China’s #metoo movement signals shift in sexual attitudes

The #MeToo movement in the United States, which has exposed widespread sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood, reached a crescendo on January 7 when TV host and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey gave a rousing speech at the Golden Globes ceremony in Los Angeles.
“I want all the girls watching here now to know that a new day is on the horizon,” she said, as the star-studded crowd erupted in applause.
Thousands of miles away,that message also resonated in China. Women quickly began to speak out about sexual harassment, but rather than celebrities leading the chorus of disapproval as in the West, the movement is centred on college campuses.
Luo Qianqian is being credited as the first Chinese woman to evoke the spirit of #MeToo. Early this month, she accused Chen Xiaowu, a professor at Beihang University in Beijing, of sexual assault when he was her doctoral adviser in 2005.
She then contacted fellow alumni who had endured similar experiences, and provided evidence to the college’s disciplinary watchdog, including damning audio recordings. As a result, Chen was fired.
Other women quickly followed suit. Within days, three more cases had been brought to public attention, all involving female college students who claimed to have been sexually assaulted or harassed by lecturers.
The most recent allegations were made anonymously by a graduate of the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, who said the strength shown by Luo and the other women had inspired her to speak out.
She alleged that a male professor sexually assaulted her in his office. To back up her claims, she posted text messages exchanged between the two in the wake of the alleged assault online.
A study released in 2014 by the All-China Women’s Federation suggested that the problem is worryingly prevalent in China. The federation surveyed 1,200 female students at 15 universities; in response, 50 per cent said they had been subjected to sexual misconduct, either physical or verbal, while 23 per cent described the situation as “severe”.
In most cases, the aggressor was male, usually a classmate, though 9 per cent of respondents claimed they had suffered at the hands of lecturers or college officials.
According to research released in March by the Guangzhou Gender and Sexuality Education Centre, an NGO in Guangdong province, 70 per cent of college students and graduates claimed to have been sexually harassed again, verbally or physically, with women accounting for 75 per cent of the victims. The findings were based on 7,000 responses to online questionnaires.
However, campuses are just one of the places where sexual harassment frequently occurs, according to Lyu Xiaoquan, executive director of the Beijing Qianqian Law Firm, which specialises in the legal protection of women’s rights. “In the past two decades, we’ve seen a rising number of complaints relating to incidents in the workplace, but the majority still relate to public incidents, such as casual molestation [opportunistic assault on public transportation, for example],” he said.
According to Lyu, his firm handles eight to 10 sexual harassment cases a year, but many more women consult the firm’s lawyers seeking help: “We estimate that probably seven times the number of cases we see go unreported.”

Beating stigma
Many experts hope the #MeToo movement will change the situation and also help to remove the stigma often attached to women who speak out against sexual abuse.
Cai Yiping, a campaigner for economic and gender equality in Beijing, said women have remained silent about sexual harassment for decades for fear of not being taken seriously or being blamed for the man’s behaviour.
Harassment often happens in environments where the balance of power is unequal, according to Cai. “A boss can decide an employee’s future; a professor can stop a student from publishing a paper or from graduating; and men have a greater say than women in a male-dominated society,” she said.
“There’s often an undertone of ‘blame the victim’, which overlooks the manipulative behaviour of the person in power. Plus, many victims fear their allegations will be dismissed. Some women don’t even see that the way they are being treated is wrong; they believe it’s an unspoken rule they must simply accept.”
Some experts believe younger women are now in a prime position to bring about changes in gender equality.
Unlike earlier generations, who tended to care more about other people’s feelings, young women today focus more on how they define and value themselves, and have greater legal awareness, according to Chen Wei, from the Yingke Law Firm in Beijing, who specialises in laws related to domestic disputes and the protection of women.
Jiang Yue, a law professor at Xiamen University in Fujian province, echoed Chen’s view.
“Most of the women speaking out now are well-educated. With their greater knowledge and broader horizons, they are brave enough to break with social norms and speak for themselves. Also, public opinion toward the issue has become more supportive in recent years, which has become a crucial driving force,” she said.
Cai’s research shows that many whistleblowers are from one-child families. That suggests that the old three-decade-long family planning policy that prohibited most couples from having more than one child played a key role in breaking the tradition whereby boys were valued more highly than girls, and also contributed to awareness of gender equality among younger women.

Future challenges
“Many victims dare to speak out after graduation because college life will just become a memory. However, for women who encounter sexual harassment or assault in the workplace, the cost of fighting for their rights can be much higher, so they need a better protection mechanism,” she said.
Luo Qianqian exposed Chen Xiaowu by sharing her story on Sina Weibo. Her post received more than 3 million hits in a single day, instantly triggering a nationwide debate.
On January 11, Beihang University said an investigation had found Chen guilty of misconduct. He was removed as vice-president of the Graduate School and his teaching credentials were revoked. On Sunday, the Ministry of Education announced that Chen had been removed from the list of Changjiang Scholars, the highest academic award for individuals in China, and ordered to repay the stipends that came with it.
“The result was a surprise to me,” Luo said this week, speaking on the phone from her home in the US.
“From the beginning, I stuck to the belief that all our efforts and the evidence we had collected deserved an answer. I’m proud of Beihang. It demonstrated the unity of knowledge and behaviour it taught us.”
While many people have applauded Luo’s bravery and the outcome, others believe it will be hard to replicate, because many people who allege assault give confused or contradictory accounts, which means their stories are dismissed or ignored.
A male student at Beihang’s School of Reliability and Systems Engineering, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the system often discourages people from lodging official complaints.
“It seems the only way for victims to obtain justice is to display their wounds on the Internet and attract media attention. There should be an effective system to protect their rights and interests without repercussions,” he said.
According to thepaper.cn, a news portal in Shanghai, on Monday, students from more than 40 universities nationwide, including Peking and Tsinghua, China’s most prestigious seats of learning, publicly urged the establishment of a mechanism to deal with, and prevent, sexual assault in colleges.