Yaya on Online Feminism

[Chen] Yaya, “Twenty Years of Online Chinese Feminism: From the Margins to the Focal Point”[1]

Translation and Introduction by David Ownby

Introduction

Chen Yaya, who apparently writes under the pen name Yaya, is a well-known feminist scholar and activist in China (a brief bio of Chen in Chinese, including an interesting question and answer session, is available here). The text translated here is a straightforward and useful review of twenty years of online feminism, particularly for people who know little about the movement.

To my mind, the feminist movement in China is similar to the movement for gay rights in the United States in the speed with which it has developed, but gays in America have much more to show for their activism in terms of laws and institutional protections. I don’t know whether Yaya means for the title of her piece to be ironic, but it is noteworthy that after twenty years of existence, the only real space available for Chinese feminism is online. The Chinese state has shut down even innocuous examples of activism like the Feminist Five and allows – some would say encourages – the online presence of anti-feminist groups, men who attack feminists for being “lazy sluts,” among other things. Yaya is not quite this pessimistic, but one might conclude from her piece that the only safe activity remaining for feminists is to argue among themselves about who is a true feminist and who is a traitor to the cause, with extreme or radical feminists condemning women who marry and have children. Gender politics in China look to be as emotionally supercharged as they are elsewhere. Yaya pleads for unity and understanding, but the dynamics of Internet comment sections often goes in the opposite direction.

What is undeniable, however, is that “gender events” will continue to occur in China, which will keep the feminist movement alive.

Translation

Online discussion of feminist (gender) issues in China started more than twenty years ago, about the same time that the Internet entered China in the late 1990s. Initially, it was relatively marginal, with very few participants, but has slowly developed into one of the focal issues on today’s Internet. I have been involved in online feminist discussions for many years, mainly on several bulletin boards and Sina Weibo,[2] and I also set up my own feminist website and helped to organized related online communities, as well keeping abreast of discussions on platforms such as Baidu Tieba 百度贴吧, Douban 豆瓣, and Zhihu知乎.[3] This paper analyzes the development of the history of online feminism in China and its existing problems, as well as putting forward some of my own views.

2001-2010: Online Feminism Takes Form

In this period, there appeared (and then disappeared, one after another) a number of gender-related websites, most founded by scholars in universities and research institutes. Their contents were academic, the website’s name being dominated by the word "gender," as in "Women's and Social Gender Studies," for example, or "Gender Perspectives," without discussion forums attached. Websites containing the name "feminism" were basically private, and very few in number, set up by individuals using their own funds (which meant they were more unstable). Examples include "Online Feminism," "China’s Nongovernmental Women's Rights Network," etc., whose content had more to do with life as lived and encouraged more interaction among netizens. In addition, private bulletin boards (such as the YTHT bulletin board[4] and its successors) and commercial social media platforms were widely used by feminists, and in the early days when blogs were popular, some feminist blogs also became important places for the dissemination of feminist concepts and the exchange of ideas.

During this period, women's rights activists had little influence on the Internet and communicated only within a limited circle. What gained widespread attention was the online content of some artistic young women who chose to express their corporal (sexual) liberation, such as Mu Zimei 木子美 (b. 1978), who became famous after she wrote a sex blog and subsequently served as one of the judges of the Deutsche Welle radio station's "2004 International Best Blog Award." In 2004 and 2005, two women posted nude photos on the Tianya platform that attracted online attention, namely Zhuying Qingtong (“bamboo shadow green pupil 竹影青瞳”) and Hooligan Sparrow (a.k.a. Ye Haiyan 叶海燕, b. 1975),[5] who later identified as a feminist. Most of these women encountered cyber violence after they became popular, but at the same time, they rapidly increased their voice and influence, and their exploits became the object of attention by feminists.

Baidu's online feminist forum used to be the most popular place, but because most of the participants were teenagers with little voice, they were never taken seriously. These kinds of forums are now closed, so it is hard to see what was talked about at the time, but in 2013, I did a little study of Baidu feminist forum, which at the time had 4,238 members and more than 200,000 posts, so we can imagine how active they once were. Because the topics discussed were sensitive and controversial, there were frequent conflicts with men's rights advocates and gay men, which led to complaints that eventually got it banned. To a certain extent, this forum foreshadowed later trends in feminist discussions on social media, and the idea of "uterine morality 子宫道德,"[6] was much discussed later on, first appeared here.

