The latest episode of Amanda Foreman’s Ascent of Woman series focused on Asia. It began with a celebration of the Trung Sisters, two Vietnamese women who rebelled against the conquering forces of Han China. The sisters were not just heroes of Vietnamese nationalism, they were heroes of feminism, because women were allowed to hold positions of power in traditional Vietnamese culture, but not in China.

It was, apparently, all the fault on Confucius, who was very fond of saying the women are inferior to men. Later Confucian scholars even manage to subvert the traditional symbolism of ying and yang, claiming that the masculine yang was more powerful than, and superior to, the feminine ying. Confucius does not come out of the program very well.

Fortunately for Chinese women there was always the option of Buddhism. Empress Wu, the notorious but highly capable Chinese ruler during the Tang period made extensive use of Buddhism in her struggle against the patriarchal Confucians.

The high point of the program was the point where Foreman visits Japan and gets to see what is believed to be the actual inkwell with which Murasaki Shikibu wrote The Tale of Genji, the first novel ever written, over 1000 years ago. Foreman was visibly moved by the experience. Quite right, I would have been too. Here it is.

Harking back to yesterday’s discussion of translations, doubtless F R Leavis would have condemned Murasaki’s work for failing to convey a sense of Englishness. Well sod that. I particularly liked the Japanese author and nun that Foreman interviewed who claimed that Genji was a feminist work because in it the male hero, Genji, has relationships with many women and none of them are made happy as a result.

The final segment of the program focused on the practice of foot binding which was once commonplace in China and survived right into the 20th century. Unsurprisingly, this was the aspect of the program that the newspapers chose to focus on when reviewing it. Stories of mothers doing unspeakable things to their daughters for the sake of fashion appeal so much more to the tabloids than tales of women like Murasaki doing amazing things. Also it allows British readers to feel smugly superior to the barbaric foreigners. But, as Foreman said to me on Twitter, it got the series talked about, and if that meant a whole lot more people watching it that was a good thing.

I have no idea whether you can watch the series outside of the UK, but it is available on iPlayer and TunnelBear is your friend.