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Directed by May May Tchao. 2014. U.S.A. 54 minutes.

Study areas: China, women's rights, gender equality.

Wanting to see for herself the reality of her “distant sisters,” documentary director May May returns to China decades after emigrating to the US and tells the stories of four very different Chinese women in Spilled Water: the high-powered lawyer, Li Hua who works in an international firm in Beijing; the factory electrician, Liu Ying, working in a traditionally male job; the rural woman, Pu Ruixia, who against all odds becomes a teacher; and Ou Huaqing, a Dong ethnic minority performing artist. The stories of these four women not only inspire reflection on the lives, changing roles, and social status of women in the context of China’s economic transformation, but also illustrate China’s intensifying socio-economic disparities across the nation.

We learn that socio-economic and cultural circumstances have propelled these women to take on non-traditional roles: Li Hua and Liu Ying are divorced and caring for their daughters; Ou Huaqing is married with a son living in her husband’s family home. For all three, their identity as a mother is primary in their own minds and those around her. These women, like most across the world, bear the double burden of child rearing and serving the family while working or pursuing a career. Though their opportunities have increased, their lives are circumscribed by many gendered restrictions, such as access to education and better-paid traditionally male jobs in the modern economy.

Clearly visible is the uneven distribution of available resources by socio-economic background, marked by the polarized wealth gap between the developed urban and the impoverished rural regions of China. Urban women enjoy greater choices and chances for advancement in employment, education, and health care compared to their rural counterparts, who were deprived in each of these instrumental facilities for well-being. With the exception of Li Hua, a partner in the international law firm, the other three women have experienced forms of systemic and personal gender prejudice. However, despite limited resources and social expectations, these four women demonstrate extraordinary initiative and individual agency in negotiating the conflict between their gender roles, personal aspirations, and material facilities and arrangements.

Though the mothers each put their child at the center of their lives, they treasure their “outside” undertakings and accomplishments. Ou Huaqing has to fight her husband to keep performing, although hers is the only cash income they have. For her and Liu Ying, work is a necessity as well as a valued achievement, whereas for Li Hua and her big-city friends, it is a choice to pursue a worthwhile way of life.

Pu Ruixia stands out among the four. She grew up in deep poverty in the desolate tracts of Ningxia. Forced to drop out of school in third grade to help the family, she defied convention by peeking through the school windows to learn along with her brothers. Completely self-taught, she tested into a key college of education in Beijing, crossing not only a wide cultural as well as a social class gap to become a teacher in a non-formal training institute, teaching other young women like herself. It is astounding how her drive to self-actualization finds expression in alternative opportunities along the margins of globalizing China.

Though to widely varying degrees, Pu Ruixia, Ou Huaqing, and Li Hua appear to benefit from family socio-political and cultural capital that contributed to their drive to make more of themselves than expected. Only Liu Ying, divorced and far from her village home, lacks the socio-economic and cultural capital to support herself and her child beyond the bounds of the family system.

Throughout, the film offers a vivid portrait of the shifting economic landscape of China. It offers new opportunities for young women, exemplified by migrant work in factories near cities; non-formal training centers beyond very narrow channels of formal education; access to elite international educational institutions; a national entertainment industry; and international careers. The stories of the women of drastically different backgrounds intertwined together demonstrate the strength of women who quietly overcame many hurdles.

Besides the determination the four women featured in the film, the reviewers note that the women of the older generations, May May’s mother and Pu Ruixia’s grandmother, shared not only an era but also a “high born” family background. It would have been valuable to understand more of their lives. We learn only that Pu Ruixia’s grandmother was a Han Chinese woman with bound feet who ended up in a remote and rural ethnic minority region. Bound feet were a symbol of beauty for women of higher standing in old China. Judging from the family photos, May May’s mother’s family also was well-to-do. Though she felt she was considered worthless in the family, she pushed, and they afforded her the opportunity to finish nursing school and later moved to the US. Both women were born in early 20th century China, yet one was bound to a restricted fate while the other struck out on her own. Ultimately their life experiences took them in very different directions. Although the four younger women’s stories featured in the film were similar, their experiences were not homogeneous, even though they are of the same generation in new China.

