Answer a question based on the reading (Feminist Outbreaks in the Digital World)

Summarize the evolution of feminism in China during the COVID-19 pandemic, clarifying the social and political tensions and the role of Weibo. Mention examples of events from the article.

1
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Feminist Outbreaks in the Digital World
On February 6, 2020, Liang Yu (username @ằ䫠 stacey) posted on
China’s largest microblogging app Weibo asking whether there were
places to donate feminine hygiene products to female medical staff
working in the coronavirus epicenter of Hubei province. Hearing a lot
about the lack of various materials, she immediately sensed that
women on the frontline must also endure difficulty during their
periods. By the following day, many doctors and nurses had confirmed
their urgent need. As no donation channels were available, Liang
initiated the Stand By Her project (က࿩ᡈ⯛ᆹᗳ㹼ࣘ) to organize
donations herself. With no relevant experience or examples to follow,
Liang enrolled a team of 91 volunteers online (87 of whom were
women) and cooperated with Lingshan Charity Foundation, an
authorized charity organization, to collect public donations. To deliver
the female hygiene products, which were not listed as emergency
relief supplies in the locked-down regions of Hubei, Liang and her
team contacted manufacturers who had storage in Hubei and found
transporters (mostly volunteers) who had licenses to enter the
lockdown regions. The timeline and details of this work have been
closely compiled in an article posted on Weibo, authorized by Liang’s
team, for public reference (Chenmi 2020).
Working more than 20 hours a day, Liang led her team in an
efficient and transparent way, sending materials worth more than two
million yuan (over 330,000 USD) to 84,500 workers in 205 medical
teams (Chenmi 2020). Liang publicized daily on her Weibo account
the exact amounts of money spent and items distributed. By making
every step traceable, the project leaves no excuses for government
11
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12
Weibo Feminism
interference or anti-feminist slandering. Her successful endeavor led
to Liang Yu’s invitation to the 2020 Girl Up Leadership Summit
sponsored by the U.N. Foundation.
In addition to the devoted work of Liang and her team, the project
was able to run successfully because of feminists on Weibo, who
garnered public concern through protesting against period shame
and supporting the needs and contributions of women during the
pandemic. In light of recurrent exposure of corruption and inefficiency
in government initiatives, the public chose to trust a grassroots
feminist project. Chinese feminists have used Weibo for years to voice
criticism, facing censorship of posts and accounts, harassment, and
persecution. The power they nonetheless accumulated in swaying
public opinion found an outlet during the pandemic period.
Global responses to COVID-19 have exacerbated inequalities
(Fortier 2020; Czymara et al. 2020; Morse and Anderson 2020), and
Weibo feminists have highlighted China’s everyday marginalization of
women brought to the surface during the pandemic. The discrepancy
between Chinese women’s professional contributions and their
powerless status in politics and society was brought to the forefront.
Women make up 51.7 percent of professional and technical workers in
China, surpassing their male peers. The female–male ratio in
professional and technical workers ranks first in the world.1 However,
despite women “holding up half of the sky” professionally, they are
oppressed and exploited under male-dominated politics and
misogynistic mass culture. Only 16.8 percent of legislators, senior
officials, and managers are women. The female–male ratio of births has
long remained the world’s lowest. As for overall gender equality, China
now ranks 107th among the 156 countries listed, its worst ranking since
the annual Global Gender Gap Report was first published in 2006.
The COVID-19 response stems from the long-existing tension
between female professionalism and masculine hierarchal politics.
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
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Feminist Outbreaks in the Digital World
13
According to the National Health Commission of China, 28,000
female medical workers across China were sent to the epicenter of
Wuhan, making up two-thirds of the total workforce (Ke 2020).
According to U.N. Women (2020), it is even higher: “In Hubei
province, China, the epicenter of the initial outbreak, more than 90
percent of the health-care workers on the frontline response to
COVID-19 are women” (15). The men who control the coordination
of resources failed to provide ample support to women working
on the frontline, and it was brought to public attention that those
in public decision-making positions (mostly men) usually neglect
women’s contributions and needs.
Why is such contradictory inequality found in China? Women
receive education, are trained to be doctors, teachers, scholars, and
technical workers, but do not gain decision-making and resourcecoordinating positions. Women participate in social production,
support their families, are independent and self-reliant, yet families
still do not want girls. If Chinese women’s power is not used to protect
and empower themselves, where does their power go?
