Rebel Justice - changing the way you see justice
What is justice? Who does it serve? Why should you care?
When we think about justice, we think about it as an abstract, something that happens to someone else, somewhere else. Bad people. But justice and the law regulate every aspect of our interactions with each other, with organisations, with the government.
We never think about it until it impacts our lives, or that of someone close.
News, views and trues from The View Magazine, a social justice and campaigning platform for the rights of women in the justice system.
Our guests are women with lived experience of the justice system whether as victims or women who have committed crimes; people at the forefront of civic action who put their lives on the line to demand a better world such as maligned climate justice campaigners.
We ask them to share their insight into how we might repair a broken and harmful system, with humanity and dignity.
We also speak with people who are in the heart of of the justice system creating important change, climate activists, judges, barristers, human rights campaigners, mental health advocates, artists and healers.
The View believes that we can rebuild lives with hope, and successfully reintegrate people who have caused harm or been harmed, through the restoring nature of art and creativity, open dialogue and - love.
Rebel Justice - changing the way you see justice
Episode 28: #MeToo in China, how young Chinese women activists are highlighting misogyny and harassment through their art and campaigns
This week, we bring you personal perspectives on recent gender violence issues in China from the curators' team of the #MeToo in China exhibition in the UK, a group of young artists who advocate for Chinese women's justice and rights, narrating the stories of sexual violence survivors and feminists from different social backgrounds in China.
Additional information for reports mentioned in the podcast:
Case of Jinyao Liu: https://cn.nytimes.com/china/20191213/liu-jingyao-interview-richard-liu/dual/
Case of Xuzhou: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60194080
Case of Tangshan: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-61878122
#Metooinchina_exhibition_uk: https://linktr.ee/metooinchina
For more unmissable content from The View sign up here
Welcome to the View Magazine's Rebel Justice Podcast. This week we bring you personal perspectives on recent gender violence issues in China. From the curators team of the Me Too in China exhibition in the uk, a group of young artists who advocate for Chinese women's justice and rights narrating the stories of sexual violence survivors and feminists from different social backgrounds. In China, the view is the only platform by and for women in the justice system where by amplifying their stories, we shine a light on injustice, gender inequality, and abusive systems. Content warning, This podcast contains content related to sexual violence and violence against women, which may be traumatizing. Please listen with care. In recent news from Tan SH province in China, several women were beaten by random man at a restaurant after rejecting a man's advances. Not long ago, a woman called Cha me in csu, who is the mother of eight children, was chained by her husband at home for years. As Chinese women's stories finally reach the West and are getting the coverage they deserve. We spoke with the team behind the Me Too and China exhibition. We have read out Me Too and China activists answers to respect their safety and to protect them and address the real concerns about death threats and violence. Thank you for listening. Could you briefly introduce yourself and tell us why you curated this exhibition?
Speaker 2:We are a group of young UK based Chinese feminists who support the Me Too movement and Chinese feminism. We hope that by doing this exhibition in the uk, more people could know about endeavors of Chinese MeToo activists and more transnational connections and support networks will be built. We also hope that those individuals and groups who are pushing the Chinese fairness movement forward can inspire more people so that this movement persist.
Speaker 1:Rice Bunny pronounced MeToo is a nickname given to the Me Too campaign by Chinese social media users in Mandarin. A rice bunny is a white woman who is exclusively attracted to and prefers to date Asian men. Chinese women are meant to be docile and obedient just like the rice bunny. However, your exhibition depicts the struggle of the bunny movement. What made the bunny and also Chinese women pick up the fight and create the exhibition?
Speaker 2:The stereotype of Chinese women being docile and obedient is associated with social expectations towards women in East Asia. This kind of gender discipline on women is like invisible chains on our necks, which are just an uncomfortable. However, our shared experience of being women in this context, being the insulted, the invisible, the oppressed, the objectified, also connectors. It is because we can share this suffering and feel the pain of others that we are able to understand and stand up for each other. We are inspired by those pioneering feminists in Chinese history like Kja and<inaudible>, as well as our fellow feminist activists, friends and scholars, Chenery waiting, et cetera, whose powerful actions and voices lead us to understand gender issues in our society and fight for a better future for ourselves and the other oppressed wants. Beside the inspiration from other feminists, our activities against social injustice, our willingness to act on it, our awareness of the problems on gender issues, especially gender violence, sexual harassment and rape being part of it, and our connections with other feminist groups who set up the exhibition elsewhere in the world made us create the exhibition.
Speaker 1:What are the cultural and other differences between China's Me Too and the Me Too movement in the West
Speaker 2:In China? Me Too. Activists have to face severe challenges because of censorship. They have to creatively navigate through the system to speak up and push forward this movement, the first Me Too cases were reported in a university. Since then, universities have been an important battlefield in the Chinese Me Too movement. It has no grassroot movement with without central figures.
