All language subtitles for Women_of_the_Country

Many women aren��t in charge of their own destinies.

That��s why if someone in the countryside meets a girl of 18 and wants to know if she's married, they don��t ask ��Have you got a husband?��but rather ��Have you got a��zhu��?��

Zhu�� means master. So a girl isn��t her own master and has to find one.��Have you got a master?��

This may be China��s century .She��s growing richer. Growing stronger.

And the process is taking her people through momentous upheavals.

This television series has had exceptional access to the country, her institutions and people�Cat a critical time.This is China from the inside.

China's women have always been under pressure: from men,from family,from work.

Now more and more are under new pressure-from themselves-to take control of their lives.

To get an education.To have a career.To marry for love.It's a slow,difficult process,which is changing China.

China is going home.For two weeks of the New Year,around 150 million exhausted
workers take a break from building new China to revisit the old.To return to their
villages laden with gifts and stories from the city.

I think they 're amazing.Migrants are the greatest people.

The fact that they up and go shows how brave and determined they are.They're willing to change their lifestyle and their thinking.Particularly the women.

Migration fractures families,but it also gives women new roles-whether running
the farm back home,or as wage-earners in the city.

Xiao Zhang has lived in Beijing for 14 years,cooking and cleaning.

For a few hours each week she sees her husband Xiao Huang who works in a small restaurant in the suburbs.This is the only time in the year when they're together.

It's always like this when we go home for New Year.Everyone's carrying bags,big
and small.We're all looking for a place for the luggage.

I just want to get on the train,grab a seat and find somewhere to dump the stuff.Then we can relax.

They 're taking the night train home to Anhui,600 miles south.

For me there are two Chinas: Beijing,Shanghai,Guangzhou,that's one China.I
know the other China.It's where there are more women,more poverty,it's where we
need the decision-making to be more rational and democratic.

That's the place I like.Changing China means changing the countryside.That means changing women.

With the exodus of men to the cities,two thirds of China's rural workforce are women.To improve their lives they need education,but it costs.

Parents prefer to spend on their son,so he'll look after them in old age.

A daughter becomes part of her husband's family.

Xiao Zhang has bumped into a university friend of her brother.

Neither she nor her sister received higher education,but they're supporting their brother through college.

It's not easy for people from the countryside to go to a university.We think that if we
support our brother,and he does well,it'll be very good for our parents and the family.

Few returning for the New Year have children with them.Most can't afford schooling in the city-or aren't allowed access to it.

So millions of children are left in the countryside with grandparents while parents work to support them.And that's what gives added urgency and poignancy to Xiao Zhang and Xiao Huang's journey.

Because waiting for them in his parent's village are the ten year old daughter Dan Dan and four year old son Jinhui they haven't seen for a year.

I wanted to get home as quickly as possible and see the children as soon as we got
off the train,to hear our children calling us.

People abroad are more open.It'd be very embarrassing in China if we kissed and
cuddled like foreigners.

In China we buy presents and clothes for our children when
we go home.That's how we show we care.

I was very happy.When my daughter came to me holding a pair of new boots and
told me "I love them."I said,"If you love the boots,then listen to me.��

You must study hard and go to university and one day you'll have whatever clothes
you want.My daughter said "Yes,I'll be good.I promise I'll study hard."

For thousands of years in China,to be a woman meant to submit.Girls had their
feet bound,arches broken,toes bent over.

Walking was so painful the women could be trusted never to stray far from home.

Gao Yaojie became a famous doctor and activist for women's rights in China,defying the binding of her feet at five.

In those days no one thought it was cruel to women.Girls just needed to count
money and know a few numbers.

Girls weren't expected to go to school.It was a patriarchal society.Men were good,no matter how bad they were.

Since 1949 Communist rhetoric has stressed women's equality with men,but old
habits of thought die hard.

A side effect of China's rural birth control policy is to favour boys.

