xi ABSTRACT
ANITA SARI, NURFADILA. Female Friendship as a way to survive Under Chinese Patriarchal Culture in Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2016.
Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a novel that discusses about the difficulty of women’s life under the patriarchal system in China in the nineteenth century. Therefore, having a bond in the form of female friendship (Laotong relationship) becomes very important to them. This study focuses to analyze how the bond in the form of female friendship of these women can help them survive in Chinese patriarchal culture.
Based on the chosen topic, two problems are formulated. The first problem formulation is to find the difficult conditions of living under Chinese patriarchal culture depicted in the life of the main characters. The second problem formulation is to analyze how the friendship between the main characters contributes to their survival in the difficult condition of living under Chinese patriarchal culture.
There are several steps that the researcher conducted in the process of this thesis writing. The first step was to find the difficult conditions of living under Chinese patriarchal culture depicted in the life of the main characters. The second step was to analyze how the friendship between the main characters contributes to their survival in the difficult condition of living under Chinese patriarchal culture. The last step was to make a conclusion from the answers found from those two problems formulation. The researcher applied feminist perspective since the main focus of this analysis is about women who are oppressed, primarily by patriarchal culture.
xii ABSTRAK
ANITA SARI, NURFADILA. Female Friendship as a way to survive Under Chinese Patriarchal Culture in Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2016.
Novel karya Lisa See yang berjudul Snow Flower and The Secret Fan adalah sebuah novel yang membahas tentang sulitnya kehidupan wanita di bawah sistem patriarki di China pada abad kesembilan belas. Oleh sebab itu, memiliki ikatan persahabatan wanita (Laotong relationship) menjadi sangat penting bagi mereka. Fokus penelitian ini adalah menganalisa bagaimana ikatan persahabatan wanita ini dapat membantu wanita China bertahan hidup di budaya patriarki China.
Berdasarkan topik yang dipilih, penulis menyusun dua rumusan masalah. Rumusan masalah pertama adalah untuk menemukan kesulitan-kesulitan hidup di budaya patriarki yang dialami oleh dua tokoh utama. Rumusan masalah yang kedua adalah untuk menganalisa bagaimana persahabatan wanita antara dua tokoh utama memberikan kontribusi terhadap kelangsungan hidup mereka selama hidup di budaya patriarki.
Ada beberapa langkah yang penulis lakukan dalam proses penulisan tesis ini. Langkah pertama adalah untuk menemukan kesulitan-kesulitan hidup di budaya patriarki yang dialami oleh dua tokoh utama. Langkah kedua adalah untuk menganalisa bagaimana persahabatan wanita antara dua tokoh utama memberikan kontribusi terhadap kelangsungan hidup mereka selama hidup di budaya patriarki. Langkah yang terakhir adalah membuat kesimpulan dari kedua rumusan masalah. Penulis menerapkan pendekatan femininisme karena fokus utama analisis ini adalah tentang wanita yang tertindas, utamanya oleh budaya patriarki.
FEMALE FRIENDSHIP AS A WAY TO SURVIVE UNDER
CHINESE PATRIARCHAL CULTURE IN LISA SEE’S SNOW
FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
NURFADILA ANITA SARI
Student Number: 124214135
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
FEMALE FRIENDSHIP AS A WAY TO SURVIVE UNDER
CHINESE PATRIARCHAL CULTURE IN LISA SEE’S SNOW
FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
NURFADILA ANITA SARI
Student Number: 124214135
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA 2016
vii
“O you who have believed, seek
help through patience and prayer.
Indeed, Allah is with the patient.”
– Quran Surah Al-Baqara: 153
“Work hard in silence, let your
success be your noise.”
viii
This undergraduate thesis is dedicated
to my beloved parents,
to my beautiful sister,
ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to thank Allah SWT for giving me health and strength in the whole process of writing this thesis until I can finish this thesis. Secondly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S., M. Hum. as my thesis advisor for being so patient to guide me and help me improve myself throughout the learning process of this thesis writing. I am also grateful to have Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, S.S., M. Hum. as my thesis co-advisor for reading my thesis and giving me correction for the betterment of my thesis.
I would like to give special thanks to my wonderful parents for their unconditional love and support they provided me throughout my entire life, especially during my college years. I must acknowledge that I could not have done my undergraduate thesis without their prayers for me and faith in me. I also want to thank my sister for always cheering me up.
I am also grateful to my friends Kezia, Tyas, Yanzher, Dewi, Ade, and Indri for their friendship which is full of support, care, help, silliness, and happiness. Moreover, I would like to thank Tutu Club Sanata Dharma which becomes a wonderful place for me to develop myself and create friendships which is full of memories that will never be forgotten. I also thank all of my classmates of 2012 to the unforgettable moments we have spent together.
x
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH .. v
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ... vi
MOTTO PAGE ... vii
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS (RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS) ... 22
A. The Difficult Conditions of Living under Chinese Patriarchal Culture Depicted through the life of the Main Characters ... 22
B. How the Friendship between the Main Characters Contributes to their survival in the Difficult Conditions of Living Under Chinese Patriarchal Culture ... 37
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ... 52
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 55
xi
ABSTRACT
ANITA SARI, NURFADILA. Female Friendship as a way to survive Under Chinese Patriarchal Culture in Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2016.
Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a novel that discusses about the difficulty of women’s life under the patriarchal system in China in the nineteenth century. Therefore, having a bond in the form of female friendship (Laotong relationship) becomes very important to them. This study focuses to analyze how the bond in the form of female friendship of these women can help them survive in Chinese patriarchal culture.
Based on the chosen topic, two problems are formulated. The first problem formulation is to find the difficult conditions of living under Chinese patriarchal culture depicted in the life of the main characters. The second problem formulation is to analyze how the friendship between the main characters contributes to their survival in the difficult condition of living under Chinese patriarchal culture.
There are several steps that the researcher conducted in the process of this thesis writing. The first step was to find the difficult conditions of living under Chinese patriarchal culture depicted in the life of the main characters. The second step was to analyze how the friendship between the main characters contributes to their survival in the difficult condition of living under Chinese patriarchal culture. The last step was to make a conclusion from the answers found from those two problems formulation. The researcher applied feminist perspective since the main focus of this analysis is about women who are oppressed, primarily by patriarchal culture.
xii
ABSTRAK
ANITA SARI, NURFADILA. Female Friendship as a way to survive Under Chinese Patriarchal Culture in Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2016.
