‘#MeToo,’ Chinese women say. Not so fast, reply the censors
BEIJING— They call themselves “silence breakers,” circulate petitions demanding investigations into sexual harassment and share internet memes such as clenched fists with painted nails.
But Chinese women are finding it difficult to organize a far-reaching #MeToo movement, going up against not just a male-dominated culture, but also the ruling Communist Party itself.
Government censors, apparently fearing social unrest, are trying to hobble the campaign, blocking the use of phrases like “anti-sexual harassment” on social media and deleting online petitions calling for greater protections for women. And officials have warned some activists against speaking out, suggesting that they may be seen as traitors colluding with foreigners if they persist.
“So many sincere and eager voices are being muted,” said Zhang Leilei, 24, an activist in the southern city of Guangzhou who has helped circulate dozens of petitions among college students. “We are angry and shocked.”
Women are demanding investigations into bosses, teachers and co-workers. They are pressing universities to investigate harassment complaints more forcefully. And they are taking to social media to rail against sexism and denounce the lack of women in high office.
A handful of university officials have already lost their jobs in cases that have prompted national debate, including one involving a professor accused of harassing a half-dozen students over the past 15 years.
The campaign is testing the limits of a government that frowns on citizen-led movements, has a poor record of promoting women’s rights and controls all news media. While investigative reporting ignited the #MeToo movement in the United States, women in China are forced to tell their stories directly online.
“‘Me Too’ was an alarm bell for all of us,” said Sophia Huang Xueqin, 30, a journalist in southern China who started a social media platform to report sexual harassment. “We’re not brave enough to stand out as one individual. But together, we can be strong.”
Huang, who said she left her job at a national news service several years ago after being harassed by a senior colleague, said many women were ashamed to speak out because of the stigma associated with it. “It feels like we’re still in a traditional world where women are supposed to stay at home and support the family and feed the kids,” she said.
The Communist Party often embraces gender equality as a propaganda theme, noting the strides women made in the first decades of its rule. Mao famously declared that “women hold up half the sky.”
But in recent years, the government has done little to prevent a resurgence of sexism and workplace discrimination. Men dominate the party’s upper ranks and government officials and powerful business executives are often protected from allegations of wrongdoing.
Laws on rape and harassment are vague, legal experts say, and courts do not often rule in favour of women who pursue complaints against employers. Employers rarely investigate complaints or dole out meaningful punishments.
“Most victims remain silent,” said Li Ying, a lawyer and the director of the Beijing Yuanzhong Gender Development Center, an advocacy group. “They can’t afford to lose their jobs.”
The #MeToo movement is largely limited to educated, urban women. Many have been inspired by Luo Xixi, a graduate of Beihang University, an aeronautics school in Beijing, who recently published an essay online that was read by more than three million people.
Luo said she was one of seven women who had been harassed by a professor, Chen Xiaowu.
More than a decade ago, she wrote, Chen lured her off campus and tried to have sex with her, despite her pleas that he stop.
He denied the allegations, but the university fired him this month, saying he had harassed several students.
In her essay, Luo urged Chinese women to “stand up bravely and say ‘No!’ ”
Some have described her story as the “first step in the Long March” against sexual harassment in China. But Luo, who now lives in the United States, said the movement would need to be “mild and gentle” to avoid pushback from the government.
“Only in this way can the Chinese campaign against sexual harassment live on and develop,” she wrote in an email.
Activists say it will probably take decades to change public attitudes about harassment. At many companies, women are underpaid and relegated to menial roles. Men take co-workers as mistresses and openly remark on the appearance of female colleagues.
Fanny M.C. Cheung, a professor of psychology and vice-president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said many women did not report harassment because Chinese culture had taught them to respect hierarchy.
“People are not encouraged to speak up against superiors,” Cheung said. “If you can’t change public attitudes, it’s very difficult to have a true endorsement of gender equality.”