On 23-year-old Tiaotiao’s Weibo, you see the epitome of “extreme feminism”: she is staunchly anti-marriage and having kids, mocks moderate feminists as “equality fairies,” and thinks that most men are beyond hope. “I definitely won’t get married. If my financial situation is decent, I can think about adopting a girl. And if my body allows it, I’ll buy some sperm, give birth to a daughter, and after the child is born, I’ll give her either mine or my mother’s surname.” From an early age, Tiaotiao witnessed the sad lives of female relatives after they married and, as early as elementary school, began to think about not marrying or having children. But she didn't know what feminism was at that time. In college she occasionally talked with classmates who claimed to be feminists but she still didn’t get it. It wasn’t until only two years ago that she frequently saw the term feminism on social media. At the same time, incidents of domestic violence were emerging, and beaten women publicly showed the bloody wounds they suffered. There were incidents of gender discrimination, and solid data showed that women predominantly suffered from this. Then there were the most influential feminist KOLs [key opinion leaders]: unmarried and with no kids, “state locusts,” “married donkeys,” “equality fairies,” “punching fists” for two years. She learned a lot of new words. Each day Tiaotiao swiped across new information on her phone and went from a politically indifferent person to an “extreme feminist.” “The threshold for becoming a feminist is not that high. I don't have to read dozens of Western feminist works and then write even more essays on it in order to call myself a feminist. No, I am a feminist.” Wild pan-feminism: As long as there are women gathering, feminist discussions will form During the 2020 pandemic, the public welfare operation “Sisters Campaign Relief Program,” which donated sanitary napkins to China's frontline medical carers, attracted global attention. Mid-year, talk show entertainer Yang Li's jokes about men were trending online. Sisters Who Make Waves [a popular Chinese reality show featuring 30 women over the age of 30 who compete to form a band] promoted the unlimited possibilities of women over 30 as a selling point; film and television shows were analyzed and discussed from the perspective of “feminism,” and female stars’ lives and marriages became a topic of discussion for feminist issues. Women's rights has become one of the online issues drawing the most concern and discussion by netizens. It has also been called a “wealth code” by those who oppose this trend, with opponents believing that KOLs, internet stars, and celebrities apply the art of “female puncher” [a Chinese internet slang term, used feminists who stir (punch) the internet with their words or actions] to provoke emotions in netizens and make a profit. The popularity of pan-feminism means that feminist issues are intertwined in nearly every domain. In small groups active on Douban [a social media networking site in China] such as “Douban Goose Group,” “Life Group,” and “Little Elephant Gossip” the main themes are entertainment and everyday life. But they are also an enthusiastic place to talk about women's rights––a space occupied by female netizens. The celebrity gossip group “Douban Goose Group” has even shown strong organizational activism. The anime “Jobless Reincarnation” streamed by the online site Bilibili [also known as B Station] contains many plot points that are considered to be “extremely unfriendly to women,” such as the protagonist secretly photographing women, the protagonist's father raping the maid, etc. B Station’s handling of the dispute caused an outcry from dissatisfied netizens. After this, the group members began to accuse B Station of “toeing the line” of what’s acceptable, of promoting “soft pornographic” content, such as women dancing in black stockings, and even accusing B Station of disregarding “suspected pedophilic” content. A wave of B Station boycotts began, and the group members posted updates declaring “I didn't go on to B Station today” and reported Chen Rui, the chairman of B Station who is also a representative of Shanghai Yangpu District People's Congress, to the Disciplinary Inspection Commission. Such an organized, principled, and strategic feminist action amazed Xiao Meili, a feminist who has been involved in activism since 2010. “I also thought of engaging with the People's Congress representatives related to B Station. I thought: Wow, this is so powerful. They also have a lot of resources. For example, some people are employees of large companies that partner with B Station, and they used their own strength to fight for the cancellation of cooperation with B Station.” “On many different platforms in China, as long as there are groups of women, feminist discussions will form, and the content will be very radical.” This “feeling of wildness” was never felt by Xiao Meili during her “punching” on Weibo a few years ago. In 2015, she launched the “Armpit Hair Contest,” encouraging women to show off photos of their armpit hair and reject the gaze of society on their bodies. The event was picked up by foreign media, but never really landed within China. Is “extreme feminism” really that extreme? Find the antidote from one’s own body Internet feminism developed ferociously, and