At that time, online feminism was broadly related to three issues. The first was the introduction of feminist concepts from outside of China, including relevant research, experience, and news; the second was the discussion of the current situation regarding women's rights and interests in China, including relevant research, experience, and news; and the third was gender-related issues in daily life, including personal understandings of feminism, and how to practice feminist concepts in life. Over time, discussions on all three fronts increased, with the third issue increasing the most rapidly. In online discussions, issues tended to unfold following the emergence of focal events (individual cases), which became the chapters of an eventual movement. In 2009, for example, there was the Deng Yujiao 邓玉娇 incident,[7] in which feminists spoke out online through performance art, which can be considered a precursor to feminist activism.

During this period, the concept of feminism gradually moved from the scholarly world to the grassroots and began to spread in all directions. Young urban women who were not satisfied with the gender equality discourse employed by the mainstream media and people working on gender began to consciously choose feminist narratives that were more defiant and individualistic. These cyber-feminists basically identified with a "feminist" label, and while there were differences of opinion among them, there was not much conflict, and more often than not they united to defend themselves against external attacks. In addition, public attention to the topic of sexuality increased feminist visibility to a certain extent, even if the women who expressed themselves in this way did not necessarily label themselves as feminist.

2011-2015: Feminist Debate and Action on Social Media

With the tightening of Internet regulations and the gradual decline of independent websites (especially private individual websites), cyber-feminists increasingly shifted their voices to the more public social media. At first, feminist issues were not very popular, and feminists were somewhat marginalized, but following the discussion of some controversial incidents, feminist issues began to attract attention, and their influence grew rapidly following a series of debates. By 2015, feminist issues were flourishing like never before on social media.

Three feminist issues had the greatest online impact during this period, and the issue that prompted the most participation had to do with rethinking traditional marriage and family. For example, the online star Ayawawa (Yang Bingyang 楊冰陽, b. 1983), a self-proclaimed expert on love and marriage who has millions of online followers and has long been teaching women how to manage their relationships and marriages, sparked controversy many times because of her remarks that disparaged and discriminated against women, and wound up being a frequent target of feminist criticism. In addition, during the Chinese New Year holidays in 2014, Lily.com placed an ad for "forced marriage 逼婚," which immediately led to a boycott, and the website was forced to apologize. Such discussions have raised public awareness of gender equality and increased social tolerance of diverse family types (including those who remain single), but they have also exposed some of the limitations of feminists, such as their insensitivity to class discrimination.

There are also discussions of the activism of younger feminists, who initiated a series of activities involving performance art focusing on issues such as anti-harassment in the subway, occupying men's toilets, anti-domestic violence, etc., which attracted widespread attention, and for this reason 2012 has been called the first year of women's rights. While most online feminists supported these activities, some criticisms came from the gender studies community, such as Hong Fan’s 鸿帆[8] comment that these women are "unwilling to take seriously the history of women's liberation in the history of New China;" and the sociologist Huang Yingying's 黄盈盈remark that "The new generation of feminist activists does not understand the history of the development of feminism/gender in China over the past thirty years, and are not accepted by most mainstream researchers on feminism/gender issues." On the whole, activists have made a relatively positive contribution to enriching the discussion of online feminist issues, which is precisely the weak point of gender researchers (such as the Women's Federation), although activists are sometimes fall short in attempting to lead in-depth discussions on the issues.

The third are debates between feminists and other groups and individuals on gender issues. There are many such polemics, which can be broadly grouped into three categories, the one generating the largest participation being the war between feminists and anti-feminists (mainly men). As the influence of feminists has increased, anti-feminist voices have also grown louder, stigmatizing and attacking feminism by attaching labels it them (for example, “mongrel feminist 田园女权,”[9] “feminist whore 女权婊”), accusing them of selfishness, sluttiness in their private lives, and of being unwilling to fulfill their responsibilities (usually referring to women's traditional family responsibilities).

Feminists fight back through self-empowerment, declaring that “I am proud of being a mongrel,” or by attaching labels to the anti-feminists (e.g., “straight man cancer 直男癌,” trans., someone who is hopelessly macho). Fighting fire with fire in this way is becoming increasingly popular, and the antagonism between feminists and anti-feminists has gradually solidified.

