Gender Equality in Han Jin's Waiting Research Assignment

Ha Jin’s Waiting Essay
Name
Institution
Gender Equality in Han Jin’s Waiting
Ha Jin’s (1999) Waiting is a novel set in the traditional context of the Chinese people. It transcends cultural beliefs, conduct and depicts family relations. Gender parity profoundly comes out in the scene through the well-played characters of Lin Kong, a military doctor and her wife Shuyu, a peasant. The play revolves around a love triangle in the cultural revolution of the ancient China where the government, culture and personal interest do conflict. Nonetheless, Waiting deeply give out more than the mere love story characterizing the story. hence, this paper aims at analyzing the gender inequality issues inherent in ancient communist China. Moreover, the essay discusses obstacles to realizing the gender equality and the way the novel’s structure and language represent the equality issues.
The relationship between Shuyu and her husband Lin shows the struggle between women and men to reach a similar level but cultural inequality enhances the differential pressure. For instance, Shuyu’s is old-fashioned in her dressing style, devotes herself to her husband and talks slavishly. She is unable to read or write while her husband is a doctor, well educated and eloquent in his speech. The novel represents the man as the one meant to love then the woman to reciprocate it. Shuyu says that she wished her husband had an affair with another woman to prove his ability to love. Lin even states, “I had never loved a woman wholeheartedly” (p. 296). Moreover, Geng tells Lin, “You strive to have a good heart. But what is a heart? Just a chunk of flesh that a dog can eat” (p.167). this illustrates how the author despite advocating for gender equality in communism era, he wants men to be authoritative and cruel to their wives to show their masculinity and superiority. In the novel, women are to be subordinate to men and they are objects of marriage. For instance, Manna is described as, “she is almost twenty-six, on the verge of becoming an old maid” (p.19).
Conversely, gender equality emerges within the novel, “Men and women are equal in Maoist China” (p.37). Manna Wu is a nurse at the same hospital with Lin. They become lovers leading to Lin wanting to divorce Shuyu who severally rejects to divorce. Manna represents a modern classical woman at the same career level as men. Thus, the gender equality in education and employment depicted in the communism era in China. Nonetheless, inequality continues to blossom in the text with women the confinement of women to house chores like cooking and taking care of children and husband. Shuyu plays out this role on their rural farm and even Manna. Men are also expected to be breadwinners and financial pillars of the family. Lin says, “Tell her not to wait for me. I’m a useless man, not worth waiting for” (p.308) when speaking to Hua, her daughter. In addition, p....