On this episode of en(gender)ed, our guest is Leta Hong Fincher, journalist, scholar and author of the books, Leftover Women and Betraying Big Brother. Through these books, Leta chronicles the ways in which China’s post economic reforms of the 1990s led to a state drive to incentivize marriage and its subsequent awakening of China’s urban, educated women. We speak with Leta about the struggles the Feminist Five and other leading Chinese activists have faced in “betraying Big Brother” and why and how the rise of a Chinese feminist consciousness is important to other feminist movements, from #MeToo to workers rights to leveraging the power of women’s anger to building solidarity across borders.
During our conversation, Leta and I referenced the following resources:
- The Feminist Five
- The University of Hong Kong’s study of censorship on WeChat
- The Kim Lee divorce case–“American Woman Gives Domestic Abuse a Face, A Voice, in China”
- How China’s Anti-Domestic Violence Law is failing survivors
- Adrienne Maree Brown’s Pleasure Activism the need in resistance movements and joy as a form of resistance
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