The existing political and cultural mechanism hijacks and diverts
women’s power for the benefit of their opponents. Currently, a massive
autonomous feminist movement is breaking this cycle and restoring
women’s agency in women’s work. Digital mass media provides
unprecedented opportunities to bring feminists together. Recognizing
the potential and growing success, the government is doing its best to
block feminists from using this tool.
Before exploring Weibo feminist knowledge and methodology, this
chapter will focus on the COVID-19 response and how the authorities
have attempted to hijack women’s power or erase their existence.
It will also discuss how women defend their autonomy and agency,
create their own counternarratives, construct political common
ground based on their sex, and refuse to be tokenized.
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/aus-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6882295.
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14
Weibo Feminism
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Stand by her: Feminists Against Hijacking
The COVID-19 response was met by civil society organizations,
which were very efficient compared to the government’s response.
Women initiated or participated in many such organizations. When
the Wuhan government stopped all public transportation without any
alternative measures in a city of more than 8,000 square kilometers
with 11 million people, citizens in Wuhan organized a group of
volunteer drivers to transport medical workers every day (China
Daily 2020). A cafe run by a young woman named Tian Yazhen
provided 7,850 cups of free coffee to medical workers after the
lockdown began (Xie 2020). Han Hong Love Charity Foundation,
established by the famous female singer Han Hong, raised money via
public donations and transported medical equipment and supplies
worth more than 200 million yuan.2 Among those public selforganizing projects, Stand By Her stands out as a feminist project
supporting the needs of female frontline workers when the established
social and political institutions failed to address these needs.
Liang Yu highlights women’s agency in the Stand By Her project.
The project reinforces women’s identity as citizens and professionals
and resists marginalization in male-centered nationalist narratives.
The movement conveys feminist ideals that appeal to public
disappointment with government corruption and mismanagement.
The project’s slogan is “Sisters Combating the Pandemic Free from
Worries,”3 emphasizing solidarity and mutual aid. The logo depicts
volunteers delivering donations to a medical team from Xinjiang.
Avoiding symbols related to beauty and vulnerability, it shows women
working for public welfare. Liang also replaced the dot on the
characterᗳ (heart) with a used sanitary pad. This not only manifests
the theme of the project; it is also a bold protest against period shame.
This affirmation of women’s agency and ability stands in stark
contrast to government rhetoric regarding the pandemic, which was
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/aus-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6882295.
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Feminist Outbreaks in the Digital World
15
“superficial at best and anti-feminist to the core” (C. Chen 2020). The
hashtag “Sisters Combating the Pandemic Free from Worries” differs
greatly from “Paying Respect to the Amazing Her” (㠤ᮜҶн䎧Ⲵྩ)
created by the government’s All-China Women’s Federation,
“Publicizing the Most Beautiful Her” (ᲂᲂᴰ㖾Ⲵྩ) by the People’s
Daily and “Thank You, My Goddess” (䉒䉒֐ᡁⲴྣ⾎) by CCTV
(China Central Television). “Paying respect to” is recurrent political
rhetoric in China and otherizes its object “her,” expelling “her” to a
passive position. Other hashtags divert attention from needs of female
workers to their appearance, using them as tokens.
The Stand By Her project, highlighting women’s agency, conflicts
with both rampant male supremacism and the official nationalist
narratives online. These tend to degrade, otherize, silence, and
sexualize women. From the beginning of the project, Liang was
attacked by anti-feminist forces as not qualified to organize the
donations, and her project was slandered as illegal fundraising. The
real meaning of “not qualified” is that women are not supposed to
organize and coordinate social resources outside official institutions
such as the Women’s Federation. They are not even supposed to get
themselves hygiene supplies; they are only qualified to follow the
authorities’ instructions and wait patiently to be “paid respects to.” The
anti-feminist attackers erroneously placed their hope in the authorities
to abolish the women’s project.
Liang and other feminists intentionally established feminist
socialist narratives, which is probably one reason the authorities are
conflicted about shutting the project down. Using the hashtag
“recognize female workers,”4 many feminist posts not only request
equal media exposure for female workers but also urge that the nation,
which describes itself as a socialist republic, put women’s needs and
the equal status they deserve into the national agenda. This involves
restructuring socialism with feminist agency and reframing socialist
concerns as feminist concerns. Weibo feminists advocate for
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
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16
Weibo Feminism
integration of women’s current everyday realities into a reconstruction
of socialism.
