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SMNTY Classics: The Feminist Five · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is any and Samantha and opome to stuff.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: We never told your prediction, but I heard you, and
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: welcome to another classic episode. Today we're bringing back an
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  Speaker 2: activist around the world that's related to Pride Month.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, well, you know we love anything intersectional, and
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  Speaker 3: this is absolutely intersectional because we are coming back to
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  Speaker 3: talk about the feminists five and just give you a
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  Speaker 3: quick update, not too much. They are still very relevant
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  Speaker 3: today when you'll hear who they are and what they've
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  Speaker 3: done for the Chinese feminist community.
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  Speaker 4: And as in fact, the tenth year.
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  Speaker 3: Anniversary happened not too long ago of their arrests, so
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  Speaker 3: this is kind of like a catalyst of what began this.
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  Speaker 3: And yeah, one of the acts us wrote on Waino
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  Speaker 3: dot me, which is w a I n O dot me.
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  Speaker 3: Lee Metza after getting married in New York. She is
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  Speaker 3: currently there and with her partner and has founded the
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  Speaker 3: Asian Rainbow Choir, which is a leading Chinese LGBT organization
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  Speaker 3: in her community. Uh yeah, and they're at choir obviously,
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  Speaker 3: and they actually performed not too long ago in New
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  Speaker 3: York for New Years.
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  Speaker 1: We love to see it.
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  Speaker 3: She seems to be thriving and just continuing to be
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  Speaker 3: a voice for many of the women in China and
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  Speaker 3: the oppression that they are going through.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, enjoy this classic. Hey, this is Annie and
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Samantha and welcome to stuff when they were told you
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  Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 4: And welcome to activists around the world.
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  Speaker 3: Today, we're going to talk about feminism in China, and
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  Speaker 3: we're going to talk about a lot of things, but
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  Speaker 3: we're pretty much focusing on twenty fifteen. And with that,
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  Speaker 3: we couldn't talk about feminism in China without looking into
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  Speaker 3: some of the women who've been pushing to advocate for
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  Speaker 3: more rights for the Chinese women and queer community. And
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  Speaker 3: today we're talking about the Feminists Five. So in twenty fifteen,
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  Speaker 3: a campaign spread throughout the country to protest against sexual
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  Speaker 3: harassment on public transportation, led by the Feminist Five. But
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  Speaker 3: before we get in there, let's talk about the feminism
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  Speaker 3: in China. When it comes to feminism in China, the
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  Speaker 3: movement has been slow going, but many have stated they
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  Speaker 3: felt it was getting more attention and more support today
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  Speaker 3: than before. So the current government under Chi Jing Ping
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  Speaker 3: with the Communist Party Congress of China have not made
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  Speaker 3: many moves to show any type of support for women
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  Speaker 3: in the country, as in fact, in twenty twenty two,
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  Speaker 3: no women were appointed to the leadership of the Chinese government,
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  Speaker 3: making it the first time in twenty five years that
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  Speaker 3: there's no woman represented in the leadership role, which is
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  Speaker 3: made up of twenty four party leaders that govern the
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  Speaker 3: country for the next five years.
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  Speaker 2: And ironically, she promised in a twenty twenty two address
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  Speaker 2: celebrating the twenty fifth anniversary of the UN fourth World
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  Speaker 2: Congress on Women to improve women's status by pushing for
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  Speaker 2: gender equality and protecting the overall rights of women.
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  Speaker 1: But seeing the current state of the government leaders.
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  Speaker 2: It doesn't seem as if he is moving in the
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  Speaker 2: right direction to fulfill his promises. But the conversation of
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  Speaker 2: the feminist government in China has been rising, and in
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  Speaker 2: twenty fifteen, I thinks in part to the activism of
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  Speaker 2: the feminist five and awakening happened within the country. But
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  Speaker 2: before we talk about what they did, let's talk about
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  Speaker 2: who made up the five right, And we're going.
