INTERSECTIONS | April 24, 2025
A rundown of issues, analysis, and must-read stories about marginalized communities in the Sinophone landscape.
Dear subscribers,
Welcome to Intersections, our monthly Lingua Sinica bulletin highlighting the stories of marginalized communities in the Chinese-language media space — from women’s issues and feminism to queer perspectives, the struggles of disabled people, and more.
In this edition I delve into the Taiwanese public reaction to Netflix's "Adolescence"; how the perception of sexual consent is shifting in China through a landmark rape case involving an engaged couple; how a luxury hotel manager practices grassroots feminism in a Chinese small city and much more!
Stay tuned for a special edition of Intersections next Wednesday, where I examine ethical guidelines in reporting sexual abuse cases, featuring conversations with Taiwanese journalists about the challenges of covering sensitive stories without sensationalism.
With that in mind, I’ll say again what I always say — that I’d love to make this a conversation. So please reach out!
Dalia Parete
CMP Researcher
dalia@chinamediaproject.org
OFFICIAL FRAMING
The CCP’s POV on women
Founded in 1984, China Women's News (中国妇女报) is the official newspaper of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), China's official women's rights organization. The newspaper insists in a statement of its mission that it aims to "sensitize society to women and women to society, advocate gender equality, and promote women's progress and development." The paper's clear propaganda role, however, often takes center stage, shoving women's issues into the background. Each month, I survey the paper's front page to see what this mission looks like in practice.
First, my monthly rundown of front-page coverage
Above the Fold
Looking at a week's worth of the China Women's News front pages from April 16 to April 23, it's clear that more general and government news supersedes women's issues. As usual, articles on women, their stories, and relevant governmental policies rarely make it to A1.
During this period, most headlines were devoted to Xi Jinping's tour across Southeast Asia. Coverage prominently featured Xi Jinping's meeting with his Malaysian and Vietnamese counterparts.
For example, the April 16 issue shows Xi with Malaysian leadership against the backdrop of both countries' flags, while the April 17 issue shows Xi speaking at a podium with Party flags prominently displayed, as well as greeting officials upon arrival.
Examining the lower sections of these front pages reveals some content that might be more relevant to women's issues. While the April 16 issue does include an article about pregnancy-related workplace discrimination and another about elderly care service reforms, these stories are positioned below the extensive coverage of Xi's diplomatic activities.
This page arrangement reflects how, even in a newspaper ostensibly dedicated to women's issues, political content dominates. In most cases, as these examples show, reporting from official media on women includes little of real relevance to women's actual concerns. The front pages serve primarily as platforms for disseminating the Party's core political messages and reinforcing Xi Jinping's central role, revealing the CCP's true priorities when it comes to women's representation.
IN MOTION
Toxic Lessons
Taiwanese viewers discuss and dissect the dark psychology behind Netflix's "Adolescence," finding universal truths in a British drama about toxic masculinity.
Since the British mini-series "Adolescence" (混沌少年時) aired last month, the four-episode psychological drama, which tells the gripping story of a 13-year-old Jamie, arrested for the alleged murder of a female classmate, has quickly become a global phenomenon. In Taiwan, the Netflix series has held strong among the five most-watched shows for weeks running.
So what has the reception looked like in Taiwan's media and society?
In Taiwan's mainstream media, conversations on teen radicalization, the so-called "manosphere" — not a concept that has been readily translated into Chinese — and related concepts are just starting to take place. By contrast, discussions on social media show a more nuanced engagement and understanding of the societal problems that provide the show’s foundation.
In a notable exception to the more superficial treatment in many mainstream media, the Chinese-language edition of Harper's Bazaar ran a breakdown by writer Sylvia Cheng that dove into many of the key themes and tensions addressed in the series for a Taiwanese public not necessarily well versed in such issues. Cheng explores how the series highlights the troubling journey from online radicalization to real-life violence, especially through Jamie's unsettling therapy sessions that lay bare his objectification of women. Cheng draws connections between Jamie's behavior and broader societal issues, pointing out how coded language and patriarchal norms influence the actions of young people. "If parents, teachers, and society had recognized school bullying and coded language culture earlier (...) perhaps this tragedy could have been prevented,” Cheng writes.
On Taiwanese social media, especially Threads, users have focused more on the intricate power dynamics depicted in the series.
One user highlighted how the series cleverly uses the lens of juvenile delinquency to shed light on more systemic problems tied to our society's patriarchal roots: "On the surface, 'Adolescence' talks about juvenile crime, but it's really addressing the toxic effects of patriarchal structures." The commenter further explores how patriarchal norms create different yet equally damaging patterns for both male and female youth, noting that boys often become aggressive when their sense of entitlement is challenged.
Another user examines Jamie's relationship with his female therapist, noting that it feels more like a power struggle than a series of constructive conversations. Jamie, they write, doesn't truly respect her as a professional; instead, he views her as just another woman to exert control over. "For him, this conversation isn't cooperation, but a power game," they write.
RIGHTS WATCH
Engaging With Consent
A landmark rape conviction in China challenges the traditional notion that engagement implies automatic consent.