When calling for the addition of menstrual products into the
emergency relief supplies list, Liang Yu emphasized women’s roles as
professionals and protectors of the nation: “Not only medical workers
in the pandemic, but also policewomen, firewomen, female snipers,
female soldiers . . . female pilots and others working at their jobs need
government-organized supplies of menstrual products . . . to better
protect people and society.”5 This rhetoric might remind people that
in the Maoist age (1949–1978), female workers in public factories and
institutions had monthly subsidies called “hygiene allowance” (ছ⭏䍩)
to buy menstrual products. This was gradually abolished during
the “reform and opening up” to establish a market economy which
started in 1978. Maoist recognition of female biology that discarded
period shame as backward or feudal is restructured to resist the
sexualization/stigmatization of female bodies in the current postreform age.
Although the authorities cannot openly reject socialist ideology,
they are hostile to autonomous civil organizations, especially feminist
ones. Women’s representation in China is monopolized by the AllChina Women’s Federation, which was established in 1949 through
annexing all existing women’s organizations. Any other feminist
autonomous civil organizations challenging this monopoly were
portrayed as going against the regime. Stand By Her, as a nationally
influential project organized with autonomous feminist ideals, is in
itself a challenge to the authoritarian unitary system. This is especially
so in light of the authorities’ well-known negligence of duties in their
own pandemic response.
The Women’s Federation resorted to hijacking Liang’s work. In
February 2020, when Liang’s team was working overtime organizing
donations, the All-China Women’s Federation pirated images from
Liang’s post for its own Weibo account alongside official projects.
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
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Feminist Outbreaks in the Digital World
17
They got the media involved to imply to the public that the project—
made possible by autonomous public concerns for equality and
justice—was government-sponsored and led by the Women’s
Federation. This theft of Liang and her team’s work erases public
contributions and public autonomy. Liang and her team didn’t
discover the piracy until March (2020), and she immediately posted
her protests on Weibo, calling for public help. The theft aroused much
anger among feminists and other supporters of Liang Yu. With
thousands of reposts and wide criticism, the Federation finally deleted
the post with the pirated figures (Liang 2020a). However, Liang’s post
accusing the Federation of piracy was censored before that, and antifeminist forces on Weibo continued to state that the project was not
initiated and run by Liang Yu but by the Federation. Moreover, the
Federation might consider the hijacking of an acknowledgement or
government endorsement of Liang Yu, as it has traditionally felt
entitled to exert jurisdiction over all women’s work in the entire
country.
With the Stand By Her project, Liang Yu and other feminists called
for adding menstrual products to the emergency relief supplies,
allowing pads and tampons to be transported through the green
channels. Right before Women’s Day (March 8) 2020, the All-China
Women’s Federation announced that female hygiene products had
been listed as emergency relief supplies. However, both Liang Yu and
workers on the frontline later proved that these were still not allowed
to enter through the green channels (Chenmi 2020). Despite constant
appeals by feminists on Weibo, female hygiene was never included,
while even tea was (Liang 2020b). The Federation sought to terminate
the discussion with a lie, suggesting that instead of solving actual
problems, the primary intention of the authorities is to silence
criticism. The incident also indicated the Federation’s marginal
position in the Party-state system. It seems to have no power in either
decision-making process or actual resources coordination.
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
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18
Weibo Feminism
In the second-wave of the pandemic in 2021, Liang and her team
continued to provide tampons and pads to women on the frontline. In
February 2021, Stand By Her released a free 200-page online handbook
so that other grassroots organizers could benefit from their experience
running the project (Standbyher 2021). The powerful support from
women and the masses and the open transparency of information
leave no opportunity for the authorities to hijack and usurp the fruit
of these women’s work, but only to recognize its existence, making
this project one of real public benefit.
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Courageous Women Confront the
Information Blockade
On December 30, 2019, Ai Fen (㢮㣜), director of the Emergency
Department of the Central Hospital of Wuhan, read a test report of a
patient with pneumonia on which was written “SARS coronavirus.”
Shocked by the finding, Ai immediately reported it to the higher
responsible departments and informed the medical staff of her
department and the director of the Respiratory Department. She also
sent the report with “SARS coronavirus” circled in red to her old
classmate who, also a doctor, had asked Ai to confirm whether reports
of infectious diseases related to the local Hunan Seafood Market,
known as the initial birthplace of COVID-19, were true.
