Advertisement

Writing the wrongs

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0

It's a women's magazine with a difference. There are no pages devoted to fashion, beauty, horoscopes or celebrity gossip. Instead, they deal mainly with topics such as discrimination against ethnic minorities. Nuliu is an unusual publication in Hong Kong: not only is it a feminist journal, it's still going after more than 20 years.

No ideological mouthpiece, the bimonthly magazine aims to provide a vital platform for alternative opinions and cultivates contributions from housewives and disadvantaged women. 'Feminism is also about making space for others to express themselves. It's a way of showing care towards society,' says Mabel Au Mei-po, a feminist organiser who joined Nuliu's editorial team in 1996.

But being entirely reliant on volunteers, the magazine launched by the Association for the Advancement of Feminism has always had to struggle to survive.

'It's incredibly difficult to keep producing something on schedule when people are coming and going all the time, says Au. 'Volunteers bow out for different personal reasons. They might go for further studies or get married.'

Run by a succession of like-minded academics, social workers and journalists, Nuliu was twice forced to stop publishing - in 1992 and 2002 - because there weren't enough volunteers. Each time it led to a four-year hiatus.

'It takes a toll on you to keep at something like this non-stop. So when there was no new blood on the horizon, we just had to give up,' says long-time volunteer Wendy Hon Siu-wan, who joined Nuliu just before the second break.

Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2-3x faster
1.1x
220 WPM
Slow
Normal
Fast
1.1x