Digital Violence Against Chinese Feminists: Nationalist Hatred or a Ground for Feminist Solidarity?

While digital technology has been extensively utilised by feminists to facilitate their activism, it has also become a breeding ground for hatred and violence against them. In the context of China, digitally mediated violence against feminists is interwoven with not only misogynist online culture but also a solid nationalist sentiment that the regime has been promoting. On the other hand, the state’s control of public discourses and suppression of social conflicts obstruct feminists’ resistance to pervasive anti-feminist speech and actions. Despite the increasing research on recent feminist movements in China, what kinds of violence Chinese feminists encountered and how they grappled with the violence have received limited scholarly attention.

This research aims to map out how the repressive regime in China shaped the intricate dynamics between feminists and their adversaries. Drawing upon interviews with feminist activists and ethnographic observations in online feminist communities, it investigates Chinese feminists’ experiences of digitally mediated violence and their strategies for resistance. The findings suggest that China’s nationalist propaganda played a critical role in the growth of recent years’ anti-feminist forces. Meanwhile, the authorities’ online censorship and their apathy of digital (and in some cases extended to offline) violence impede the feminists’ defence against anti-feminist narratives and actions. However, the feminists refused to remain passive in the face of such nationalist hostility. They have been actively engaging in countering digital violence and, more impressively, employed violence as an effective means of mobilising the public and building solidarity among women.