In the evening, the picture of the report with the red circle marked
by Ai had spread. That was the source that Li Wenliang (ᵾ᮷Ӟ) and
seven other doctors used to alert the public, for which they were
admonished by the police. They had to sign their names on the
admonishment letter, acknowledging their fault and promising to
stop transmitting any messages about the infectious disease.
As the initial leaker, Ai was chastised by leaders of the hospital: “As
a professional, how can you ignore your principles and disciplines,
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
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Feminist Outbreaks in the Digital World
19
spread rumors, and cause trouble?”6 It was “as if the promising
progress of the whole Wuhan city had been messed up by me alone,”
said Ai7 (Gong 2020). Until January 16, 2020, the leader of the hospital
insisted that the disease was “preventable, curable, and controllable,”
which was the official rhetoric across China until Zhong Nanshan
(䫏ইኡ), the national respiratory authority, confirmed that it was
infectious on January 20. Just four days later, the whole of Wuhan city
was locked down.
Doctor Ai Fen’s experience is just one example of the conflicts
between medical professionalism and authoritarian vanity. Although
women are openly required to meet higher standards in obtaining
employment and promotion,8 they still earn over half the jobs through
diligent efforts. Their presence has maintained a comparatively
modern professional space, in contrast with the conservative maledominated political arena. In the COVID-19 response, in spite of a
dictatorial information blockade and governmental malfeasance,
there has been high professionalism and devotion among frontline
workers, including medical staff and voluntary workers such as Liang
Yu and many others. The information blockade continued after
Wuhan was locked down, and the citizens had to resort to Weibo to
share authentic scenes of their lives and to call for help. Meanwhile,
the nationalist rhetoric threatened that the exposure of the negative
side and individual difficulties would be considered treason. Resisting
the information blockade, counter-voices rose online, with a
remarkable number of feminists.
How destructive is information control to the public? The situation
in the Wuhan Central Hospital is a representative example. After
being scolded by her leader, Ai could do nothing but enhance
precautions in her own department. She requested all doctors and
nurses wear masks and protective suits (under their white coats, as
these were not allowed) and distribute masks to all patients. As a
result, the over-loaded Emergency Department and Respiratory
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
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Weibo Feminism
Department had fewer infectious cases, while in other departments,
several medical experts died from coronavirus exposure, including
the ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, who had also been admonished by
the police for alerting the public about the coronavirus.9
In a later interview, Ai expressed regret for not being able to inform
more people: “If I’d known of this [terrible result], I (lao zi) would
have told everybody [regardless of the authorities].”10 Ai used an
arrogant and impudent first-person description to signify herself in
Chinese, lao zi (㘱ᆀ), literally meaning “I, your father.” The term is
often used by men to imply a more empowered self. The wording
exhibits an angry and rebellious emotion against authoritarian
information control, and it has made her a national idol.
The interview was censored upon publication online, which
triggered outrage among the public. People translated pieces of the
article into English, German, Japanese, emojis, Morse code, Braille,
and ancient Chinese writings such as zhuan shu calligraphy to
circulate it, forming a marvelous spectacle online. This action was
more of a protest than a spreading of information, as some versions
had become unreadable.
The disasters in the COVID-19 response reflect an underlying
systemic problem magnified by extreme circumstances. When
frontline medical staff ran short of personal protective equipment
and other supplies, public donations from all over China were
accumulated and left in piles in the storage of Red Cross Society of
China Wuhan Branch, which monopolized donations to the city. The
bureaucratism and inefficiency of government institutions shocked
the public. On January 29 (2020), major hospitals were forced to use
their Weibo accounts to directly tell the public that they had run out
of supplies. At the same time, a man was seen taking a box of masks
into an official vehicle, saying it was for the leaders, and 30,000 masks
were distributed to a private hospital without any COVID patients
(Cui and Yang 2020). Due to heated public criticism, the government
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
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Feminist Outbreaks in the Digital World
21
was finally forced to appoint a nongovernmental medicine and
transportation corporation to take over the storage and circulation of
donated materials.
Nurses, mostly female, are heavily exploited and discriminated
against in the Chinese medical system, and they have faced even more
perils throughout the coronavirus response. On January 26, Zhang
Wanyan (ᕐၹᅯ), a female nurse from Wuhan Union Hospital,
contacted a blogger on Weibo to expose the low-protection working
conditions of nurses in her hospital. Without relevant training, they
were told to collect samples from patients using throat swabs.