Novel karya Lisa See yang berjudul Snow Flower and The Secret Fan adalah sebuah novel yang membahas tentang sulitnya kehidupan wanita di bawah sistem patriarki di China pada abad kesembilan belas. Oleh sebab itu, memiliki ikatan persahabatan wanita (Laotong relationship) menjadi sangat penting bagi mereka. Fokus penelitian ini adalah menganalisa bagaimana ikatan persahabatan wanita ini dapat membantu wanita China bertahan hidup di budaya patriarki China.
Berdasarkan topik yang dipilih, penulis menyusun dua rumusan masalah. Rumusan masalah pertama adalah untuk menemukan kesulitan-kesulitan hidup di budaya patriarki yang dialami oleh dua tokoh utama. Rumusan masalah yang kedua adalah untuk menganalisa bagaimana persahabatan wanita antara dua tokoh utama memberikan kontribusi terhadap kelangsungan hidup mereka selama hidup di budaya patriarki.
Ada beberapa langkah yang penulis lakukan dalam proses penulisan tesis ini. Langkah pertama adalah untuk menemukan kesulitan-kesulitan hidup di budaya patriarki yang dialami oleh dua tokoh utama. Langkah kedua adalah untuk menganalisa bagaimana persahabatan wanita antara dua tokoh utama memberikan kontribusi terhadap kelangsungan hidup mereka selama hidup di budaya patriarki. Langkah yang terakhir adalah membuat kesimpulan dari kedua rumusan masalah. Penulis menerapkan pendekatan femininisme karena fokus utama analisis ini adalah tentang wanita yang tertindas, utamanya oleh budaya patriarki.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Novel is a work of art that relies on written language as its appeal. As a work of art, the novel is not only a form of entertainment that is fun for the readers but also the novel contains elements that are useful in enriching knowledge. By reading the story in the novel, the reader will know the problems that exist in a certain society at that certain time. This happens because there are some novels that were made by adapting the existing conflicts in society as the main focus. Therefore, when a reader reads a novel that tells the existing problems in a country at that time, the reader will get an overview or can imagine about the life that occurred at that time.
There are many examples of novels that adapt the existing conflicts in society as the main focus. The novel by Lisa See, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, is one of them. Lisa See uses the life in a rural area of southern Hunan Province, a country in China, as the main focus. She wants to show the life and the problems happened in China in the nineteenth century, especially women’s lives. China is categorized as patriarchal culture. According to May-Lee Chai and Winberg Chai in China A to Z: Everything You Need to Understand Chinese Customs and Culture, men have the
highest position and are the most powerful in the family, thus, women are at the lowest position. Chinese women are not only used to produce children, but they have
an obligation to serve the needs of their husbands and also serve the husband’s family. Therefore, men are considered more valuable than women (2014: 114).
Living in such a patriarchal culture in which men were superior to women, made women had to obey the culture. Women followed all the rules in order to survive under patriarchal culture even though it was very hard for them. As an example was footbinding. Since in the age of six or seven years, Chinese women had to do a painful tradition of footbinding. They had to perform the procedures that broke their bones which their feet must fit in a three-inches long shoe, called “Lotus Shoes” (Blake, 1994: 691). These procedures were done in the hope of changing their lives for the better. If the footbinding was successful, they could get the husband of a wealthy and respectable family. On the contrary, if footbinding failed, their feet would not be as normal as before and they ended up either sold as servants or they just became little daughters-in-law.
The condition of Chinese women during the nineteenth century is indeed saddening. However, there are women who manage to survive living under Chinese patriarchal culture. They are the main characters in this novel - Lily and Snow Flower. Lily and Snow Flower have a special relationship which is Laotong relationship. Laotong relationship is a friendship that involved two girls from different villages that usually lasts forever in their entire lives. The friendship of Lily and Snow Flower is actually the most prominent in this novel. Therefore, the topic of friendship in the novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is worth to discuss as
friendship is really important for Chinese women especially living under Chinese patriarchal culture. In this study, the researcher is interested in analyzing how the friendship between two women can make way for their survival under the oppressive patriarchal culture.
B. Problem Formulation
1. What are the difficult conditions of living under Chinese patriarchal culture depicted in the life of the main characters?
2. How does the friendship between the main characters contributes to their survival in the difficult conditions of living under Chinese patriarchal culture?
C. Objectives of the Study
Based on the problem formulation, this study is conducted to analyze more deeply about Chinese patriarchal culture especially the difficult conditions that women experienced, the main characters at that time. After understanding the difficult conditions that main characters experienced living under Chinese patriarchal culture, this study analyzes the ways of friendship of the main characters, Lily and Snow Flower, can make way for their survival under the oppressive patriarchal culture.
D. Definition of Terms
1. Culture
Edward Burnett Tylor defines culture as “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Tylor, 1871: 1). Therefore, culture is the behaviors, beliefs, and values that society accepted as their way of life and it usually continues from one generation to the next generation. 2. Patriarchy
In Theorizing Patriarchy, patriarchy is defined as “a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women” (Walby, 1990: 20). Therefore, patriarchal culture is system that is developed in society where men are superior to women. Men tend to dominate, control, and suppress women.
3. Survival
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Review of Related Studies
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is one of the best works of Lisa See. Some
critics have elaborated their ideas, critics, and comments to show how interesting this novel is to be analyzed. One of the studies that have been done is by Nofiatun Titi Lestari, a student of English Education Study Program of Ahmad Dahlan University in 2007, through her thesis entitled Socio Cultural Study on Chinese Women in the 19th Century as Reflected in Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret
Fan. Lestari is interested in finding the socio cultural on Chinese women on the 19th century through the novel. After doing her research, Lestari finds that there are recurrent socio cultural in Chinese women in the 19th century, which are procreation and sexual life, ideological factors, legal status, property relation, foot binding, friendship, marriage, young girl, daughter in law, wife, concubines, mother, and the widow.
Another study is by Agatha Piscesia Paskalin, a student of English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University in 2011, through her thesis entitled Male Domination in Footbinding and Secret Writing of Nineteenth-Century Chinese Women as seen in Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. After doing
her research, Paskalin finds that male dominance is clearly associated with the
practices of foot binding and secret writing. Women in China have to do foot binding in order to get a better life and they do the secret writing because they do not get the same opportunities as men to get education.