various “malicious words” soon appeared–– “little diaozi” and “enoki mushroom” [internet slang terms mocking small male genitals] make fun of men; “married donkeys” disparagingly refers to women who marry; “equality fairies” refers to moderate factions who don’t want antagonism between men and women; and “academic feminism” refers to “ambivilent people who do not know the real suffering in the world.” Tiaotiao uses these words proficiently and proudly embraces the title of “extreme feminist.” They are often ridiculed as “pastoral women's rights” or “female punchers.” They are considered extreme, man-hating, only for cursing people on the internet to vent their emotions, and without any real impact. Lin Maomao is a perfect representative of “extreme feminism.” The feminist blogger who currently lives in Germany advises women on Weibo in a down-to-earth manner: don’t become a married donkey, having children requires women to give birth and raise them, and choose a high-quality sperm bank. She does not shy away from being called extreme, thinking that this is the only path toward revolution: “Now there are finally popular slang terms that have come out for ‘married donkeys,’ ‘da ding’ [literally meaning big tripod vessel, used online to describe men who reap dividends from marriage], ‘door donkeys,’ and ‘da ding dad.’ Using these terms to fight back is definitely a form of progress, but the power disparity is still very wide because the revolution hasn’t yet succeeded so we can’t be too impatient. We must mobilize the masses and invent slogans, because the impact of slogans on people's psychology is often greater than preaching a long story.” In December 2020, Lin Maomao was banned from Weibo for a year for “maliciously citing bad information that incited conflicts between different groups” in something she had posted. In Tiaotiao's view, Lin Maomao's “extreme feminism” is an antidote to Chinese women's lives. After Lin was blocked, fans sorted through 15 million Weibo quotations and archived them on the cloud for further study. “To a lot of girls, what I say is way too much. I used to have many psychological problems, such as depression and anxiety. Taking medicine didn’t work, and seeing a psychologist didn’t work. But after reading Lin Maomao's Weibo, I realized that she (her Weibo) is really miraculous.” Tiaotiao was born in rural Shandong, and only after “punching” did she understand the ubiquitous female oppression around her. At family gatherings, men always lie on the sofa and play on their phones while the women wash dishes in the kitchen. She has a younger sister—her parents wanted to have a son and [her mom] did a gender screen when she was pregnant. She wanted to have an abortion but ultimately decided against it. She used to think that it was only her family that didn't like daughters until she saw a slogan calling to “prohibit female infanticide” circulating on Weibo, which made her understand that her individual tragedy was an institutional one. “I didn't feel much about women's rights before, but as I was exposed to a lot of information through the internet, gradually I transformed into what you see now. Internet punching is definitely useful.” She further explained that she believes that, from an individual point of view, the actual effect of punching may be very limited, but for her, punching is an attitude towards life: “In this world, you can choose to be optimistic, you can choose to be pessimistic, and you can also choose to punch. It has become a part of my outlook on life, and I will not give up because it might be considered useless. It is useful to be happy with punching. Everyone hits in the end. It may not be female puncher, or an ideology or type of punching, but punching is my right.” Xiao Ye doesn’t think about it the way Tiaotiao does. Xiao Ye is the administrator of the “Douban Sisters––Academic Feminism Research” group. The group was established in June 2020 and has more than 6,000 group members as of this publication. “Academic” refers not to the theoretical knowledge of feminism, but to self-initiated discussions on hot current events, emotional contradictions, and “punching.” Xiao Ye likes to read. She first got a glimpse of women’s oppression from novels, such as “La Dame aux Camélias” and “Little Women.” After work, she read “Black Box” and works by Ueno Chizuko [a well-known Japanese sociologist and feminist], but she found that the real plight could not be resolved from reading a book. So she became an “extreme feminist” as an outlet. When she was a child, her unhappily married mother often told her “no matter what you do, don't look for a man from a rural area.” Now she is 25 years old and works as an assistant in a private company. She has witnessed and experienced gender discrimination in the workplace firsthand. Now she is preparing for her postgraduate entrance examination, eager to become a lawyer, financially independent, and embark on a path of happiness without marriage and raising children. “A classmate who works next to me told me that during her interview, the interviewer blatantly asked if there were any plans to get married and have children. Some pregnant colleagues were fired by the company after returning from maternity leave.” All she can do is not to get married. “If I don't get married, at least I won't be squeezed