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sophiethomsett 's review for:
Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China
by Leta Hong Fincher
This incredibly well-researched and concise book is a small window into the myriad ways the state apparatus in China attempts to crush feminist activism. What really makes it such a gut punch is the personal testimonies of the Feminist Five and the small cadre of feminist activists, human rights lawyers, NGO workers and volunteers who have risked everything and faced unimaginable harassment, humiliation and lengthy prison sentences for daring to stand up for the rights of women in China.
It’s hard to say which story shocked and enraged me the most - the female civil service job applicants having to undergo invasive gynaecological exams; the feminist activists landed with prison sentences for marking International Women’s Day by simply handing out stickers against sexual harassment; the slap in the face of the government framing its offer to fund the removal of IUDs, inserted against women’s will during the one child policy, as benevolent.
I hope Hong-Fincher is working on another book, or at least an update to this one - Since Betraying Big Brother was published in 2018, whilst there have been small glimmers of hope such as the recent policy allowing unmarried women in Sichuan province to register births, of course this is out of pure economic necessity. At a time when those who dare to speak out against gender based violence and discrimination, like Sophie Huang Xueqin, languish in black jails, and Uighur women are forcibly sterilised by the thousands in Xinjiang, it’s hard to believe that there is much hope for a more equal future for women in China.
It’s hard to say which story shocked and enraged me the most - the female civil service job applicants having to undergo invasive gynaecological exams; the feminist activists landed with prison sentences for marking International Women’s Day by simply handing out stickers against sexual harassment; the slap in the face of the government framing its offer to fund the removal of IUDs, inserted against women’s will during the one child policy, as benevolent.
I hope Hong-Fincher is working on another book, or at least an update to this one - Since Betraying Big Brother was published in 2018, whilst there have been small glimmers of hope such as the recent policy allowing unmarried women in Sichuan province to register births, of course this is out of pure economic necessity. At a time when those who dare to speak out against gender based violence and discrimination, like Sophie Huang Xueqin, languish in black jails, and Uighur women are forcibly sterilised by the thousands in Xinjiang, it’s hard to believe that there is much hope for a more equal future for women in China.