The aim is to limit China's population-currently 1.3 billion.If your first-born is male,you can't have another child.

But if,like Xiao Zhang,your first is a girl you can have a second,hoping for a son to work,take care of you and carry on the family line.Blossom first,the old saying went,then the fruit.

Personally,I'd have preferred to give birth to a daughter than a son.

But as my Xiao Huang is the only boy in his family,his parents-my mother and father-in-law-
wanted me to have a son.

Having a son in China is often not left to chance.

Some people do an ultrasound scan 4-5 months into pregnancy and when they find
out it's a girl they go for an abortion.I know a privately owned hospital that does it.

The government has reinforced the restriction on abortions many times,but they haven't stopped.

The main reason is corruption in the health service and corruption is everywhere.So men and women are still treated unequally.

Some parents abandon baby girls.These are lucky-found in time and brought to an orphanage.

Disabled girl babies particularly risk being unwanted.

The government's trying to persuade the people that girls are as good as boys,but by the year 2020 there'll be a shortfall of around 40 million women.

Women will face an even more terrible future in 20 ears'time.Abduction andtrafficking women will increase.So will prostitution,as well as sexual violence against women and rape.

I think this problem really must be solved from the ground up.

Birth Planning Officer Hu Guanhua is doing her rounds.The New Year's a good time to catch women at home.

Next stop:Xiao Zhang's village.

In its drive to control the birth rate,the state peers into the nation's bedrooms.China's women don't have a lot of privacy.

In joining the new world of their husband's family,they've got their father-in-law todeal with,their mother-in-law,various uncles,sisters-in-law etc.

She's got to gain everyone's acceptance.When there are conflicts,she's the weakest.

So this custom of moving in with the husband's family has made many women feel helpless when they have problems.They feel very helpless.

Xiao Zhang gets on with her husband's family now,but it hasn't always been easy.

I was quite upset at the time.I'd lived all my life with my own mom and dad.And here I was-expected to call his parents mom and dad.

Very strange.I couldn't do it.It's much better now.Time's passed and we've got the children,so it's ok now.

If a woman goes to live with her husband's family and they treat her well,or if she's found someone who loves and respects her,she'll be all right.If a woman goes to live with her husband's family and they treat her well,or if she's found someone who loves and respects her,she'll be all right.

If not,things will be very difficult for her.This is because there's a saying among men:'marrying a woman is like buying a horse:I can ride you and beat you whenever I like.'

Men feel that'I've spent money on bringing you into my family,so I have the right to order you around.'And a man will beat a woman if she has a mind of her own.

The biggest landmark in Xiao Zhang's New Year is a wedding in the family.Her cousin has married a girl from another village,Cao Wennian,who looks out from her new in-laws'house.

Her husband Zhang Rushun is below with his family.Xiao Zhang and Xiao Huang are there,with Dandan and Jinhui.They are all waiting for the dowry to arrive.

Within the traditions of country weddings,there's a relationship between the dowry and the bride's value.

Usually the woman specifies what gifts she wants,then the man's side gives her the money to pay for them.It's done in two separate stages. First she takes one wad of money,then she takes the second.Once the couple have the money,they buy the things for their dowry.That's how we do it.

The groom's father has also paid the bride's family in cigarettes,to carry the dowry from her house.

By tradition,they must bring it to the edge of the bridegroom's village,where his family will take over.But for some reason,her family has set the dowry down in the mud,and they won't budge.

The business of making betrothal gifts is in fact a form of bride-buying.

In the old days,they were business deals:I give you my daughter whom I've brought up for 20 years,and I want to get back the money I've spent on her over 20 years.

The groom's family comes back with a compromise offer,but the bride's father takes it all as a gross insult.

The groom's father and Xiao Zhang's mother try to calm him.

It was a misunderstanding.(laughs.)All that fuss was a is understanding.Just kids fooling.They wanted cigarettes,wanted to have a laugh.It was meant as a joke.We apologized,gave them the cigarettes.