One type of criticism is of male (elite) intellectuals, such as criticism of remarks by Han Han 韩寒 (b. 1982), Zhou Guoping 周国平 (b. 1945), and Jiang Qing 蒋庆 (b. 1953),[10] and debates with supporters of these men (not many of those criticized have themselves responded to feminist criticism). These men have engaged in sexual discrimination or made gender-stereotypical remarks, such as Han Han's statement that his girlfriends will not get a job, Zhou Guoping's that a woman's nature is to love and raise children, and Jiang Qing's argument that only Confucianism can find a place for modern women. In these kinds of debates, the feminist position seems to garner greater public support, which shows that the public's awareness of gender equality has increased, and the backward concepts of male intellectuals in this regard are no longer accepted and tolerated by society.

Another is the divide between feminists and sexual rights advocates (e.g., sex scholars, sexual minority advocates, mostly men). In 2012 there appeared a new account on Sina Weibo called "Beautiful Young Lesbian Warrior 美少女战士拉拉,” which sparked a debate pitting feminists who support the idea of “queer” against some members of the male gay community. The year 2014 saw another controversy when the famous sexologist Pan Suiming 潘绥铭 (b. 1950) published an article entitled "Gays ‘Coming out of the Closet’ Bashing ‘Home-Grown Feminism.’” In the same year, Xiamen University professor Wu Chunming 吴春明(b. 1966) was accused of sexual harassment, and many feminists called for the establishment of an anti-sexual assault system on campuses, while sex scholars such as Li Yinhe 李银河(b. 1952) and Fang Gang 方刚 issued a statement arguing that focusing solely on "anti-sexual assault" could also lead to "anti-sexuality," and advocating instead for the promotion of comprehensive sex education. These debates, which show the differences between feminists and sexual rights advocates, were quite intense in certain quarters, but there seems to have been little reaction in the public sphere.[11]

2016 to the Present: The Shift in Online Feminist Discourse

Following the Feminist Five incident in 2015,[12] the number of offline gestures making demands on authorities through performance art, media reports, and online discussions has decreased. With tightened control of online speech, the collective online retreat of liberal public intellectuals, and the gradual silence of sexual rights advocates and sex scholars, many of those with whom feminists argued are no longer active online, and the arguments they would have had have disappeared. However, because new gender events constantly occur, and because everyone has their own personal experience and suffering in the areas of sex and gender, marriage and family, this means that everyone has the right to speak out and a strong will to do so, so that gender issues have become a frequent online focus, and the influence of cyber-feminists, as an important participant in these issues, has increased to a certain extent.

Feminist Issues Continue to be in the Spotlight

Among the more influential online feminist issues during this period was the #MeToo movement that emerged in 2018, in which women tell their experiences of sexual assault online and demand that perpetrators and take public responsibility. These narratives have raised public awareness of sexual assault and succeeded in making some perpetrators pay a price, but they have failed to achieve much in terms of institution-building. Because sexual assault is more difficult to define in the current legal climate, the person who makes accusations may well suffer additional harm. In addition, there is considerable controversy over gray areas in sexual assault, with a relative lack of in-depth discussion, and the simplistic and programmatic nature of the anti-sexual assault discourse, as well as the increasing tendency towards online dichotomies, has resulted in the parties concerned being exposed to a variety of risks.

In fact, anti-sexual assault is not a new feminist focus, and sex-related issues readily generate concern, but with the increased control of online speech, women's voices on sexual freedom and autonomy have been suppressed, which leaves the agenda free for anti-sexual assault discussions. The #MeToo movement has received positive support from feminists, but it has also attracted some criticism, with public intellectuals such as the political scientist Liu Yu[13] 刘瑜 (b. 1975) expressing her concern by comparing #MeToo to the big-character posters of the Cultural Revolution. We might say that #MeToo highlights the blind spots and prejudices of certain public intellectuals and anti-feminists on the issue of gender, and at the same time, the discussion around some complicated cases also exposes the limitations and inadequacies of feminists themselves in shaping the issue.

Another issue is "seeing women workers," which came to light in the context of the epidemic. Two-thirds of the healthcare workers who went to Wuhan to support the outbreak in 2019 were women, but their contribution was under-appreciated, with media coverage filled with gender stereotypes that emphasized their family roles rather than their professional skills. Consequently, they were poorly equipped, some even lacking in necessities such as sanitary napkins, prompting calls to "see female workers." Seeing this situation, some people launched online campaigns to donate supplies to female healthcare workers (e.g., for our "Sisters Fighting the Pandemic"), which have received positive responses from feminists and the general public and have had a huge impact over time.

