The reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping began in 1978. Denghimself said that the reforms were revolutionary. He proclaimed thatthe main responsibility of the Chinese government was to developthe countrys economy. Chinas history during this century has madethe Chinese people realize that the two slogans： \\\"adhering to self-re-liance and working hard to build China\\\" and \\\"reforming and openingup\\\" are not contradictory. China thus entered a period of high-speedeconomic development. Chinas GDP has on average increased by 9.7percent in the past 20 years. As everyone knows： Deng Xiaoping andmany other influential Chinese leaders once studied in France andwere influenced by French culture. This is something I should men-tion here.　The Chinese people entered the year of 1900 humiliated and back-wards. One Dutch dictionary from the beginning of the 20th cen-tury： the Standard Dutch Dictionary： defined Chinese people as peoplewho are stupid and mentally backward. Before 1950： Chinese peoplewere also labeled as the \\\"sick men of East Asia.\\\"　During the 19th century： the terrible habit of binding girls feet wasvery common in China： among both the rich and the poor. Perhaps theChinese people of that time can be represented by women with smallbound feet： because they entered the 1900 with deformed feet.　But the Chinese people will enter the year of 2000 with healthy andfirm strides. The idea that Chinese people could win gold medals ininternational athletic events was inconceivable 50 years ago. Some saythat Chinese women have surpassed Chinese men. This is perhaps true.After all： it is our women who dominate events like volleyball： soccer：gymnastics and swimming.　Now I would like to discuss some of the changes that have taken placein Chinese families and women. Then I will move on to discuss changesof a few important Chinese concepts.　 In the traditional Chinese family： brothers could live under the sameroof even after they married： but girls had to leave the family upon mar-riage.