Not Just Man’s Best Friends
By Chip Tsao | published Feb 18, 2010
A naked woman in Guangdong was rushed to the hospital last week with an odd predicament—a small dog had become stuck inside of her. The woman’s nine-year-old son came back from school earlier than scheduled and was stunned by what he saw in his mother’s bedroom. Sociologists pointed out that the tragedy marks a serious mental crisis of sexual frustration suffered by millions of married women in the countryside, where their husbands have left for jobs in the cities. While most men have abandoned their villages and gone to Guangzhou and Shanghai to become builders or other hard laborers, women are left at home biting at their pillowcases helplessly, and alone.
Many critics have compared today’s China, given its widening gap between the rich and the poor, with Industrial Revolution era England. But while even Lady Chatterley could pick up a macho gardener as her adulterous lover, peasant women in post-revolution China, where the aristocracy has been rooted out and even gardeners have joined the exodus to cities for better jobs, are faced with far less favorable choices when they’re feeling a tad randy.
It’s a tragedy for this woman and the doctors and nurses who had to handle the case. One would also certainly feel sorry for her son, who has received an unexpected and alternative lesson on sex education. But looking at the brighter side of life, the news has come as a relief to me as well as to most other dog lovers. Dogs in China will hopefully enjoy a better fate as more women in the countryside discover another practical function for the animals other than being served on the dining table. As a broadcaster, I didn’t hesitate to pick up and recount the news story immediately in every available detail on my daily Cantonese radio talk show that is allegedly quite popular in Guangdong province. I felt obliged to do my duty to save and liberate some lives, particularly those who stare out with sorrowful eyes for help from their cramped market cages in Guangdong where they await their fate as a cold weather delicacy among certain Chinese gourmands. I spread this story as far and wide as possible and took great honor in helping my countrywomen understand that this is also a case of equalizing gender opportunities: dogs are no longer man’s best friend, if someone dares to test this theory a little more deeply.
The Central government has made the consumption of dogs and cats illegal in the run-up to the Shanghai Expo as an attempt to boost the national image. A good start. But for those in the countryside whose husbands are so far away, there is no rush for such a huge leap forward at the moment. Take it easy with your dogs, and make sure your children stay in school until the last class for the day has officially ended.
A naked woman in Guangdong was rushed to the hospital last week with an odd predicament—a small dog had become stuck inside of her. The woman’s nine-year-old son came back from school earlier than scheduled and was stunned by what he saw in his mother’s bedroom. Sociologists pointed out that the tragedy marks a serious mental crisis of sexual frustration suffered by millions of married women in the countryside, where their husbands have left for jobs in the cities. While most men have abandoned their villages and gone to Guangzhou and Shanghai to become builders or other hard laborers, women are left at home biting at their pillowcases helplessly, and alone.
Many critics have compared today’s China, given its widening gap between the rich and the poor, with Industrial Revolution era England. But while even Lady Chatterley could pick up a macho gardener as her adulterous lover, peasant women in post-revolution China, where the aristocracy has been rooted out and even gardeners have joined the exodus to cities for better jobs, are faced with far less favorable choices when they’re feeling a tad randy.
It’s a tragedy for this woman and the doctors and nurses who had to handle the case. One would also certainly feel sorry for her son, who has received an unexpected and alternative lesson on sex education. But looking at the brighter side of life, the news has come as a relief to me as well as to most other dog lovers. Dogs in China will hopefully enjoy a better fate as more women in the countryside discover another practical function for the animals other than being served on the dining table. As a broadcaster, I didn’t hesitate to pick up and recount the news story immediately in every available detail on my daily Cantonese radio talk show that is allegedly quite popular in Guangdong province. I felt obliged to do my duty to save and liberate some lives, particularly those who stare out with sorrowful eyes for help from their cramped market cages in Guangdong where they await their fate as a cold weather delicacy among certain Chinese gourmands. I spread this story as far and wide as possible and took great honor in helping my countrywomen understand that this is also a case of equalizing gender opportunities: dogs are no longer man’s best friend, if someone dares to test this theory a little more deeply.
The Central government has made the consumption of dogs and cats illegal in the run-up to the Shanghai Expo as an attempt to boost the national image. A good start. But for those in the countryside whose husbands are so far away, there is no rush for such a huge leap forward at the moment. Take it easy with your dogs, and make sure your children stay in school until the last class for the day has officially ended.
Labels: Politically Incorrect, 陶傑
posted by Gemini Saga at 12:00 AM
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