Forgiveness, power, and gender in a chinese Context

Abstract

Even though forgiveness is a universal aspect of humanity, the conceptualisation, experience, and enactment of forgiveness diverge in significant ways across the broader socio-political and cultural divides as well as in situational and personal contexts. This article examines the practice of forgiveness under the array of shaping impacts from the Chinese cultural traditions and worldviews through the frameworks of collectivism and power distance (PD) to draw attention to the implicit but profound influence power holds in Chinese forgiveness. It draws attention to how power can cause concerning complications in forgiveness for one group of such individuals—women in Chinese contexts. In presenting the special relationship between power and forgiveness in the collectivistic Chinese culture, the article aims to foster discussion of the importance of understanding the full process of forgiveness in groups with little access to power, and to promote culturally-specific research in investigating such a process.