Woman Empowerment | Graphic by Rose Taylor | The Wright State Guardian
From cinema to social media, modern Chinese women are utilizing any means they can to tell their stories, demand change and be heard when they speak in a series of feminist movements.
Current movements
Former law professor Dr. Jiang Jue described in a Fair Planet article the two distinct feminist movements in China: “top-down movements initiated by the Party-state and bottom-up movements mobilised by independent feminists.”
The following recent and feminist developments in China are products of the latter, and display hope for a women’s movement that for the last several decades has been discouraged or outright censored.
Campaign for adequate menstrual products
A New York Times article from November describes the online campaign headed by Chinese women pushing menstrual product manufacturers to raise their standards.
Among these women was university student Sabrina Wang, who measured three separate brands of menstrual pads and found that all three were shorter than advertised. She then posted her findings online, referring to this discrepancy as “a lack of respect.”
Her experiences were shared by numerous other women, who also discussed issues of cost, quality and safety, as well as upper-level female representation within companies that distribute these products.
These women used their platforms to publicly condemn manufacturers of insufficient menstrual products. They also found ways to create stakes for these companies if they did not comply.
“Manufacturers think we can’t go without their products because of our everyday physiological needs,” Wang explained.
Despite this, women used social media platforms to promote boycotts of certain companies and share tutorials for sewing reusable pads at home.
Chinese writer Zhang Yanchi said that she did not want these current companies’ products even if they are making changes. She wanted instead to support women in creating companies for other women.
Still, the organized efforts of Chinese women have left a considerable impact on the menstrual product industry.
A major manufacturer removed its products from an online platform with promises to improve them. A trade association released a statement regarding the complaints of female consumers. Media outlets addressed this issue, albeit not from a strictly feminist perspective.
These women have both proven the power of organized resistance and demonstrated that they need not depend on industries that do not have their interests in mind.
“Her Story” and Chinese womanhood
“Her Story,” a feminist movie by female director Shao Yihui, was released in November 2024. Since then, it has already been praised and dubbed by some as the Chinese equivalent of “Barbie.”
The film follows a single mother, her daughter and their young neighbor as they each navigate life as women in Shanghai. One female viewer said in an article by the Guardian that the feminist ideas found in the movie were refreshing and hard to come by in Chinese cinema.
“I think films created by female directors are easier for me to resonate with. And there are too few Chinese female creators in the film industry, ” Another woman said.
Professor Altman Peng from the University of Warwick stated that women’s perspectives are frequently made footnotes in mainstream Chinese media.
He added, “These [women-centric] films often spark conversations about gender asymmetry or, at the very least, focus on women’s everyday experiences.”
“Her Story” is one such movie that reflects the daily joys, struggles and lives of Chinese women.
The film has grossed over 300 million Yuan, or $41 million. It is projected to reach double that and could become the highest-grossing Chinese film of 2024.
Its current competition for this title is YOLO, which is also a female-led, woman-directed movie.
The success of these recent films reflects an emerging shift in the Chinese film industry. Whereas previously it benefited the industry to create films by and for men, modern women have purchasing power that makes them an important demographic.
As such, the Chinese film industry is adapting to produce more movies that women will want to see. The result is twofold: women filmmakers get the opportunity and budget to adapt their ideas, and women audiences get to see themselves reflected in the movies they watch.
