PROJECT 2 – the VOICE: female in China

What I did & How I feel…

WHY I choose this topic?

Gender inequality is not a new topic in China, due to some historical reasons, men and women are not equal. And these inequalities can be found in every aspect of life. In my childhood, the teachers always said: “Although you are doing well in your studies now, once the boys start studying they will immediately overtake you. “; and I was hurt at that time, but for now I know this is just the self-congratulation of a loser. And this is just a tip of the iceberg of discrimination experienced by an ordinary female during her grown up.

I believe that confidence is so important for people, we should all learn to love ourselves first before love others. I didn’t get hurt by my teachers’ words since I love myself and I know what she said is not the truth. However, some girls they don’t know that.

So, for me, as long as you are a female, as long as you suffered the gender inequality, you’re entitled to talk about feminist. No matter what your job is, what your education level is… it really doesn’t matter.

And the photo below is a poster from the last century, the characters below said: New things are coming up, and women can hold up half the sky. I believe this must be the first feminist slogan in China.

And I got my inspiration from lady 张桂梅 (Zhang Guimei).

She built the first free high school for girls, and this school is located in Huaping (which is belonged to Yunnan province, China). It’s a relatively poor area, and the people there that day didn’t realize the importance of education. Some parents didn’t allow their daughters to go to school, Zhang had to visit each of them and convince them to send their daughters to school to get an education. With her effort, 1,600 girls went to university and changed their life.

I was touched by her story, and I began to interested in the current situation of Chinese feminist. Feminist is a hot topic in China right now, but not every single person understand what it really is. And this made me feel that I can do something to change this situation.

Small Survey

So, in order to better understand the current situation of feminists in China, I decided to do a small survey with people living in the same community. During these days, I was a community volunteer who is helping collect people’s contact data for the COVID-19 test. And I used this opportunity to chat with people and convince them to take part in my small survey.

I designed a questionnaire that can be easily answer by “yes” or “no”, and posted it in a WeChat mini program.

From this chart we can see most people are from the age below 50, perhaps it’s a little bit difficult for elder people to take part in this WeChat survey.

Actions

Speak out loud on social media: create an online communication group, and till today it has 4,000 members.

Set up a weibo (Twitter in China) account: I named it girls_help_girls_bot

But this account was banned😹, and the guest service said this is because I post offending ads… I have no idea what it is tho.

This post reached the highest data I’ve ever had, it is about the brands whose customers are mainly female supporting the videosites that insult famale, and this post is to encouraging people stopping using this website.

Next Step: the VOICE

I found it’s really important to let your voice be heard. So, I decided to collect feminist voices online and offline, from artistic creation to real life.

• Girls help girls stories; collected and post in my account
• The attitude male group towards female group: online comments and from a news program, TV drama, also from interviews.
• The attitude of the female group towards the female group

If we don’t take actions, the future will never change.