By Karolina Kopek, 3/24/2015. My excursion to Shanghai is becoming so much more real and exciting as I search for plane tickets and housing accommodations. I finalized my research topic last week after several consultations with different people given that the topic of gender can be a sensitive one in China. My plan is to meet and spend time with as many Chinese young women as possible in order to discover their perceptions of gender, sexism, and motives to change the way women are perceived/treated. I would like to incorporate as many aspects of life as possible into my project, ranging from gender roles in family settings, romantic relationships, or how technology is used to empower women. I plan to explore these areas by establishing relationships with Chinese university students through reaching out to student groups at East China Normal University prior to my departure.
The university population seems like a much more accessible subject pool and it will be interesting to see whether the younger generation of women shares their mothers’ or grandmothers’ values, and how they feel about “traditional” roles for women in China.
There is a possibility that I will stay in Shenzhen for a week or two and explore gender perceptions amongst residents/migrants in urban villages. It would serve as a useful comparative tool and would expose me to Chinese cultures outside of contemporary, technology-infused Shanghai. I would also love to visit Tibet after four weeks of my stay in China, but I still have yet to figure out this excursion.
I have never been in Asia before and this will be my very first time traveling alone, and I could not be more excited. Emerging into the Chinese culture will be both an educational and self-fulfilling experience that will shape me in a variety of ways – it might also help me in my future work as a researcher and sex therapist.