Paskalin states that
Footbinding was an obligation for Chinese women because it could bring them to the life’s perfection. Footbinding dealt with being marriageable and the improvement of social status and the bright future as well. Furthermore, the bound feet became sexual fetish for men to achieve sexual pleasure. Then, the ideal that Chinese women were not allowed being outside the house caused them to be very far from having equal opportunities with men. Their right to education was not recognized. To escape from this situation, they wrote nu shu to communicate with their friends and their natal families and to express their feelings and creativities. (Paskalin, 2011: viii)
This study uses the same object which is Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See but focuses on the friendship between Lily and Snow Flower. Thus, this study complements what Lestari and Paskalin did not deeply discuss, i.e. the female friendship. This study analyzes more deeply about how the friendship between Lily and Snow Flower can make way for their survival under the oppressive patriarchal culture.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Characters
In literary work, the characters are one of the most important elements because they drive the story as a whole. As stated by M. H. Abrams in A Glossary of Literary Terms,
Characters are the persons, in a dramatic or narrative work, endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say–the dialogue–and what they do–the action (Abrams, 1971: 21). Through these characters, through what they say and what they act, the researcher is able to find out their life that they are in difficult conditions.
2. Theory of Patriarchy and Patriarchy in China
There are many writers who are interested in discussing about patriarchy. Madsen said in Feminist Theory and Literary Practice
Patriarchy is a cultural (ideological) system that privileges men and all things masculine, and a political system that places power in the hands of men and thus serves male interests at the expense of women (2000: xiii).
Based on the quotation, Madsen argues that men, through these privileges, can get more benefits and better life than women. Moreover, men feel that they are superior because they have power to control women.
system how they live. There are so many concepts in the doctrine of Confucianism. However, the obvious and main concept that applies in Chinese society is the concept of Li (the rules of propriety). Fan Hong explains that
Using the rules of propriety as a means of social control to contain and yet provide satisfaction for human desires, the Confucian institution of Li has left very distinctive marks on Chinese culture and mentality. It succeeded in enclosing the personality of the individual within the parameters of his or her prescribed roles, to the extent that individuality was hardly differentiated from those roles. For this reason, in a traditional Confucian society, all interpersonal relationships were held together by a hierarchy of social roles. Each role functioned in the manner prescribed in the Confucian texts. (1997: 5)
Because of the creation of a hierarchy of social roles, based on Confucianism men are clearly in superior position. It can be clearly seen in a family.
Within a household unit or clan organization, men held authority and decision-making power; women were subordinate to men. In such a system, the man had authority over all members of the family, including his wife and concubines, his sons and grandsons, their wives and children, his unmarried daughters, and his collateral relatives who were junior to him. The man controlled the family finances and made the final decisions about family affairs. (Tsai in Leng, 1989: 227-228) The quotation above describes the power of male dominance in Chinese family. Father or husband not only has a powerful authority over his wife and his children but also to all his family’s members. All family members have to obey every decision the father or the husband makes.
males; if they do not, they will find themselves becoming social outcasts” (Hsu, 1971: 209).
Confucianism doctrine is adopted by Chinese society to confine the movement of women. Chinese culture creates an efficient way to force women stay at home by footbinding.
Footbinding was one of men’s conspiracies to keep women home as slaves physically and mentally, to turn them into sheer objects of men’s lust and perversity. (Fangqin in Ping, 2000: 43)
To achieve the goal of making women stay at home, Chinese culture creates the standard of beauty for women.
In order to have women completely in its control and its disposal, the Confucian-dominated society also invented and forced upon women an odd and appalling concept of feminine physical beauty – the small, bound foot. It became the symbol of women’s subservience. (Hong, 1997: 22)
Footbinding is not only the measurement for the beauty but also as the symbol of social status. No one ever knows who the first person to do the practice of footbinding. However, most research says that footbinding began spread and popular to all over China by the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Footbinding was once widely accepted as feminine beauty by society as explained by Wang Ping,
Moreover, Chinese women believed that having bound feet is a requirement that they should fulfill to get a better life and survive in the Chinese patriarchal culture. A pair of perfectly bound feet was not only a requirement for the marriage market but also an effort that women should undergo to secure their survivability in a patriarchal society. Ping states that “during the two years of binding process, the mother has imprinted her secret knowledge of female survival onto the flesh of her daughter” (Ping, 2000: 6). Therefore, mothers in China bound their daughters’ feet when they were still little girl. Even though the mother knew exactly the painful of footbinding as she had also experienced it, as a woman, she did not have another option beside did the same practice of footbinding to her daughter. The mother tried her best to make her daughter get a pair of perfectly bound feet. The mother forced her daughter to keep her walking by beating her with the sticks if she did not want to walk. The mother kept forcing her daughter to walk until the bones were broken. Wang Ping states about the painful of footbinding that women should undergo:
For about two or three years, little girls go through the inferno of torture: the flesh of her feet, which are tightly bound with layers of bandages day and night, is slowly putrefied, her toes crushed under the soles, and the insteps arched to the degree where the toes and heels meet. Loving mother suddenly turn into monsters that beat their sobbing girls with sticks and brooms, forcing them to hop around to speed up the rotting of flesh and make sure the bones are broken properly. (Ping, 2000: 3)
Later on, when they became mothers, they continued the tradition of footbinding to their daughters. It is like an oppression that never ends.
Marriage in China is part of patriarchal culture. Marriage is a family matter so if a woman does not like her future husband, she cannot resist him. She must obey his father’s decision and she should remain married to her husband. Therefore, a marriage in China is actually not to build a family that leads to a romantic relationship between husband and wife but it is just for continuing family line. Tsai Wen-Hui in Leng Shao Chuan states that
In traditional China, marriage was arranged by the parents and often through a mediator or go-between, without the consent of the young people concerned. There was no romantic love, no dating, and no courtship in mate selection for it was feared that the free choice of a partner would threaten the dominance of parental affection, loyalty, and authority. Arranged marriage thus strengthened parental control over sons and especially over daughters-in-law. (Tsai in Leng Shao-chuan 1989: 228)
Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex also agrees that the purpose of marriage in China is done to have children. Through marriage, women in China are totally controlled by their husbands.
Through marriage woman is now no longer lent from one clan to another: she is torn up by the roots from the group into which she was born, and annexed by her husband’s group; he buys her as one buys a farm animal or a slave; he imposes his domestic divinities upon her; and the children born to her belong to the husband’s family. (Beauvoir, 1989: 82)
3. Theory of Feminism
Maggie Humm in The Dictionary of Feminist Theory states that
feminism is the ideology of women’s liberation since intrinsic in all its approaches is the belief that women suffer injustice because of our sexes. (Humm, 1990: 74)
The quotation above clearly describes that the birth of feminism is an effort to counter the control of men over women and the struggle to abolish the paradigm that has developed in the society about the condition of women. Feminist believe that the condition of women, where women are controlled, oppressed, exploited derived from gender inequality. A gender role that governs the roles of women and men who are appropriate and acceptable in the social norms formed the man to be someone who is more superior and tended to dominate or control the women.
