For the first time, I knew women could live differently

January 3, 2024 2:45 AM

Heavily persecuted, highly influential: China’s online feminist revolution - by Wanqing Zhang in Rest of World. I couldn't pick a favourite quote, they are all so good!
posted by dorothyisunderwood (5 comments total)

this is an excellent article, thanks for posting. I particularly liked the "Chinese feminist online slang" section, with this delicious tidbit:

Since “MeToo” is banned on the Chinese internet, users have adopted mitu, which literally means “rice bunny,” or its emoji equivalent: 🍚🐰.
posted by chavenet at 3:28 AM on January 3 [6 favorites]

well worth reading this... thank you
posted by kokaku at 6:08 AM on January 3

Fantastic read. Thanks for the post.
posted by effluvia at 8:35 AM on January 3

Gives a bit of context to e.g. Naomi Wu's persecution and effective gagging by the state, I think.

Thanks for this, it was a great read.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:50 AM on January 3

Towards the end of the article it mentioned this -- 'Last year, a woman with mental disabilities, who had eight children, was discovered living chained up inside a shed.' This 铁链女（'woman-in-iron-chains') incident roused great indignation across the country and raised awareness on human trafficking, before the government cracked down on this 'destabilizing element'. Eventually some people did go to jail for their crimes, but more importantly and chillingly, people who wanted to conduct independent investigation on this were sent to jail, and prominent people who merely spoke out got their online accounts banned.

I frequent Weibo and Douban, and one heartening thing is that feminist books are very popular right now. About half of the books in Douban's 2023 top 10 list have a feminist bent.
posted by of strange foe at 11:16 AM on January 5 [3 favorites]