Evolusion and Gender Bias Reflected in Chinese Characters

Karsono, Ong Mia Farao (2013) Evolusion and Gender Bias Reflected in Chinese Characters. JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (JLL), 4 (2). pp. 21-26. ISSN ISSN: 2078-0303

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Abstract

Evolution of Chinese characters besides the form of its streaks, also occur in change and meaning of vocabulary. Vocabulary containing radical women which is expressed with the pictograph "女 nǚ" contained a lot of negative meanings, so it is very interesting to study the gender bias. To analyze the evolution of the character content and gender bias in Chinese characters, an analytical literature method was used. Results of the analysis found that Chinese characters contain a high philosophy. By seeing the form of the characters we are already aware of the culture reflected in the nation. Besides that many Chinese characters used „woman‟ radical with a derogative meaning, showing that the time these characters were created, the woman position of women were regarded lower than men. In simplification of the character streaks it was found that some negative meaning characters no longer contain the „woman radical‟, marking a change in the view about women, but the percentage is still small

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