Small Happiness:
Women of a Chinese Village

Small Happiness (58 min., 1984) explores sexual politics in rural China with segments on love and marriage, foot-binding, child-bearing and birth control.

... [In "Small Happiness"] a Long Bow grandfather laughingly explains: "To give birth to a boy is considered a big happiness. To give birth to a girl is a small happiness. A boy will remain in the household, while a girl will be married off." When a woman is said to be childless it often means only that she hasn't produced a male child. The pattern of male dominance in Chinese society is longstanding and evidently stubborn. But "Small Happiness," with its interviews of both young and old women, finds that there have nevertheless been significant changes in the role of women.

... [T]he insights are fascinating, and many of the people being interviewed are delightful. Several of the older women are wonderfully feisty, even as they describe the outlawed but persistent practice of foot-binding to make their feet smaller. Big feet on a woman were considered a cause for shame. The binding caused terrible sores. In some instances, the feet turned into what one woman called a "slushy mess." Why were they willing to do it? "How could we not be willing?," an elder retorts. There is a remarkable sense of uncluttered authenticity here.

John J. O'Connor, The New York Times, August 25, 1987

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