In China, the struggle against sexual harassment and assault is a battle fought not only against the perpetrators but also against the state’s censorship. While the global #MeToo movement has empowered countless women to share their stories and demand accountability, in China, the act of speaking up often leads to digital erasure. There is a gap between men being excused for criminal and sexual offences and women who are being silenced for exposing them. This gender discrepancy is enforced by the country’s control over the media.
The #MeToo movement started in China in 2017, when a female student publicly accused her professor of sexual harassment on Weibo. Her post quickly went viral, which promoted the movement in China, which was eventually met with censorship. Hashtags related to #MeToo were temporarily blocked across the country to prevent a widespread movement from gaining traction.
The lengths that Chinese activists go to bypass these controls show how determined they are to overcome their country’s censorship rules and control over the media. When the #MeToo hashtags were blocked, women in China adopted alternative phrases and tags. One example is the use of #Ricebunny. This combination of emojis, a bowl of rice, and a bunny might seem random, but the reason behind it is that mǐ (rice) and tù (bunny) together sound like “Me Too”. This allowed women to continue speaking out about their experiences and prevent their voices from being silenced.
The #MeToo movement can steer public opinion and expose systemic injustices, directly challenging this façade of living in a harmonious society under firm state control. When women speak out about harassment, they are demanding accountability from individuals, but with the power of the Great Firewall, it’s tough to do so without its express approval.
This suppression goes beyond individual accusations to the bigger feminist movement, and it often comes with severe consequences. One example before the #MeToo movement was the case of the Feminist Five. The Feminist Five are a group of young women, including Li Maizi and Wang Man, who were arrested and detained in March 2015, just before International Women’s Day.
They were arrested because they were planning a campaign to distribute stickers on public transportation to raise awareness about sexual harassment. They were held for 37 days on charges of picking quarrels and provoking trouble, a common charge among activists in China. They were eventually released on bail following significant international outcry, and this brought awareness to the issue that campaigns in the country for women’s rights could lead to repression.
More recently, #MeToo journalist and activist Sophia Huang Xueqin and labour activist Wang Jianbing were detained in 2021. They were eventually sentenced to five and three-and-a-half years in prison in June 2024. However, they just hosted informal gatherings where young people discussed social issues. These cases show that women’s rights advocates in China are seen as a “threat” to the nation.
Women, especially after countless attempts to speak out, are often forced into being silenced, showing the systemic oppression and problems in the country. The fear of having their accounts suspended, their posts deleted, or even facing more severe consequences like being jailed makes them second-guess their decision to speak out. This censorship issue affects survivors, making them feel alone and hindering their ability to seek justice or support from other people.
The silencing of women who speak up about sexual harassment and assault in China is an injustice. It not only prevents victims from their right to justice and healing, but also lets perpetrators get away with their actions. The persistence of women to get their word out by finding a loophole, like the use of tags like #ricebunny, shows how Chinese women are fighting for their voices to be heard, even as the state wants to keep them silenced. We start to question if the fight for accountability and equality in China will forever be waged in the Great Firewall.