Women have been conditioned to believe that they are inferior to men, and they have assumed that what everyone believes is a fact of nature. Because men occupy the superior positions in almost all societies, such superiority is taken to be a natural one.(Montagu, 1953: 23). Simone de Beauvior also agrees that the condition of women is constructed from the society. Simone de Beauvoir in Bressler states that women should have the courage to break what all this time they believed that the position of women in society was not born, but it was created by the society through the patriarchal system. Women should establish their own identity if they want to be free completely as autonomous beings (Beauvoir in Bressler, 1998: 182).
Because the condition of women is socially constructed, feminists believe that how to change the condition for women is to break down the patriarchal system. As stated by Rosemarie Tong in Feminist Thought, to liberate women from oppression, male control over women must be eliminated. Men and women have to eliminate patriarchal ideology that exaggerates the differences in men and women biologically (Tong, 2009: 52).
In the world of male dominance, women are forced to obey and submit to men and patriarchal system. They will get the consequences if they do not follow the patriarchal system as stated by Deborah L. Madsen in Feminist Theory and Literary Practice
dominant definitions of male-dominated culture women exist only as insane, inarticulate or irrelevant. (Madsen, 2000: 18)
Besides being alienated by society, there will be other risks. As the quotation of Dworkin in Madsen’s Feminist Theory and Literary Practice, women are under threat of male violence if they do not become passive and put themselves lower than men. In order to prevent the violence from men (rape, wife beating, forced childbearing, medical butchering, sex-motivated murder, and sadistic psychological abuse), women must demonstrate compliance with the men by internalizing the patriarchal values, which remain the stereotype that men are more powerful than women, show the loyalty to men, and do not even try to resist male control (Dworkin in Madsen, 2000: 16).
In dealing with the issues of gender inequality, feminism made various efforts that can be done to fight the injustice that disadvantage women. Living in an oppressive environment make women plan a strategy or system actions that will be run to resist patriarchy. Women might develop a guerilla tactic to resist patriarchy by creating a female bond to support each other, as is the case of this novel.
important for women to survive in Chinese patriarchal culture. By the existence of female friendship, women will feel they are not alone in this world because there are their fellows who were expecting their presence. As it is known that “the Chinese female was likely to be unwanted from her first days of existence” (Raymond, 2001: 106). Female friendship gives strength for women to want to stay alive.
The existence of female friendship also makes a positive contribution for the better future of women. Women who are in a relationship of friendship will deliver an important aspect of female friendship. As stated by Janice G. Raymond,
When women cease believing in the primacy and primordiality of hetero-relations, they will see that the first goal of feminism is not to bring women and men together but to bring women together. Female friendship is the process by which this goal is achieved. (Raymond, 2001: 43)
Sasha Roseneil in Kathy Davis, Mary Evans and Judith Lorber also agrees with the importance of female friendship. As Roseneil states that feminism values female friendship because female friendship “is seen as political solidarity, as constitutive of feminist movements and the basis of collective identity, and it is seen as a mode of personal support, intimacy and care, and, as such, productive of self-identity” (Roseneil in Davis, Evans, and Lorber, 2006: 323-324).
upon, moved, and impressed by other women”(Raymond, 2001: 8). Therefore, affection is an important feeling in female friendship. This is because the power of a woman to influence her friend in the action of changing her life. Without this female friendship, women do not have spirit and motivation to make movements.
Women who have decided to have a friendship will be mutually helping one another. A sense of solidarity will appear automatically for helping one another so that they can survive. Facing the same experience makes them bound and allowing them to strengthen their friendship.
Moreover, Elizabeth Ann Bartlett uses Albert Camus’s thought of rebellionas an idea to find the true meaning of rebellious feminism. In Rebellious Feminism: Camus’s Ethic of Rebellion and Feminist Thought, Bartlett finds the connection
friendship, women who are in friendship relationship can get human love from each other.
C. Theoretical Framework
There are some theories which are applied in this study. The purpose is to obtain deeper understanding of the topic. This study uses the selected theories that are related to the problem formulation.
In analyzing the difficult conditions of living under Chinese patriarchal culture, the researcher needs several theories about the practices of Chinese patriarchal culture. The researcher explains the practices of Chinese patriarchal culture based on the theories from Wen-Hui Tsai, May-Lee Chai and Winberg Chai, Francis L.K. Hsu, Fang Hong, Fangqin, Wang Ping, and H. M. Parshley.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object of the study is novel entitled Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. This novel was written by Lisa See. She is a New York Times bestselling author. Besides Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, her other works which are also well-known and the New York Times Bestseller are On Gold Mountain (1995), Flower Net (1997), The Interior (1997), Dragon Bones (2003), Peony in Love (2007), and
Shanghai Girls (2009). Snow Flower and the Secret Fan was published by Random
House, Inc. in 2005. This novel consists of 258 pages and is divided into four chapters. In 2011, this novel was made into a film version.
On the surface, this novel tells about the lives of two women who live in the nineteenth century which was very strict on the rules and customs, particularly patriarchal system. Lily and Snow Flower are destined to be soul-mates, friends for life at the age of seven years. They have many similarities that can make them became soul-mates/friendship. They were born in the horse’s year, in the same month, on the same day. Their height is also identical, equal beauty, and the most importantly is their feet were bound on the same day. Lily and Snow Flower should follow the tradition of the painful foot binding before they enter puberty. After the binding, they just spend their youth at the upstairs women’s chamber. Every day,
they learn to sew, weave, make shoes, and carry out the activities of women. They are forced to spend their time to carry out the activities of the women until they meet their husbands through arranged marriages. Lily and Snow Flower move to their husbands’ home after they get married. In this study, the researcher found an interesting thing to be analyzed which is their friendship. Their friendship can make way for their survival living under the oppressive Chinese patriarchal culture.
B. Approach of the Study
In analyzing Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, the researcher applied feminist perspective. This approach is relevant because this research discusses about the life of Chinese women in patriarchal system in the nineteenth century especially the difficult conditions that women receive because of living under the oppressive Chinese patriarchal cultures. Feminism views the system of domination is rooted from patriarchy. Patriarchy has a system to control and order women what they should do in the society and certainly the system gives disadvantages for women.
