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ABSTRACT
In recent years, feminism has gradually become a buzzword in the global hyper-commercialized popular culture. Young women and girls are encouraged to please and empower themselves through consumption and/or ‘leaning in.’ On the other hand, feminist activism and movements against gender inequality and injustice continue to flourish at the local, national, and transnational levels. Yet, as systematic oppression and violence persist and intertwine, neither the depoliticized gendered popular culture nor the single-issue feminist advocacy and resistance can overturn the unequal power structures. This article explores feminist struggles and discourse in historical and contemporary China as a case to argue that feminist scholars and activists urgently need to revalorize the radical and political potential of feminisms as emancipatory ideas and actions. In response to the popular western-centric perception of feminism, I trace back to women’s movements in revolutionary and socialist China in the first half of the twentieth century. Following the critique of the enduring masculinist power and the rising prevalence of post-feminism in post-socialist and reforming China, I analyze the current popular discourse and public debates of feminism, feminist and queer activism, the grassroots NGOs for rural migrant women, and state-sponsored gender development programs. Built upon the analyses, the article calls for a re-articulation of feminisms through three strands: Engaging the great mass, making the broader range of feminist thoughts and praxis accessible to the general public, and recounting the historical legacy of feminist movements in specific contexts. Forming allies with various underprivileged and marginalized groups are still imperative for feminist struggles in present conjunctures.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Feminist scholars have discussed the public perception of feminism as a western imported idea in various non-Western contexts. For instance, Lunsing’s work on gender, sexuality, and marriage in Japan “Beyond Common Sense: Sexuality and Gender In Contemporary Japan” (2015), Christine Sylvester’s work on feminist thoughts in Africa, “African and Western Feminisms: World-Traveling the Tendencies and Possibilities (1995), Homa Hoodfa’s study of Muslim women’s resistance in Iran, “The veil in their minds and on our heads: the persistence of colonial images of Muslim women” (1992), to name just a few.
2 The new Marriage Law was to abolish the feudal marriage system and guaranteed freedom of marriage in socialist China. Although the law did not undermine marriage as a private, heterosexual, and patriarchal institution, its political and social implications should be understood in the historical context as a progressive change. A recent commentary article from the official media listed the changes the law had brought: http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0906/c429373-31340962.html.
3 One-Child Policy was enacted by the Chinese government in 1979 to control the growth of the population. Under the son-preference culture in China, scholars have discussed that urban brother-less daughters have benefited from the policy in several ways, including parents’ investment in education. For example, see Venessa L. Fong’s work “China's One-Child Policy and the Empowerment of Urban Daughters” (2002).
4 “Double Eleven” (双十一) is the online shopping event created by Alibaba in 2009, a giant telecommunication company in China, and it has become the biggest online shopping festival globally. In 2016, the turnover surpassed 3 billion dollars: http://www.xinhuanet.com//tech/2017-11/12/c_1121941188.htm
5 Studies have found that young rural-to-urban migrant women in China actively embrace a commodity consumer identity along with the longing for a modern way of life promoted by commercial media and culture in China. For instance, Cara Wallis’s ethnographic study shows that young women migrants participate in urban consumer culture though shopping for cosmetics and mobile phones (2013). Similar discussions can be found in Lisa Rofel’s work on young women migrants’ desire for a new modernized subjectivity (1999).
6 Many Chinese middle-age female celebrities use “the sense of teenage girls (少女感)” in the commercial promotion of their images, which becomes normalized in popular discourse to praise women’s appearance and femininity.
7 “Every girl wishes to become her” is a promotional slogan by a Taiwanese young female celebrity, Ouyang Nana (欧阳娜娜), to sell the image of an independent, talented, and cute young woman born into a rich family. The celebrity has millions of follows on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
8 In a commentary article published by The Paper in 2019, a mainstream media platform based in Shanghai, news reports on some statistics of Chinese women doing plastic surgery were collected: https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3510110
9 Rabit (兔子) is the nickname referred to as girls who make themselves vomit after eating to lose weight or keep fit. In social media, Zhihu and Douban, many young women and teenage girls share their addiction to self-induced vomiting and suffering from many symptoms.
10 Some women argue that as men benefit more from marriage, they should pay the high bride price (彩礼) to their wives’ family.
11 In the son-preference culture, many parents leave their majority or even all of their heritage to their sons. Some people thus argue that daughters who will not inherit a fortune do not need to take care of their parents, which should instead be their brothers’ responsibility.
12 Audre Lorde’s speech, titled “THE USES OF ANGER: WOMEN RESPONDING TO RACISM”: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/1981-audre-lorde-uses-anger-women-responding-racism/
13 Leftover women (剩女), a term that appeared in the official and popular discourse around 2007, creates a degrading image of middle-aged unmarried women. In her book, “Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China,” Leta Hong Fincher analyzed the masculinist discourse around leftover women and marriage to expose the structural inequalities that women face in post-socialist China (2014).
14 Several female mid-aged celebrities were championed by many women for their preference to singlehood over marriage, including Xu Jinglei (徐静蕾) and Yu Feihong (俞飞鸿).
15 “If there is no tomorrow” (我是余欢水) is a high-rating drama aired in 2020 spring. In one episode, there appeared an ironic comment of feminism and it brought on heated debates among the audience. Some audiences called for boycotting the drama, while others justified the parody arguing that it was just a small plot and had nothing to do with the whole story.
