Women’s rights in China: closure of feminist Douban channels sparks anger

‘I firmly support my sisters on Douban, and oppose Douban’s cancellation of feminist channels,’ women’s rights supporter Zhou Xiaoxuan says

Douban has closed at least eight feminist channels, citing extremism, and radical political views and ideological content, she says

Reading Time:2 minutes

Social media users created new Douban channels in the hope of resurrecting the feminist groups. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:43pm, 14 Apr 2021Updated: 11:06am, 19 Apr 2021

Several Chinese feminist channels on the popular social networking forum Douban, were abruptly shut this week, triggering online anger and prompting calls for women to “stick together”.

Douban has closed at least eight feminist channels, citing extremism, and radical political views and ideological content, women’s rights supporter Zhou Xiaoxuan wrote on social media.

“I firmly support my sisters on Douban, and oppose Douban’s cancellation of feminist channels,” said Zhou, who in 2018 filed a sexual assault suit against a national television anchor, fuelling China’s #MeToo movement.

The groups mentioned in Zhou’s post were no longer accessible on Wednesday, but other feminist channels and content existed on Douban – one of China’s earliest online forums with discussion channels on a host of themes.

The owners of Douban did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deleted channels included groups with links to the so-called 6B4T movement, a variant of feminism originating from South Korea that urges women to refrain from relationships with men, reject religion and stop buying products such as corsets that are hostile to the female gender.