Female Supremacy Articles - Page 22

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Ask Paul Pan, a 27-year-old junior executive at a foreign owned company. "My wife is a successful advertising company executive," he said. "She has no time for cooking and other household chores," he added. So, Pan is the one in the family doing all those duties. Besides, "my wife is a terrible cook," he said.

Showline Chang, a psychologist with a PhD from a US university, said Shanghai men learn to show more respect and care for their spouses by observing their parents when they are growing up. To the average Shanghai man, "it is never a matter of right or wrong," she said. "It is just the right thing to do."

Pan said he used to feel rather embarrassed when colleagues from outside Shanghai made fun of his "deference" to his wife. "They think I am a wimp," Pan said. Slamming his fist on the table in a coffee house, Pan declared: "I am not a wimp. I am just not boorish like the rest of them."

A widely read commentary, "Oh! Shanghai Men," published in several newspapers in Shanghai in 1990, further strengthened the stereotype. The article was written by Lung Yintai, who made a name for herself on the Chinese mainland as a strong critic of the Taiwan authority.

Zhang Yu, a renowned local pianist who divides her time between Shanghai and Paris, sighed that "'hen-pecked-ness' is actually politeness to the female."