Problem Formulation Objectives of the Study Benefits of the Study Definitions of Terms

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B. Problem Formulation

This study addresses two problems which are formulated as follows. 1. How are Chinese women’s footbinding and secret writing depicted in Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan? 2. How does male domination relate to Chinese women’s footbinding and secret writing as revealed in Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan?

C. Objectives of the Study

This study has two objectives in accordance with the questions formulated in the Problem Formulation. The objectives are: 1. To see how women’s footbinding and secret writing are depicted in the novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. 2. To find out how male domination relates to women’s footbinding and secret writing revealed in the novel.

D. Benefits of the Study

This section identifies who will benefit from the study in accordance with the research objectives. The benefits of this study can be clarified as follows. Chinese women in the nineteenth century lived at the end of the period of male domination. The social factors affect how they behave and live at that time. This study gives benefits for the writer as a researcher to understand and provide more knowledge about the portrait of Chinese women in the nineteenth century by footbinding and their secret writing; and also the relation of male domination to PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 6 footbinding and the secret writing. This study also gives benefits to the future researchers who conduct studies on the sociological aspects which influenced Chinese women’s life in the nineteenth century. Besides, this study provides the open discussion about implications of the study to education.

E. Definitions of Terms

Below are the list of terms which are used throughout the study and their definitions. 1. Footbinding Naquin and Rawski 1987 state that footbinding is the tight painful binding of the toes for Chinese girls and wrapping of the feet to keep them the small size deemed desirable for wives as small as three inches p. 90. It is begun at the age of six or seven. Then, Fairbank 1986 in his book The Great Chinese Revolution 1800-1985 defined the bound feet as the erogenous area and the source of sexual fetish for men and become a guarantee of chastity for women p. 70. 2. Women’s Secret Writing Nu shu According to the book Origins of Chinese Language 2009, nu shu is women’s secret codes from Jiangyong County, Province Hunan, People’s Republic of China. The characters of nu shu are phonetic and every word has its spelling. Nu shu was developed a thousand years ago. It appears to be the only written language in the world to have been created by women exclusively for their own use. As it is secret for men, Chinese women keep this away from men. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 7 3. Male Domination Jackson 1997 states that male domination of women is a condition in which men create a situation to keep the women “…physically restricted was, presumably, less likely to be mentally independent” p. 15. 4. Nineteenth-Century Chinese Women Nineteenth-century China is the last period of dynasty’s might in China before being overthrowing by revolutionists in the early twentieth century. It belongs still to pre-modern China. According to Hook 1991 in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of China, the status of women in the era of pre-modern China “…asserted the superiority of men over women, supporting that perception with its ethical justifications, legal codes and customary practices” p. 95. The practice of footbinding had crippled Chinese women since they were in early childhood. Then, the unequal state of women still obviously remains. For instance, a woman has a little choice in her life but to marry into the household of her spouse, leave her natal family, face a potential conflict with her mother-in-law and gain the security by giving birth a son as well. Meanwhile, one module entitled Western Views of Chinese Women: Introduction maintains that women in nineteenth-century China followed gender norms based on Confucianism. The norms emphasize on the family as the primary social unit and advocate the primacy of women in the domestic or inner realm. Furthermore, daughters are expected to obey their parents’ authority, assist their PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 8 mothers in domestic tasks, and, luckily in elite families, learn to read and write Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, 2004. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 9

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE