BEIJING – A man walks into a barbecue restaurant in northern China and approaches the table of three women. He put his hand on someone’s back, who pushed him away. In response, he slapped her – then, along with several other men, brutally beat her and other women, hitting them with chairs, kicking and dragging them outdoors.
Security camera video of the brutal attack that took place in the city of Tangshan on Friday and hospitalized two women, went viral online and continues to dominate discussions in recent weeks. recent days. Women flooded social media with outrage and horror at the threat of sexual violence plaguing their daily lives. Just three of the many relevant hashtags on a Twitter-like platform Weibo have been viewed more than 4.8 billion times.
The intensity of the public response reflects growing attention to sexual harassment and gender-based violence in China, where conversations about equality are increasingly pervasive. But almost at the same time, other stories related to the gender perspective emerged. Some legal scholars say the case concerns public safety, not just women. State media outlets focused on the possibility of gang violence. Weibo has removed hundreds of accounts, accusing its users of trying to incite gender enmity.
Conflicting interpretations have highlighted how divisive feminism persists, both for the public and for a government that sees any independent activism as a potential challenge. vulnerable to its control.
Feminist activists have dismissal in courtt, to sue or arrest. State-owned media have describe #MeToo movement as a weapon for foreign powers to weaken China. Protect against domestic violence and sex ring is spot.
In January, Chinese social media similarly exploded after a woman was found chained in a shack in eastern Jiangsu province, and authorities later admitted she was a victim of human trafficking. But the officials also detained or censorship Some people have clicked for more information. Last year, tennis player Peng Shuai disappeared from public view after accused a former senior Chinese leader force her to have sex.
The attack in Tangshan caused a lot of outrage in part because the violence was so extreme. Feng Yuan, the head of Equalitya Beijing-based feminist group.
“The main reason he hit her was because his harassment didn’t produce the results he wanted. But many mainstream commentaries have not seen that,” said Ms. Feng. “The role of gender is being erased – this is what we need to fight against.”
Footage of the attack in Tangshan, a city of 7.5 million people, about 100 miles east of Beijing, shows a man entering the restaurant, where there are still many tables of diners, right at the door. before 3 a.m. when he approached the women’s table and laid his hand. Behind a person, she can be heard asking what he is doing and pushing him aside – then doing so a second time, after he tries to touch her again. He slapped her.
Her friends tried to intervene, but several men rushed in from outside and began hitting them, pushing them to the ground, throwing chairs and pulling one outside by hair, where they kicked her as she lay on the floor. ground.
One viewer called the police almost immediately, according to a interview she gave it to a state media. Around 6 p.m. Friday – 15 hours later, after the video went viral – local police ordered statement said that they had gone “all-out” to arrest the suspects, prompting some observers to accuse them of reacting only to public outcry. By Sunday, authorities said they had arrested seven men and two women. The suspects, who are in custody, could not be reached for comment.
Social media exploded with comments from users disparaging both the attackers and the broader sexist attitudes they said triggered them. They argue that authorities could immediately trace suspected coronavirus patients, but they appear unwilling to deploy the same resources to protect women. Many people note that women have taken all the usual advice on how to avoid harassment – they’ve been out in groups and in a well-lit public space – and still aren’t safe.
“What precautions does this world want me to take for them?” wrote the author of a The article is widely shared on WeChat.
A state media outlet, The Paper, check legal records of similar cases of men assaulting women after being rejected. It found a number of cases where men were sentenced to a week or two in detention. In some cases, men were detained for less time than women were in hospital.
But even as many people study the role of gender in attack, other opinions have dismissed its importance. Some social media users asked why the women were out so late. The state-owned Beijing Youth Daily, in an initial report, said the man was “conversing” with the woman, and then “both sides started pushing and shoving.”
editorials in other state media request improvement mentions public safety but does not address the specific dangers women face. Many focused on speculation that the attackers were gang members – a perception that gained traction as many Tangshan residents began sharing their own stories of being harassed by criminal groups. offense. On Sunday, the officials announced a two-week campaign against organized crime.
Others have been more explicit in denying the role of gender. “The perpetrators in similar cases did not specifically target women, but targeted all the vulnerable (including men),” said Lu Dewen, a sociology professor at Wuhan University, wrote in a blog post.
Huang Simin, a mainland rights lawyer who has worked with cases involving gender-based violence, said it was important to consider other factors such as gang violence or enforcement. incomplete legislation. But a lot of people can’t seem to see how the disregard for women can promote other factors, she said.
“We can analyze this case from many angles: cultural, regional, legal differences. But at the heart of all these angles is gender,” said Ms. Huang. “If we can’t even admit that, then this problem will be very difficult to solve.”
Because China has few laws that explicitly address gender-based violence, she added, many people don’t have a framework for understanding assault from a gender perspective. The assailants were charged with “fighting and disturbance” and intentional assault.
In a sign that the environment is often still hostile to feminist activism, some even say they sympathize with the cause, urging women to avoid being too confrontational.
Laura Yu, a Beijing-based lawyer originally from Tangshan, said the video infuriated her. But if women show undue anger, she says, they serve as food for men who see feminism as a threat to their own rights.
“It’s not that I want to compromise,” she said. “That’s if I don’t compromise, I can’t achieve anything.”
Some state-run media and nationalist commentators have long viewed feminists as extremists. Even as state media denounced the Tangshan attack, censors deleted several articles claiming the problems were systemic, including a link attack to the case of the woman chained in Jiangsu. Weibo speak that it closed more than 1,000 accounts, some of them for “inciting conflict between the sexes.”
And there are many more cases that never even received this level of attention, said feminist activist Ms. Feng.
“There were a lot of incidents that weren’t filmed,” she said. “Violence against women, whatever its form, in our society is really nothing new.”
Liu Yi, Joy Dong and Claire Fu research contributions.
