Does China Have a Feminist Movement from the Left?

Abstract

A 2012 protest against domestic violence in Beijing. PC: Media Monitor for Women Network Yige DONG While most international media have applauded the latest waves of feminist activism in China, some observers have pointed out that these women's voices and actions are biased towards urban middle-class interests and out of touch with the suffering of women in the migrant workforce or other lower social strata. But is the Young Feminist Activism phenomenon in China really a largely elite urban project? In this essay, Yige Dong argues that while the feminist upsurge in China shares the common anti-authoritarian features of many urban, middle-class-oriented movements, it is by no means confined within the urban elite sphere. Moreover, the present gender-cum-class structure in China is more than ever conducive to feminist forces from the left.