That solved the whole thing.No big deal.

The two families meet mid-field and carry the dowry into the village. The argument over the dowry may have been just a joke, but the groom�s father feels the need to make a public apology .

Cao Wennian finally gets hold of her dowry .

But this arrangement of furniture, TV and hi-fi is only temporary .

When the New Year is over, she and Zhang Rushun will cart everything back to their home in Beijing.

For the prosperous family she has now joined, the village is a place to visit for special occasions, not to live in.

It'll be all right. The house won't fall down. We've just got to lock the door. Everyone'll be in Beijing. Of course they'll be in Beijing. They've been there for years. Why would they move back?

Flights of stairs poke up through the roofs of houses in Dayang Village.

They were built in anticipation of adding another storey for married children, but the children have gone to the cities and the stairs lead nowhere.

After New Year the village changes character. It's left to the women now, looking after young and old, running household and farm.

We plant cotton in early April. And for that we have to dig little holes. You put the seeds into the hole, eighteen thousand an acre, and add soil.

I get up at four in the morning and work till seven pm.

My daughter's been away for three years.My husband's been working away for over ten.When my husband's off in the city I worry.

What he's eating,how hard he's working,who'll wash his clothes,who's cooking for him-I worry about all these things.

We worry about them;our husbands in the city worry about us.Plus we look after the children

We live like this to survive.For the men,it's even tougher being away than for us left behind.In some ways we've got it easier at home.

I don't know-it's so long to be apart.I miss him.I do miss him.

Palding Village,Tibet.There's hardly a man to be seen.What concerns the women here,depends in part on what stage they're at in their lives.

Mum does the work.Dad just gets up,drinks tea and sits on his butt.

Sometimes he splits rocks. Not today he isn't.

Some talk of getting jobs in the city,but need their parents'approval.

They'll let us leave the village for a decent job.But girls have taken work in bars and have gone astray,so that sort of work isn't allowed.Decent jobs are okay.

I want to be a nun.She wants to be a nun to cleanse all her bad karma.

A key to changing one's life is education but many don't get the opportunity.

We do farm work;we don't have any other skills.Well,that's how it seems to us.

Even if I wanted to do more,I'm a bit past it,and when you don't have any education or skills,then the only option is to get stuck doing farm work.

I want knowledge.I really do.In the old days,even if you wanted to learn reading and writing you didn't have the right to.

These days we have the right,but because of my old age and my eyesight-I'm completely blind in my left eye,you know-my time for learning has passed me by.

So long as you can work,you do work.And as long as you can work you have to work.After that,when you can't work any more,the state's set up old people's homes.They look after the aged.

Deep down I trust and hope my children will look after me.

But when you become really old and unable to bear your own weight,it's hard to tell how things might turn out;

because my children have their own lives to lead.

From time to time that raises doubts in my mind.

These women in Palding village are shifting the straw as part of a barter arrangement.In exchange for the work,the owner of the straw,Tsokyi,is cooking them all dinner.

Before,when my husband was here,he'd bring in some hard cash.

The most difficult thing now is that we haven't got anyone with earning power. Apart from selling a few potatoes,we've no other sources of income.

With a population of just two and a half million,Tibet is not subject to strict birth planning rules.Tsokyi has a son and two daughters-and education has to be paid for.

I've already taken the eldest out of school-he wasn't learning anything.I hope to keep the two younger ones there as long as possible no matter what sacrifices I have to make.

I thought my husband was a wonderful,honest man.I trusted him working away as a truck driver.I was busy with farm work here,we talked on the phone,and I agreed to him staying on there.

He was away a long time,but I trusted him,because I thought he was an honest man.But then I learned from others that he'd been having an affair.Since then,I can't trust any man.

I try to make light of life by socialising with others but inside I'm very unhappy.My heart continues to ache.

When I came home,he confessed to me,"While you were away,I did something bad".

He was holding me in his arms and crying.

