![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
In post-2000 China, both the frontiers and the landscape of feminism and feminist resistance have changed, and this change embodies a move away from the “non-governmental organizing” path that characterized the development of feminism during the 1980s and 1990s. This article addresses this “paradigm shift” in Chinese feminism by examining the “outer-system” political stand of post-2000 feminism and their domains of action through performance art, philanthropic volunteerism, and cyberfeminist articulations. These novel modes of feminist protest in the absence of a formal organizational structure challenge our understanding of feminism as a process of “non-governmental organizing” in public space and warrant a cultural analysis to shed light on how feminism engages in cultural contestation and subversion, often in semiprivate and semipublic spaces, in order to develop new and alternative cultural patterns and interpretive frames.
Abbreviations CPPCC The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference WF The All-China Women’s Federation
Notes
1. For the Femen movement, see https://femen.org/about-us/.
2. The term “Feminist Five” refers to the five young feminists, Wei Tinting, Li Tinting, Wu Rongrong, Wang Man, and Zheng Churan, who were detained by the Chinese police in March 2015 for planning to distribute stickers about sexual harassment on public transport. Prior to 2015, especially in 2012, these young women had launched a series of performance art shows on the streets to protest against gender discrimination in education, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and the shortage of women’s toilets in public places. The news of their arrest circulated quickly on the Internet and sparked a strong international hashtag campaign #FreeTheFive. The Feminist Five have thus become a powerful symbol of the “new feminism” and feminist resistance in post-2000 China.
3. The metaphor of “rice bowl” implies a job, as a job would secure one’s living and food, which is rice for most Chinese. To have a permanent job is called having an “iron rice bowl” because the “bowl” will never break.
4. See Ye Haiyan’s Weibo post “The Kids of Youth Feminist Activists”, http://p.t.qq.com/longweibo/index.php?id=455771028824365.
5. Personal communication with Feminist Li.
6. Beijing Aizhixing Institute is a Beijing-based non-governmental, non-profit AIDS prevention organization. Founded in 2002, the Institute carries out various AIDS prevention and control programmes to prevent the spread of AIDS among vulnerable and marginalized groups and to help people with HIV and AIDS. For more about this organization, see https://twitter.com/azxing.
7. Beijing Yirenping Centre is an independent, non-profit, and anti-discrimination philanthropic organization founded in 2006. The organization aims to “eliminate employment and educational discrimination against people infected with hepatitis B and HIV/AIDS and people with disabilities, and to promote the building of barrier-free facilities”. Three of the arrested Feminist Five had worked for this organization. For more about this organization, see https://www.voachinese.com/a/yirenping-20150325/2694322.html, http://www.chinadevelopmentbrief.cn/directory/beijing-yirenping-center/.
8. The “Working Group on Citizens’ Health and Right to Education” was established in January 2006. Its aim is to secure equal opportunities for education for citizens with diverse health issues. The target of the working group was identified as hepatitis B carriers, HIV-infected persons, and haemophilia patients. For more about this institute, see https://www.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2006/10/200610220005.shtml, https://www.douban.com/group/CHSER/.
9. Hangzhou Weizhi Ming Centre is a non-profit philanthropic organization focusing on women’s rights. Established in August 2014, the centre works to promote gender sensitivity/perspective in laws and policies regarding public space, employment, education, and domestic violence. It has initiated a series of campaigns to appeal for national domestic violence legislation and to influence court decisions on cases concerning gender discrimination and compensation for gender discrimination in employment. For more about this centre, see https://tieba.baidu.com/p/3798967319?red_tag=1041769581, http://www.chinadevelopmentbrief.org.cn/hire-7861.html.
10. See Feminist in China project on http://www.feminisminchina.com/virtual-force/ Retrieved 14 November 2017.
11. See note 10.
12. See Media Monitor for Women Network (Citation2011). About Us. June 2. Retrieved 23 February 2018, from http://www.genderwatch.cn:801/detail.jsp?fid=300074&cnID=200105.
13. See note 10.
14. See Feminist in China project on http://www.feminisminchina.com/virtual-force/ Retrieved 14 November 2017.
15. See Media Monitor for Women Network (Citation2011). About Us. June 2. Retrieved 23 February 2018, from http://www.genderwatch.cn:801/detail.jsp?fid=300074&cnID=200105.
16. See Feminist in China project on http://www.feminisminchina.com/virtual-force/ Retrieved 14 November 2017.
17. See Ye Haiyan on Baidu Baike. Retrieved 27 February 2018 from https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B6%E6%B5%B7%E7%87%95/5215242?fromtitle=%E6%B5%81%E6%B0%93%E7%87%95&fromid=4797653.
18. See 校园性侵案频发 “校长开房找我”照片走红 (Frequent sexual abuse on school campus, the “Headmaster, open a room with me” photo became popular). Retrieved 11 January 2018, from ttp://www.guancha.cn/society/2013_05_30_148060.shtml.
19. See https://www.douban.com/group/baidufeminism/. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
20. See https://tieba.baidu.com/p/4817813950?red_tag=1532879907. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Qi Wang
Qi Wang is Associate Professor at the Department of Design and Communication, University of Southern Denmark. Alsion, 2, 6400 Soenderborg, Denmark.