However, it is not enough just to see women workers; there is a genuine dearth of online discussion of gender equality in the workplace (and by extension, healthcare equality). Much of the discussion that does occur falls into the familiar male-female dichotomy, with repeated arguments about who contributed during the pandemic, mixed with episodes of blame of certain individuals, such as a woman who made a video about her work in the fight against the epidemic and was subjected to cyber-violence because men had more film time in her post. Moreover, if the discourse only celebrates female laborers without engaging in a critique of structural inequality, it can easily be co-opted by the dominant ideology.

By way of comparison, the most influential and persistent feminist online issue is probably "anti-marriage and anti-childbearing." Most women feel a need for intimate relationships as well as the desire to procreate, and they want to build small communities (generally through marriage, with institutional support) to increase their resilience to stress. At the same time, as the costs of childrearing have increased , together with demands for personal autonomy (freedom) and gender equality, women's tolerance for undesirable marriages has decreased, together with their desire to have children, thus creating a sharp contradiction. In recent years, with the fall in the fertility rate, fertility policy has been in constant adjustment, moving from controlling births to encouraging births, while women's anxieties about marriage and childbirth have continued to increase, which is the context that has given rise to the mentality of anti-marriage and anti-childrearing.

Currently, there is a tendency for such mindsets to go to extremes, pitting married women and single women against each other, with some single women thinking that married women, or those with children, are accomplices to male power. Some have even advocated no longer joining together with married women or women with children. In 2020, I carried out an online survey to find out how netizens viewed the phenomenon of criticizing “marriage donkeys 婚驴” (i.e., women who are discriminated against or suffer in their marriage without “realizing it”). Of the 8,538 people who responded to the survey, 36% thought that such criticism was a form of "rebellion against patriarchy and the marriage system," while 39% thought that it was a form of "misogyny," [here, she must mean this kind of marriage, and not the criticism of the marriage] and 19% thought it was both, so it is clear that criticizing marriage donkeys has become a relatively mainstream expression in social media.

The Growing Divide among Online Feminists

Given the proliferation of online feminists, the differences between them have become increasingly prominent, and the camps have gradually polarized. The first manifestation of this is the fragmentation of feminist identities, as cyber-feminists have increasingly begun to self-identify, in some cases referencing or borrowing from Western feminism. In 2020, I carried out another online survey (with 448 participants) which showed that the largest number of people – roughly 33% - considered themselves to belong to the liberal feminist school, followed by Marxist and socialist feminists, which together accounted for about 31%. Those who considered themselves to be "a mixture” or were unable to answer together accounted for about 25%.Thus, it seems that cyber-feminists are most influenced by liberal feminism, Marxist feminism, and socialist feminism.

Not many people in this survey self-identified as radical feminists (about 9%), but this is probably because radical feminists do not follow my blog. According to my observations, there are quite a number of self-identified radical feminists online, most of whom advocate breaking completely with men, not getting married, not having children, or perhaps even avoiding relationships with men. They seek to draw a clear line between themselves and married women, oppose “subtractive freedoms 向下的自由”[14] like getting married, and they also often reject transgenderism. However, despite the radical women's fierce and even aggressive rhetoric, they are different from previous feminist activists in that they make fewer specific demands on laws and policies, and do not attempt to launch offline actions, but rather call on "awakened" women themselves to make changes.

Some people think that radical feminism is a relatively recent phenomenon, but in my experience, many of these feminists have been active online for a long time, it’s just that their impact has been limited. They are opposed to what they themselves define as “academic, moderate, or egalitarian” feminists, all of which are derogatory terms meant to accuse the others of being divorced from reality and too moderate, and the conflict between the two sides centers on how to view ordinary women who don't meet feminist standards. In everyday life, they encourage women to be as aggressive as men, which is reflected in the widespread use of discursive violence in online discussions, which in turn causes constant conflict among feminists.

