See the Chinese women from "The Forgotten Valley"

The wave of feminism has swept across the world, and the voice of equal rights has not stopped. But shouldn't real equality begin with the influence of mainstream works? In whichever country, there are a lot of television shows that are relevant to feminism, for example, Britain, America, Thailand, etc. But I want to investigate and share a Hong Kong television show that mainly talks about feminism and love. Since Hong Kong television mentions feminism rarely, I find that this television show is worth talking about, the storyline is interesting, too.

“The Forgotten Valley” is a TV series produced by Hong Kong TV broadcasting Co. LTD in 2018. The story takes place in a village that is far away from the city, it talks about conventional marriage ethics, and the struggles of both men and women. “The Forgotten Valley” tells the story of a village where boys are preferred to girls, focusing on a group of women who are viewed as the inferior in a small village called “Pingan Valley” in the early years of the Republic of China.

This TV series shows some of the unfairness of treating women or wives in the past time of China. The main character Grace Chan Hoi Lam (陳凱琳)plays a young daughter-in-law who has returned home from overseas, her name is Law Gui Si in the show(羅桂思). She is committed to helping women in her village to change their status quo, but she encountered many difficulties and suffered from a lot of unfairness.

This TV series shows that in the past, women’s status is much lower than a man, especially in China.

Polygamy of men

The character Lu Jin Gu (陸金谷) is the head of the village and has four wives. He is a selfish man that only values his own benefits. He is also in favour of the gender patriarchy. Lu is a fickle man when it comes to love, his attitude affects the relationship between the first wife and the concubines. Generally, the first wife and concubine relationship are quite conflicted. If the concubine does not fight for power with his first wife and obey her, their relationship would be harmonious. If a concubine dares to oppose the first wife, she will always suffer a loss. That is because in ancient people's opinion, no matter how many concubines were favored, their status will always be lower than that of the first wife. Even if the first wife abuses the concubine physically, the law will still protect the first wife. So we can see that it is unfair for a woman to share a husband with another woman, since the concubines in the family are always inferior to the first wife.

All housework should be done by women, men can enjoy life

In this TV series, women must do all the housework, they must cook, clean the house, and take care of the children, etc. All women can’t study and make important decisions, they must listen to the husband. If they do not, they will be hit or punished more seriously. Usually, if the wife cannot have a son, it is considered unfortunate and their husband might find a concubine just to have a son.

I am sad that in the past, concubines who wanted to live a better life had to learn to please their husband as well as the wives above their position. “A woman without talent is virtuous.” This is a proverb that shows Chinese’s ridiculous gender stereotypes of how women should be housewives only. In Chinese traditional culture, women were miserable in such a feudal society. Luckily, girls now do not need to follow those ridiculous rules, we can do and learn anything we want.

The end of the struggle between men and women

This story has a good and meaningful ending. Men and women can live in harmony, with equal status, women and girls can study, etc. These women can learn about the need for gender equality and the rights they should have. I am happy to find that Hong Kong has a TV series that is relevant to feminism so it can draw public attention to gender inequality in the present.