Charles E. Bressler states that
Bressler clearly states about what women should do in dealing about their lives living under patriarchal society. Women actually have choices about what they should do for their lives. It depends on their willingness and bravery in taking the opportunities and utilizing those opportunities to make their better life happen. Therefore, in this study, women try to find the best way in dealing with a hard and unfriendly life for them. Women use a bond which is female friendship to help their survival under patriarchal society. This study shows how female friendship is really important for women who live under the oppressive patriarchal society. By using feminist perspective, the researcher will be able to find out how female friendship can make way for the main characters - Lily and Snow Flower’s survival living under Chinese patriarchal culture.
C. Method of the Study
In order to find the answer of each question in problem formulation, the researcher used library research as the method of the study. The researcher collected the data from books, papers, journals, and internet.
There were several steps to complete this study. First, the researcher chose a literary work for this research which is Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. After that, the researcher did close reading with the aim of better understanding the novel in every detail. Then, the researcher chose a topic and determined problem formulation as the focus of analysis.
The second step was to find some references that support for the analysis of the topic. The references included theories, criticism, and approach that were relevant to the study.
The third step was to answer every question in the problem formulation. In answering the first problem formulation, the researcher should comprehend the theory of Chinese patriarchal culture. The theory of Chinese patriarchal culture was used to find and analyze the difficult conditions that the main characters experienced. In answering the second problem formulation, the researcher used the theory of feminism. After comprehending the theory of feminism and feminist idea about female friendship, the researcher applied the theory to analyze the ways of female friendship can make way for the survival of the main characters living under Chinese patriarchal culture.
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
Because there are two problems formulated, this analysis is divided into two sections. The first part will reveal the difficult conditions of living under Chinese patriarchal culture depicted in the life of the main characters – Lily and Snow Flower. The second part will analyze how the friendship between the main characters contributes to their survival in the difficult condition of living under Chinese patriarchal culture.
A. The Difficult Conditions of Living under Chinese Patriarchal Culture
Depicted through the life of the Main Characters
The theory of characters is used to understand the characters which are presented as the persons who even have the moral qualities in a literary work through what they say and what they do. In this novel, Lily and Snow Flower are included in what is meant by M.H. Abrams as characters. The researcher makes an overview of the characters through what they say or they do and their conversations with others. Therefore, through the characters, through what they say and what they act, the researcher finds out that they talk about the difficult conditions of women living under Chinese patriarchal culture. As an example of the dialogue that shows the difficult conditions of women living under Chinese patriarchal culture is found in
Lily’s words. Women in China are considered worthless, even their birth was never expected because they will become burden of a family.
I was a third child, a second worthless girl, too little to waste time on until it looked like I would survive my milk years. She looked at me the way all mothers look at their daughters–as a temporary visitor who was another mouth to feed and a body to dress until I went to my husband’s home. I was five, old enough to know that I didn’t deserve her attention, but suddenly I craved it. (See, 2005: 12)
The other example is from the action that shows the difficult conditions of women living under Chinese patriarchal culture. Chinese women should follow the tradition of footbinding. They should experience the painful process of getting a pair of tiny feet. As experienced by Lily,
I wanted to run to the lattice window and peek out, but already my feet ached as the pressure on my bones built and the tightness of the bindings blocked my blood’s circulation. (See, 2005: 27)
Therefore, by analyzing what is said and what is experienced by the characters, the life of the main characters can be found. These characters talk about their difficult conditions of living under Chinese patriarchal culture.
The patriarchal system that happened in China is influenced by Confucianism. Confucianism is like a system of social ethics that rules the live of people in society. There are so many doctrine that Confucianism had. However, the main doctrine of Confucianism is Li (the rules of propriety). As Fang Hong states that “The rules of propriety is important to control the social roles. By using the rules of propriety, men and women act according to a hierarchy of social roles.” (Hong, 1997: 5). The rule
of propriety has regulated the accepted behavior of how men and women live in Chinese society. Therefore, men and women should follow the standard of life that is applied in Chinese society. Women especially should know their position because based on the hierarchy, women is in the lowest position. Women should act according to the doctrine that Confucianism had. Lily as one of the main characters also acknowledges that women should live based on the Confucianism doctrine.
I also understood that two Confucian ideals ruled our lives. The first was the Three Obediences: “When a girl, obey your father; when a wife, obey your husband; when a widow, obey your son.” The second was the Four Virtues, which delineate women’s behavior, speech, carriage, and occupation: “Be chaste and yielding, calm and upright in attitude; be quiet and agreeable in words; be restrained and exquisite in movement; be perfect in handiwork and embroidery.” If girls do not stray from these principals, they will grow into virtuous women. (See, 2005: 24)
Women are taught about their role and how they should behave in the society since their childhood. Women should keep that Confucianism doctrine in their mind and implement the rule as long as they live in Chinese society. Women have been taught to always obey and prioritize men whether he is father, husband, and sons.
1. Footbinding
“In order to have women completely in its control and its disposal, the Confucian-dominated society also invented and forced upon women an odd and appalling concept of feminine physical beauty – the small, bound foot” (Hong, 1997: 22). Women in China underwent the painful tradition of footbinding. Footbinding
was a cruel procedure that was done for the purpose to have tiny feet. As stated by Pang, the process was surely painful because the toes were forced pressed tightly to the sole of the foot by using a bandage to tie it. There would be blood and pus coming out after the feet bound with the bandage. The main goal of the process was until the toes broke (Pang, 2000: 3). The process of footbinding was not only painful but also dangerous. There was a possibility that the girl whose feet were bound die due to infections and other health issues. Even though women knew that the practice of footbinding was really painful and dangerous, women still apply this practice. Lily, one of the main characters in the novel said she just realizes that the practice of footbinding is really dangerous for her as a woman. The people around her never tell the truth of the danger of footbinding when Lily was at a young age at the time of her footbinding.
No one said I could die. It wasn’t until I moved to my husband’s home that my mother-in-law told me that one out ten girls died from footbinding, not only in our county but across the whole of China. (See, 2005: 25)
Chinese women bet their soul to do the practice of footbinding. They did the practice of footbinding by relying of the luck. The existence of the standard of beauty has influenced the mindset of women. The high pressure in the Chinese society about the standard of beauty has forced women to evaluate their physical appearance. This condition makes women feel inferior when they cannot fulfill the standard in society. Women will feel that they are not beautiful and not attractive when they do not have a pair of tiny feet. They will think that they are really a
woman and are considered as a truly woman by society if they did the practice of footbinding. By doing the practice of footbinding, women will feel that they are also part of Chinese society. Therefore, women did the practice of the painful and dangerous footbinding to fulfill the standard of beauty in Chinese society.