So,I told him:if you leave her and come home,I'll forgive you.

But he said he couldn't do that and insisted that the three of us should all live together.I refused to accept any such arrangement and stubbornly stuck to my position-that if that were the case,I'd rather be alone.

It wasn't as if we used to fight.That's why I feel so strange,so sad.If we'd had problems with the relationship and argued a lot,then it would be much easier to get over.

I don't really know what's going to happen.

He gives the impression he might come back-that he can't see their relationship lasting.

But now he's gone back to her because she's said she's pregnant.

I don't know whether she really is pregnant or not,but she claims she is,and he's gone to her.I can't tell how things will turn out in the end.

Women at home have to take care of the old,the sick,the young.They must look after the household as well as work in the fields.They are completely burdened down.That's why 85%of women suffer from bad health,and mentally they're not in great shape either.

China has one of the highest suicide rates for women in the world:150,000 a year.One every four minutes.

And China is the only country in the world where more women kill themselves than men.And most victims aren't ground down by the stresses of urban life;they're rural women.

The majority are women aged between 15 and 35.They're quite young.Most use pesticides.

It's all too easy to get hold of pesticide.Some women commit suicide impulsively.A husband and wife may have a bitter fight.When it's over,the woman just grabs some poison and drinks it.

Facing a bleak,lonely future with a domineering husband,many country women feel hopeless and helpless.

One and a half million a year are desperate enough to attempt suicide,but fail.

China's Rural Women Magazine runs a school near Beijing to teach practical skills and self-confidence.

There are classes in hairdressing and computing,along with suicide prevention,gender awareness and women's participation in politics.

The whole point of the training is to teach young girls to discover their potential.

We're focusing on girls who are 16 or 17.I think they'll be okay.

But they normally get married very young,at 18.So I think it's better to educate them before they get married.

Once married,they come under their husbands'control.It'll be difficult for them to break away.

Mothers too are a key influence:either pushing their daughters towards independence-or trying to rein them in.

Before I came here my mum said that if you work for a year or two,you'll be over 20-you best get married.She said that it was better to marry well than study well.

After I came here I didn't think my aim should be to get myself a good husband.I'd do better fighting for a career of my own.

When I left,my mum told me:you must study hard.This is your chance to get out of the countryside-and it's your last chance.

But there are few schools like this one;there are 650 million women in China.

The daunting problems of women's status and rights are compounded in China's Muslim regions.

The lives of Xinjiang's 4 million Uyghur women are tightly circumscribed.

They're subordinate to fathers,brothers,husbands.

They're not allowed to pray in mosques.

The Communist Party promotes women's interests and equality through the All-China Women's Federation.

For a long time it's been very rare for Uyghur women to go much further than their own front doors.They live in a small world,like frogs sitting at the bottom of a well.

All they can see is a tiny bit of sky,so their outlook is very narrow.

A woman is treated as a man's possession.It's the duty of a woman to look after him;

whether it's work in the fields or in the house.

She might bring in some money,but she has no share in it.

It's taken as her duty.

Only by giving women financial independence,can their status in society and in the family be improved.

The Women's Federation tries to recruit village women to earn money picking cotton.But they'll have to leave husband and family for perhaps two months.

The road to emancipation lies through a minefield of prohibitions and inhibitions.

The women are clearly uncomfortable.

And the reason is the presence of their menfolk staring at them.

Some women instinctively inch away to sit with their men.The men are then asked to leave the courtyard-and that changes everything.

The women now talk freely,and Horigul�m�t seems to change her position completely.

The exodus of country women to the high-tech cities of China's southeast is driven by factories'need for labour,not any policy of emancipation.

But for Wu Zhaoxia from Hubei the result is the same.She feels free for the first time in her life.

Back home,it gets so dark at night that we can't see a thing.You've got to have a torch.But there's more going on here in the evening than during the day,with bright lights,hustle and bustle.

