A Woman I Admire

The protagonist of Changeling is a woman I admire. In an America where women’s status was still low, she dared to seek truth and justice without fearing power. Although by the end of the film she still hasn’t found her son, she goes on searching, full of hope. Over two hours telling a simple story, yet it never feels drawn out – I was drawn in by the plot, my curiosity piqued, and infected by her hope.

Looked at from the angle of human rights, Changeling is a stirring film. It can show Chinese people – so numb, silent, and dulled when it comes to politics – what power is, what resistance is, what a protest march is. But setting all that aside, I just want to talk about women’s rights.

Thinking back, the earliest work I encountered that touched on women’s rights was The Legend of the New White Snake. Bai Suzhen, though a snake demon regarded by the mortal world as something other, crosses the so-called “boundary between human and demon” in pursuit of her right to love, doing good deeds and bringing benefit to the people in the human world. At the same time, she fights against the pedantic, prejudiced Fa Hai. Although the White Snake’s model of love is still built on the foundations of a patriarchal society, it was something she won entirely through her own struggle.

Works concerning women’s rights are too numerous to list – well-known examples include the Korean drama Jewel in the Palace (everyone says it’s a classic!), and the Hong Kong film Green Snake, also based on the Legend of the White Snake, among others; I won’t go through them all. But I think the feminine spirit each of these works projects brings them close to the first woman God gave humankind – Pandora, who can serve as the archetype of woman herself: curious, innovative, strong, and just a touch obsessive.

Monday was International Women’s Day, and I don’t know how women everywhere spent that day. But I imagine that on this “imported holiday,” the most women can enjoy is a few hollow well-wishes or a day off work. The deeper feminine spirit underneath has been thoroughly castrated.