Feminist activism via social media in China

ABSTRACT

Ladies’ Character was a TV play idea posted by an ordinary Weibo user that went viral in 2018. Numerous social media users joined in uninvited, via crowdsourcing, to develop its plot about four single professional women in their 40’s. Earlier in the same year, “Love and Producer,” a cellphone game had been widely criticized for its derogatory depiction of women in a video advertisement. While these Internet events resembled feminist activism in both content and form, no participants identified themselves as feminists. Using virtual ethnography, this paper explores how grassroots social media users construct both opportunities and challenges for feminist development in China. As feminist activism is placed under strict censorship in China, the cultural space provided by social media becomes an important means for grassroots prosumers to put up their collective resistance. Although the participants did not identify themselves as feminists, they protested about media content for its stereotypical and insulting representations about women, and created their own stories, which elicited considerable responses from people. However, a stigmatized feminism has also been prolific online, and poses another challenge for anyone who raises voices for women, which to some extent explains why the participants disavow the term of feminism.

ABSTRACT IN CHINESE

2018年三月，一名新浪微博普通用户提议中国拍摄一部名为⟪淑女的品格⟫的电视剧，大量网友自发“众包”创作剧本，畅想四位不惑之年的职业女性的生活。同年二月，手机游戏⟪恋与制作人⟫由于在视频广告中丑化女性玩家遭到大量网友抨击。两个事件在形式和内容上均与女权行动主义十分相似，但事件参与者无一宣称为女权主义。该论文通过网络人种志探索这些拒绝女权主义标签的社交媒体草根用户如何为中国女权主义发展同时创造了机遇和挑战。由于女权行动主义在中国被严格控制，社交媒体提供的文化场域成为草根产消者集体反抗的场所。这些用户抵制丑化女性、加深女性刻板印象的媒体内容、创造属于自己的故事，并被人们广泛接纳与回应。然而，一种污名化的中国式女权主义在网络上也十分流行，为女性发声制造了又一挑战。

KEYWORDS:

• Ladies’ Character
• feminism in China
• social media feminist
• stigmatization
• pastoral/rural feminism
• grassroots prosumers

KEYWORDS⟪淑女的品格⟫:

• 中国女权主义
• 社交媒体女权主义
• 污名化
• 田园女权
• 草根产消者

Notes on contributor

Chengting MAO is an assistant professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China. She received her PhD degree from Department of Communications and New Media, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore. Her research interests include gender studies, feminism, film studies, media studies, and cultural studies. Her work has appeared in Chinese Journal of Communication. Email: [email protected]

Notes

1 Weibo, short for Sina Weibo, is a Chinese microblogging website. Launched by Sina Corporation, this is one of the biggest social media platforms in China.

2 In “Occupy the Men’s Room” campaign, feminists activists put up display panels that said “More convenience for women, more gender equality” outside a public men’s room in Guangzhou, Guangdong, to seek public attention for women’s need for more spots in public bathrooms, as there were always longer lines outside ladies’ washrooms than outside those of men.

3 Up until 21 May 2019, the number went up to 16.2 thousand for re-posts, and 17.5 thousand for comments.

4 Retrieved from https://new.qq.com/omn/20180220/20180220A0CFKQ.html

5 After the 2015 Chinese Spring Festival Gala, feminists in China made an appeal that its organizers should apologize for their discriminatory portrayal of women in some comedy performances.

6 Yu Feihong, Chen Shu, Zeng Li, and Yuan Quan, are famous actresses in China, and the writer took the liberty to propose their names as the most suitable ones to play the roles of the four protagonists.