. (Let’s assume the line is exactly in the middle)
I am reluctant to conclude that line C is an invisible line which is deeply embedded in our hearts: We feel safe when a woman is placed below the line like Nv Han Zi (A) because the traditional ideas of two genders are not challenged, under line C. We women are put in a confined zone, satisfying the restricted freedom we enjoy and think that we are granted the complete one. However, the existences of women like Nan Ren Po, men like Wei Niang (b) crosses the line. The related negative responses of the public bite us. Their suffering experiences of them incessantly remind us of the invisible but deeply rooted social rules which have a long history in China.
In ancient China, women have long been underrepresented in almost every social aspect. They were locked in their house and were compelled to abide by inhumane regulations such as foot-binding so as to cater to the abnormal taste of men. The designed position for women requires them to be submissive, to tolerate and to keep silent rather than the other way around. As time elapses, women are accustomed to these “iron hinge” and forget to repel. In fact, the conduct of doctrines has been so successful even women learn to oppress women. Ban Zhao has long been viewed as a model in ancient China. Despite her significant talent in literature and history, she was admired also for her famous book Lessons for Women. In her first chapter, she claimed “women are lowly and weak”, and in the second chapter, she wrote“If a husband be unworthy, then he possesses nothing by which to control his wife. If a wife be unworthy, then she possesses nothing with which to serve her husband”. For thousands of years, women are confined by these rules which used to be visible in imperial China and invisible nowadays. Much as we may praise ourselves for our advanced thoughts and celebrates the realization of gender equality, we overlook the fact that we are still restrained by traditional allocated roles of sexes. When seeing a woman who devote herself completely to her career and outwit her male counterparts, we are astonished to ask:“Have she married to anyone? Does she have a child?” We come up with these questions because people naturally think that a woman can be independent and has her own career, but they are like lavish decorations of a room. Her family comes first. Nv Han Zi are OK only because they land safely in the allocated zone. Men, to our surprise, are also imprisoned by similar gender stereotypes. Unlike women, they are expected to be strong and brave, extraverted and socially active. Women today have a limited amount of freedom but men hardly change. Or rather, people are more strict with men, resulting in their lack of courage to be true themselves. For example, the so-called Wei Niang is dispelled by both their male and female counterparts.
This invisible stereotype does not only exist in Chinese society, but also the entire world. This kind of traditional gender value system is universally spread around the globe. The trace can easily be detected in the famous movie—The Devil Wears Prada. Miranda Priestly, the editor-in-chief of a world-famous magazine, is depicted as a Nan Ren Po. She has her own successful career which outshines most of her male equivalents. Our protagonist Andrea who accepts a challenging position from Miranda, after a tough struggling, finally quit her job and find a new one which makes it possible for her to juggle the balance between her boyfriend and her career. Despite the seemingly happy ending, I cannot help thinking Miranda who is so successful has actually been seen as a pitiful figure by her colleagues in this movie. She is fashionable and wealthy but cold hearted and without a family. What a perfect figure of Nan Ren Po! The movie perhaps wants to tell young girls, if you want to be as successful as Miranda, there is something invaluable you have to sacrifice: Good bye, boyfriend! Farewell, family! Yet, it is not that you cannot have your own career. You just need to be prepared to sacrifice it at any time and most importantly put your family FIRST!
Luckily, we have so many people who have realized the tough situation faced by both men and women. They call for the equality between genders and they call themselves as feminist. Many people are confused about the word “feminist” and think it is it only fits women. Men can also be feminists and feminists are also fighting for men. In 2014, Emma Watson made a famous speech in the United Nations, “We don’t often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that they are and that when they are free, thing will change for women as a natural consequence.” It is indeed the truth. Men are not allowed to be sensitive, to be delicate and to be unsuccessful. They are required to control women and women are required to be controlled. Today we call for the right to choose—it has long been recognized as basic human rights but has long been confined to politics and religions. I want to say the respect for human rights needs the help of the government but more importantly, needs the help from you and me. As English statesman Edmund Burk said:“All that is needed for forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men and women to do nothing.” I have a dream: I dream that one day both men and women have the right to choose, to choose what kind of people they want to be, to enjoy the freedom without prejudice and to regain the more complete and real version of themselves.
As Emma said in her speech:“It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum not as two opposing sets of ideals.”It is not about right or wrong, proper or improper. It’s only about freedom.
