2-3 page essay East Asia history and gender

Write a 2-3 page (doubled-spaced, 12-point font) essay explaining what you consider to be a distinguishing feature of “traditional” gender roles in East Asia. Address the cultural or historical factors which led to this feature’s creation, and asses the impact it had on the construction of gender roles in the area. You may focus on a specific gender (masculine or feminine), a specific culture (China, Korea or Japan), or you may adopt a regional (East Asia) perspective. No matter your approach, base your argument around relevant passages from the primary sources below:

Ban Zhao, Admonitions for Women Unknown, The Ballad of Mulan Yanshi Jiaxun, House Instructions of Mr. Yan Lü Kun, Models for the Inner Quarters Unkown, The Twenty-Four Exemplars of Filial Piety Li Ju-chen, In the Country of Women Kaibara Ekken, The Great Learning for Women Unknown, Chunhyang Song Siyŏl,Instructions to my Daughter

Your essay should be clearly organized. It needs: 1) an introduction, where you briefly introduce the feature you will examine and lay out your argument (thesis); 2) a body, where you provide relevant historical and cultural background and expand your argument through engagement with primary sources; and 3) a conclusion, where you restate your thesis and provide a final assessment of the way(s) gender roles were affected.

You are limited to using sources assigned above. Therefore, you may use an abbreviated reference form—that is, after each citation, put the source and page number in parentheses. For example, if you quote a passage from page 2 of “The Ballad of Mulan,” add (Mulan, 2) at the end of the citation. Cite at least 3 different texts from the assigned primary sources above. Choose your citations carefully to be most effective.