Description
Recent studies have looked into the rise of feminist discourses and activities in China, contributing a substantial body of discussion on how young women build connections, seek mutual support, construct narratives, and reject Confucian cultural constraints. Despite extensive literature on these feminist resistances, who represent Chinese women, and who are represented as Chinese women, remain notably uncontested. This study explores the power imbalances and tensions that are (re)produced in today’s Chinese popular feminism, based on interviews with feminist activists, online content analysis and digital ethnographic data. I examine the ‘exclusive’ nature of Chinese feminists’ activism that is dominated by urban single middle-class elite women, in which disadvantaged working-class rural women are vastly marginalised. This is investigated from the angles of (1) the platforms and formats in which feminist debates mostly take place, (2) their unequal access to digital tools for bypassing censorship and transnational social media, (3) the expanding digital media literacy gap between privileged and underprivileged women, as well as (4) limited opportunities to take part in offline events. I maintain that the power imbalances among Chinese activists are entwined with political suppression and structural inequalities in the repressive regime.