The title of the film, Spilled Water, comes from a Chinese idiom “嫁出去的女儿，泼出去的水” [a married off daughter is like spilled water, useless] used by May May’s mother in the film to describe her experience in the early 1900s. These women three generations later impressed May May with a new story: “[with] their quiet strength, like water, they are moving forward.” Once these women found their desire, hope, aspirations, ambitions, and agency, there was no holding them back.

This film is a valuable resource for students and for the general audiences who are curious about aspects of contemporary Chinese society and lives of Chinese women. The contrasts between the freedoms and expectations on women and on the urban vs. rural, modern vs. traditional, and wealthy vs. poor dynamics are striking. This makes for good opportunities for discussion in upper-level high school or undergraduate courses on world cultures, sociology/anthropology, and women’s studies. Spilled Water is a good personal portrayal of the challenges women face in contemporary China, so it does have rather broad appeal and can be enjoyed by anyone who is interested in gender or cultural studies or, really, by anyone who just enjoys a well-told personal portrait.

Xiaoqi Yu is a Shanghai native who teaches workshops related to Chinese arts and culture, society and business practices at Kent State University. She is a recent graduate in Cultural Foundation with research interests focused on socio-cultural border crossing and educational outcomes.

Vilma Seeberg is an Associate Professor for multicultural and international comparative education at Kent State University. The author of two books on Chinese literacy, she is also a long-time activist of educational equity and equality for rural Chinese girls since 1979. Dr. Seeberg founded the Guanlan Scholarship Foundation (GSF) in 2000 which provides scholarships to enable village girls in rural Shangluo, Shaanxi province in China to continue their education. Xiaoqi is thrilled to be a board member of GSF and to work with Vilma.

To support and know more about GSF, please visit their website.

For more information visit the Spilled Water website.