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  Speaker 3: To go ahead and put a little asterix here. The
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  Speaker 3: names were kind of hard to find to pronounce. We're
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  Speaker 3: going to try our best to respect the pronunciations, but
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  Speaker 3: Please don't come at us. If you want to correct
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  Speaker 3: us kindly, then that would be that's fine, But do
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  Speaker 3: we mean to us? Okay, we're trying our dust, so
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  Speaker 3: we're going to start with Wu Rongngrong. Wu worked with
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  Speaker 3: the Women's Rights Group in Urimping and founded the way
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  Speaker 3: Ting Women's Center in hung Joe Wu studied at the
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  Speaker 3: China Women's University, majoring in social work and working as
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  Speaker 3: a feminist activist and advocate. And not only did she
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  Speaker 3: work with different organizations that led many campaigns throughout the country,
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  Speaker 3: but she also was the project leader of Beijing Yurngping
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  Speaker 3: Center for Women's Rights Programs and worked with Beijing's Aji
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  Speaker 3: Shing Institute an NGAA working for the rights of those
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  Speaker 3: living with HIV and AIDS. And then we have Lee
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  Speaker 3: Tingting or also known as Lie Matza Sorry y'all. Lee
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  Speaker 3: has been a part of the activism world for a while,
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  Speaker 3: including creating the Lesbian Community Trading Group in the second
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  Speaker 3: year of her time at the university, which offered counseling
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  Speaker 3: services as well as support for students. She was involved
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  Speaker 3: with several public demonstrations, including one in twenty twelve where
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  Speaker 3: she and two others walked down a shopping area wearing
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  Speaker 3: bridal gowns covered in blood to bring awareness to the
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  Speaker 3: issue of domestic violence in China, and again later demonstrated
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  Speaker 3: in protest for the large lines for women's bathrooms by
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  Speaker 3: encouraging women to use the men's bathroom, which is called
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  Speaker 3: the occupied men's room. It also was to call out
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  Speaker 3: the gender gap and privileges of the workspace.
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  Speaker 2: Then there's Waiting Ting, who is also a queer and
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  Speaker 2: women's rights activist. Wei was part of the Wuhan Rainbow
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  Speaker 2: and LGBT Organization as well as becoming a director of
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  Speaker 2: the LGBT organization Xiante. She also co founded the National
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  Speaker 2: Bisexual Network in China. Wei worked as the project manager
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  Speaker 2: at the Beijing Gender Health Education Institute, which was an
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  Speaker 2: agency working to raise awareness in gender inequities, sexual diversity,
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  Speaker 2: and sexual health.
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  Speaker 1: And then there is Wangman.
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  Speaker 2: Wang is a researcher about gender studies and has been
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  Speaker 2: working for an anti poverty in Goo. She later participated
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  Speaker 2: with the Occupy Men's Toilets movement. And then there is
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  Speaker 2: Jung Truran also known as a Big Rabbit. Jung is
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  Speaker 2: an activist and writer who was invited to join the
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  Speaker 2: other four for the Occupied Men's protest in twenty twelve.
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  Speaker 2: She also went on to help with the Bloody Bride's protest.
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  Speaker 3: So now that we've met the women, let's talk about it.
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  Speaker 3: On International Women's Day in twenty fifteen, the feminists five
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  Speaker 3: were arrested for quote picking quarrels and provoking trouble.
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  Speaker 4: We love that, not the arrested part, but that title.
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  Speaker 3: The ladies had planned a protest event that would include
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  Speaker 3: them and others handing out anti sexual harassment stickers on
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  Speaker 3: the subway to bring awareness of the sexual harassment on
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  Speaker 3: public transportations, but before they even started, all five women
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  Speaker 3: were arrested and detained for thirty seven days. As the
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  Speaker 3: women were detained, all of them were interrogated and threatened
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  Speaker 3: to stop their activism. Lee was cursed and persecuted for
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  Speaker 3: her sexuality as a lesbian. Her father was used against
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  Speaker 3: her as she was forced by the agents to write
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  Speaker 3: her a letter to convince her to stop her work.
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  Speaker 3: Wu try to take the blame actually and convinced the
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  Speaker 3: agents to release the other activists as she was the
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  Speaker 3: founder of the Women's Center and at the time of
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  Speaker 3: the rest, Wu was receiving the treatment for an illness
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  Speaker 3: which she'd been in the hospital for previously, and then
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  Speaker 3: she was immediately taken into custody and she was denying
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  Speaker 3: medical treatment at that time.