dry in a marriage. I can avoid childbirth and the wear and tear of living for two.” Internet “punching” has become the backdrop of Chinese feminism’s new ecology and reflects the restrictive political environment of the past few years. In 2015, the “Five Sisters of Women's Rights” were locked up for more than a month after their anti-sexual harassment campaign. Women's rights protection NGOs have been suspended. Offline feminist actions have been repeatedly thwarted. Feminists have been frequently invited to “have tea” [a euphemism for being called in by state security agents for questioning]. The offline space for feminist development has continued shrinking. If these voices are suppressed, how many can be transformed into structural changes that promote gender equality? The civil code “Cooling-off Period for Divorce” bill that took effect in 2021 has made many people doubt the view that “punching is useful.” Since its introduction, the bill has been revised three times after complaints and has been frequently searched for online. It has met with almost one-sided opposition on the internet. However, it still passed. Couples who divorce by agreement have to wait for a 30-day cooling-off period before their divorce is approved by the Civil Affairs Bureau. The purpose is to reduce impulsive marriages, maintain marriage stability, and social harmony. Institutions and social realities make the primary demands of online “punchers” different from those of feminist activists in previous years. Where early activists called for customized anti-domestic violence laws, used street campaigns to call for ending discrimination against lesbians, and crowdfunded ads to oppose forced marriages, now “punchers” are promoting “no marriage and no kids” to women. The most widely discussed topics brought up by online feminists in recent years state that if men are incapable of change, then more women must be scolded into awakening; if the system cannot be changed, then you must change yourself. This idea is continuously repeated in popular culture. As a recent example, a heated discussion took place on the debate program “I Can I BB,” on the issue of “should independent women receive a bride price.” The debate did not reflect on the gender oppression behind the betrothal system, but rather focused on “whether independent women should receive a betrothal gift,” ultimately blaming individual choices for structural gender issues. Xiao Meili regretted discussing this trend of gender issues from the point of what women should do and tried to understand: “This punching belonging to individual decision-making makes people have a kind of power, and they will feel 'This is my life, and I can control it.’ So they don’t have to face that great sense of hopelessness. They may not be able to accept the kind of helplessness of ‘We did it but it may be futile,’ and will just scold other women and tell them not to marry to wake them up (which is a good idea) as a way to compensate for the feeling of hopelessness.” “Torn apart:” “Equality fairies” and “extreme feminism” In recent years, Xiao Hua, who studied at a foreign university, has increasingly felt the tearing apart of internet feminist groups in China. She confessed that she could no longer keep up with all the new malicious words used online and needed to look up “equality fairies.” “Extreme feminism” also often expresses dissatisfaction with academic circles, thinking that they are too idealistic and whitewashed by the patriarchy. Recently, Xiao Hua personally experienced the struggle within feminism. The actor Zheng Shuang was exposed for a surrogacy scandal in the United States, and discussions on surrogacy overwhelmed the discussion for a while, mostly with the slogan “oppose all forms of surrogacy” including condemnation of Zheng Shuang. When Xiao Hua was interviewed on this topic, she mentioned that she felt we should break away from the single narrative condemning and understand more complex aspects of the issue. For example, those choosing surrogacy often are couples faced with infertility issues, and the general expectation and pressure for fertility is placed on women. She was very cautious when she spoke, fearing that she would be regarded as a “supporter of surrogacy” by netizens. But she still received a lot of criticism. “It feels that many people have never even read the article, forcing the conversation to start over from scratch,” she expressed. Coincidentally, in 2019, sex science blogger “Queen C-Cup” was accused by another feminist KOL, “Broken Sweetheart Little Crocodile Maomao,” for supporting surrogacy because she reposted a survey focusing on surrogacy, and the former spent tens of thousands of yuan in the end fighting a lawsuit to protect her reputation. Xiao Zhou believes that healthy and sustainable discussions of women's rights issues cannot take shape on social media. Online discussions are irrelevant to investigating viewpoints and are more about fighting over outcomes and standing with your team. The ultimate profiteers are the platform and the capitalists: “whoever wins, trending things will go up.” This makes Xiao Meili regretful. She met “Broken Sweetheart Little Crocodile Maomao” a few years ago. “At that time, I still had the feeling that we were all fellow travelers on a journey together. Later, we began to scorn ‘equality