By staff reporter LU RUCAI

The first group of Beijing policewomen trained at University of Canberra for the 2008 Olympics.	A fashion show aimed at women diplomats.	Chinese single women make the most of their freedom.

In addition to being a big hit with female urban professionals, the recently released film Perpetual Motion is also a main source of feminist discussion.

The film’s four main characters are successful career women. One of them, middle-aged Niuniu, discovers that her husband is having an extra-marital affair. She invites her three woman friends -- fashion model Qinqin, real estate dealer Ye and artist Lala – one of whom she suspects is emotionally entangled with her husband, to her siheyuan home at Spring Festival. The four talk, comparing emotional experiences and the men they have known. The suspense aspect of the film i.e. which of the women is having an affair with Niuniu’s husband, is superseded by this frank, unequivocal baring of emotions and repressed desires. Strong language used by the four women is the finishing touch to this projection of an image entirely at odds with that traditionally received of the submissive, conservative Chinese woman.

The director of the film, Ning Ying, is, as might be expected, herself a career woman. As such she is unsurprised at the warm response from women to her film. “Comparatively speaking, Asian women are more repressed than their European sisters,” says Ning, adding, “Most men that saw the movie were appalled at the behavior and bad language used by the four portrayed women. Women that saw it, on the other hand, were highly impressed. Many said it gave them a feeling of catharsis seldom generated by a film.

The traditional Chinese concept of a married woman is that of a virtuous wife and loving mother who takes complete responsibility for the running of the household. This is still an archetype, but as more and more Chinese women take up careers, one that has been extended through social activity. Most urban female white-collars have received a university education, earn a high income and want economic and spiritual independence.

Wang Ying, 33, works as sales manageress of a large cosmetics company. Her annual salary is in excess of RMB 200,000. Wang has been married for four years and plans to have a child soon. As her job is more demanding than her husband’s, they have reached an agreement whereby he will take the main responsibility for bringing up the child. Her traditionalist mother-in-law objects strongly to the idea, but Wang will get her way due to the simplicity of her argument: this is an arrangement that will save us both time and money. “My salary is higher than my husband’s, so he has no objections to my spending more time at work than he does. He has also become accustomed to doing the greater part of the chores, in view of the greater economic contribution my job brings to the household,” explains Wang.

This case removes any remaining doubt that it is a woman’s economic circumstances that decide her mode of life. Prior to International Women’s Day on March 8, 2006, the China Talent Hotline made a survey of some 2,000 career women under the age of 30, earning a monthly income of RMB 2,000 to 5,000 in large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The results indicate that more than 70 percent of those surveyed desire economic independence by means of a job that enables them to make a fair contribution to household expenses.

“A woman’s sustained economic independence is not confined to paying equal shares of all expenses with her husband,” says 28-year-old Ms Zhang, a sociology graduate from Chinese People’s University, continuing: “as I understand it, a woman should have her own economic resources because if anything serious goes wrong with her relationship, she can leave rather than put up with it for economic reasons.” Ms Zhang is not married but she and her boyfriend pooled their resources for a house purchase. “I don’t worry that one day my boyfriend might want to end our relationship,” says Zhang, candidly, explaining, “Chinese people have dramatically changed their concept of marriage over the years. In the past, women married largely for economic reasons, whereas nowadays they can often achieve economic independence through little more than steady work. They no longer stay in loveless marriages for purely economic reasons.”

A successful career gives a woman more confidence. She may be more aware of pressure in the workplace, but at the same time finds she can achieve greater balance in her gender-based relationships. As more and more women liberate themselves from household chores, successful career women continue to emerge. That the four women in Perpetual Motion are so uncompromisingly frank in their criticism of previous male partners is attributable to the confidence that their well-paid professions give them. Financial equality leads to a feeling of equality on other levels.

Statistics show that by the end of 2004 there were 337 million women in employment in China, accounting for 44.8 percent of the total work force. This is a direct result of Chinese women’s improved standard of education. In 2004, there were 6.09 million female college students in China, accounting for 45.7 percent of the total number, and the percentage of female students in secondary vocational schools stood at 51.5 percent, according to the white paper Chinese Gender Equality and Women’s Development in China. Equal opportunities in education are bound to engender more working opportunities for women.

In March 2006, the large Chinese portal website sina.com and other media carried out a survey of 9,000 single urban women. Results revealed that more than half of them own real estate property and about 20 percent have their own cars. When asked why they were still single, over 60 percent said they had yet to find their ideal boyfriend, and 20 percent that they thought staying single would give them better quality of life.

Shi Wenli works for an IT company. She is in her thirties and still single. “I don’t intend to stay single forever but am happy to wait until I find my ideal marriage partner,” Shi explains. Some of her female friends are married, but not all of them happily. This is part of the reason for her decision to wait a while. Shi’s mother is of the traditional mold. At first she found it hard to understand her daughter’s behavior. But she is used to it now, and happy to see her daughter enjoying life.

According to Chen Huiping of the All China Women’s Research Institute under the All Chinese Women’s Federation, the growing number of single career women, aged 28 to 38 with demanding jobs and stable incomes indicates pursuit of a better life quality. They are an open-minded generation, 30 percent of whom express willingness to live the life of a single parent.

Questionnaires completed by participants indicate that more than 20 percent spend all their income each month, while the majority saves 50 percent and spends the rest on clothes and cosmetics. Economists regard this “single women” social category that has the time, money and inclination to try new things as an important stimulator of the economy.