1 March 2001
Ruth Neilson

'The Asian babe fetish was often an advantage in the game of seduction, but like all games of fantasy and adventure, it quickly gets boring when your character cannot evolve.' (Quote from an Interviewee)

In speaking to a number of young Chinese women I was interested to try and find out the extent to which the perennial stereotype of young, quiet and mild-mannered Chinese woman persisted in the workplace, in personal relationships and at home in the family. In the past twenty five years conditions have continuted to change apace for women. We've continued to grow and develop, gaining confidence, moving up the career ladder, finding not only a room of our own but a voice of our own too. Yet Chinese stereotypes persists. We saw it in Charlotte Raven's Guardian column and her un-thought of use of the adjective 'inscrutable', we sense it in society with the scores of men who are still looking for mail-order 'asian babe' brides, who will defer and serve, love and attend, we ingest it in the now repetitive survivalist 'Wild Swans' Chinese Women literature. And I am even guilty of it myself at times...

There was a new Chinese lawyer (woman) in the firm and on first meeting her I felt shocked and affronted when she behaved much as any of the stereotypical male lawyers often behave; arrogant and rude, short tempered and impatient. I didn't know whether to be more angry with her for her rudeness, or with myself for having fallen into the trap of stereotyping which I find so aggravating when it's pointed at myself. I had been waiting for her to be meek and perhaps even shy, all but imagining her at home wandering around her house in a cheong sam and arranging the furniture in it's most'feng shui' position! More fool me! I came away from the encounter with my feather's ruffled and my interests aroused. I was intrigued as to whether other BBC women experienced stereotyping.

One young professional commented of her parents 'they both want me to find a nice Chinese boy and settle down'. I don't think this is peculiar to Chinese parents - I'm sure that with my own white parents they'd always imagined my future partner to be white, and that post-academia I would be settling down. I was interested to hear though that their parents were equally proud of their daughters' academic acheivements as their sons having previously wondered whether with the focus in China on producing male children if that influence would seep into BBC culture promoting achievement pressure for the boys and marriage pressure for the girls.'Education was key, my father wanted me to be a high achiever,' said one. Another said 'my parents are not ambitious people but they were very proud of me in getting my degree as I am the first in the family to do so'. All the women I spoke to were educated, and in graduate careers. Though they felt that there was some pressure to settle down with a family, on the whole they felt their parents were proud of their achievements 'I feel no pressure in getting married or having a family for the time being but I do think this is likely to change as I get older.'

As for the workplace one had this to say '(I don't experience) especially negative prejudices, more preconceived stereotypes around asian-female'inscrutablity' or aloofness, which can be rather convenient at times when I just want to be left alone'. Most of the interviewees however felt that they hadn't experienced much racial prejudice at work, and were more likely to experience prejudice due to gender issues, especially as many of them were involved in the traditionally male dominated work area of I.T.

One particularly interesting response came from a woman who has five male siblings. She said 'all my siblings have gone into the Chinese catering business, whereas I'm the only one who finished my further education and have chosen to work away from the catering trade'. Increasing numbers of women now are pursuing higher education, and more socially 'prestigious' jobs higher up the career ladder. All the women I spoke to were intelligent and ambitious. I came away with a new image in my mind, of BBC women, confident and self-assured and surely a force to be reckoned with - just as is the case for whites, blacks, asians, mixed race women within Britain today.

We need to continue to challenge and defy convention, to not rest on our laurels now some of the battles have been won, but continue to learn and search and provoke and respond. Women are still paid less than their male counterparts for doing exactly the same (if not more) work. Though we're slowly coming into key positions of power within politics, commerce and the arts, more still needs to be done so that 'Blair's babes' are no longer a talking point but merely the norm in our society. I feel confident that this is something women of all cultures can aim towards, learning to understand each other and progress together, to better ourselves and each other in this new millennium.