Despite the growing feminist divergence on the Internet, there remain overall commonalities. Most feminists are highly educated, live in cities, and belong to the middle class, and are usually more concerned about the rights and interests of urban women, relatively ignoring the plight of rural and lower-class women. Because of the narrowness of their concerns and the high degree of overlap in the contents of their discussion, there are repeated debates on a limited number of topics and even some individual cases, and the differences have become more and more pronounced, so that contradictions and divisions have gradually become the daily fare of online feminism on the Internet. Many people have called for solidarity and attempted to mediate, but with little effect.

Anti-Feminism Heads toward Ideological and Public Opinion Wars

Following the Feminist Five incident in 2015, feminist offline activities decreased, but the proliferation of gender incidents continued to fan feminist fires, and feminist voices have not diminished overall. On social media platforms, it is easy to rile up the emotions of specific communities; many male netizens believe that feminism is about man-hating, and they use individual cases (e.g., men suspected of being falsely accused) to unite people in a common sense of victimhood, which makes gender issues antagonistic, and the means employed in the struggle become increasingly cruel as the conflict between the two sides grows more intense. Whereas in the past anti-feminists mainly accused feminists of being selfish and self-serving, today they are more likely to attack them for their "foreign background" and their political positions.

In 2017, Geng Zhige 耿直哥, who works for the Global Times newspaper, published an online article titled "The Line that New China Has Held until Today is being Rotted away by Certain People 新中国坚守到今天的这块阵地，有人要腐蚀夺走了," accusing extreme feminism and radical feminism of being used by the West and of being "our enemy." In 2019, online opinion leader Zhao Haoyang 赵皓阳published an online article titled "Feminist Debate: Real Feminism vs. False Feminism 女权之辩：真正的女权vs虚假的女权," arguing that there are two major schools of feminism, namely communist feminism and liberal feminism.

The former insists that women's emancipation has to be achieved through the struggle for labor rights, economic rights, and thus political rights, and that focusing on equal pay for work of equal value, distribution according to labor and a broad-based women's movement is true feminism. On the other hand, liberal feminism is based on the theory of "natural human rights," and its tools are online and offline protests, performance art, and solidarity with public opinion solidarity, all of which practices are “politically correct” and “woke,” which makes it false feminism.

In 2020, the anti-feminist discourse represented by the "Meridian Warrior 子午侠士"[15] reached new heights. In terms of the content of the blog posts, there is nothing new, because they still attack feminist activists for colluding with foreign countries. The only difference is that they are more vulgar and more likely to raise everything to the level of principle and ideology, which makes them more popular with online men's rights activists. The Meridian Warrior is a grassroots Internet celebrity, but he likes to flaunt his official connections, once bragging about having participated in a certain Communist Youth League-directed event, and indeed to have enjoyed a leadership position, which has led some netizens to believe that his voice represents official attitudes to a certain extent.
It is now very popular online to portray the world as divided between us and the enemy, between China and the West, and some official media have also joined in.

For example, the self-published media of the Communist Youth League Central Committee has repeatedly criticized women's rights online and has thus come to be seen by many anti feminists as a source of support. However, this practice can also lead to an unexpected backlash: during the outbreak of the Coronavirus epidemic in February 2020, the Communist Youth League Central Committee announced the launch of two virtual idols [who were to host an online cartoon celebration of “Made in China Day”], "Red Flag Manga 红旗漫 [a male figure]" and "Jiangshan Jiao 江山娇 [a female figure]," and people [i.e., feminists] immediately criticized Jiangshan Jiao, asking “Jiangshan Jiao, do you menstruate?” “Jiang Shanjiao, do you have children?” “Jiangshan Jiao, do you go out alone at night?” As more and more people joined in – including feminists – the campaign was dropped.[16]

The elevation of the feminist struggle to the level of ideology has greatly reduced the freedom of discourse of online feminists; many feminists have been had their blogs shut down, and feminist groups on Douban have been banned one after another, so that feminist and even gender issues have gradually become sensitive, and their visibility in the mainstream media has diminished. However, due to the fact that gender inequality is widespread in reality, and that many women experience this directly, feminist concerns will not go away, and feminists will instead adopt guerilla tactics. When one particular issue or case is swept aside, they will quickly turn up the heat by jumping on another case, something that feminists are used to doing. They try to limit their calls for action to relatively safe areas.

