The Women of “Salt Town” 

This 12 months, the United Nations’ theme for March 8 Worldwide Girls’s Day was “DigitALL: Innovation and know-how for gender equality.” In China, individuals marked the vacation with quite a lot of thought-provoking and artistic occasions centered on girls’s lives, each on-line and off. This third a part of CDT’s sequence on Worldwide Girls’s Day 2023 focuses on the oft-neglected lives of rural girls, who should deal with points together with poverty, restricted instructional alternatives, gender discrimination, and home violence.

In her new nonfiction e-book “Salt City” (盐镇), former sports activities journalist Yi Xiaohe (易小荷) explores the lives of girls in a small city in Sichuan province. Finest recognized for her writings about well-known athletes akin to Yao Ming and Michael Jordan, Yi Xiaohe spent a 12 months recording the tales of girls ages 17 to 90 dwelling within the city of Xianshi (仙市), positioned simply seven miles from her hometown of Zigong (自贡). By means of shared meals, weddings, funerals, visits to the native temple, and lengthy conversations, the creator got here to higher perceive the numerous pressures circumscribing the lives of the townswomen: poverty, restricted financial and academic alternatives, marriage and child-rearing tasks, grinding bodily work, rampant gender discrimination, and the ever-present specter of home violence. 

The quilt of Yi Xiaohe’s new e-book “Salt City”

Yi Xiaohe selected the e-book’s title partly as a result of the city had as soon as been the principle way-station and port for the transport of salt from close by Zigong, but additionally as a result of the phrase “salt” appeared to aptly sum up the lives of the townswomen from time immemorial. “Life in ‘Salt City’ is a sequence of tiny cuts and open wounds,” she says. “Girls are desperately attempting to stanch the bleeding, whereas males are sprinkling salt within the wounds.” In a current interview with Luo Xin (罗昕) for The Paper (澎湃新闻), Yi Xiaohe explains how she wished to be a witness to the ladies’s tales, to report their joys and sorrows, and to permit them to be seen and heard:

Each lady I spoke to had a stunning story. By comparability, if you happen to reside in a giant metropolis surrounded by elite skilled girls, you could hear one story in ten that actually shocks you. However in “Salt Village,” stunning tales abound. Each lady has a somber story, whether or not as a result of she by no means had truthful entry to training, or as a result of she was almost orphaned, or as a result of she was estranged from her mom, or as a result of she’d been subjected to repeated home violence all her life. At first I solely deliberate to remain there for 3 months, however then I spotted that wasn’t almost lengthy sufficient, so I lived on the town consecutively for one 12 months.

Girls shoulder the burdens of every day life in “Salt Village.” ({Photograph} by Yi Xiaohe)

[…] Auntie Wang was the primary lady I made a decision to jot down about. Her story can also be the one I’ve been following for the longest time. […] Everybody on the town both knew concerning the home abuse or witnessed her husband abusing her, however all of them appeared to take it without any consideration, and she or he herself by no means considered attempting to flee that life. On the similar time, she’s additionally the preferred matchmaker on the town.

I wished to jot down her story not out of curiosity, however as a result of it incorporates a lot wealthy element. One other instance is the story of Tong Hui and Li Hongmei. A younger lady coming to phrases together with her sexual id in such a small city, within the Nineteen Nineties, is a elementary reflection of the altering instances. Extra importantly, when Hongmei turned “male,” she additionally assimilated into the city’s male tradition. As one reader put it so properly, after studying the story of Tong Hui and Hongmei, we understand that males, too, are trapped of their “predicament.” Hongmei was a lady, however after she had the sense of being a “husband,” she was steadily subsumed into the male tradition of the city, and exhibited the identical habits—together with smoking, ingesting, and even home violence.