Treatments were accomplished by nurses following doctors’
instructions via intercoms, as doctors seldom showed up in the
hospital’s quarantine space. Women were thus exposed to risks at a
much higher rate than men. This caused wide criticism from the
public. Furthermore, on July 29 (2020), whistle-blower Zhang
mysteriously fell to her death from her hospital building. The police
denied the possibility of murder. To avoid provoking public outcry,
the official announcement did not mention the name of the deceased
nurse, and the keywords that had been searched heatedly on Weibo
were censored. The person who posted Zhang’s messages during the
coronavirus response confirmed her death and posted many messages
from other nurses about their harsh and exploitative conditions
(Jiaowo 2020).
Under the information blockade, Weibo as a mass digital platform
has played an important role. It was almost the only channel for
ordinary citizens to ask for help. Feminist netizens also helped
circulate any posts calling for help they could see on Weibo, forming
a remarkable force for mutual aid.
Although the authorities in Wuhan announced that all coronavirusinfected patients were treated in hospitals, a large number of potential
patients could not be tested and diagnosed as infected by COVID-19.
Consequently, they could receive no medical treatment, confined to
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
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22
Weibo Feminism
home in a locked-down city. On February 5, a 77-year-old grandfather
learned how to use Weibo and sent his first message, “hello,” to the
world. Then he sent a second post calling for help. His daughter had
already died of COVID-19, and he, his wife, and their thirteen-yearold granddaughter were infected but couldn’t get diagnosed and
treated. He pleaded for help to get his granddaughter hospitalized first
(Laosu 2020). Due to great public concern, the family was hospitalized
on February 7. On February 28, the grandfather died; both his wife
and granddaughter survived.
On February 9, a video of a woman drumming a gong on the balcony
of a high-rise apartment crying for help spread on Weibo. Again, due to
public attention, she and her mother received medical treatment.
However, those who posted what was happening around them not only
needed to make tremendous efforts to prove authenticity but could also
be insulted as “enemies of the nation.” Nationalist rhetoric against
foreign enemies politicalized criticism and mutual aid among the public.
It especially added to the predicament of women, at whom moral
judgments and nationalist accusations were disproportionally aimed. A
female writer in Wuhan, Fang (ᯩᯩ), released her diaries online during
the lockdown period, which incurred attacks from government
supporters. Although her diaries recorded her personal life and what
she saw and heard online and were not overtly political, she was accused
of humiliating the country with rumors and providing material for
foreign enemies to attack China. As a result, Fang Fang’s Weibo account
was suspended. When her diaries were first published abroad in English
as Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from the Original Epicenter (Fang Fang
2020), the cyberbullies against her attacked relentlessly. Even the woman
who had drummed a gong and yelled from her balcony to get medical
attention rebuked Fang Fang for mentioning her: “Don’t write me into
your work; I don’t want to go abroad.”11
Behind her attack on Fang Fang is a panic stemming from the
witch hunt against “national enemies,” especially women. The woman’s
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
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Feminist Outbreaks in the Digital World
23
repeated statements such as, “I am nobody but a minor citizen” and “I
don’t want to go abroad” betray a deep anxiety. She mistook the female
writer as the cause of her panic, ignoring that speaking out and public
mutual aid may have saved her life. Having received both praise and
criticism for her attack on Fang Fang, she deleted all her posts and
quit Weibo. In her last post, she observed: “It was too complicated. You
all sound reasonable, so I don’t know what to say . . . A virus could
classify a person into a certain camp at any time, and then you would
have enemies. It’s horrible!”12 She certainly sensed the dehumanizing
political camps, but it was not the virus doing that; the virus only
provided a fuse.
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Misogynistic Propaganda and Feminist
Counter-narratives
A news report during the pandemic showed male and female medical
workers in a Wuhan hospital being served different meals. Men’s
meals had an extra dish as well as soup, fruit, and yoghurt, all lacking
in meals served to the majority: female workers. The practice was
praised by the reporter for its careful consideration of “avoiding
waste.”13 Meanwhile, the military channel of China National Radio
(2020) focused the spotlight on the only “Mr. Nurse” in the team,
saying that “male nurses win an edge with better mental endurance
and emotional control.”14
These are just two among many examples of unequal treatment
of female medical staff. A blatant discrimination against women was
regarded as material for positive news coverage. Sexist rhetoric circulates
freely with few sensing anything wrong with it until feminists challenge
the public. Seeing government propaganda utilize the intensive labor of
female workers to justify the current political system while misrepresenting
them, feminists construct counternarratives in various formats.
