Currently five members of China’s new feminist movement are in jail. Recently, protests over inequality and domestic violence have been occurring more and more frequently. “To publicize domestic violence, two prominent activists, Li Tingting and Wei Tingting, put on white wedding gowns, splashed them with red paint and marched through one of the capital’s most popular tourist districts chanting “Yes to love, no to violence.” This new movement seems to be spearheaded by China’s young women, who the police have begun to detain and jail . They are more outspoken than their parents and are very media-savvy. “Outside of China, campaigners have used Facebook and Twitter to publicize the detainees’ plight.” This is much to the despair of the government who have tried very hard to keep these stories out of the news. Online, the hashtag #freethefive has been gaining popularity internationally.
This cover-up of the Chinese government has been subject to a lot of scrutiny as well. “Many people find it mind-boggling that the government of the second-largest economy and the world’s largest standing army is afraid of a group of women trying to draw attention to sexual harassment…The combination of power and paranoia on display is very telling.” Critics have attributed this to China’s rampant censorship issues and a misled attempt on behalf of the government to maintain their “image.” The article describes these young activists as having been born in the 1980s and that they are “…the coddled and well-educated offspring of China’s one-child policy…” I found this to be very interesting. It says a lot about what the future of China might look like. If this trend continues what will the government do? If all of the young women in China from this point on believe strongly in this movement, what is the government to do? Another question I have is: how much longer will China’s “censor happy” and speech oppressive government be allowed to continue in this form? It would make sense to me that as education continues to advance in China, it’s people won’t stand for such behavior.
Source:
Accuse the activists, ignore the cause. But also try to not let such PR tactics work, as there are many other, more sensitive topics ripe for protest. Today’s leadership remembers the “disorder” of the Cultural Revolution (and probably Tiananmen Square), when initially innocuous-seeming tactics and causes got out of hand.
There’s a new book out on protest in China, tracing what is now a very common phenomenon with certain channels that are less unacceptable and (from the book blurb) more effective. However, these tend to be discrete issues amenable to “solution” (better compensation for a land grab, cleaning up a particular pollution source).