16 Zhou Dongyu (周冬雨), a young rising film star, has been recently appointed as the new brand ambassador by Victoria’s Secret to boost its sales in China’s market. Zhou’s non-curvy body and innocent image, in sharp contrast with the brand’s conventional hyper-sexualized image, was promoted as the “new definition of sexy.”
17 An influential online commercial media, Sir Movie, published an article, “Do not make feminism Stigmatized,” to discuss the debates over “If there is no tomorrow.” The article reiterated the liberal feminist view.
18 Life Week (三联生活周刊), a popular magazine that targets urban middle-class readers, published an article to endorse Zhou Dongyu being appointed the new brand ambassador of Victoria’s Secret in China and regarded it as “a new wave of the feminist movement.”
19 Western popular stars, such as Emma Watson, often become reference figures representing feminists and feminism in Chinese commercial media.
20 An article from NYT Chinese highly praised the popularity of Lean In in China: https://cn.nytimes.com/china/20130918/c18tatlow/
21 Feminist Voices (女权之声) has a great many followers among young, educated feminists domestically and abroad.
22 China Labor Bulletin, an independent activist medium, had a piece introducing the five feminists being arrested for their public protests against sexism, domestic violence gender inequality in China: https://clb.org.hk/zh-hans/content/%E5%A5%B9%E4%BB%AC%E6%98%AF%E8%B0%81%EF%BC%9F%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E8%A2%AB%E6%8D%95%E7%9A%84%E4%BA%94%E4%BD%8D%E5%A5%B3%E6%9D%83%E6%B4%BB%E5%8A%A8%E4%BA%BA%E5%A3%AB%E7%AE%80%E4%BB%8B
23 See an article from Feminist Voices on “The Vagina Monologues in China” on a social media platform, Douban: https://site.douban.com/179615/widget/notes/10239460/note/282228659/
24 Feminist activists wrote articles on their social media accounts and some were interviewed by international news media, including BBC, RFI, among others: https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-44982540; http://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20180313-metoo.
25 Feminist Voices’ accounts on Weibo and WeChat were shut down by the platforms in 2018 spring, but the platforms did not offer any specific explanations.
26 See news reports from BBC and NYT Chinese: https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/china/2015/04/150409_china_women_activists_arrest; https://cn.nytimes.com/china/20150406/c06womenprofiles/
27 Bars and clubs become essential spaces for Chinese LGBT people’s social life, which are also highly commercial spaces.
28 A news article reported the LGBT campaign for same-sex marriage in China from a mainstream commercial media channel in Hong Kong: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3040095/chinas-lgbt-community-push-legalise-same-sex-marriage
29 “Tongqi,” 同妻, a term referring to wives of gays in China; many of these wives were deceived by their gay husbands of their sexuality before marriage. There are an estimated 10 million tongqi in China. Domestic and international news reports have covered stories of these wives, who are often suffering from domestic violence, depressed emotional life, and being treated as tools for reproduction: https://www.guancha.cn/XinJingBao/2016_04_13_356830.shtml; https://cn.nytimes.com/lifestyle/20150514/t14marriages/; http://news.ifeng.com/shendu/nfrwzk/detail_2011_10/24/10091459_0.shtml
30 See Siyuan Yin’s article on alternative forms of media for rural migrant workers in China (2018). 1000 is a very low readership for social media articles, compared with the extremely large number of migrant workers in China.
31 In Yin’s study on a grassroots musical activist group for migrant women’s rights, the activist explained that they stopped using “feminism” because they have observed that in their activist events, most of the migrant workers find the term hard to comprehend.
32 All Women Federation China, commonly known as 妇联, has remained the largest women’s organization in China since its foundation.
33 Migrant Women’s Home (打工妹之家)
34 Shaanxi Fuyuanhui （陕西妇源会）is an NGO located in northwest China, Xi’an.
35 There are many discussions and complaints in social media about the bureaucracy of AWFC and its lack of effective protection for victims of domestic violence. For instance, a strand of discussion on Zhihu under the question “Why has AWFC become unreliable?” : https://www.zhihu.com/question/35835089
36 Luseqiangwei (绿色蔷薇) is a grassroots NGO founded in 2015 in Shenzhen, working on rights advocacy and providing community support for rural migrant women and children; Mulan (木兰) is a migrant women activist group, formed in 2010 in Beijing, to advocate for migrant women’s social inclusion and rights through cultural and artistic activities. Hongyan (鸿雁) is a local NGO for domestic workers, founded in 2016 in Beijing.
37 In 2016, a law to regulate foreign NGOs in China was enacted, which greatly influenced many local NGOs’ financial survival.
38 For example, Lee and Shen’s article, “The anti-solidarity machine? Labor nongovernmental organizations in China” (2011); Wallis’ study, “Technology and/as governmentality: The production of young rural women as low-tech laboring subjects in China (2013).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Siyuan Yin
Siyuan Yin is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. Her interdisciplinary scholarship spans fields of cultural and media studies, feminist studies, social movements, and political economy. Siyuan’s research explores migrant workers and mediated activism in local and transnational contexts, and gendered popular culture and feminist movements in China.