Feminine Images
I believe being a woman in ancient Chinese period is not easy. Sexual discrimination emerged since the beginning of Chinese culture. Images of women in my points of views were always portrayed as beauty and sexual objects for men. No matter whom she is, no matter what role she is playing in Chinese society, she will never has more power than men. Artworks are one of the good evidences that prove my points of views. I always believe artworks represent not only a thought of artists, but also show a trend of society during a time that the works were produced.
After I have a chance to see many female images from several Chinese Art books. From my investigation, there is none of a female image until the Western Han period in the tomb of Lady Xin. Still, instead of depicting on how important of Lady Xin was, the image represented the life after dead belief of Chinese people. There were a lot of images that demonstrated males’ roles, but not females. It would be very easy for me to explain how important of males in Chinese culture than females.
Most of Early Chinese artworks represent the power of males and the belief of superstitions. Is it because Chinese does not think females are importance? Is it because only males have more power over everything? It seems to me that females in early Chinese culture
have a lower status than males. In my observation, I never see female scholar images in Chinese art. It seems to me that women were excluded from Chinese societies during the very early period.
My conclusion after seeing through female images in Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasty, there are perhaps about three distinct types of females in early Chinese culture. First are females from a royal family. Second are ...