0723 Is Chivalry Dead Last week, I was in downtown Guangzhou doing some temporary work. To get to my workplace, I needed to take two rides of subway, doing the transit at the busiest stop of the city. Taking the subway is usually an enjoyment to me except for the rush hours when people jostle their way in or out of the cabin. Yet this time, there came some help, making my train journey a little easier than what otherwise would have been. Early this year, the Guangzhou subway saved some cabins as “For Ladies” during the weekday rush hours. This is because during summer, there would be no shortage physical contact in a crowded subway train. In an effort to reduce the chance of sexual harassment as well as be considerate to the weaker side in a packed cabin, the authority decided to designate a few cabins especially for women during the peak time. It is not a compulsory act but voluntary. And it is interesting to observe how men react to a policy that overwhelmingly favors women. During my stay there, I noticed that most young men would withdraw if they found out that they were misplaced, albeit grudgingly for some, but there were also the people whose perverse incentives drove them to stay unmoved, despite being repeatedly persuaded by subway staff. They questioned: what happens to the gender equality that women had always been striving for? This prompted me to ask: Is Chivalry so out of date that it deserves to die? It is true that the modern women wish for more say in political, economic, and social matters. Just around a century ago, women had no right to vote, to be educated and to contend with their husbands even if they were right. In China, women were forced to follow the leads of all male members of the family, including their son, while the Victoria Era in the West saw women typically bound by an array of social and ethical values. However, such practices and beliefs have become a thing of the past in many places. Gender equality, though yet to be universally realized, is on its way to completion. Yet most women, including me, believe being chivalrous would add a lot of charm to a man. A man with good manners might not necessarily be kind or nice in nature, but certainly he would make you feel much more comfortable to be around than someone who are petty and selfish, carefully calculating his every lost and gain. So another question is, do women make themselves a hypocrite when they are seeking to enjoy the benefits of both, chivalry and gender equality?