Collected by: Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation

Archived since: May, 2019

Description:

In the early 2010s, young Chinese activists started organizing across China on issues related to women’s rights and LGBTQ rights. Known as the young feminist activists (青年女权行动派), they utilized creative tactics and media campaigns. However, their activism was faced by subsequent repression: in 2015, the state arrested five young feminists, who became known as the “Feminist Five” (女权五姐妹). In 2018, the #MeToo movement started as individual survivors posted their stories onto the Chinese Internet. As a result of state repression, surveillance, and censorship, many young feminist and queer activists now live outside of mainland China but continue their activism in the diaspora. They continue to advocate for women’s and LGBTQ rights in both China and in their host countries. These groups are also connected to and have synergy with existing local movements and organizations. Originally created as the “#MeToo and the Women's Rights Movement in China” web archive in 2019, the Archive is curated by Chengzhi Wang (Chinese Studies Librarian at Columbia), Xiao-He Ma (Librarian for the Chinese Collection at Harvard), Sara Howard (Librarian for Gender & Sexuality Studies and Student Engagement at Princeton) and Joshua Seufert (Chinese Studies Librarian at Princeton) in collaboration with student researchers including Kerrie Liang (Princeton), in partnership as the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation. The Archive aims to systematically capture and preserve web contents related to the feminist/women’s rights/#MeToo and LGBTQ movements in transnational Chinese networks both inside and outside of China, so that scholars and students will continuously be able to access these important, and potentially ephemeral, materials.

Subject:   Society & Culture,  Arts & Humanities,  Sexual minorities,  Feminism,  Women's rights