Beijing doesn’t get it – Jane Eyre is no model for domesticity

Beijing seems to misunderstand the lessons that can be gleaned from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, a novel that is being made compulsory reading for Chinese ninth-grade students. While the plain, financially constrained heroine may seem an odd model for the country's efforts to promote a moderate form of feminism and the importance of domesticity, Jane's insistence on self-awareness and equality resonates with the Chinese populace.

Introduced in translation in the early 1920s, the novel's appeal has persisted despite Beijing's recent decision to include it in the curriculum, a move that appears to stem from the government's struggle to combat declining birth and marriage rates.

Although Jane Eyre is a romantic tale that champions true love and values the home and hearth, the character of Jane is portrayed as both rebellious and not irredeemably so. She is independent and outspoken, yet unmistakably feminine, and she demonstrates that a woman can possess her own mind without forsaking domestic life. The novel's ending provides a clear illustration of this, as Jane ultimately chooses to leave Rochester when staying would have diminished her sense of self and equality.

It is only later, with her own inheritance and the financial independence it brings, that Jane returns to Rochester, recognizing that love is ultimately a choice rather than a surrender. The message that young readers may take away from Jane Eyre is that true love and personal fulfillment can coexist without compromising one's self-respect or independence.