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  Speaker 2: And Wu wasn't the only one with health conditions. Wong,
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  Speaker 2: who had a heart condition at the time, was concerned
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  Speaker 2: about whether she would be able to make it under
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  Speaker 2: the stress and harsh conditions of Prisonhuang Wei and Jung
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  Speaker 2: all had their classes confiscated.
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  Speaker 1: I struggled with that.
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  Speaker 2: Word before they were locked up and could not see
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  Speaker 2: clearly during their detention, and Jung, who suffered from anxiety,
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  Speaker 2: also had issues of hair falling out and assomnia. During
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: her detention, it was recorded that she had felt guilty
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  Speaker 2: as if she was the one who thought of the
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  Speaker 2: sticker idea. All but Wu were locked up near each other,
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  Speaker 2: though she wasn't too far away. They said that they
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  Speaker 2: were able to comfort each other during this time by
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  Speaker 2: talking and singing with each other.
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  Speaker 3: So the rest of the Feminists five went international and
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  Speaker 3: many public figures spoke out, including Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden,
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  Speaker 3: and there was also a hashtag hashtag Free Beijing twenty five.
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  Speaker 3: There was also support from the people around China as
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  Speaker 3: In fact, women protested with masks of the Feminists Five
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  Speaker 3: to show support, and then the women lawyers around China
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  Speaker 3: also came together to reach out to the Department of
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  Speaker 3: Public Safety and even launched complaints for the release of
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  Speaker 3: the women, which actually resulted in the government prosecuting the
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  Speaker 3: human rights lawyers, including the lawyer that represented Lee Wong Nu,
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  Speaker 3: who would actually be.
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  Speaker 4: Detained later on.
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  Speaker 3: But those Feminists five were released after thirty seven days
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  Speaker 3: due to the international pressure around them. But the government
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  Speaker 3: continued surveilling and monitoring the five women and most of
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  Speaker 3: the women that have actually left the main part.
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  Speaker 1: Of China right. So Lee went on to travel and
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  Speaker 1: live abroad.
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  Speaker 2: She was able to deliver speeches and bring awareness to
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  Speaker 2: the needs of those in the marginalized community. She studied
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  Speaker 2: in England in the Human Rights Master's program at the
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  Speaker 2: University of Sussex. After her studies, she returned to her
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  Speaker 2: home in Beijing, and Lee talked about why she returned.
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  Speaker 2: She said, quote the reason why I decided without hesitation
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  Speaker 2: to return to China is simple. There is no escape.
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  Speaker 2: We live in a time when every day we can
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  Speaker 2: be disgusted by Trump. What's so disheartening is that people
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  Speaker 2: are getting used to this awful world, staying angry and awake.
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  Speaker 2: I realized that the longer I stayed in England, the
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  Speaker 2: more I felt like I needed to return to China
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  Speaker 2: as a feminist activist, a gay rights activist. Other than
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  Speaker 2: returning to my own country, what better choice is there
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  Speaker 2: when history happens, I must be present with this conviction,
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  Speaker 2: I came back to China. Wei continued to work to
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  Speaker 2: fight against sexual harassment in China even after the original
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  Speaker 2: organization was shut down. She went on to open the
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  Speaker 2: Guangzho Gender and Sexuality Education Center of the g SEC,
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  Speaker 2: which was also shut down in twenty eighteen, but she
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  Speaker 2: continued to push forward and launched a new program which
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  Speaker 2: helps the victims of sexual violence. Chung has continued to
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  Speaker 2: write as a freelancer. She also has continued to advocate
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  Speaker 2: for the rights of women around the world. She was
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  Speaker 2: a big part of the hashtag me too movement in
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  Speaker 2: China and even wrote to President Trump about his sexist behavior,
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  Speaker 2: which went viral online.