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
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Weibo Feminism
Coverage of female workers often focuses on their bodies. Women’s
sacrifice as wives and mothers and misfortunes related to sexuality are
highlighted. For example, there are nine-month-pregnant nurses
required to work, a nurse returning to work ten days after a miscarriage,
and female medical workers being shaved bald before being sent to
the epicenter (Zijingshu 2020; Wuhan Daily, 2020; A. Chen 2020).
Under the cover of praising women’s sacrifice, there is reaffirmation of
women’s role in reproduction and sex, neglecting women’s actual
needs and the overexploitation of female bodies. As a feminist blogger
states: “A female doctor who hasn’t been pregnant or suffered
miscarriages, when she intends to strive for primary worker’s rights as
a normal person, will find her space to speak tightened or even totally
squeezed.”15 The superficial praise of women’s sacrifice only normalizes
their sacrifice. Feminist bloggers on Weibo expose, criticize, and
protest against the injustice suffered by frontline female workers and
the reductive, misogynistic misrepresentations.
Female manual laborers are even more likely to be erased. The
construction of Huoshenshan Hospital (33,900 square meters) and
Leishenshan Hospital (79,700 square meters) in ten days in the
epicenter city of Wuhan are used as propaganda for China’s
authoritarian unitary system, which is at core patriarchal, womenexcluding, and based on a hierarchy of men or, more euphuistically,
“brothers.” CCTV News (2020) paid respect to 40,000 “brothers”
constructing these hospitals, turning blind eyes to the many female
laborers working on the sites.
Unlike medical workers, the number of female manual laborers
participating in the construction of the two hospitals has never been
recorded. Male supremacists boasted of the masculinity behind the
“China speed” that amazed the world. In response, a feminist marked
all female laborers in a news picture taken on one of the hospital
construction sites. Wearing work clothes and safety helmets, female
laborers looked just like their male peers. The feminist could only
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/aus-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6882295.
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Feminist Outbreaks in the Digital World
25
identify the women by their long hair (possibly not counting shorthaired women), and still identified at least half of the builders as
women.16 Another feminist blogger made a video about these female
manual laborers, “Her Power in Huoshenshan” (Baolie 2020).
Identifying women by their longer hair reminds feminists of
another misogynistic intention behind the forced head-shaving of
frontline female nurses (and not their male counterparts): erasing
women while utilizing their power. Gansu Daily posted on Weibo a
video of female medical staff being shaved bald before setting off to
Wuhan, using the scenes of the weeping nurses as propaganda.
Although it is said to be done for reasons of hygiene, the only male
nurse in the team was not only allowed to keep his crewcut, but also
is the only one in the group photo who wears a high-grade N95
respirator mask. This aroused so much criticism that Gansu Daily
deleted the video.
The authorities did occasionally acknowledge women’s
contributions. However, the symbol of their female identity, long hair,
was removed. The language praising them either stressed their
uteruses and reproductive roles to downplay their professionalism or
integrated them into the narratives of “brothers.” In other words, their
identities as professional women were not recognized. This prevents
their contributions from earning increased opportunities for future
women and even for themselves. While even pregnant women were
still working on the frontline, the local government in Jinan (Shandong
province) had already launched an initiative urging mothers to apply
for leave from their jobs to care for children because of delayed school
semesters (Jinan Lives 2020).
Autonomous feminist criticism of misogynistic propaganda
increased and intensified so much that a feminist cultural uprising
was on its way. Taking over a token girl puppet from the propaganda
institution, they resurrected it collectively and redefined it as their
own.
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/aus-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6882295.
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26
Weibo Feminism
Copyright © 2022. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. All rights reserved.
“Jiang Shanjiao, Do you Get Your Period?”
On February 17, the Communist Youth League (a Party organization
for any government agenda concerning teenagers) promoted a pair of
virtual cartoon idols as mascots on its official Weibo account. Jiang
Shanjiao (Lovely Land), and her younger brother Hong Qiman
(Abundant Red Flags), both have names that allude to a poem of Mao
Zedong. The League was trying to make the nationalist and patriotic
spirit attractive to contemporary teens by using popular cultural
forms. They expected teens to conform eagerly to the established
system just as fans pursue their idols. With rising criticism of the
information blockade, inefficiency of government management, and
misogynistic propaganda, the authorities sought to enhance national
solidarity.
