Thoughts on China

I came to China eager to see how women live here. Turns out, at least in the big cities that I've been in, they live pretty much like we do in the US. There are still many social problems, some the same as the US and some different, but overall, it feels pretty much the same.

-The other day I was walking down the street and encountered a woman openly breastfeeding what looked to be a 3 or 4 year old girl. She was just sitting on the busy sidewalk outside a store and exposing a lot of skin. I was excited to see this done so casually, and to see it with an older child.
-Sexual harassment is a big problem here; we've heard this firsthand from Chinese people.
-There is definitely the same sense of never being beautiful enough and objectifying women cosmetically. There are ads everywhere for plastic surgery hospitals. A popular makeup item is skin whitening cream.
-Men do a lot of the cooking. It seems like most restaurants have male cooks and female waiters.
-Lovers' quarrels often take place in public and include a lot of hitting and forceful grabbing on both sides.
-I love watching families who because of the one-child policy only have a daughter and seeing how much love and affection they show her.

The most interesting thing I've noticed however, is that the western idea of male chivalry doesn't exist here. You don't see things like men routinely opening doors for women and I don't think any man would give up his bus seat to a woman unless she was over 70 or carrying a baby. Instead of this code of honor, China honors age. The elderly are shown the tokens of deference that in the west we more or less expect men to show to women.