The feminist author who is changing China’s perception of its ‘leftover women’
Luo Aiping became a catalyst for change by co-writing a book that exposed the mainland media’s stigmatising of unmarried women
Just a handful of years ago, the disparaging of unmarried women in their late 20s or older in China’s mainland media was at its peak.
Reflecting the prevailing attitude of the day, articles endlessly denounced the group known as sheng nu, or “leftover women”, for being too spoilt, picky or promiscuous to marry.
If the criticism today seems a bit less strident, and less frequent, society may have Luo Aiping and her team of researchers to thank after they produced a groundbreaking book that exposed the mainland media’s stigmatising of the group.
Investigation into China’s Leftover Women, published in 2014 by Luo and two other independent researchers, was the culmination of three years’ interviews with 43 single women aged 27 to 47 from eight cities and exhaustive analyses of media reports.
Although the book’s impact is difficult to measure, the media frenzy on the subject has diminished since its publication.
“In the past couple years, the mainland media has stopped going crazy in how it reports on ‘leftover women’ or singlehood,” Luo, 41, said.