Chinese disasters and what meaning do they have?

Watching the live footage of the Tianjin explosion truly shocked me. It is an incident that should not have happened. The explosions were absolutely cataclysmic- like none I’ve ever seen before on live mobile footage. It is truly scary to see the power and destruction that is being safe guarded by other members in society. So what could have led to these explosions taking place in one of China’s most populated cities.

It is an annus horribilis for China’s incidents. A country that more than any is so insecure of its image from outside its borders that it meticulously screens any foreign content so that it portrays China in the most positive light. This year The Middle Kingdom has made the front pages for all the wrong reasons. As well as the Tianjin explosions, the up-turned boat on the Yangtze river had coverage, as well as woman that disappeared down an elevator. These events have had back-to-back worldwide coverage, and all share the similar veined mystery of the reasons for this happening. How long can you dismiss incidents like this as a freak occurrence.

Historically, in imperial China the Emperor was placed at the pivot between the cosmic natural order and the human social order as the “the Son of Heaven”. The Emperor’s good administration, leadership, led to order in the natural and social world where his citizens lived. However in the same token if there were deficiencies with the emperor, this led to disorder. This has led to instances of the Emperor being overthrown by the popular movement deeming the Emperor unfit to rule because of a bad crop. This led to a set of variables the Emperor needed to meet to ensure himself legitimacy.

The Imperial logic of legitimation involved securing domestic order, therefore stability came first.  Stability could be ensured through the old values of Truth, Benevolence and Glory. These values have never been conceded by the current CCP, rather stretched to accompany modernity to encompass some new contents and meanings

The legitimacy of the state is quite key here. Will it call this a intentional, callous act from a foreign party and use Glory to respond to it? Will it come out with the Truth and reprimand the guilty party? Will it use acts of benevolence to clear up this mess and support the families who have had to endure this terrible tragedy? 

I hope the truth comes out and nationalistic tendencies are quelled.

What can you learn from looking at the 女 character?

The magic of learning Chinese characters is the story that is told to denote the meaning of each one. Some stories hold more validity than others. For instance, I remember my teacher telling our class that the word for 'beautiful 美' derived from 'big 大' + 'sheep 羊'. Who knew that beauty lie in big sheep!

The components of each character are made up of radicals and often another character that forms the pronunciation of the word. I believe the meanings of the radicals to denote core ideas, principles and values of Chinese people. The KangXi dictionary is organised by  all the 214 different radicals and separated by the amount of strokes. There are some radicals that are present in other characters more often than others. For example, the radicals 口, 日, 心 and 女, which mean 'mouth, day, heart and woman'. I wanted to take a look at the final character, 女, as I've seen it crop up in many different types of words.

I really was drawn to exploring this word after my Chinese teacher described the word for man男 formation as being田field +力strength, while the word for wife妻 , was described as a woman doing the sweeping as broom is帚. I wondered if this plays into the Chinese psyche having characters for meanings that are frightfully archaic from modern-day society. Perhaps it still reflects large parts of Chinese society in the countryside that shows a deep reflection of the country’s roots. That being said, these ideas of patrimony are not aspired to today in China upward looking society. 


Characters where 女 appears

妻....wife
妹妹/姐姐 ....younger sister/older sister 
妊...pregnant
妈妈... mum

These words are to do with the woman's role and their unique capabilities. It is of no surprise to see the 女  radical.

Positive meanings

始.....  start
婚.....marry, in essense to take a wife,
嬛....good looking, attractive,
好... good

These words have positive connotations so it is not all doom and gloom for the woman. One could wonder though why its with the woman and the son radical that the 好 character, one of the most frequently used words, is formed.


Negative meanings  

妒....envy
嫌... dislike,
妨....hinder, obstruct, 
奸....adultery


Some words to support my theory that the woman character is more ofthen present in words with negative connotations than the male character. It gives the impression that envy is solely a woman trait and that woman are perhaps the ones obstructing others.


Everyday speech   

楼...floor of a building
接...receive
如...as, if, for example,
要...want

These are some other high-frequency words. I could not really find a pattern here at all. Although I did find it interesting to see 女(woman) + 西 (west) = 要(want). Does this mean that the woman in the West (of China) are wanted more than the ones in East.


Overall, the list shows that the woman radical, 女, appears in many different characters (there are also lots more which I have not learned yet and have not included). However, I theorise that the stories given to explain the characters of each other sex portray a more rosy outlook to men rather than women reflecting the patriarchal society of China. Further study could look at the changes made from traditional writing to the simplified that was brought in by Mao Zedong, who was an advocate for equal rights among workers and thus gave woman an added status among their male peers. It must be noted that everyone was on the same lowly peasant level status. But is this equality reflected in the characters, or is it just the agrarian lifestyle that is reflected. In any case, the Chinese characters and their stories given to them, represent the rich Chinese culture and should be celebrated even if there is a hint of archaic roles in society.