Dispute In Shanghai Man

Shanghai natives, especially Shanghai men boost their vividcharacteristics, distinctive border of social group and unique groupculture, which enable them easily to be recognized. However, for along time, the outside world seems have stereotypes against Shanghaimen, of which are both positive and negative. This kind ofphenomenon can be widely found in the case of imagine on Shanghaimen and their family status.There are three parts of investigation: the first part is thequestionnaire (on the Internet)of Shanghai men’s impression; thesecond part is the questionnaire (paper form) of the roles in the corefamily in Shanghai; the third part is the interviews on typical cases.The conclusion can be drawn that agreement cannot be reached onthe most stereotypes of Shanghai men’s image and family status.What’s more important is that there is a kind contradiction ofsubjective evaluation and objective indicators.The outside group generally believes that Shanghai men are inlower status in family and are less of family power; meanwhile,Shanghai men themselves argue that they and their wives are equal infamily status and they are quite satisfied with the current situation. Inthe terms of idea and motion, Shanghai men are relatively open to thenewly-emerging thoughts of gender division of labor and genderequality, and traditional ideas put fewer strains on them. But in thereality can we also find the old-fashion rules still works in each way.The contradiction of the role Shanghai men play and their status in family is the result from the movement of real life and cliché. ButShanghai men are satisfied with it and even enjoy.The author put forward the reasons of this phenomenon above arelisted as followed:(1)The simple reflection caused by film andtelevision’s character image-shaping(2)The inadequate experiencescaused by lacking communication with Shanghai natives(3)thefallacy of hierarchy analysis caused by city temperament withfemininity(4)The value judgment preemption caused by traditionalculture. The research is carried out on three dimensions: economicrights, labor divisionand affair decision right in family. The reasonsconcerning three aspects are presumed: the deficiency of acquisitionmethod of traditional male’s status, the integration of sexual role andindividual temperance with androgyny and the change of femalesocial role.Finally, the author set the Shanghai men and Shanghai natives’core family as the ideal types of social gender society which boastsequal economic and disclosure power, flexible labor division andstatus, vague family role and unique culture. And building a socialgender-equal society requires the support from advanced socialculture, a long-term duration and perhaps a creative method.