I am writing in response to Ms. Xu's article, "Modernization in China does not refer to the women." She said, "Until Chinese women can claim they are equal to their male counterparts, the country is forever a developing one."

No one would define the modernization of a country in terms of only gender equality. None of the female Chinese students I know at Penn State seem to think American women have a higher social status than Chinese women do. Thanks to the former communist leader Mao Zedong, who said, "Women hold up half of the sky" half a century ago, Chinese males are forced to be pioneers of gender equality. I used to tell my wife, "You are lucky not to be an American women. Otherwise, you would carry my family name and do all the cooking." Now, Ms. Xu blamed us, the Chinese males, for our thoughts of trying to have a wife who is "young and pretty and gentle." Who wants to have an old, ugly and tough wife anyway?