Speaker 1:How does it feel to work in a team where everyone is highlighting the Me Too movement,
Speaker 2:Safe and supportive? All of us understand the importance of the exhibition and we try to contribute to it in any way we can. We're all volunteering for the exhibition. When someone is taking on too much work, there is someone who will show support and care and take some burden off that person's shoulder. We have known each other through other community care workshops, reading sessions, and even hiking together. So this team is quite a safe space for us.
Speaker 1:What's the highlight from the exhibition? What has been the greatest lesson?
Speaker 2:This exhibition presents the stories of the Me Too movement from different angles from an individual perspective by exhibiting several private objects such as an umbrella and a t-shirt, belonging to individual sexual assault survivors alongside the captions of their personal stories. The exhibition presents individual experiences about sexual violence. It also uses several photographic works of chichi to retell the lives and traumatic memories of survivors of sexual violence from a collective perspective, this exhibition showcases a brief history of anti-sexual harassment activism in China that offers the audience anal impression and understanding of the Me Too movement. In China, the greatest lesson we found many supportive comments from our audience. There are many Chinese me too movement supporters in the uk. We were glad to know that this exhibition has been helpful to them.
Speaker 1:What do you say to the people who have been claiming the exhibition is all fake news?
Speaker 2:We want to point out that our society has a double standard with men and women in terms of credibility. We have seen many men light when they were accused of sexually harassing others. However, they never faced similar judgments as women did. Setting a very high standard of truth when women speak about their experiences, deterred them from speaking up. Fake news has been used as a tool to attack the Me Too movement. We wish those people who claim materials in the exhibition are fake news. Could try to think from the standpoint of those sexual violence survivors who have been fairly stigmatized in the society. We should practice our active listening skills and be more supportive when people expose their traumatic experiences.
Speaker 1:In the case of Tan Chan who was attacked in broad daylight, do you think women's rights are being rolled back?
Speaker 2:The tanha assault is a typical and not a singular case, but one of many other fides or the intentional killing of women or girls cuz they are female or gender based violence cases that happen in China. Were not exposed to the public to such an extent. The attitude of those male perpetrators towards women is not uncommon in China, which sexually objectify women and does not respect women sexual dignity.
Speaker 1:In the case of Tan Chan, even if the victims are perfect victims, they cannot escape from blame and shame. Feminists who speak up for victims are accused of creating antagonism between men and women. What do you think of the stigmatization of feminism? By misogynistic thinking in China,
Speaker 2:Those men in the tan assault violently acted upon their misogynist attitudes towards women when they were rejected by a woman who they wanted to harass or even threaten to rape. The tongue, shine, assault and other gender based violence are rooted it in rape culture and misogynist beliefs in our society. If these are not tackled and changed, we will never progress. After the assault happened, many feminists raised their voices and spoke up about the systemic gender based violence behind the case, which educated more people on the systemic issues and the toxic cultural soil. The violence is rooted in. Some people talked about what men could do to help with these gender issues and other mentioned the importance of active bystand training cuz there were some passive bystanders in tan assault. But these articles were censored and removed from view soon after, people used their wisdom and some extracts from those articles have been circulating on the internet in different forms, be picture or pdf. All these efforts Chinese feminists made are not meaningless and Chinese women shared their anger and showed even more solidarity to each other about this cause women's rights were not rolled back, but the government failed to respond to the systemic gender issues in the tan assault and the censorship they put on the public discussions around this topic showed their ignorance and problems. There is no perfect victim. The discourse of perfect victim is shifting our attention from the violence itself and it's deputed problem of gender based violence towards individual victims. Chinese feminist have been active and creatively started a campaign called There is no perfect victim to fight back against the stigmatization of Victims. This campaign has been successful in educating the public about rape culture and engaging more people joining the feminist movement.
Speaker 1:And this concludes our podcast for today. Here at The View, we oppose gender violence across the world where women's rights continue to be oppressed and where violence against women is reaching unprecedented levels. If you witness abuse or harassment, be an ally and call it out. Check out bystander training, but always remember to keep yourself safe too. Thank you to the women of Me too, China, and for the bravery and reporting. They say sunlight is the best disinfectant. Through exposing and reporting acts of violence against women, we can help vaccinate against this new pandemic. Thank you to the producers Oliver Free. Be and Chloe ta for the voiceover of the Me too activists. See below for more information on reported cases described in the podcast to support the view, check out the links below to subscribe to our quarterly magazine, Donate or volunteer check out our website. Thank you for listening.