Literacy



Discussion Writing 10.03.10

“ What was life like for Women in ancient China?”

Imagine having your feet bound up so tight that you could here the bones breaking, and not being able to choose who you marry, sad, sad life. Well, that is what the women had to endure in Ancient China. I am going to be giving you some facts about ancient China and sharing what I think about Ancient Chinese women, and sharing other people’s points of view.

A large amount of the women in ancient China suffered uncomfortable lives. This was because women were considered low quality, and not up to the standard that men were. The moment they were born they were treated terribly. Their whole lives were spent obeying the men in their families. Generations of families often lived in the same house together. Older people were hugely respected. If a grandmother lived longer than her husband she would be the oldest which meant she would gain the most respect. To me this is interesting because in her young life she was treated with no respect.

A man called Confucius taught that women’s roles were to look after the men in their families. He taught that ‘women’s greatest duty is to have a son.’ Marriages were arranged. If Families were very poor and they just had a girl baby then they would send them off to be servants for rich families. Foot binding began in around 900 AD and kept going until 1911 when it was finally banned. Little feet were considered a sign of beauty and a symbol that a family was wealthy.

I believe that some women in those days thought that was just the way they were meant to live. It was all they knew. Others would’ve found it really hard. A famous Empress called Empress Wu didn’t agree with the rules and helped women get a better life back in ancient China. She even made sure that chinese history included women.

One of the most awful things to me is the foot binding but it is also pretty awful that the women had no name.They were called daughter no1 or daughter no2 etc.

After speaking to my brother he agreed with me, and said he read about a baby girl at three days, being put under the cot with a piece of broken pottery to play with. He found this bizarre. Mum found it terrible because she can’t stand cruelty. She said she had learned about foot binding when she was at school.

After researching about Ancient Chinese Women, I feel lucky that I didn’t live in those times because they had to go through a lot of pain in all different ways. It has been the most horrible topic I have had to research about, but at the same time it has been very interesting. I keep reminding myself that if something doesn't go my way then I just should think about what the women in Ancient China had to suffer. Some accepted it but for others it was not the way they would wanted to live. I hope it is better for Chinese women nowadays.



Web quest By Nicole, Bethany, Rosie & Livvy I still have to put my illustrations on sorry :(  A Tale To Be Told

A short time ago there lived four animals, The animals were the best of friends. The friends were nick named the “fab 4.” The “fab 4” included Bee the beaver, Livvy the leopard, Nicole the newt and Rosie the rabbit. They all used to be very trustworthy of each other but their trust soon faded away, this is the story of how it came back to life.

One bright sunny day Bee the beaver, Nicole the newt and Rosie the rabbit began an argument over whose turn it was to choose the spot for the picnic that they had organized. Rosie the rabbit didn’t trust Nicole the newt to choose a good spot, Bee the beaver knew of a great patch of grass but no one would listen to her. Livvy the leopard felt that it was a pretty ridiculous thing to be arguing about so she wisely did not join in. Livvy started to get pretty impatient with all this arguing, she wanted her friends to stop, so she thought up a plan.

Livvy leopard thought that if she collapsed there and then that she might get her friends to stop arguing, so she did. Bee beaver, Nicole Newt and Rosie rabbit stood there stunned, they didn’t know what to do. Livvy started choking so Bee beaver went and put her on her side, a few seconds later Livvy sat up and said “I’m sick I need this rock.”

So she handed over a crinkled piece of paper that had a picture of a rock on it. On the paper a bold title read:

After her friends had read this piece of paper they packed up a day’s worth of food and water and set off on their quest for the RED ROCK OF WELLNESS. Livvy was left on the ground thinking about her decision to lie to her friends about her illness.

A while later the three friends arrived at the forest with the sun shining through the cracks in the towering trees. They looked at the map and followed it’s instructions to go straight ahead. They walked a little, they talked a little and they sat a little. Several hours later, they came to a clearing. In the middle of the clearing loomed a crystal pond. The three animals strolled over to the pond. It was there and then that saw a glowing red light. Soon enough the friends realized they had ventured long enough and had found the RED ROCK OF WELLNESS. Their next problem was how to get the rock out of the pond without destroying it. They split up around the clearing and then Nicole the newt yelled out “ I have found a sword.” They all rushed over to where the sword was. The sword was stuck in a tree trunk so the animals pulled at it until they were red in the face. The sword came out of the tree and Bee the beaver because she was bigger then Nicole and Rosie stabbed the crystal pond until it shattered into a million tiny pieces. The rock flew up and found itself in bee beavers hands. All of them stared for a few minutes at the rock that was glowing like red embers. Bee the beaver, Rosie the rabbit and Nicole the newt all felt so proud of their accomplishment and couldn’t wait until they could give Livvy the leopard the RED ROCK OF WELLNESS. So they all set off down the path heading for their spotty friend.

A short while later they reached the end of the big forest and could just make out Livvy’s spots through some nearby bushes. They all ran as fast as they could yelling happily “WE GOT IT!!!.” When they reached Livvy, her black lips curved up into a mean smirk. “ Well, you guys got it did you, interesting you see I was never ill, I faked it all. It was a test to see if you could trust each other, after all you weren’t trusting each other when you had that argument, were you?” Livvy said smiling. “ You lied to us, we thought you were going to die.” Said Bee the beaver rather puzzled.

“We went out of our way to find this ‘Oh so amazing’ rock to cure you, and now you’re telling us that you were faking.” Exclaimed the smallish newt.

“Yep. You fell for it.” Said Livvy, quite smartly.

“You broke our trust by lying to us, Livvy, I’m not impressed.” Before Nicole Newt could finish her sentence, Rosie Rabbit butted in:

“Hang on a second, Livvy and Nicole both have a point, Nicole’s point is Livvy lied to us but Livvy’s point is we weren’t trusting each other when we organized the picnic. I think Livvy owes us an apology and we owe her a thank you. Now, can we move on to our picnic, the carrot looked deeeelicious!” said Rosie Rabbit.

And that is the magnificent tale of the FABULOUS FOUR!

