Rice Bunny and #WoYeShi: Online Reactions of Overseas Chinese to the #MeToo Movements in China and the West

Abstract

Since October of 2017, the “Me Too” movement shook the United States, led to the resignation of powerful men, and quickly spread to the rest of the world. The Me Too movement became a heated topic and generated zealous debates and arguments on a popular Chinese diaspora social network site. This study samples the online articles and discussion posts from this uncensored social network site to study the perceptions of Chinese diasporas on the Me Too movement. Using critical analysis method, this study examines how women participating in the Me Too movement are perceived, how Chinese diasporas perceive the Me Too movement in China and the Western countries, and how men and women respond to the Me Too movement differently on this online community.

KEYTERMS:

• Me Too movement
• Wen Xue City
• Rice Bunny and #WoYeShi
• Diaspora identity

Acknowledgments

The author of this article thanks Dr. William J. Starosta, Professor Emeritus of Communication and Culture at Howard University, and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions in the revisions of the manuscript.