The Way Forward for Online Feminism

With the increase of Internet controls and the gradual online retreat of public intellectuals, feminist issues have surged to the forefront and their influence has increased. In order to reduce risks, social media platforms will scrutinize gender issues ever more closely; on the other hand, in order to increase traffic, the platforms will also encourage bloggers to compete through various means, which creates online content (not limited to feminist content) that tends to be "extreme," as rational viewpoints do not generate many hits. Many netizens are caught up in this discourse pattern, and behind many seemingly heated conflicts, there is a lack of in-depth discussion. This kind of spittle war aptly describes online gender antagonisms.

As the number of online feminists increases, we witness the emergence of sharp divisions within feminism, with radical feminism (also known as extreme feminism) currently dominating. It is no coincidence that their rise is in part due to increased Internet control, as it came at a moment when the previous generation of feminist activists, who were concentrated on defending their rights, was being suppressed, and the influence of those who remained declined dramatically. Many radical feminists are good at emotional mobilization but poor at self-reflection, which is just right for the current online environment. Their co-conspirators in academia and media circles, on the other hand, have attempted to save the day by coming up with a new narrative, packaging this mode of discourse as a feminist revolution, which may well turn out to be too clever by half.

Sixth Tone once published an article about "Made-in China Feminism 中国制造的女权主义," arguing that it has two orientations. One encourages women to "improve" themselves and maximize their personal interests in the marriage market, the classic model promoted by Ayawawa. The other is "uncooperative feminism," which focuses on women's professional achievements and does not recommend marriage. Indeed, attempting to advance oneself through marriage is not considered feminist, and Ayawawa is the target of feminist criticism. However, what the article demonstrates is that the topic of online feminism China is too narrow and talks too much about marriage (including non-marriage) and not enough about other issues.

Although the anti-marriage and anti-parenthood discourse is mainly directed at individuals, mainstream ideology cannot readily adopt it, and even if it has some positive significance in dissolving the hegemony of traditional marriage and family, nonetheless most of those attracted by this "radical" discourse are rather emotional, and have verbally attacked marriage and parenthood online, which has caused a lot of controversy. Some people think that this is a result of the anxiety women feel when faced with a bad social climate, and that feminism should not be cut off from this kind of pan-feminist and women’s rights discourse. However, neither feminism should be cut off from ordinary women, especially those at the bottom of the ladder, who, due to the influence of the general environment, are still married and have children. They should not be blamed for this, and their rights and interests should still be protected of by feminist advocates.

In my view, the challenges facing online feminism in China come today mainly come from two aspects: one is how to survive and develop in the increasingly restricted online space in China, so as not to be integrated into the mainstream ideology, and to maintain a certain degree of independence and the capacity to challenge the status quo; the other is how to incorporate the daily life practices of ordinary women, so as to enhance their inclusiveness. In doing so, we may need to go beyond the "labeling" obsession and include practices that are not self-labeled as feminist, but actually reduce gender inequality nonetheless. For it is only by strengthening connections with ordinary women in general, and indeed by joining forces with other disadvantaged groups, that we can more effectively expand the space for feminist discourse.

Notes

[1]Yaya [陈亚亚], “中国网络女权二十年——从边缘到焦点,” published online on the website of Chinese Feminism at July 19, 2023.

[2]Translator’s note: Sina Weibo 新浪微博 (lit. “new wave micro-blogging”) is one of China’s major blogging platform, in fact the major blogging platform, although its importance has faded somewhat following Chinese authorities’ decision to move discussions toward the Weixin platform, which they deem to be more manageable.

[3]Translator’s note: These are Internet platforms with different purposes (Baidu is China’s Wikipedia, Douban is for books, Zhihu is for asking questions) but which allow for relatively open online discussion.

[4]Translator’s note: YTHT is an abbreviation for yita hutu/一塌糊涂, which means “a complete mess.”

[5]Translator’s note: Zhuying Qingtong is the penname for a writer whose real name is presumably well known in certain circles but is not readily available in a quick Internet search. As Chen Yaya notes, she became famous initially for posting provocative pictures of herself online, but her Baidu entry concerns her literary production. Ye Haiyan is a feminist activist who is perhaps best known for her actions involving a 2013 case in which a middle school principal in Hainan was accused of raping six female students, age 12 to 13, as portrayed in the documentary Hooligan Sparrow.

[6]Translator’s note: The idea of “uterine morality” is that a woman’s sexuality or reproductive function should not be commodified, in other words, that women should not try to advance their life chances by marrying a man of higher status or wealth, nor by having children that continue his bloodline.