Last Updated: September 22, 2015


	Spilled Water Directed by May May Tchao. 2014. U.S.A. 54 minutes. Study areas: China, women's rights, gender equality. Wanting to see for herself the reality of her “distant sisters,” documentary director May May returns to China decades after emigrating to the US and tells the stories of four very different Chinese women in Spilled Water: the high-powered lawyer, Li Hua who works in an international firm in Beijing; the factory electrician, Liu Ying, working in a traditionally male job; the rural woman, Pu Ruixia, who against all odds becomes a teacher; and Ou Huaqing, a Dong ethnic minority performing artist. The stories of these four women not only inspire reflection on the lives, changing roles, and social status of women in the context of China’s economic transformation, but also illustrate China’s intensifying socio-economic disparities across the nation. We learn that socio-economic and cultural circumstances have propelled these women to take on non-traditional roles: Li Hua and Liu Ying are divorced and caring for their daughters; Ou Huaqing is married with a son living in her husband’s family home. For all three, their identity as a mother is primary in their own minds and those around her. These women, like most across the world, bear the double burden of child rearing and serving the family while working or pursuing a career. Though their opportunities have increased, their lives are circumscribed by many gendered restrictions, such as access to education and better-paid traditionally male jobs in the modern economy. Clearly visible is the uneven distribution of available resources by socio-economic background, marked by the polarized wealth gap between the developed urban and the impoverished rural regions of China. Urban women enjoy greater choices and chances for advancement in employment, education, and health care compared to their rural counterparts, who were deprived in each of these instrumental facilities for well-being. With the exception of Li Hua, a partner in the international law firm, the other three women have experienced forms of systemic and personal gender prejudice. However, despite limited resources and social expectations, these four women demonstrate extraordinary initiative and individual agency in negotiating the conflict between their gender roles, personal aspirations, and material facilities and arrangements. Though the mothers each put their child at the center of their lives, they treasure their “outside” undertakings and accomplishments. Ou Huaqing has to fight her husband to keep performing, although hers is the only cash income they have. For her and Liu Ying, work is a necessity as well as a valued achievement, whereas for Li Hua and her big-city friends, it is a choice to pursue a worthwhile way of life. Pu Ruixia stands out among the four. She grew up in deep poverty in the desolate tracts of Ningxia. Forced to drop out of school in third grade to help the family, she defied convention by peeking through the school windows to learn along with her brothers. Completely self-taught, she tested into a key college of education in Beijing, crossing not only a wide cultural as well as a social class gap to become a teacher in a non-formal training institute, teaching other young women like herself. It is astounding how her drive to self-actualization finds expression in alternative opportunities along the margins of globalizing China. Though to widely varying degrees, Pu Ruixia, Ou Huaqing, and Li Hua appear to benefit from family socio-political and cultural capital that contributed to their drive to make more of themselves than expected. Only Liu Ying, divorced and far from her village home, lacks the socio-economic and cultural capital to support herself and her child beyond the bounds of the family system. Throughout, the film offers a vivid portrait of the shifting economic landscape of China. It offers new opportunities for young women, exemplified by migrant work in factories near cities; non-formal training centers beyond very narrow channels of formal education; access to elite international educational institutions; a national entertainment industry; and international careers. The stories of the women of drastically different backgrounds intertwined together demonstrate the strength of women who quietly overcame many hurdles. Besides the determination the four women featured in the film, the reviewers note that the women of the older generations, May May’s mother and Pu Ruixia’s grandmother, shared not only an era but also a “high born” family background. It would have been valuable to understand more of their lives. We learn only that Pu Ruixia’s grandmother was a Han Chinese woman with bound feet who ended up in a remote and rural ethnic minority region. Bound feet were a symbol of beauty for women of higher standing in old China. Judging from the family photos, May May’s mother’s family also was well-to-do. Though she felt she was considered worthless in the family, she pushed, and they afforded her the opportunity to finish nursing school and later moved to the US. Both women were born in early 20th century China, yet one was bound to a restricted fate while the other struck out on her own. Ultimately their life experiences took them in very different directions. Although the four younger women’s stories featured in the film were similar, their experiences were not homogeneous, even though they are of the same generation in new China. The title of the film, Spilled Water, comes from a Chinese idiom “嫁出去的女儿，泼出去的水” [a married off daughter is like spilled water, useless] used by May May’s mother in the film to describe her experience in the early 1900s. These women three generations later impressed May May with a new story: “[with] their quiet strength, like water, they are moving forward.” Once these women found their desire, hope, aspirations, ambitions, and agency, there was no holding them back. This film is a valuable resource for students and for the general audiences who are curious about aspects of contemporary Chinese society and lives of Chinese women. The contrasts between the freedoms and expectations on women and on the urban vs. rural, modern vs. traditional, and wealthy vs. poor dynamics are striking. This makes for good opportunities for discussion in upper-level high school or undergraduate courses on world cultures, sociology/anthropology, and women’s studies. Spilled Water is a good personal portrayal of the challenges women face in contemporary China, so it does have rather broad appeal and can be enjoyed by anyone who is interested in gender or cultural studies or, really, by anyone who just enjoys a well-told personal portrait. Xiaoqi Yu is a Shanghai native who teaches workshops related to Chinese arts and culture, society and business practices at Kent State University. She is a recent graduate in Cultural Foundation with research interests focused on socio-cultural border crossing and educational outcomes. Vilma Seeberg is an Associate Professor for multicultural and international comparative education at Kent State University. The author of two books on Chinese literacy, she is also a long-time activist of educational equity and equality for rural Chinese girls since 1979. Dr. Seeberg founded the Guanlan Scholarship Foundation (GSF) in 2000 which provides scholarships to enable village girls in rural Shangluo, Shaanxi province in China to continue their education. Xiaoqi is thrilled to be a board member of GSF and to work with Vilma. To support and know more about GSF, please visit their website. For more information visit the Spilled Water website. Last Updated: September 22, 2015		In This Section: Newsletters Lesson Plans List of K-12 Resources Online Film Reviews > New Reviews > Reviews by Title > Reviews by Author > Reviews by Newsletter Issue Website Reviews Notes From the Classroom Interviews