Welcome to the deep dive, where we plunge into complex source material
and extract the essential nuggets of knowledge and insight,
giving you the context you need to be well-informed, fast.
Today we are undertaking a deep and pretty disturbing journey
into the structure of modern life in rural China.
We're focusing on a conflict that pits the country's national commitment to gender equality
directly against centuries of entrenched patriarchal tradition.
Localized governance.
This is the fight for land rights, a fight being waged by rural women who,
upon marrying, are dismissed by their own communities with a shocking phrase.
Thrown away water.
That phrase is the core of this whole deep dive really.
It is so powerful it just stops you in your tracks.
It comes from an ancient Chinese saying.
A married out daughter is like thrown away water.
Just imagine the weight of that.
Water that has spilled, it's no longer contained,
it's completely disconnected and useless to its source.
In a country that we so often see as rapidly modernizing,
this ancient idea is being used actively today