Choices for Women in Chinese Culture

Chang’s writing depicts how few choices Chinese women had for their lives even as late as the 1940s. Women could go to school, but there were very few jobs that were open to them even if they were well educated. These stories seem to demonstrate that a woman’s best choice in life was to marry a rich man. Even marriage to a rich man was not an option for some women who did not meet certain social or familial criteria. In these cases, the best these women could hope for was to be kept as a mistress or concubine.

Cuiyuan is an exceptional woman who has risen above the accepted roles for women; but, she pays the price because she feels lonely and not respected. It is indicated that Cuiyuan’s hard work as a student had allowed her...