The images of the idols, crudely made, are unlikely to appeal to the
target audience. The authorities seem to ignore the fierce competition
in the modern cartoon industry, which has developed high aesthetic
standards. The idols made by the Communist Youth League use blunt
racial and gender stereotypes with a combination of cheap Japanese
cartoon elements that stereotypically symbolize Chinese nationality
and femininity. The hands of the girl, Jiang Saojiao, are terrifyingly
blood-red and bony. When the authorities so wrongly assume they
can earn public praise with such low-grade cultural products, the
failure of their propaganda campaign is inevitable.17
On February 18, 2020, feminist blogger Why It Goes on Forever
(ѪӰѸᆳ≨ᰐ→ຳ) posted just one sentence: “Jiang Shanjiao, do
you get your period?” alluding to online arguments about period
shame evoked by the Stand By Her project. Under the original post,
many women began to address questions to Jiang Shanjiao. Before the
post was censored the next day, it received more than 10,000 replies
and 100,000 reposts, making it a massive outlet for Chinese women to
share experiences of sex discrimination.
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
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Feminist Outbreaks in the Digital World
27
There were the questions they faced throughout their education:
“Jiang Shanjiao, can you keep up with boys in high school?” “Jiang
Shanjiao, did you get a PhD to find a better husband?” “Jiang Shanjiao,
do you also need to score 200 points higher than male students to be
admitted to public security academies?”
There were questions degrading their bodies as commodities:
“Jiang Shanjiao, are you devalued goods after twenty-five?” “Jiang
Shanjiao, are you second-hand goods after divorce?” “Jiang Shanjiao,
after abortion, are you just like a house where a tenant has died?”
“Jiang Shanjiao, are you a virgin?” There were questions of victimblaming familiar to women around the globe: “Jiang Shanjiao, wearing
such a short skirt, who could you blame for photographing you
secretly?” “Jiang Shanjiao, are you dressed up like this to tempt Hong
Qiman?”
There were work-related questions: “Jiang Shanjiao, did you sleep
with your boss to gain a promotion?” “Jiang Shanjiao, how could you
balance life and work after getting married?” “Jiang Shanjiao, will you
respond or pretend not to listen when your male colleagues tell dirty
jokes?” “Jiang Shanjiao, we are just joking. Why are you so sensitive?”
There were questions with Chinese characteristics: “Jiang Shanjiao,
if you had a brother, would you have been born?”18 “Jiang Shanjiao,
what did your brother do with the money donated to support your
schooling?”19 “Jiang Shanjiao, can women sit at the table to eat in your
hometown?”20 “Jiang Shanjiao, will your words be censored by the
law?” “Jiang Shanjiao, will our questions for you survive the night?”21
At last, there is an attempt to incorporate Jiang Shanjiao as one of
their own: “Jiang Shanjiao, will you cry just like me reading all these?”
By absorbing all the suffering of women, fictional Jiang Shanjiao
was infused with real meaning. As a token girl forged by the authorities
with no personality, she couldn’t represent Chinese women; after
she became a real woman, she was deleted by the authorities as if she
had never existed, just as they have done with many feminist posts.
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/aus-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6882295.
Created from aus-ebooks on 2023-01-21 11:55:36.
28
Weibo Feminism
However, by collective recreation, women have kept Jiang Shanjiao to
themselves. As a representation of a real female being, she could never
be erased or taken from women. The blogger who triggered the Jiang
Shanjiao incident reflected on the process:
Copyright © 2022. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. All rights reserved.
You can’t delete collective emotion by deleting its carriers . . .
Discourse creates discourse automatically, and it has nothing to do
with my original question . . . If not me, there would be someone
else asking. If you do not ask questions, there will be no answers.22
The name “Jiang Shanjiao” became commonly used in feminist
posts and products. For example, Saidongzhe (2020) made a video,
“Jiang Shanjiao, Do They Tell You the Same?” to expose period shame,
body shame, and misogynistic public discourse. It has been viewed
more than 15 million times.
Another significance of “questioning Jiang Shanjiao” lies in the fact
that it also terminated the long-time steering of fandom culture by
the authorities. Fandom culture, enjoyed mostly by teens, especially
girls, had become a tool of oppression through government control.
“Questioning Jiang Shanjiao” warned the authorities of the risks
involved in the entertainmentization of politics.
Previously, many overseas scholars, including those from Hong
Kong and Taiwan, believed that popular or fandom culture booming
among Chinese youth signified resistance to government propaganda
(Lu 2018: 10). This assumption collapsed during the Hong Kong
protest in 2019 when the “fan girls’ crusade” supported “Brother
China.”23 (“Brother China” replacing “Mother China” corresponds
with the country’s increasing virilization and reinforcement of male
dominance in nationalist narratives.)
