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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter provides the background information for the study. It introduces and describes the nature and content of the proposed study. It consists
of six parts: the background of the study that introduces the topic and the reason for choosing the topic, problem formulation that presents the questions to be
answered in this study, problem limitation, objectives of the study, benefits of the study, and definition of terms.
A. Background of the Study
In literary works such as fiction, poetry, and drama, the authors usually create awareness of a certain background to help them explain the situation they
build. It can be the cultural, social, political and historical background. The background helps the readers to both understand the situation and be informed
about particular issues and events. In this study, the cultural background is highly significant. One of the
cultures that is going to be emphasized or underlined is Chinese culture. Chinese culture is one of the famous cultures that is still very much alive. It is famous
throughout the world since China is successful in preserving their old and great culture through Chinese descendants all over the world. The culture has been
preserved until now thanks to China’s great and world-famous civilization. Gallin in his research China: People and Way of Life 1978 wrote that “China has the
oldest continuous surviving civilization in the world although it is not the first to
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2 have developed” p. 496. Not only rich in culture, China’s ancient civilization
also has outstanding achievements in the political, economic, demographic, and social spheres as well.
In Chinese culture, men are considered more powerful than women. Nanquin and Rawski 1987 in their book Chinese Society in the Eighteenth
Century state that the woman in China is inferior to man p. 80. Since ancient times, Chinese women had been second-class citizens, very far from having equal
opportunities with men. Their right to education was not recognized. They were prisoners of traditions based on gender discrimination.
For women, especially in the southern China, they had been bearing lots of expectation from the society. There was a tradition that obliged them to bind their
feet as small as three inches. This footbinding brought and forced them to the suffering and the survival. In addition, there was the women’s secret writing or
commonly called as nu shu that Chinese women used in order to communicate with their friends and the natal family after they were married. Nu shu is kept
away from the men’s sightseeing so that the women wrote it to the fans or handkerchiefs. They use this secret writing because they were not allowed
education at that time. Besides, the Chinese cultural idea kept isolating the women in the inner apartment as much as possible.
Chinese cultural idea is related to how Chinese people live in the society. Bloomfield 1991 in The Book of Chinese Belief insists that Chinese people
traditionally have a very role-oriented society. Everybody has the role to play rightly. Children should obey their parents and respect their teacher; women
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3 should obey their husband; and widows should obey their sons p. xvi. This
arrangement is a part of the Confucian filial piety demands that creates an orderly but restricted society.
Meanwhile, the demand of the women in the society is closely defined by Jackson in her book Splendid Slippers: A Thousand Years of an Erotic Tradition
that Chinese society’s life was derived from Confucian dictum. Confucianism was prevalent at that time, or even till now. The girls who stray from these principles
will not grow into virtuous women. Jackson 1997 mentioned the principles that Chinese girls must conform to.
Learned scholars, both Chinese and Western, basically have agreed that women’s rights were taken away from them by the Confucian dictum of
“Thrice Following” from Book of Rites. In simple terms, Thrice Following stated that the woman must obey her father and elder brothers in her youth,
her husband after marriage, and her son after the death of her husband. p. 16
However, from the quotation above, it can be seen that the Confucian
ideals keep the women being considered inferior to men. This unequal gender between men and women in Chinese culture is overall picture of confinement and
subjugation. In this study, the writer is going to use one of Lisa See’s novels, that is
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan as the subject of the study. It portrays Chinese women’s life in the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Then, the
portrait of Chinese women’s footbinding and nu shu is depicted very closely. Lisa See is the author of the bestselling books: Snow Flower and the
Secret Fan, Shanghai Girls, Peony in Love, On Gold Mountain, The Interior, Dragon Bones, and the newest Dreams of Joy. All Lisa See’s literary works
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4 portray Chinese women lives in the past. She is actually a Chinese-American
woman who has a broad knowledge of China and also explores it as well. She grew up with Chinese tradition surrounding her. She lived closely with the old
Chinese tradition. It became the reason why she was very interested in the Chinese background.
In Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, the major characters, Lily and Snow Flower are two girls who are living in the south China. In the place named Hunan
County, footbinding still remains and become the obligation for their girls to bind their feet. It starts at the age of six or seven. Lily and Snow Flower obey it and
successfully shape their feet into the small size. Since both of them are a pair of lao tong, which means friend forever, they keep communicating each other with
the nu shu. Footbinding exists as a kind of rule for women to fit into man’s desire. Meanwhile, nu shu exists as a way that Chinese women do to keep interacting
with their natal family and friends to share their happiness and sadness since they do not have someone to share with. It also has a relation to male domination in
Chinese society at that time. Based on this condition, the topic was chosen to see the male domination in the footbinding and women’s secret writing of nineteenth-
century Chinese women as depicted by the author in the novel. Discussing Chinese tradition is very interesting. By exploring and
observing through the novel, the reader will get a view of life of women at that time. Seeing from the sociological point of view becomes a challenge as well. In
this study, the writer will deeply analyze how the social circumstance influenced Chinese women in the nineteenth century.
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B. Problem Formulation