58 CultureShock! China
to include an economically classless society, created via land
reform and restructuring of the economy and educational
systems, and also a society free of gender bias in which, in
Mao’s famous phrase, ‘ women hold up half the sky’.
Of course, even in Mao’s time, there were Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) leaders with comfortable lives and
peasants who starved (discussing the class significance of
access to automobiles in Mao’s day, Simon Leys spoke of ‘the
riding classes and the walking classes’). And while women
made great strides in education and employment, they still
fell far short of equality, even in Mao’s time.
Economic reform has pushed equality largely off the
agenda as an official goal for China. A culture of feminine
beauty has returned to China, diluting the focus of young
women on education and careers. A class of nouveau riche
don’t mind sporting the latest designer clothes and driving
imported luxury cars.
Still, Maoist ethics have not wholly gone. Most Chinese
remain uncomfortable with conspicuous consumption. A
friend who once worked for Sotheby’s in China observed
that he could tell who was able to bid highest at auction by
who wore the blandest old sweater.
The ways the goal of equality still persists as an ideal can
be seen to some degree in the jauntiness of Chinese cab-
drivers, and among her bow-to-no-one farmers, and in the
popularity of Hu Jintao’s efforts to redirect wealth inland and
to the poorest Chinese.
Neither has the ‘women hold up half the sky’ ideal wholly
disappeared. There is far more room for strong female leaders
in today’s Chinese society than in many other cultures,
including more traditional cultures within Greater China.
Many expatriate women find this to be a refreshing advantage
to doing business in China.Pride in Personal Initiative
Many have observed that perhaps Mao’s most positive
legacy is breaking the tradition whereby only copying and
learning from the past was highly valued. Those sent to
the countryside, imprisoned and denied education in the