fairies’ on Weibo, but I still felt that there was a fundamental gap between us.” In Xiao's view, feminists should not divide into camps and distinguish between enemies and friends. She is more willing to try to understand the situation behind the demands and methods of different feminist factions. In the “Douban Sister” group, the group rules state, “The purpose is to unite, not to split. We welcome everyone to discuss controversial issues of women with different standpoints.” But Xiao Ye, a group administrator, believes that tolerance is difficult to practice. “With regard to tolerance, I gradually realized that there was no such thing. Most of the administrators in the group belonged to “extreme feminists.” Other administrators would think that people like “married donkeys” should not be in the group or be immediately kicked out.” Xiao Ye said that they had also thought about unity, but ultimately the disappointment tore them apart. “Humans are emotional and rational animals. Even if she still wants to keep to her rational thinking, however, various experiences in everyday life will prevent her from joining us.” The group leader Xiao Qi predicted this tearing apart before establishing the group, deliberately registering an account without personal information. “It’s true that internet scolding battles will eventually develop into digging for more information about a person.” Xiao Zhou believes that the difficulties of personal resistance to the structure is incomprehensible by women who have not yet entered society or who are privileged. They will demand other feminists for a solution to the problem from their own perspective. “The anxiety of many young women is a worry about their future life, but they have not yet entered life, so they don’t know what life will be like. They look at it from a defensive posture—what they need is a complete solution. But when you are really immersed, you will find that there is no complete solution. What is needed is often a compromise.” On the other hand, Xiao Qi believes that the chaos of online feminist ecology is conducive to discussion. “Because after all, the internet is now the only voice of women's rights in China. The more the interests of all parties surface, the more women can rise to the surface.” “Blocked accounts” and “Pink feminism” Along with the growth of incivility in online feminism is the systemic censorship and account blocking. In 2018, after seeing frequent occurrences of gender-based violence, a group of musical fans filmed a video for “Cell Block Tango,” adapted from the musical “Chicago”, which received a lot of attention, but it was also quickly scrubbed from the internet. In addition, it is not uncommon for feminists to be blocked, Lin Maomao among them, and posts discussing women's rights to be censored and removed. In the early years, Chinese feminists who promoted institutional changes were called out as “foreign interventionists.” In recent years, cooperating with the system and proactively showing goodwill to the government has become the new ecology of online feminism. In October 2020, Xi Jinping delivered a speech at the United Nations General Assembly to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Beijing World Conference on Women, stating that “protecting women's rights must be elevated to the determination of the nation.” Many people regarded it as an official recognition of “punching.” The quotation has been reposted extensively on Weibo, and among the re-posters includes Liang Yu, who initiated the “Sisters Peace of Mind Campaign.” As a public welfare worker with 500,000 Weibo fans, Liang Yu often advocates female patriotism and calls on the motherland to pay attention to the contribution of women: “patriotic, brave, courageous, tough, careful, and wise female workers!” She mentioned that she was once asked by the media why there were male volunteers on her team. “My answer is always a general reply: ‘Because they are all Chinese.... As a patriotic Chinese citizen, is it so difficult to understand what it is to help other Chinese if you are able to? ... It’s not good for you to look down on Chinese men so subconsciously. It’s normal for Chinese people to help other Chinese people.’” She has also praised Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong. Carrie Lam’s decision-making during the Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Bill Movement that brought international attention to Hong Kong’s human rights and legal issues. Her Weibo praised Carrie Lam’s “resilience and courage as a ‘female worker,’” but this was deleted after the controversy arose. She also called for the praise of female army soldiers in Tibet. Her political attitude is representative of many Chinese online feminist KOLs. But even Liang Yu cannot escape the accusations of “foreign influence.” Recently, she posted on Weibo, saying that because she did not express her mourning for the four Chinese soldiers who died in the Sino-Indian border conflict, some people attacked her, saying that “since I didn’t post on Weibo commemorating the martyrs [people say] that I hate the country and am influenced by foreign forces.” “In itself, we’re able to stand up and do this kind of public welfare. Everyone is like these fighters, with an extremely sincere and enthusiastic sense of patriotism. Without the support of