Chinese breaking silence on sexual abuse and harassment

A Chinese version of the ‘Me Too’ movement is rapidly gathering momentum.

The “Me Too campaign” has been launched in China.

Chen Xiaowu, a professor at Beihang University in Beijing, was sacked yesterday over allegations of sexual harassment made by five former students.

The most outspoken of the former students, scientist Luo Qianqian, said: “I hope this act of weiquan (rights defence) will enable more people to have enough courage to step forward and say #MeToo.”

She launched on January 1 a site labelled in Chinese #WoYeShi — “It’s also me” — which has rapidly garnered a massive ­following.

China’s authorities remain reluctant to highlight sexual issues despite the shedding within the broad population of past cultural awkwardness about public discussion of such matters.

There appears no likelihood of China, for instance, considering same-sex marriage, which Taiwan approved last year.

No Chinese university has yet established formal procedures to handle sexual harassment complaints — resulting in them being raised online, as in Luo’s case.

Luo said that Chen, then her PhD supervisor, terrified her by ­assaulting her — and that she responded: “Please don’t do that, I’m still a virgin.”

As an ultimate result, Chen has also lost both his title as professor and his certification as a teacher of students in China.

One of the pioneers of the movement now starting to gather momentum in China against sexual harassment is Huang Xueqin.

After Luo went online revealing her experience, Huang collected more than 4000 signatures calling on Beihang University to conduct an open investigation.

A few years ago, Guangzhou-based Huang quit a promising ­career at one of China’s national media organisations to devote herself to opposing the sexual ­harassment of women at work, following her own experience. She explained online on Weibo that she began working for the organisation soon after graduating from university.

“I worked with a colleague who boasted of covering many important events — floods, earthquakes, the Olympic Games, etc. I was in awe of him, until the day he ­revealed his true face during a trip,” she said.

Huang said her colleague made an excuse about assessing some photographs to go to her hotel room. “I was sitting at the desk, he was on the couch. Then he said ‘there’s no table near the couch, it’s hard to work from here’.”

He brought a chair and sat next to her. “Suddenly, he put his hand on my thigh. I was shocked, and stood up immediately. I didn’t dare to speak, I just stood in shock.

“My colleague stood up too, gripped me in his arms, and said ‘I’ve been looking at you for a long time. You’re not the prettiest of the girls at work, but you are smart and cute. I like you very much’.

“I was frozen, my brain seemed empty, my heart beat faster, I couldn’t believe what was happening. Is he expressing love, or sexually harassing me? Did I do something to mislead him? As soon as the word ‘harassment’ came to my mind, I recovered my thinking. I kicked his lower body, and ran out of the room.”

After quitting, Huang asked nine female journalists about their experiences. Five told her they too had suffered similar treatment.

She realised that most of the victims chose to remain silent.

“I strongly felt I should do something about it,” she said.

“I want to break the silence. Even though I have to expose my own scar, even though there might be storms.”

A survey last year of 6952 students and graduates by the Guangzhou Gender and Sexuality Education Centre and law group Beijing Impact, found 69 per cent had been sexually harassed, but fewer than 4 per cent had reported it to their university or to police.