During the 2019 Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, China’s
state-owned media, including the People’s Daily, promoted “Brother
China” as a personification of the nation and solicited “fan girls” to
protect “Brother China” as intensely (and irrationally) as they pursue
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/aus-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6882295.
Created from aus-ebooks on 2023-01-21 11:55:36.
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Feminist Outbreaks in the Digital World
29
pop idols. The authorities represented by the China Communist Youth
League encouraged “fan girls” and other youth to launch an online
war against protestors in Hong Kong. Ironically, the “fan girls’ crusade”
relied on VPNs (technically illegal in China) to get them across to
their battlefields: international networks such as Twitter and Facebook.
With fanaticism as their fandom culture was for the first time
recognized by the highest authority in China, the fan girls launched
fierce verbal attacks at those who were probably Hong Kong’s version
of themselves.
The authorities’ utilization of fan girls was possible because of
female marginalization. Teenage girls were excited about the illusory
empowerment of being supported by the authorities. More often,
cyberattacks and harassment are launched by men in a women-hating
culture in the name of nationalism and patriotism. On June 9, 2010,
netizens launched a spam attack on the fan websites of Korean pop
group Super Junior because some fans caused a disturbance at the
Shanghai Expo, which was called “Holy War” by the participants. In a
promotional video for the “Holy War” on YouTube,24 participants were
called “patriots from various national online forums,” which were all
typical men’s cyber spaces. Teenage girls pursuing their idols have
always been humiliated as “brainless,” or “fandom bitches” (依സ⇽⤇).
The internet, though under minute surveillance, has never censored
insults or even terrorist proclamations against women. In 2016, with
the agreement to employ Terminal High Altitude Area Defense
(THAAD) in South Korea reached by U.S. and Korean governments,
the “patriots” achieved final success. Many girls and women announced
on Weibo that they loved their country more than their (Korean pop)
idols and would quit pursuing the idols because of Korea’s anti-China
behavior.
However, in 2019, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey
tweeted in support of the Hong Kong protests and the spokesman of
China Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged NBA fans to boycott the
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/aus-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6882295.
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30
Weibo Feminism
coming matches in China. The stadiums were still crowded with
Chinese male fans both in Shanghai and Shenzhen.25 Ironically,
among these male fans, many had accused fan girls of treason.
Although stadiums crowded with male fans were not expected by the
authorities, they did nothing against these men. Such double standards
from the authorities are widely exposed by Weibo feminists, causing
many women to wake up from nationalist illusions.
The “questioning of Jiang Shanjiao” marked the end of authorities’
massive steering of female emotions and energies using pop culture.
The authorities may forget (or never understand) the nature of
fandom. It is the recreational power among fans, who produce
“semiotic productivity into some form of textual production that can
circulate among—and thus help to define—the fan community”
(Fiske 1992, 30). In other words, as long as you have released the idols,
they will be redescribed and recreated through the collective
imagination, just as with Jiang Shanjiao. The national tokens may
work well temporarily with high-handed power but cannot not
replace autonomous and collective fandom creations in the long run.
“Brother China” and other official virtual idols would be forgotten
unless public recreations changed the core permanently, taking them
over from the hands of the authorities and making them the people’s.
Public recreations, however, are unpredictable. Women took over
Jiang Shanjiao while “Brother China” and “Hong Qiman” soon died
because of their monolithic rigidity. After “Questioning Jiang
Shanjiao,” the inspection team of the Party required the Communist
Youth League to stop entertainizing politics immediately.26
Feminist presence on Weibo has successfully challenged the
authorities and, perhaps even more importantly, gained the support
of millions of ordinary women. Weibo feminists are capable
competitors with the authorities’ nationalist and patriarchal agenda
when it comes to influencing public opinion. Women’s presence at the
forefront of the coronavirus response, and transparent and effective
Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/aus-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6882295.
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Feminist Outbreaks in the Digital World
31
feminist actions and insights, fueled a movement supported by the
massive numbers of people reachable online, and this work continues
to expand.
Copyright © 2022. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. All rights reserved.
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Created from aus-ebooks on 2023-01-21 11:55:36.
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Xue, Aviva, and Kate Rose. Weibo Feminism : Expression, Activism, and Social Media in China, Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/aus-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6882295.
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