A rape case involving an engaged couple in Shanxi province has sparked nationwide debate after the appeals court upheld the conviction this month, affirming that engagement does not imply sexual consent. The case revolves around an incident that occurred on May 2, 2023, just one day after an engagement ceremony, when a man surnamed Xi raped his fiancée despite her clear objections to premarital sex. The Shanxi Datong Intermediate People's Court upheld the original three-year prison sentence on April 16, 2025, rejecting Xi's appeal and reinforcing the principle that sexual consent cannot be presumed based on engagement status.
This landmark case has highlighted tensions between traditional marriage customs and modern legal standards protecting women's rights in China. In an interview with People's Daily, published through its news app, the presiding judge firmly stated, "Sexual relations with a woman must always respect her wishes, whether the couple is engaged or not." They explained that the crime had violated the woman's "inviolable right to determine her own sexual behavior according to her own will."
The Paper (澎湃), an online news outlet under the official Shanghai United Media Group, reported that some netizens had expressed skepticism about the victim's rape accusations, suggesting they followed a dowry dispute. However, court evidence seemed to thoroughly debunk these claims, according to state media reports — with a strong case reportedly built on DNA testing, physical injuries, surveillance footage, and recorded confessions.
When searching this week for news about the case on China’s popular Weibo platform, users are apparently told that "no results can be found." However, older posts remain available, even if they cannot be found directly through the search function. This selective digital censorship suggests the platform might have been instructed to cordon off discussion of the topic, and prevent fresh searches, in order to limit online debate and possibly direct users toward state media coverage of the case.
Still, some hashtags, including "Bride price doesn't equal sexual consent" (#给彩礼不等于性同意应成常识), continued to gain traction this week, showcasing growing public interest in the story. The court's decision has been widely praised for challenging harmful assumptions that payment of a "bride price" (彩礼) — a traditional monetary gift from the groom to the bride's family — automatically grants sexual rights over a woman.
HERSTORY
Small Town Feminism
Kang Ti chronicles life as a women's rights advocate in China's conservative heartland while managing a luxury hotel.
Since 2023, Kang Ti (康提), a "post-90s" writer born in 1995, has sought with her "County Town Ladies" (县城贵妇) series to explore what it is like to be a woman living in a Chinese small town. Her column has been featured on the WeChat account “Daily People” (每日人物), which has gathered nearly 2.5 million followers on Weibo and over 30,000 fans on Bilibili — where its motto is “Recording ten thousand kinds of lives on the internet.”
Formerly employed in the Pearl River Delta area of Guangdong province, a hub of manufacturing in China's south that has long been a destination for migrant workers, Kang describes herself as a world traveler who now resides in an unspecified town in central China (中部小城), where she manages brand communications at a luxury hotel while raising twins.
In her latest piece, Kang showcases a grassroots approach to feminism by leading an all-female department and focusing on fostering equality in the workplace. For example, when her male colleagues use sexist phrases like "just like a woman" (跟个女的一样) as a jab, she explains that she makes an effort to correct them. She describes another case of a colleague who faces possible dismissal because she is pregnant, to which Kang responds by challenging the collective blame in the workplace directed at the woman, and at women generally, for problems that are structural in nature — arguing that childcare is the responsibility of the entire society.
Kang also tries, she says, to introduce feminist literature to the workplace. Books she has pushed insistently include French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex (第二性) and Japanese sociologist Chizuko Ueno's Misogyny (厌女), which analyzes the core of misogyny latent in a male society, drawing from the Japanese context. Still, Kang writes, she finds that daily actions are generally far more persuasive than theories. When a colleague needs flexible work hours to care for her child, for example, Kang simply reassures her with a basic understanding of her predicament, saying, "I'm not here to manage you, but to help lighten your load." Kang's column and its stories offer an interesting look at locally rooted feminist thought and practice at the heart of China's still quite traditional hinterland. One reader commented enthusiastically: "This woman is so cool. It's amazing to see this kind of thinking even in a small country town. Thumbs up!"
VOICES OF RESILIENCE
Unrecognized Bonds
Yang Yang reveals the "double precarity" of navigating queer partnerships in a society that refuses to recognize them.
Over the weekend, Singapore-based Initium Media (端傳媒) published an intimate examination of LGBTQ+ relationships in Hong Kong written by Yang Yang (央陽), a gay academic whose career requires frequent relocation. In his essay, Yang explores the dual challenges of being both gay and professionally nomadic — what he calls "double precarity" (雙重脆危性).
Beyond the life in motion, being gay in a place where partners lack the proper legal rights to manage such matters as funeral arrangements or inheritances means a constant struggle to navigate the basic rituals of life. Yang's friend, he writes, has a blunt way of summing up the challenge of maintaining links to tradition and society in this restrictive environment. He calls it “having someone handle your remains" (有人幫你收屍). In Hong Kong’s LGBTQ+ community, these existential issues are ever-present. As Yang notes, they received greater attention last year as the Hong Kong film All Shall Be Well (從今以後), directed by Ray Yeung (杨曜恺), won a coveted Teddy Prize on its premiere at the Berlinale and made the rounds on the global film festival circuit.
