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Consider how the cultural expectations of being a bride in Chinese culture are portrayed in Mulan. How do these expectations compare with those in Joy Luck Club, especially relating to the character Lena St. Clair? Additionally, reflect on how Ken Liu's Paper Menagerie might echo or differ from these portrayals.

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The clip from Mulan shows her preparation and presentation as a potential bride, emphasizing traditional values such as obedience, beauty, and domestic skills. This reflects a strong expectation in Chinese culture for young women to embody these qualities to be considered suitable for marriage.

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1)What does the clip reveal / reflect about the expectations of a Chinese young woman as a potential bride?

2) Does this echo anything that you may recall from what JLC captured about the significance of being a girl and the expectations of a bride? (state which part and how so with some brief reference to the novel )

3) What is being portrayed about the fate/ privilege of  a girl of Chinese ethnicity?

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Ken Liu's Paper Menagerie offers a poignant look at identity, family, and the complexities of cultural expectations. While not directly about marital expectations, it echoes similar pressures around cultural identity and belonging that young women, like those depicted in Mulan and Joy Luck Club, face.

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In Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club, the expectations of being a bride and a woman are depicted through the lives of four mothers and their daughters. This narrative weaves through the novel, showing the generational and cultural shifts in these expectations, especially in the story of Lena St. Clair and her mother Ying-ying.

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1.  Some expectations are women having to of appropriate size, not too skinny not too fat. They must also be poised and elegant, quiet, graceful, and polite. A pale face is also associated with good looks. Women are expected to serve their husband. They are also supposed to know how to do household chores as well as embroidery

2.  In JLC, Lindo Jong’s marriage to than yu : matchmaker said that Lindo will ‘grow up to be a hard worker who serves you well in your old age’ —> this shows that women must serve their in laws and family well along with their husbands

Lindo also had to learn how to embroider the family’s name and cook very very well.

Matchmaking is also very common in both JLC and the clip

3. They do not have any freedom to choose who to marry and they are bound by traditional expectations that are very strict

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1. The clip reflects how Chinese brides are expected to be poised, elegant, graceful and silent, as well as obedient to their husbands and in-laws; in terms of appearance, they should be skinny and fair-skinned.

2. In JLC, the mothers’ chapters illustrate how they are raised from young to be a good and beautiful housewife and shown that this is their main purpose in life, as well as how their marriages were decided without their own choices being taken into account. Lindo Jong describes how she was matchmade to a boy when she was 2 and how her marriage, and subsequently her ability to have children, defined her family’s honour.

3. Their sole purpose in life is to get married and have children, and they don’t have a say in household affairs by virtue of their gender; they need to be submissive and do not have many rights in society or their marriage

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poised, elegant, polite—gentle, ladylike: criticised by the matchmaker in the first clip for not being graceful enough—her inability to do so is very very fiercely criticised by the matchmaker, who throws her out in the first clip.

—in the second clip, she also seems as if she is being trained to be a good wife—recitation of ‘rules’

Fit a certain template of what a good wife looks like: i.e. in the first and second clip, they put a lot of makeup on her to fit the beauty standard at that time—we think they also showed how fitting into the standard was not easy, because in the first clip, mulan was criticised for being too skinny, but in the second clip, we can see that she’s literally being squeezed into those clothes.

Submissive: how mulan was told to be quiet in the first clip when she tried to speak to the matchmaker lady, and also told in the second clip that a good wife must be quiet and listen to her husband, even if there is something she wishes to say—

To be a ‘servant’—to fulfil the demands and needs of not just her husband, but also her in-laws (first clip when she is pouring tea)

Capable: expectation in the first clip for her to be able to remember all those rules, and be able to cater to the every whim of the people around her and place herself second.

Expected to be traditional: thrown into the matchmaking process without much choice- in the first clip, she obviously feels uncomfortable with having to dress that way and act that way and partake in the process, but she does not have a choice because she has to do so in order to bring honour to her family

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1) the clip reveals the expectation that a good bride should be silent and obedient, learning how to serve her husband with grace, respect and poise

2) it echoes JLC ‘the red candle’ in which Lindo Jong had to obey her mother in laws wishes to become an obedient bride/wife. She had to learn how sew, clean a chamber pot and cook, all qualities a ‘good wife’ was suppose to have

3)The fate of a girl of Chinese ethnicity is portrayed as a controlled life where she has to be silent, her only purpose in life to serve her husband.

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1. chinese young women must act and look a certain way

cannot be too skinny but cannot be too fat

must be elegant and graceful

be quiet and serve her husband (submissive)

poised and gracious

family-centred

2. in Lindo Zhong (JLC): she was matched to a boy, and moved to their house in her early teenage years. She was treated like a maid/servant and was told to obey her family and not disgrace her biological family.

𐙚 she didn’t want to marry the boy but as it was a contract, it couldn’t be annulled

𐙚 as a young girl marrying into a family, she was also expected to act happy as she was ‘lucky’ to have married into that household

THIS SHOWS HOW:

girls were placed into marriage, whether willing or not, and that girls were not viewed as equals but as servant and caretakers

3. if you’re a girl, your life’s purpose is to get married to a good household, have kids and serve your family — life revolves around getting married and being a caretaker for the family

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1) stereotypes of an ideal bride

poised, polite, graceful, silent, cannot be too skinny

wear make up to be pretty

cannot be too rough

2) an-mei hsu’s mother

married a rich guy (he had multiple wives)

was disowned by family because at first she was just a concubine of his

the significance of being a woman was to marry well in order to bring honour to the family

3)

must be married to a man of good prospects

arranged marriage

girl must have certain values and characteristics of a perfect a wife

cannot bring shame to family, only honour

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1) The clips show that a Chinese young wife is supposed to be graceful, poised and silent. "They should not speak without permission. They cannot be too skinny or they may not be suitable to bear children. They need to fulfill their duties respectfully and reflect before they act. They have to demonstrate a sense of dignity and refinement."

2) They have to cook and clean for their husbands. They have arranged marriages even though they may not want to marry yet. She was forced to marry someone she did not like.

3) It is portrayed that these Chinese young women have to be loyal and submissive to their husbands. Their main jobs are to cook, clean, serve their husbands and make children.

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1. Women are expected to be graceful and elegant in their gestures and movements, gentle in their words and actions, and have a polite demeanor. They are required to defer to their husband, and be soft-spoken in front of them. They are also expected to look put together, neat, and fit into the beauty standards of that time. Seen through the excessive and meticulous preparation progress where she puts on colorful makeup and sophisticated clothing.

2. This can be seen from Rice Husband, where Harold expects Lena to follow his decisions and make sure they split every single cent between them equally. Lena is not given credit for her suggestions and as a bride, she is seen beneath her husband who does not hear her out, and there is no true open communication between them.

3. A girl of Chinese ethnicity is expected to get married to an honorable man, and be a dutiful wife and mother. This can be seen in Mulan, where honoring her family refers to becoming a perfect bride, wife, and mother.

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1. The clip reveals that young Chinese women have to be elegant, poise, silent, graceful, respectful to be considered potential brides. From these expectations revealed, we infer that she has is expected to be submissive and respect their future mothers-in-law and their husbands. If she does not possess these qualities, she will not be able to get married which was considered a disgrace.

2. Yes, Lindo is representative of young Chinese girls who have to meet expectations of a bride. For example, ‘In front of his parents, I was an obedient wife, just as they taught me’. ‘After marrying, the women was expected to give birth to sons.