The practice of footbinding really complicated the lives of women. At the age of six or seven, women were forced to experience this cruel procedure. The practice of footbinding did not only hurt them physically but also made women lose their childhood. At the age of six or seven, when children were supposed to enjoy their lives such playing with their friends and developing themselves, women stayed at home instead and prepared their selves to do the practice of footbinding. They were forced to obey the standard of the society about the perfect feet. In the novel, Snow Flower does not want to undergo the painful tradition of footbinding. Although she refuses by hiding and begging her father not to bind her feet, she still has to undergo this torture of footbinding practice. “My mother bound my feet–and me to the chair– even tighter the next time” (See, 2005: 56).
In the novel, many mothers in China do not have another option except to do the same practice of footbinding to her daughters. As Ping states, “during the two years of binding process, the mother has imprinted her secret knowledge of female survival onto the flesh of her daughter.” (Ping, 2000: 6). Even though the mother knows exactly the pain and the hate of footbinding because she had also experienced it from her mother, the mother still has to force her daughters to do the practice of
footbinding. The mother tells her daughter that she will also survive in Chinese patriarchal culture if she did what her mother formerly did which is footbinding. As Lily’s mother said to Lily in the process of her binding. “A true lady lets no ugliness into her life. Only through pain will you have beauty. Only through suffering will you find peace. I wrap, I bind, but you will have the reward.” (See, 2005: 30)
What makes the practice of footbinding become very concerned is the fact that Lily also does the practice of footbinding to her daughter when she becomes a mother. She also says exactly as what her mother said to her when her feet bound.
I took my feelings and harnessed them, driving my daughter back and forth across the floor of our upstairs room, wrapping her bindings even tighter on those days that her feet were rewrapped, and chastising her– no, crying bitterly at her–with what my mother had drilled into me. (See, 2005: 223)
Therefore, Lily does not only experience the painful of footbinding when she was a little girl but also the pain of doing the same practice to her daughter. She knows exactly the pain and the torture of footbinding. The process of getting perfect feet really torments her. In order to make her toes quickly broken, she is forced to walk with the feet bound. The effect after her feet are bound made her unable to eat. Although her stomach is empty, she always throws up because of the unbearable pain (See, 2005: 28). As a mother, Lily feels sad because her daughter should feel the same painful torture because of footbinding. When Lily is a little girl, she considers her mother as a bad mother because does the painful practice of footbinding to her. Likewise, when she does the practice of footbinding to her
daughter, she is the one that is considered as a bad mother by her daughter. Therefore, Chinese women experience the cruel tradition of feet bound when she is a little girl and then she does the same practice to her daughter. It is like a suffering that keep continues from generation to generation. This footbinding is like an obligation that women should do in their lives if they want to live in Chinese society which means that their sufferings never stop. Women do not have another option because as being a part of society, they should follow the existed rule in that society. Women were freed from footbinding when this practice of footbinding was legally banned at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Footbinding was not only used to measure the beauty but also as the symbol of social status. As Wang Ping states, “For upper-class women, footbinding was the marker of their hierarchy. For girls from the lower class, footbinding gave them an opportunity to move upward in the marriage and service market.” (Ping, 2000: 32). Because in Chinese patriarchal culture women were degraded, it made women feel worthless in society. To show that they were valuable women, women had to raise their status by doing footbinding not only for upper-class women but also the lower-class. For lower-class women, it was a great chance to earn their social status. They would have an opportunity to get married with a rich family that meant it would
change their life in terms of economy and social. Parents from rich family would
look for women who had a perfectly pair of tiny feet as their daughter-in-law. As
experienced by Lily that also has to follow the tradition of foot binding “In one
instant I had changed from being a worthless girl into someone who might be useful
to the family” (See, 2005: 23).
By having a pair of tiny feet, women will show that they are also valuable. They want to prove their status as a valuable woman.
My small feet would be offered as proof to my prospective in-laws of my personal discipline and my ability to endure the pain of childbirth, as well as whatever misfortunes might lie ahead. My small feet would show the world my obedience to my natal family, particularly to my mother, which would also make a good impression on my future mother-in-law. (See, 2005: 34)
By the existence of the practice of footbinding in Chinese society, the goal of Confucian society-Chinese patriarchal culture to control women by making women just stay at home could be realized. As stated by Du Fangqin, “Footbinding was one of men’s conspiracies to keep women home as slaves physically and mentally, to turn them into sheer objects of men’s lust and perversity.” (Fangqin in Ping, 2000: 43). By doing the practice of footbinding, women would experience physical constraints. With the change of the size of the feet, women would find difficulty to walk because the feet and their body became unbalanced - tiny feet had to bear a big body. Because of the size of the feet and the body was not balanced, it made them feel sick quickly when standing or walking for long time and even doing hard physical activities. Due to the reason of physical constraints, women were placed in the home. Women only needed to be at home and take care of domestic activities. The effect of Confucianism doctrine for Chinese culture clearly divided the role of men and women especially in
a household. The area for women was in home. Even a place for women to gather together with other women was in home, the upstairs women’s chamber.
Whether you are rich or poor, emperor or slave, the domestic sphere is for women and the outside sphere is for men. Women should not pass beyond the inner chambers in their thoughts or in their actions. (See, 2005: 24)
Because of this division of labor in the household, at the young age, Lily has been placed at women’s chamber so she can see directly what she should do as a woman. At women’s chamber, Lily lives with the other members of family which are the older women – mother, sisters, aunts, and other relatives. By seeing directly the activities of the older women, she can take a conclusion that she just need to take care of the household. She is directed to think that house will be a place that she belongs to and she needs to take care of it. As a housewife later, she is required to be a good housewife that is good to take care of the all household chores such as cooking, doing the laundry, doing the ironing, cleaning the house, and taking care of the children and the family members. Lily knows exactly the role of the women in the family from her mother. Her mother tries hard to be a good housewife and always careful to act in front of her husband in order to make her husband satisfy and be kind to her. “He rarely hit my mother and he never took a concubine, but her caution with him made us all heedful” (See, 2005: 12).
That kind of pressure in the society that regulates what women have to do in order to make them survive in the society makes women do not have another choice but to accept that reality. As Lily’s mother affirms “I don’t like the girls wandering around the village when they should be working at their house learning” (See, 2005: 33). Therefore, Lily also has to learn about the duties to be a woman and the important thing to be a good housewife so her future husband will treat her well and it also prevents the possibility of domestic violence. Lily has to learn about household chores, practical arts – learning to sew, and learning nu shu (a secret writing of women).
