NEW ERA: Xu Jinglei wins the best director award at the Chinese-American Film Festival in Hollywood (QI HENG)

One of China's most popular and financially successful movies of 2010 was Go Lala Go, a story about the rise of a determined female, Du Lala, from lowly office clerk to successful human resources manager in a global top 500 company. The movie's central theme was to show that women can achieve anything they want, if they are prepared to work for it.

"I think I am Du Lala in real life," said Xu Jinglei, Director of the movie, in a press conference before the film premiered. Xu also featured in the starring role as Du Lala, but achieved recognition for her directing abilities, winning the best director prize at the sixth Chinese American Film Festival held in Hollywood last October 28.

Xu is one of China's successful women. Through her hard work, she has developed from an actress to a renowned director. She is also one of China's most successful bloggers receiving daily hits of more than 600,000. In 2007, she launched an electronic biweekly entertainment magazine Kaila with over 5 million downloads per issue.

"The craze for the film and the success of Xu indicate that an increasing number of Chinese people have accepted the fact that women are enjoying equal rights and opportunities in society," said Tan Lin, Director of Women's Studies Institute of China, in an interview with ChinAfrica. "In today's China, women have the more opportunities to be successful although there are still certain restrains on them."

Three milestones

"After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the status of women saw dramatic improvement in various fields like education, healthcare, political participation and economic participation," said Tan.

In 2005, the National Bureau of Statistics launched a sample survey among 1 percent of the Chinese population (1.3 billion). According to the survey, women's average life expectancy increased from less than 38 years in 1949 to 75.25 years in 2005, the maternal mortality rate dropped from 1,500 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births to 41.1 per 100,000, while women's illiteracy rate was down from 90 percent to 16.15 percent.

"These figures partly reflect the rise of Chinese women within society. Actually, China has a complete set of policies and measures to ensure women enjoy the same opportunities as men," said Tan.

According to her, the founding of the People's Republic is the first milestone in the efforts of improving the status of Chinese women. The first law China promulgated was the  Marriage Law in 1950. "This law plays a fundamental role in changing women's subordinate position in Chinese society," said Tan.

Before that, most women could not select their husbands and everything was arranged by their parents. Many of them were not even allowed to see their husbands before marriage. Only when a couple entered the nuptial chamber after the wedding would they know who they were married to. "It sounds ironic but it was true at that time. Now, the phenomenon has long been abolished after the issuance of the Marriage Law, and Chinese women are choosing their marriage partners by themselves," Tan said.

China's reform and opening up to the outside world since the late 1970s is considered the second milestone in the process of improving women's status. This period saw China issue and modify more than 100 laws and regulations, aiming to improve women's social status and promote gender equality.

"So far, a complete legal system for protecting women's rights and interests with the Constitution at the center and supported by other laws and regulations such as the Marriage Law are in place," Tan said.

The Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 is considered as the third milestone. More work has been done to help women in their development. So far, China has carried out two programs on women's development (1995-2000 and 2001-10) and is formulating the third one covering the period from 2011 to 2020.

A series of mechanisms for gender equality have been established and improved. The National Working Committee on Women and Children under the State Council, which was established in 1990, has been strengthened. Currently, it has 33 member units, including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Education. Meanwhile, various local governments have established their own agencies on women.