Throughout the history of China, males have shown dominance in the relationship between men and women. A women’s responsibility in this relationship is controlled by the man, which the women must obey, which shows in the documentary Raise the Red Lantern. The women in this film lived in a concubine where their freedom and responsibilities are a lot more strict and the women must obey the master. Raise the Red Lantern gives an overview the life in the concubine for the fourth mistress, Songlian. . Raise the Red Lantern provides an overview of the life of women in the concubine and the challenges women faced in 20th century China. In late imperial China, men were allowed to have multiple wives at the same time. The wealthy master would take in attractive lower class women to come and make them his mistresses. Among these high walls the women were supposed to feel protected from the outside world. Along with this, the wives would …show more content…
The life in the concubine was not easy and all the women fought for the masters attention. Among the relationships, the relationship between the master and the mistresses is very impersonal and is all sexual according to the master. This was a challenging adjustment for a women who was well educated having to abide by the strict rules set forth by the master. There was constant fighting among the wives as they always wanted the masters attention. Every night the master would pick a mistress to spend the night with and the selected mistress would be treated like royalty. They would pick what the meal was for that particular night, get a foot massage, and get to spend all night and the morning with the master with red lanterns outside of her room to show who the lucky mistress was for that even night. With all of this going on created a hostile environment among the mistresses of the