Woman Being

This documentary looks at women's attitudes towards beauty and sexuality in contemporary China. By focusing on women's perceptions of their bodies, the video depicts the tremendous changes that have occurred in the lives of Chinese women in the past one hundred years. Upon visiting her hometown, Chengdu, in southwest China in the summer of 1995, the filmmaker was fascinated by the rapid growth of the beauty industry in the city and the abundance of sexual images on public display. She visited various beauty salons, glamour photo studios, dance communities and "sexual hygiene" shops, and interviewed various women, and men on what they thought of love, sex and marriage. Combined with colorful new images of China, this video presents women's honest voices speaking of what they want to be. It examines the changing meaning of being a woman in today's China and poses the question: To what extent are these changes contributing to the empowerment of women?