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  Speaker 3: Right Wong struggled after her detention and was reported that
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  Speaker 3: her life was quote shattered. The last report on her
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  Speaker 3: activities show that she's gone back to the academic and
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  Speaker 3: social work field. Wu as leader of the group, had
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  Speaker 3: been through quite a lot during her detention and even
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: more so after she was released. She soon returned to
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  Speaker 3: the academic field with her expertise in public interest related
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  Speaker 3: to psychological counseling, and she was last reported to be
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  Speaker 3: living in Hong Kong. And by the way, these updates
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  Speaker 3: were twenty twenty, so of course I'm not completely up
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  Speaker 3: to date. And I know that many of them have
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  Speaker 3: done many more things, but it's not well known. I
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  Speaker 3: think Lee is the most well known right now and
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: the loudest activists thus far. She did, I think recently
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  Speaker 3: get married, not too long ago, a few years ago,
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  Speaker 3: to her wife, So.
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  Speaker 4: That's beautiful to see. But yeah, there's not a lot
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  Speaker 4: we know.
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  Speaker 3: I believe one of the other activist's husband soon got
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  Speaker 3: arrested for his activism as well. So there's a lot
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  Speaker 3: going on obviously, and there's a lot of conversation. And
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  Speaker 3: apparently there's been a thing where women in the smaller
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  Speaker 3: villages had been kidnapped and forced to have children. There's
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  Speaker 3: so many things in happening in China. Honestly, as bad
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  Speaker 3: as that sounds it kind of sounds on par with
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  Speaker 3: some of the things that's happening in the US when
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  Speaker 3: it comes to women's rights. So we definitely want to
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  Speaker 3: support and keep an eye out for the ladies and
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  Speaker 3: the marginalized community in China as well. So in an
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  Speaker 3: article written by Lupin, another Chinese feminist activist, talked about
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  Speaker 3: the impact of the Feminist Five and even the aftermath
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  Speaker 3: and the conversations that have happened since. She says, amidst
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  Speaker 3: the challenges, the Feminists Five have not scaled back their activism.
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  Speaker 3: On the contrary, I think the most remarkable thing the
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  Speaker 3: last years is that despite not receiving due compensation for
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: their sacrifices they made, they did not complain. Instead, they've
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  Speaker 3: been forward thinking from the very beginning, being creative and
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  Speaker 3: exploratory as they seek ways to continue their work, whether
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  Speaker 3: as individual activists, as freelancers, or even entrepreneurs. They have
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  Speaker 3: found ways to pair their personal development with their social ideals,
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: and I think it's Goodton also mentioned there was a
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  Speaker 3: huge controversy at one point in time because there was
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  Speaker 3: all these supposed funds that was coming from in geos
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  Speaker 3: around the world, but China immediately set a law saying
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: that they could not receive money unless those NGOs were
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  Speaker 3: based in China, so they have no support and no money,
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  Speaker 3: and this accusation that they made money was absolutely false
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  Speaker 3: and probably a smear campaign, and they have since then
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  Speaker 3: had no money since their release, really struggling to make
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: endst me and they kind of had this moment in
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  Speaker 3: one of their articles that they felt like they had
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  Speaker 3: to choose money over activism, which is not necessarily true,
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: but it's true. They have to live, so they can't
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  Speaker 3: constantly be the martyrs essentially for a cause that it
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: sometimes has a lot of pushback and as that right now,
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  Speaker 3: being pretty surveiled and watched by the government, so there's
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  Speaker 3: a lot going on.
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  Speaker 4: A lot of these women have.
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  Speaker 3: Won different awards, including being the one hundred Top Women
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  Speaker 3: of BBC. We love that award and we will continue
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  Speaker 3: watch and see what is happening.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, and as always, listeners, if you have any more
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: information about the people we're covering or what's going on,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: we love hearing from you about it and any suggestions
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: you have for people we should cover in this segment
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: or organizations we should cover, you can email us STUFFI
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: and mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: us on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast, or on Instagram
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: and TikTok at.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Stephmo Never Told You.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Thanks as always to our super producer Christina, Thank you Yes,
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: and thanks to you for listening.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Stephaner Told You pprectionion of iHeart Radio.
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  Speaker 3: The