In his piece for Initium, Yang describes how his experiences with long-distance and open relationships have led him to identify what he calls "social death" (社會性死亡) — a condition where non-traditional relationships become socially invisible. "No one is really interested in understanding what the relation is truly about," Yang writes, "just that it does not conform to society."
Despite these challenges, Yang's essay reveals how members of Hong Kong's LGBTQ+ community create meaningful connections in the face of systematic exclusion, while still aspiring to certain traditional milestones. "I want a car and a house," he confesses in the piece, highlighting the complex interplay between rejecting some social norms while embracing others.
DO GOOD
Charity in the Age of Influencers
How a Chinese influencer's women's health charity unraveled amid accusations of self-promotion and exploitation.
Chinese social media influencer Liang Yu (梁钰), whose charity for rural girls has seen its 5.4 million yuan in funding frozen for nearly six months, stands accused by former volunteers of using philanthropy primarily to boost her personal profile and follower count — a controversy that has spilled out into China's media this month.
"Walk With Her" (予她同行) was an initiative aimed at promoting menstrual health education and supplying sanitary products to girls in rural China. Launched by the Lingshan Charity Foundation and led by Liang, the project began during the 2020 pandemic with a collective movement to provide essential sanitary products to female healthcare workers. That effort delivered over 610,000 sanitary items to 205 hospitals, benefiting more than 80,000 women, according to media reports at the time.
The success catapulted Liang into international recognition. She was invited to Girl Up, a global summit sponsored by the United Nations Foundation, and even spoke at the APEC Women's Leadership Forum.
But allegations surfaced in August 2024 when several volunteers published detailed posts online documenting specific incidents of misconduct. Former team members accused Liang of exploiting their labor while building her personal brand. They also cited troubling interactions with rural students, including an incident where Liang told girls whose parents were concerned about a Shanghai trip: "Don't let your parents become obstacles in your way." Other volunteers who accompanied Liang to rural schools reported discomfort with how she introduced entrepreneur friends as "female bosses earning millions" to impoverished students.
One volunteer identified as Le Le (乐乐), who edited promotional videos of Liang for minimal compensation, told Shanghai's The Paper that she spent countless hours editing "frame by frame," far exceeding the maximum four hours of daily volunteer work that could be compensated at the rate of 7.5 yuan per hour. She had been "emotionally impacted," and the work had affected her schoolwork. "We all worked so hard, but only she received the credit on social media," she said.
These public accusations prompted fundraising platforms to quickly freeze all funds as a precautionary measure. Since November 2024, with an estimated 5.4 million yuan still frozen and educational programs at a standstill, the rural students who were supposed to benefit have become the true victims of the controversy.
In her last post on Weibo, dated December 2024, Liang portrayed herself as a caring champion for rural girls' education and menstrual health, highlighting the stark contrast between her public persona and the allegations that have brought her organization to a financial halt. "What these girls need goes far beyond just sanitary pads," she wrote. "From the beginning, we have always believed in the importance of 'being present' for them, proving through our actions that even small changes are worth persistent effort."
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Harmful Language
For Taiwanese independent digital news outlet The Reporter (報導者), Hung Hsin-Ping (洪心平), the secretary-general of Taiwan’s League for Persons with Disabilities, wrote an in-depth commentary last month on a controversy involving insensitive language used by the country’s economic minister, Kuo Jyh-huei (郭智輝).
As Kuo discussed a possible deal on March 8 between the country's top chip maker, TSMC, and US-based Intel, he used the outdated term "Mongolism" (蒙古症) — a highly offensive term for "Down Syndrome" (唐氏症) — to compare the potential partnership to a problematic genetic combination. The minister suggested that a TSMC-Intel collaboration would produce substandard results, implying that combining the companies' technologies would create deficiencies similar to those he incorrectly associated with Down syndrome.
The term "Mongolism," which the medical community has long since moved away from, is inaccurate and carries huge stigma for the Down syndrome community. To make matters worse, Kuo claimed that Down syndrome is hereditary when, in fact, it is a chromosomal variation that can happen to any newborn. Even as the minister apologized for "causing distress to people with Down syndrome and businesses," the fallout was considerable and prompted fierce discussion in the media.
For Hung, merely condemning these discriminatory episodes is not enough. She distinguishes between "unintentional discrimination" (過失歧視) born from ignorance and "intentional discrimination" (故意歧視) that is perpetrated even after being pointed out. "Every person might unintentionally discriminate against others," she wrote in her reflection for The Reporter. "This often occurs because discrimination largely arises from a lack of awareness about the circumstances of other groups, which in turn leads to a deficit of empathy."
Ultimately, Hung argues that the path to reducing discrimination is not through punitive actions but through education and understanding. "The reason we want to reduce discrimination is not because discrimination itself is something unforgivable, but because reducing discrimination is how we implement equal rights," she writes. Hung advocates for a society where "different individuals can coexist harmoniously" (共存共融) and where everyone's existence is valued.