this patriotic enthusiasm, we can't do these things... I rely on it. I only do things that are beneficial to society and use my actions to build my beloved motherland. I don't accept this kind of blackmail.” Liang Yu wrote. Xiao Ye believes that she is a “pink feminist,” an “identity that believes in patriotism and feminism, and that the two blend together.” For her, feminism and patriotism are not contradictory, and “patriotism” is not a narrative strategy that allows women's rights to gain room for discussion, but a recognition from the heart. In her daily life, she often expresses her patriotic determination to the people around her. In her opinion, “I stand on the land where I was born and raised... No matter how my nationality changes, I am from a yellow race, and this can’t be changed, so I recognize my country from the bottom of my heart.” “We need to develop a feminist approach with Chinese characteristics.” She believes, “To be honest, we come from Marxism. From this position, we are superior to the capitalist state system.” Xiao Ye believes in socialist theory you find “a fountainhead of feminism.” In socialist countries, there is structural oppression of various genders because the decision makers are mainly men, who “after a while sit on their asses.” Xiao Ye is not unaware of the official roadblocks of the feminist movement in the early years. “This issue is the problem faced by the feminist movement. What saddened me the most is the time when the #MeToo movement was banned. For this reason, I also specifically sought out the American television drama called “The Good Fight” to seek out some ideas that I couldn’t solve.” She said that this drama made her feel that the country was actually uncultivated land. “I won’t deny the whole nation because of small domestic troubles. But I am not an absolute advocate who puts national interests above individual interests; my thinking has always been modest. I hope that our efforts can reach a balanced point. What I am doing now is continuing to speak up, influence more women, make genuine rights holders face our needs head-on, and make those patriarchs fear us.” She also feels that the Western feminist movement is not applicable to China: “First of all, we are not allowed to demonstrate. Only when demonstrations are not reportable to the police will we think that is when it is disrupting social order. We also have differences from the West in participating in and discussing political systems.” Xiao Meili feels that she understands the situation of pink feminism. “Women's rights now face the stigmatization as a 'foreign influence.’ Under this kind of attack, some people may choose to surrender to avoid this kind of assault. One aspect of that thinking is that ‘even little pinks can be feminist.’ This is not necessarily a bad thing. It may also be a manifestation of growth within the feminist community.” But in Xiao Meili's view, such surrender is ultimately useless. To achieve gender equality, freedom of speech is indispensable. The censorship of women’s rights has not only directly suppressed the development of space for women’s rights in China, but also brought about division within the feminist community. “In (the development of feminist ideology), the gaps are particularly serious. These people who are very involved in feminist issues today maybe don't know about.... a women’s rights incident that occurred two years ago or even 10 years ago. It is difficult for people to have context, having someone who had been there before, understand what has already been done, and then have a historical observation of the movement. Now people can only see a little bit of the current situation.” As for the specific development of the envisioned “socialist feminist rights with Chinese characteristics,” Xiao Ye said that she hasn't thought about it quite yet. One thing is certain; women are going to enter the workplace: “I can only say that you must enter into the workforce and then you can get assistance from work instead of getting married or being a housewife. Only then will we have hope.” Tiaotiao is a little pessimistic about the future: “I believe that this day of equality between men and women will definitely come, but it is impossible to see while I’m still alive. It makes me a little sad; why I can’t live for a few hundred years?” But she also has decided to stick to punching. “Good ideas and concepts are highly transmittable. I’ve also gotten information on the internet and seen the changes from a person who had no sense of feminism but has gradually become a ‘female puncher.’ Amidst all the noise, maybe a few words have inspired several people and changed the trajectory of their lives. Isn’t that a beautiful idea?” “On one hand, the feminist community continues to expand, and the voice of feminist anger is louder than ever. On the other hand, the resolution of feminist issues is not enough for women, and there is no possibility of institutionalization and commitment for these ideals. These two phenomena have come into a state of tension. It has led to strong anger and there is no way to alleviate it. Under these circumstances, feminist attacks have been stronger than ever,” feminist activist Lu Pin explained in the podcast “A Little Pastoral” created by Xiao Meili. (Xiao Zhou, Tiaotiao, Xiao Ye, and Xiao Qi are all pseudonyms.)