[…] I additionally wish to say that this isn’t a e-book supposed to impress gender antagonism. As a journalist, I’ve tried to faithfully report all the pieces concerning the lives of girls in a small city, hoping that it is going to be informative for readers. I can perceive that many readers label it as a feminist e-book, and that’s no downside. Everybody has the precise to their very own opinion, however each author hopes that their e-book will likely be open-ended, in order that totally different readers can glean various things from it. [Chinese]

In an interview with Lin Weixin (林炜鑫) printed by WeChat account 正面连接 (Zhengmian Lianjie, zmconnect), Yi Xiaohe described the home violence that many ladies in “Salt City” have skilled or witnessed:

I went to Xianshi to jot down a e-book. As a former sports activities reporter, I spent half my life writing for males, and now I wish to write a bit for ladies.

[…] Auntie Wang is the girl I spent the longest time interviewing. Everybody on the town knew that Mrs. Wang was being abused by her husband, Solar Tanjiang. Probably the most brutal incident was when he pinned her on the bottom, beat her, after which kicked her so laborious she flew via the air. She was spitting up blood, however she was decided to not die, as a result of if she did, what would occur to her two daughters? She solely has two daughters, though she has been pregnant many instances. When she talked concerning the ache of every miscarriage, I might really feel my legs develop weak, however she all the time remained calm and composed. One second she could be telling me a couple of very painful expertise, and the subsequent second she would say, “Oh, I can’t chat any extra, I’ve to go decide up the women.”

Auntie Wang was crushed all her life, however she by no means acquired a divorce. As a substitute, she developed a tactic to keep away from the beatings. Each time her husband tried to beat her, she would exit and run in circles round an orange tree. Everybody noticed it, however nobody tried to cease it. Greater than as soon as, I instructed her, “You’ll be able to’t let him hit you once more.” And she or he stated, “There’s nothing I can do about it. He’s simply that form of particular person, and that is simply my destiny.” He beat her once more final 12 months, however she didn’t inform me. Had I been there, I’d have positively rushed over to cease it. The explanation she didn’t inform me, Auntie Wang stated, was as a result of he didn’t handle to land a blow.

[…] Liang Xiaoqing is the uncommon townswoman to protest home violence. She had witnessed home violence ever since she was a toddler, and knew instinctively that it was unsuitable for her father to beat her mom. After she turned an grownup, she instructed her father that if he ever beat her mom once more, she would come to take her mom away. When Liang Xiaoqing went to work in a manufacturing facility, she utilized for permission to convey her mom to reside within the employees’ dormitory, and the manufacturing facility stated sure. She raced dwelling to choose up her mom, however in the long run, her mom refused to go, saying, “I can’t simply abandon your father.” Typically Liang Xiaoqing can’t comprehend why her mom stays: “He’s clearly abusing you, so why don’t you simply go away?”

Sooner or later Liang Xiaoqing instructed me, “You realize, I by no means went to high school.” Thus I discovered she had solely been to first grade: it appears a male fortune teller had instructed her father that the household was destined to haven’t any students, and suggested him to not waste cash on college.

Liang Xiaoqing attracts properly and has lovely calligraphy—you’ll be able to see how a lot effort she has put into it. After finding out cosmetology, she had the prospect to work in Beijing, however she was fearful about her mom, so she ultimately determined to return again and open a nail salon on the town. I’ve met her husband, who’s a really strange man, however not less than he doesn’t beat girls. She is now in a position to assist the entire household together with her earnings. She additionally acquired her driver’s license and acquired a automotive. Having a automotive means having freedom.

[…] I feel this can be a e-book for everybody who cares concerning the destiny of others. It’s not my intention to impress antagonism between women and men, as a result of the plight of girls is a structural downside, and violence by males is however one of many signs. When males’s lives are steeped in distress, they too could also be victims, taking out their frustrations on these weaker than themselves.

[…] There are not any actual feminists on the town, not less than none that I encountered. The townswomen are so essentially shackled by household tasks that none of them get pleasure from true freedom of alternative, or the liberty to behave solely in their very own pursuits. These issues are a elementary prerequisite for feminist consciousness. [Chinese]