Advancing Gender Equality in the Chinese Workplace
The report demonstrates the contemporary circumstances of gender equality issues in the workplace in China. Clear evidence shows that the number of working females in China is higher than in many other countries. However, the number does not show that women have been underestimated in the workplace and have fewer opportunities to get promoted compared to males. The article listed several expectations of women, like motherhood pressures. Then, the report discusses several solutions for achieving gender equality in the workforce and mainly focuses on arguments for economic benefits.
As the article has suggested, though the development of gender equality is seemingly successful at first glance, there are still challenges and obstacles. The social expectations of females are preventing the progression of gender equality in China.
Advancing Gender Parity in China: Solutions to Help Women’s Ambitions Overcome the Obstacles
This article raises similar points with Advancing Gender Equality in the Chinese Workplace. Both articles argue that though there are comparatively more females in the workplace in China than in other countries, gender disparity issues are still preventing females from advanced roles at work. The authors list several causes of gender inequality issues, and some points add up to the idea in the Advancing Gender Equality in the Chinese Workplace. For example, the article suggests that both genders have a bias that female leaders are less capable than male leaders, which can be regarded as an example for the Self-perception Influences section in Advancing Gender Equality in the Chinese Workplace.
Poor Things (Film)
Poor Things is a film about self-exploring and sexual liberation. The main character, Bella Baxter, was a pregnant woman who committed suicide. After the surgeon Godwin Baxter discovered her body, he replaced her brain with her baby’s brain and created Bella Baxter. Starting with an infant’s brain, Bella gradually develops intelligence and begins her journey of self-exploring.
First, Bella was kept inside Godwin Baxter’s mansion and was closely supervised by medical student Max. After spending time with Bella, Max found himself falling in love with Bella and engaging with Bella under Godwin’s permission. However, Bella, with her enthusiasm for the outside world, ran away with lawyer Duncan Wedderburn. As Bella continued learning and developing, Duncan found her to become hard to control. Therefore, Duncan tricks her into being locked into a suitcase and brings her on a ship, where Bella comes across philosophy from two passengers. Later, after Bella has seen the poverty at Alexandria, she donates all the Duncan’s money, which leads them to be kicked off the ship in Paris. Bella then starts working at a brothel for money, which finally leads to Duncan’s mental breakdown. Bella left Duncan and continued working at the brothel and became friends with prostitute Toinette, who led her to socialism. Later, Bella returns to Godwin because of his illness and asks to marry Max, but General Alfie Blessington comes and interrupts their wedding. Alfie revealed to Bella that she was Victoria and they were married. Wanting to find out her past life, Bella left with Alfie. Then, Bella soon discovered that Alfie wanted to lock her down in his mansion and threatened her with a gun when she wanted to leave. Bella, in the end, successfully escapes and returns to Godwin and Max.
Bella’s journey is the journey of a female fighting for her own liberation, which is closely related to gender disparity. The film depicts numerous gender stereotypes in different chapters, which Bella continues to confront and fight against. One thing that attracts me the most is that Bella does regard gender stereotypes as a common social practice. She is naïve but liberal and autonomic and questions these shared and standard practices without hesitation.
Escape from Spiderhead by George Saunders
Escape from Spiderhead is a short fiction story that embodies the exploration of morals, power and emotions. The story is set in the future, where pharmacology is highly developed and can manipulate human emotions and feelings. Jeff is the protagonist, who is the prisoner of the facility called Spiderhead. In Spiderhead, scientist Abnesti tested drugs on inmates through a device called MobiPak attached to the prisoners. The drugs can induce or suppress emotions such as love, lust and verbal fluency. One day, Jeff is forced to make the decision of giving pain or emotionally manipulating drugs to other inmates. Jeff starts to question the morality of the experiments when he has to give a prisoner extreme pain. The story ends tragically with Jeff trying to fight against Abnesti and the system.
Jeff, as he was kept inside the Spiderhead, was controlled mentally and physically by the system, which reminds me of Poor Things, in which both the protagonists lose their autonomy, and both want freedom. My project proposal focuses on creating a female character, and I will teach her how to become a “perfect female”. The protagonists in Escape from Spiderhead and Poor Things are the source for me to create my character and. The fictional nature of these two genres inspired me in my early stages of visual experimentation.
The Red String Club (Game)
“The Red Strings Club” is an adventure game set in a cyberpunk world. There are three main characters ——Brandeis, Donovan and Akara-184. Each of the characters has a different background, personality and ability. Akara-184 is an android that used to be owned by a human implant company called Supercontinent Ltd. This character has a high empathy level and was built to process implant parts and demonstrate surgery for clients. In the second sequence of the game, players can experience the working process of Akara-184 by making biomass implants on a pottery wheel and providing the products that respond to the client’s enquiries.
The narrative of this game is delivered through three characters’ perspectives, which is related to my narrative experiments. The game’s interactive nature encourages players to engage with each perspective to assemble the whole story.
Citations:
McKinsey & Company. (2023). Advancing Gender Equality in the Chinese Workplace. China: McKinsey & Company.
Zeng, J., Thorneman, M. (2014) Advancing Gender Parity in China: Solutions to Help Women’s Ambitions Overcome the Obstacles. Available at: https://www.bain.com/insights/advancing-gender-parity-in-china/(Accessed: 13 January 2024).
Poor Things (2023) Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos [Film]. Ireland, United Kingdom, United States: Searchlight Pictures.
Saunders, G. (2010) ‘Escape from Spiderhead), The New Yorker, 20 & 27 December. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/12/20/escape-from-spiderhead (Accessed: 19 January 2024).
Deconstructeam (2018). The Red Strings Club . Devolver Digital. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/589780/The_Red_Strings_Club/? (Accessed: 20 January 2024).