[7]Translator’s note: Deng Yujiao (b. 1987) was a 21-year-old pedicurist who in May of 2009 stabbed to death a local Chinese official who was attempting to rape her at her place of employment. She was subsequently arrested and charged with homicide, and it was the outrage over this charge, expressed in China and abroad, that resulted in a reduction of criminal charges and her ultimate release, although she was still convicted of having used excessive force. See here for more details.

[8]Translator’s note: Hong Fan is apparently a penname for Wu Haiyun 吴海云, currently an editor at The Paper. See here for more information (in Chinese).

[9]Translator’s note: “Mongrel feminism “is a derogatory term meaning to compare feminists to the mangy, ownerless, useless dogs that can be found in the Chinese countryside, suggesting that they are lazy and without value. When I was growing up, we used the term “cur” to refer to this kind of dog, as well as to despised people, as in “he’s a useless cur that can’t hold a job to save his life.” I don’t know whether “cur feminism” makes sense or not.

[10]Translator’s note: Han Han was one of China’s pioneering bloggers in the 2000s, representing the voice of youth against that of the establishment, and some of his writings have been translated into English: see for example This Generation and The Problem with Me. He went on to become a novelist, a singer, and a race-car driver. By now, he may be no more than a “celebrity,” and has clearly fallen afoul of Chinese women (which in fact is one way to shore up one’s celebrity in China). Zhou Guoping is a well-known Chinese public intellectual who earned the scorn of Chinese feminists for – among other things - having written in a blog post in 2015 that “women were most beautiful when they were cleaning house or feeding babies.” Jiang Qing is China’s best-known spokesman for Mainland New Confucianism. The reference is to an essay he wrote entitled “Only Confucians Can Make a Place for Modern Women,” which, from a feminist perspective, is just as bad as it sounds.

[11]Translator’s note: The issues raised in this paragraph relate to the complicated politics of feminism and gender issues in China. Broadly speaking, the conflict between certain feminists and part of the gay male community has to do with gender fluidity and the question of “who gets to define who is a woman or who is a man.” As in the United States, some Chinese feminists are uncomfortable with the trans community, which, in their view, which can wind up adding “biological men” to their ranks. At the same time, this kind of extreme feminism can in some quarters be seen as a kind of “fundamentalist” conservatism. The debate strikes me as broadly similar to that occurring outside of China, although there are probably “Chinese characteristics” that escape me. The other debate mentioned in this paragraph is between Chinese sexologists or sex-rights advocates, and feminists (and others) asking for protection against sexual harassment. Sexologists warn that any campaign against sexual harassment may well wind up being a campaign against sexual freedom, so their counsel is to be careful what you ask for.

[12]Translator’s note: The “feminist five” refers to five Chinese feminists who were arrested in March 2015 for engaging in public activism against domestic violence, among other issues. They were released after five weeks or so. My impression is that the activities themselves were little different than what feminists had been doing for some time, nor were the “five” more successful in organizing larger groups of activists – although the feminist movement was certainly growing in importance. Chinese authorities simply decided to intervene and make an example of someone, and the “feminist five” happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. For more information, see here.

[13] Translator’s note: Liu Yu is female professor of political science at Tsinghua University, and a well-known liberal public intellectual. See here and here for examples of her writings that appear on this site.

[14]Translator’s note. I don’t know if there are equivalents to _xiangshang de ziyou_向上的自由 and _xiangxia de ziyou_向下的自由 in English. An explanation I read on Zhihu uses the example of a Middle Eastern country where women are trying to gain the freedom to go out in public without wearing the hijab. For these women, this freedom is an “additive freedom” because it gives them something they want and do not have. If in the same context, however, other women argue that they should have the right to wear the hijab, this is a “subtractive freedom” because it takes away from freedoms others are demanding. Thus for these Chinese feminists, marriage is the equivalent of sacrificing a freedom.

[15]Translator’s note: The blog site is here: https://weibo.com/u/5067914848, but he appears not to have posted since 2021, which makes me suspect that he has a new address.

[16]Translator’s note: See here for a YouTube clip; this is an example of China’s authorities’ attempting to participate in youth culture, which in this case ended badly, among other things because the timing coincided with the beginning of the pandemic, and was rightly seen by Chinese youth as an irritating distraction.