2. Arranged marriage
Because women just stay at home and the area of women is at home, women do not have an opportunity to go outside the house to find their partner of life. Unmarried women just leave the house for a few emergency exceptions like attending funerals of family members and going to pray at the shrine. And they are allowed out of the house because they leave the house with their families. For Chinese unmarried women, going out of their area that is home is extremely forbidden. This is tantamount to violation of the rules that exist in the society if they leave the house. Therefore, women do not have any other choice but to do arranged marriages. Tsai Wen-Hui in Leng Shao Chuan states that in traditional China, marriage was arranged by the parents and often through a mediator or go-between, without the consent of the young people concerned (Tsai in Leng Shao-chuan, 1989:
228). Women do not have the freedom to choose her husband. Marriage is a business arrangement. After getting married, women will live at the home of men’s family. Women should obey the husband’s family, especially mother-in-law. “The girls would have all married out to distant villages, where they would be too busy with their children and obeying their mothers-in-law to have time for old friendships” (See, 2005: 13).
Lily gets married at the age of fifteen. She does not only prepare her physical condition but also her mental in dealing with her new life as a married woman. However, there is a custom that complicates her. She does not have another option so she should obey the custom even though it tortures her.
I may have been brave and looking forward to my new life, but my body and soul were weak from hunger, because a bride is not allowed to eat for the final ten days of her wedding festivities. Do we follow this custom to make us sadder at leaving our families, to make us more yielding when we go to our husband’s homes, or to make us appear more pure to our husbands? How can I know the answer? All I know is that Mama–like most mothers–hid a few hard-boiled eggs for me in the women’s chamber, but these did little to give me strength, and my emotions weakened with each new event. (See, 2005: 106)
After Lily moves to her husband house, she tries very hard to be a good housewife. She obeys all of the rules of her husband house. Lily’s mother-in-law is very strict with the rules. Lily does her duties as a housewife as well as possible so she will not get into trouble with her mother-in-law and her husband.
She watched over me as I did the same chores that I did in my natal home–making tea and breakfast, washing clothes and bedding,
preparing lunch, sewing, embroidering, and weaving in the afternoon, and finally cooking dinner. My mother-in-law ordered me about freely. (See, 2005: 140)
Because Lily and Snow Flower have the differences in class, Lily turns into one of the members of an honorable family is forbidden for having laotong relationship with Snow Flower – her friend for life by her mother-in-law. Her mother-in-law wants Lily to stop meeting Snow Flower. Lily is very sad and angry because laotong relationship supposed to last in their entire lives. Lily considers Snow Flower as a precious person in her life because Snow Flower is the only person who she can talk to and share grievances. Lily’s husband is a busy person and he rarely speaks to her. Lily is also not close to her mother-in-law so she does not have the courage to speak first to her mother-in-law even if to talk about her feelings or her sadness after getting married. Because of those circumstances, Lily needs Snow Flower. Although Lily is prohibited to have laotong relationship with Snow Flower, Lily secretly keeps in touch with Snow Flower via nu shu–their secret writing. They write nu shu texts on fans.
With her bold act, I realized the true purpose of our secret writing. It was not to compose girlish notes to each other or even to introduce us to the women in our husband’s families. It was to give us a voice. Our nu shu was a means for our bound feet to carry us to each other, for our thoughts to fly across the fields as Snow Flower had written. The men in our households never expected us to have anything important to say. They never expected us to have emotions or express creative thoughts. The women–our mothers-in-law and the others–put up even greater blockades against us. But from here on out, I hoped Snow
Flower and I would be able to write the truth of our lives, whether we were together or apart. (See, 2005: 160)
Lily also ventures to leave the house and make arrangements to meet with Snow Flower.
But if I visited her against my mother-in-law’s wishes, I would be committing one of the worst crimes possible. Sneaking around to write or read letters paled in comparison to this, but I had to do it if I wanted to see my laotong. (See, 2005: 160)
This shows that Lily is bold enough to see Snow Flower, her friend. Lily wants to do anything to meet her friend even though her action may harm her.
3. Domestic violence
Parshley states that
Through marriage woman is now no longer lent from one clan to another: she is torn up by the roots from the group into which she was born, and annexed by her husband’s group; he buys her as one buys a farm animal or a slave; he imposes his domestic divinities upon her; and the children born to her belong to the husband’s family. (Parshley, 1989: 82)
In patriarchal culture, a woman is considered as a property. When she is in a family, she is the property of her father because the father is the one that give her food, clothes, and place to sleep since her birth. The father is the one that ensure her life in terms of economy. Therefore, the father has power over her. The father can do anything to her daughter even to sell her if the family has a bad economic condition. The father is free to decide the life of her daughter. When Snow Flower’s family goes bankrupt, the life of Snow Flower’s family changes dramatically. Snow Flower,
who is still a child trying to survive facing her life. Their situation worsens when there is a famine due to crop failure. Snow Flower’s father is not ready to face reality. Snow Flower’s father is a tobacco addict so he chooses to smoke his pipe and ends up neglecting his family. Their house is often visited by debt collectors. Because of that bad economic situation, Snow Flower is almost sold by his father as a little daughter-in-law which is in Chinese society, a little daughter-in-law will be treated worse than a servant.
“He thought he would sell me.” “Not as a servant!”
“Worse. As a little daughter-in-law.” (See, 2005: 122).
Then, when a woman gets married, she becomes a property of the husband and she does not belong to the father anymore. It is because when a woman is married, the husband gives a dowry to her family. That dowry is like a symbol of the husband that has bought the woman. The one that got the dowry is the woman’s family. Therefore, since a wife is a property of the husband, the husband can do anything to her and treat her freely even do domestic violence. Snow Flower has to experience domestic abused done by her husband. Having sons is a very difficult duty for women who live in Chinese patriarchal culture. A son is a very precious child in a family because he will be a family successor. As May-Lee Chai and Winberg Chai states that “Girls were considered less valuable than boys, as girls would marry and move away whereas boys would stay nearby and take care of their
parents in old age.” (Chai, May-Lee and Winberg Chai, 2014: 114). Because of such pressure, Snow Flower experiences domestic violence in the form of verbal by her husband. Her husband does not want to have a daughter so he says the harsh words when Snow Flower is pregnant. “Because my husband says it is better to have a dog than a daughter” (See, 2005: 163).
Snow Flower is not only experiencing domestic violence verbally but also physically abused. Their second child passes away. Her husband is very sad because he has lost a son which is very valuable for the family.
