The concept that "men are superior to women" had dominated Chinese society for millenniums until the founding of New China in 1949, after which Chairman Mao Zedong declared that, "women hold up half the sky".

Since then women in China have witnessed a continuous rise in their political, economic and social status, which has helped them win the same rights as men. The Chinese society is also bidding farewell to the old era in which women were "subordinate" to men and has built a general cultural environment of "equality between men and women".

However, a recent article, belittling the image of Chinese men, on Tianya Community, a very popular domestic social network website, and the heated online and offline debates it sparked have once again highlighted the kind of roles Chinese men and women play.