Covid-19 has revealed widespread sexism in China

THE ADORABLE animated cartoon mascots were sure to inspire national solidarity—or so the Communist Youth League thought. But for most of its 13m followers on Weibo, a popular microblog, the pair inspired only ridicule and irritation. “Lovely land” and “Abundant red flags” (the names allude to poems by Mao Zedong) were pulled within hours. But female netizens continued to revile “Lovely land”, or Jiangshanjiao by her Chinese name, as a symbol of all that is decidedly unlovely about women’s lives in their land.

“Jiangshanjiao, are you still a virgin?” they asked, mimicking the sort of sexism they encounter. “Jiangshanjiao, if your husband hits you, do the police respond?” “Why are you wearing a short skirt?” “Did your parents want another child because you were a girl?” “Our company only recruits men.” One uploaded a song about Jiangshanjiao: “You can get a Master’s and a PhD and still not be proud / Because it won’t be easy to find a husband.” It was viewed more than 5m times before it was removed by censors.

As anger has grown over the Communist Party’s handling of covid-19, state-run news outlets have pumped out reports of patriotic donors and heroic workers. Featured prominently in their propaganda are female doctors and nurses in Wuhan, the centre of the disease. Last month CCTV, the state broadcaster, ran a segment on a nine-months-pregnant medical worker whom it hailed as “a great mother and an angel in a white gown” for continuing to work in an emergency ward in the city.

A day later the city’s newspaper cheered another who had returned to her post ten days after a miscarriage. Another publication, in the province of Zhejiang, praised a hospital in Wuhan for “avoiding waste” by serving different meals to male and female medical workers. An accompanying photograph appeared to show that male workers got an extra dish, and more soup, yoghurt and fruit than their female colleagues.

Readers heaped scorn on such reports, some of which were swiftly deleted (along with many indignant comments). Most galling, perhaps, was a video posted by a local news outlet in Gansu province showing about a dozen female medics, bound for Wuhan, having their heads shaved. The hospital said they had done so voluntarily, but some were weeping. Moreover, in a group shot, the newly bald female workers surrounded a male doctor who not only wore a higher-grade face mask but still had all his hair. An article on WeChat, “Please stop using women’s bodies as a propaganda tool”, was viewed over 100,000 times before it was censored.

In recent years, says Zoe, a blogger in Beijing, feminist activists have been detained and silenced, and their social-media accounts taken down. The advocacy group she helped run, Feminist Voices, was obliged to close in 2018. So it is increasingly falling to ordinary women to push back. They seem readier than ever to do so. Evelyn Lin (not her real name), a 30-year-old feminist in Shanghai, says that she was taken aback by how many friends who would not dream of calling themselves feminists took to social media to vent about Jiangshanjiao. The trend, she says, was “an outlet to express anger, whether about the government or censorship or discrimination”.

The number of women fulminating online is “larger than you might think”, says Cara Wallis of Texas A&M University. After the head-shaving episode, #SeeingFemaleWorkers went viral on Weibo, urging people to recognise the professional contribution of female medics. The hashtag has been used almost 700,000 times. In Hubei province, where the outbreak began, most doctors and more than 90% of nurses are women, according to the Shanghai Women’s Federation, a government body.

There is no shortage of chauvinism to decry. The government of Jinan, in Shandong province, has told companies to encourage female staff—but not men—to stay at home to care for children, as schools nationwide remain shut. Since people have been confined to their homes, NGOs have reported an increase in domestic violence. Ms Cao, a woman beaten by her boyfriend in the southern city of Shenzhen, uploaded to Weibo her conversation with a police mediator after he urged her to drop the case: “He has a good job,” he is heard saying. “Do you really want to ruin him?”

Ms Lin, who volunteers to help victims of domestic violence, has been helping Ms Cao since her ordeal. She has also helped a woman whose mother was beaten by her father after she insisted he wear a mask outdoors, and a victim of marital rape, for whom leaving the house has become much harder since virus-related restrictions were placed on her district. Others have set up networks to help women during the epidemic, such as “Vaccines Against Domestic Violence”: because “the door can block covid-19, but it cannot block another virus: domestic violence”. Over 2,500 volunteers have signed up since March 1st to be “vaccines” who listen out for abuse and encourage neighbours to resolve conflicts peacefully. Yuanzhong, an NGO based in Beijing that focuses on women’s rights, recently published a new guide to domestic abuse, including such tips as how to file for divorce under quarantine.

Volunteers are also sending sanitary pads to hospital workers in Hubei and nearby. Among them is Ayn (not her real name), who runs a platform about women’s issues. Periods, she says, are “very much getting overlooked”. Many female workers feel embarrassed to speak to superiors, she finds. The problem was brought to public attention last month when male bosses at hospitals in Hubei reportedly turned away donations of sanitary products on the grounds that they were not essential. Ayn says that, although her campaign's donations are now accepted by hospitals, she must still spend big sums to get them delivered.

The propagandists’ portrayals of women during the epidemic—as self-sacrificing, brave or beautiful—“basically all follow the playbook”, says Zoe, the blogger. But she was surprised to see a state-run charity follow the volunteers’ lead and donate sanitary pads. People’s Daily has condemned “feudal” attitudes to menstruation and eulogies to “extreme behaviour” such as returning to work right after a miscarriage. Only fierce and widespread anger, she reasons, could have spurred the party’s mouthpiece to say such things. ■