When Snow Flower asked where her son was buried, the butcher turned and hit her with such ferocity that she flew back a couple of meters and landed with a thud onto the hard-packed snow. He proceeded to beat her so badly that she miscarried in a violent gush of black blood that stained the icy slopes throughout our campsite. (See, 2005: 207)
Snow Flower cannot fight back or gets angry for the actions of her husband. She knows her position as a married woman is to respect her husband. As Hsu states, “Women have to respect their husbands, fathers, older brothers, and other related senior males; if they do not, they will find themselves becoming social outcasts.” (Hsu, 1971: 209). Therefore, Snow Flower must respect every decision that her husband does even the decision that can hurt her physically. She cannot do anything but should endure the pain of the physical abuse.
She passively accepted beating after beating. Her body weakened from the loss of blood from the miscarriage. Her body bruised and tore from
the daily punishment her husband rained down on her. (See, 2005: 207)
This shows the suffering that woman has to receive because of patriarchal culture. As a wife, Snow Flower has to endure the pain of domestic violence because she cannot fight the mistreatment of her husband had done to her.
B. How the Friendship between the Main Characters Contributes to Their
Survival in the Difficult Condition of Living under Chinese Patriarchal
Culture
Patriarchal system in China is very strong. Men have a way to maintain power and always make a woman into an inferior creature. Patriarchal system is set up so neatly that there is no loop hole at all for women to refuse. Patriarchal culture makes women to have always depended on men. The strong patriarchal system is very visible in the home. As the leader of the family, the father has a powerful control over his family members (Tsai in Leng, 1989: 227-228). He looks for money to provide for his family life. A wife has no power because her duty is to be at home to take care of everything related to the household. This ultimately makes the wife to be always submissive and obedient to the will of the husband because the wife does not have the strength in terms of economy. This is also true for daughter. The daughter is not only obedient to her mother but she also must always be obedient to her father and her male relatives. Later, when she becomes a wife, she must obey her husband as the husband is the one who gives her food and clothes. It is apparent here
that the women must live in the same pattern from generation to generation. Patriarchal culture has the power to make women always depend on men and eventually makes women can be controlled.
Women actually have an awareness of gender inequality. As Humm states, “feminism is the ideology of women’s liberation since intrinsic in all its approaches is the belief that women suffer injustice because of our sexes” (Humm, 1990: 74). Women only have the awareness that women and men should be treated equally, but they do not have the courage to refuse the patriarchal system. Women should have courage to face the challenge to free them from the suffering they experienced. As the quotation of Simone de Beauvoir in Bressler’s Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, women should have courage to break what all
this time they believed that the position of women in society was not born, but it was created by the society through the patriarchal system. Women should establish their own identity if they want to be free completely as autonomous beings (Beauvoir in Bressler, 1999: 182). However, not all women are brave enough to take the challenge because there will definitely be many risks that will be received. There are many women who are not sure of themselves and they have already felt comfortable with their lives by submitting themselves to patriarchal system. They feel fear and doubt that when they make a change as expressing their opinions in public, their opinions are not heard even rejected because it is considered as worthless. This ultimately leaves them with no other choice but to follow the patriarchal system.
They do not have the courage to take risks as alienated by society and prefer to submit to patriarchal system.
Because the system of patriarchy is so powerful, the most serious problem is women do not realize that they become the agent of this patriarchal culture. They are not an agent of change but the agent who participates in perpetuating Chinese patriarchal culture. As an example is the practice of footbinding. Even though women know that the practice of footbinding is very painful, they continue doing this practice to their daughter when they became a mother. Women do not have any other choice because it is the way they should take to survive in Chinese patriarchal culture. As mentioned earlier the importance of footbinding for women who live in a patriarchal culture makes women must give up one of the most important parts of his body were tortured to get a perfect feet according to Chinese patriarchal culture. The main characters in this novel, Lily and Snow Flower, join to continue the painful tradition of footbinding to their daughter. Lily and Snow Flower enter into the patterns of patriarchy. Lily and Snow Flower force their daughters to do the practice of footbinding because when they were children, they had been brainwashed to accept that the practice footbinding is a reasonable or normal practice they need to do to live in a patriarchal culture. As Lily said before she started footbinding “All I knew was that footbinding would make me more marriageable and therefore bring me closer to the greatest love and greatest joy in a woman’s life–a son.” (See, 2005: 25). It is obvious that since childhood, the thought of women have been formed to
accept that their purpose in life is to be married to someone, taking care of the household, and having sons. To achieve all that, they have to do footbinding first. Because Lily and Snow Flower have done the painful practice of footbinding and eventually they are able to get married and have children especially sons, this makes Lily and Snow Flower increasingly believe that they also have to do the practice of footbinding to their daughter. Although it is a hurtful and hard decision, Lily and Snow Flower still should do the cruel tradition of footbinding to their daughter. “We sat down and spoke of what was foremost in our minds–our daughters.” (See, 2005: 187).
For women, living under a patriarchal system where women have to follow all the traditions that have been arranged very neatly in a patriarchal culture and see the position of women as a human being it is not valuable because being only regarded as an object is very difficult. It is no wonder there are women who die because they cannot stand and survive living under Chinese patriarchal culture, such as suicide and died during footbinding process. However, there are also women who survive in this Chinese patriarchal culture. Women use a bond to survive in the Chinese patriarchal culture. The bond of female friendship is very important to the lives of women who live under Chinese patriarchal culture. Although female friendship has a very small scale or a narrow but women consider this female friendship as a hope that can make women survive in Chinese patriarchal culture. Female friendship helps women to face all kinds of life challenges found in Chinese patriarchal culture.
Therefore, there are four points that make this female friendship become so important for the survival of women living under Chinese patriarchal culture.
1. Female friendship creates a condition when women influence each other
As Raymond states, “Female friendship is the state of influencing, acting upon, moving, and impressing, and of being influenced, acted upon, moved, and impressed by other women.” (Raymond 2001: 8). From female friendship, women can influence each other as they share their experiences and stories, and express themselves. By sharing stories, women get the opportunity to learn from one another, especially to learn how to survive in Chinese patriarchal culture. Like the friendship of Lily and Snow Flower. Lily and Snow Flower mutually learn from each other. Because Snow Flower comes from a wealthy family, she only knows nu shu (secret writing), how to have a good manners and etiquette, and how to deal with
men, while Lily knows how to take care of the house such as cleaning, washing, and cooking. Because of this friendship, they learn from each other.
“But you’re the one who taught me. Your embroidery has always been better than mine. And you knew the secret writing so well. You trained me to live in a home with high threshold– “
“And you taught me how to haul water, wash clothes, cook, and clean the house.” (See, 2005: 123)
The activity of influencing each other makes women move or apply what they have learned to live in Chinese patriarchal culture. Mastering how to be a woman who is accepted in Chinese patriarchal society is used as a survival tactic. By
