AFTER FEMINISM made women visible to themselves, it made men visible to themselves as well. Now it appears as if men in general are the object of a lot of media and cultural attention. As the new decade settles in they are responding to this scrutiny in some interesting ways.
1 March 2001
As Chinese women become increasingly visible as writers, models and brand images, do they become more real? Stuart Wood thinks of Wild Swans and picks a fight with the image-makers
9 October 2001 Being single, successful and carefree feels great. But Elizabeth Ong reveals the pressures from parents and grandparents especially when a single Chinese girl hits the big 3 O.
I've been invited to my boyfriend's parents for Chinese New Year this year. 'Nothing unusual in that' you say? Nothing apart from the fact that I'll be the only non-Chinese person there. Being the girlfriend of a BBC isn't without its issues. My grandmother continues to have a complete inability to say his surname (Ng, which she pronounces 'Nug', though I'm starting to suspect that she does it more to make me laugh than anything). People are forever telling me that I will have 'beautiful babies' (surely my babies will be beautiful whoever I have them with?) And there is the usual perception by other white people that I am adept with a pair of chopsticks, having private tuition from my boyfriend. It goes without saying that I am perhaps the world's worst user of chopsticks...
In old commonwealth countries like Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong, trade in domestic help from the Philipines and Indonesia is especially lively. Young women, usually single graduates, are choosing to leave their families and take up live-in positions thousands of miles away from home.