Radical 38 or radical woman () meaning "

woman A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or Adolescence, adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functi ...

" or "

female An organism's sex is female ( symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and ...

" is one of the 31

Kangxi radical The ''Kangxi'' radicals (), also known as ''Zihui'' radicals, are a set of 214 Chinese character radicals, radicals that were collated in the 18th-century ''Kangxi Dictionary'' to aid categorization of Chinese characters. They are primarily sor ...

s (214 radicals total) composed of three

strokes Stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop ...

. In the ''

Kangxi Dictionary The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' () is a Chinese dictionary published in 1716 during the High Qing, considered from the time of its publishing until the early 20th century to be the most authoritative reference for written Chinese characters. Wanting ...

'', there are 681 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this

radical Radical (from Latin: ', root) may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Classical radicalism, the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century *Radical politics ...

. is also the 56th indexing component in the ''

Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components ''The Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components'' () is a lexicography, lexicographic tool used to order the Chinese characters in mainland China. The specification is also known as GF 0011-2009. In China's normative documents, "radical" is ...

'' predominantly adopted by

Simplified Chinese Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one that is simpler (usually shorter), according to a well-founded ordering. Examples include: ...

dictionaries published in

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

Evolution

File:女-oracle.svg,

Oracle bone script Oracle bone script is the oldest attested form of written Chinese, dating to the late 2nd millennium BC. Inscriptions were made by carving characters into oracle bones, usually either the shoulder bones of oxen or the plastrons of turtl ...

character File:女-bronze.svg,

Bronze script Chinese bronze inscriptions, also referred to as bronze script or bronzeware script, comprise Chinese writing made in several styles on ritual bronzes mainly during the Late Shang dynasty () and Western Zhou dynasty (771 BC). Types of bron ...

character File:女-bigseal.svg,

Large seal script The term large seal script traditionally refers to written Chinese dating from before the Qin dynasty—now used either narrowly to the writing of the Western and early Eastern Zhou dynasty (403 BCE), or more broadly to also include the ...

character File:女-seal.svg,

Small seal script The small seal script is an archaic script style of written Chinese. It developed within the state of Qin during the Eastern Zhou dynasty (771–256 BC), and was then promulgated across China in order to replace script varieties used i ...

character

Derived characters

Controversies over sexism

Some

feminists Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

have claimed that many Chinese characters under radical woman are

pejorative A pejorative word, phrase, slur, or derogatory term is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hosti ...

, (slave, literally a hand holding a woman), (demon), (JP: , envy), (Simp.: , rape, traitor), (dislike) for example, and learning and using them may unconsciously lead to

misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against Woman, women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than Man, men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been wide ...

. Some have even proposed a reform of these characters. In 2010, Ye Mantian (叶满天), a mainland Chinese male lawyer, posted an essay online in which he criticized 16 Chinese characters for their sexist implication. The 16 characters were (, entertainment), (to play with, usually classified under

radical 126 Radical 126 or radical and () meaning "" or "" is one of the 29 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 6 strokes. In the ''Kangxi Dictionary'', there are 22 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical. is also the 12 ...

), (greedy), (envy), (envy), (dislike), (flattery), (presumptuous), (demon), (slave), (prostitute), (whore), (, rape, traitor), (extramarital sex), (bitch), and (to visit prostitutes). He also proposed a reform of some characters, e.g. replace with a newly created Chinese character "" (:

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

, usually associated with monsters or uncivilized actions; : behaviors; the proposed character therefore implies rape is a monstrous behavior), believing that the change would reduce

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...

cases. Opponents argued that the new characters were historically unsound; that even if they were adopted, they would remain specious and would not effectively improve female's social status. They also pointed out that improvements in legal and social culture aspects were the actual remedy of sexism. In 2015, an exhibition in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

entitled "姦: Cultural Codes of Gender Violence" () organized by 65 artists was canceled by the authorities. Still, the idea of this exhibition made its way through international media outlets. Tong Yujie (), the exhibition's academic convener, questioned in her writing: "Why did one woman become three, and such a symbol of political and moral imagination and an object of enmity in traditional Chinese society and political theory?" A 2014 study done by Wang Yuping from

Anhui University Anhui University (AHU) is provincial public university in Hefei, Anhui, China. It is affiliated with the Anhui Provincial Government, and co-funded by the Anhui Provincial Government, the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education, a ...

's School of Chinese Language and Literature analyzed all Chinese characters with the woman radical in a concise edition of ''

Hanyu Da Cidian The ''Hanyu Da Cidian'' (), also known as the Grand Chinese Dictionary, is the most inclusive available Chinese dictionary. Lexicographically comparable to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', it has Historical linguistics, diachronic coverage of ...

'' (). The result shows that among these characters, there are 56 with negative meaning, 70 with positive meaning, and 184 are neutral. Nonetheless, the author believed that some of these categories suggested discrimination in traditional Chinese culture. Similar controversies also exist in "gendered" European languages which have divisions between masculine and feminine terms. This phenomenon is called

linguistic sexism Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is int ...

Sinogram

Alone the character is one of the

Kyōiku kanji The are kanji which Japanese elementary school students should learn from first through sixth grade. Also known as , these kanji are listed on the . The table is developed and maintained by the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT). Although t ...

or Kanji taught in elementary school in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is a first grade kanji.

Literature

* *

References

External links

Unihan Database - U+5973
{{Simplified Chinese radicals Kyōiku kanji

038 38 may refer to: *38 (number) *38 BC *AD 38 *1938 *2038 Science * Strontium, an alkaline earth metal in the periodic table * 38 Leda, an asteroid in the asteroid belt Other uses *.38, a caliber of firearms and cartridges ** .38 Special, a re ...

056 56 may refer to: * 56 (number) * One of the years 56 BC, AD 56, 1956, 2056 * 56.com, a Chinese online video platform * Fiftysix, Arkansas, an unincorporated community in the United States * Fifty-Six, Arkansas, a city in the United States * "Fifty ...

Terms for women