We can go to the disco.With no work on Sundays,we can stay up till 4 in the morning,enjoying ourselves.

Wu Zhaoxia is killing time till 7 in the evening when she'll go on night shift for 12 hours.

She lives and works at an electronics factory in Sanxiang,Guangdong Province.

With overtime she can earn the equivalent of around 26 dollars a week.

If I can save up enough from what I'm making here,I'd like to go into business.

Going home to work in the fields like my parents?They work from dawn to dusk all year with only two or three thousand yuan to show for it.They wind up with a house full of crops and nothing else.

I don't think that beats what I'm doing.

NARRATOR Her factory looks and feels like a college campus with shops,library,coffee bar.

I really like it here.The facilities are much better than at home.

We don't have a hot water boiler at home,so it takes ages to heat water for washing.So I prefer it here.I don't like going home.

Relationships are formed here without interference by marriage-brokers or parents,anxious for a good match close to home.

I've got a boyfriend.He's from Shaanxi.A long way from my home.My parents aren't too happy-they think it's a bit far away.

But not all employers in Guangdong Province are enlightened-some factories are sweat-shops-and not all workers are happy.

They're away from their families and relatives.

They don't have a social support network,so they're under a lot of stress.

We hope our projects can provide a support network at community level for women workers.

Some have left home,only to be cheated,kidnapped and sold,or harmed.

It's happened because they're not streetwise.

So we give them training.On top of this we've also set up a performance group to stimulate and entertain them.

The performers are drawn from factory and workplace.Pang Xijia is on a production line making shoes.

I told my mom I've joined the entertainment troupe here and have a chance to better myself.I told her that I'm sometimes unhappy working in the factory,

but things lighten up once we all get together for a show.Any stress just vanishes.

On Saturday nights,they put on a show for ten thousand workers in need of spectacle and escape after an exhausting week assembling the world's computers,stitching the world's sneakers.

The show also contains propaganda-made palatable by humor-for an audience on the brink of marriage and parenthood.

Women's new lives bring new tensions,as they balance work and family pressures against their own health and happiness.

I've been here two years and wanted to go home the whole time.

I'm really homesick.My mom phones,asking me to come home,but I can't because I have to perform.

I work in a kindergarten and my voice has gone.I've a cold but no time to see the doctor.I must apologise for my performance because I couldn't do it as well as usual.

I work on the assembly line�I'm sorry�It's tough.Very tough.

I had never touched her hands.But then I did once when we were rehearsing a dance.They're very rough compared with ours,as she has to grip a cutting knife.The back of the blade rubs the palms of her hands all the time.

That's why her hands are so rough.

Where I work,we're not allowed to talk between 6:08 in the morning and 6:08 in the evening.

We can't talk.That's why I can�barely string a sentence together.

Work's no less boring since I joined the performance group,

but when I think of all the friends we've made across the country�we're at our happiest in the evenings,rehearsing,singing,dancing.This is our best time.

Back in Beijing,a month after the New Year-it's Xiao Zhang's day off.

She's gone to her sister's restaurant in the suburbs,where her husband Xiao Huang works.

It's the only time in the week they have together.

Parting from their children after the New Year is still fresh in their minds.Still raw.

I was very upset.I didn't let the children know when we were going.

Jinhui thought we were leaving the day before,so he kept following us around.

It was very upsetting.Our daughter also tagged along behind.She's older so that annoyed me and I kept telling her off.

Of course,she was very upset.She just trailed around after me.

I asked her to take care of Jinhui,but she wouldn't.

She didn't say a thing,but she must have been very sad,deep down.

She just followed us around,saying nothing.

Jinhui called me when we arrived in Beijing.I felt really bad.He thought I'd phone him when I got here.

He said'Dad,when did you leave?''In the morning'I told him.'You were still asleep.'

He said'You tricked me!You told me you'd take me with you to Beijing,to go to school,but you haven't!'I felt awful.

Our children need taking care of.At least one of us should stay at home.