China's Nascent #metoo Movement Stumbles

Zhou accepts rejection of her appeal, vows to find evidence

The #metoo movement in China is struggling to gain momentum as the courts have made it hard to prosecute the perpetrators.

Four years ago Zhou Xiaoxuan claimed that popular TV state media host Zhu Jun forcibly kissed and groped her when she was an intern at the station in 2014.

Zhu is a famous state media TV host

Her case was finally heard in December 2020 and drew a large crowd, including foreign reporters who tried to cover the story before being dragged away by police. 

She originally sued Zhu for a public apology and 50,000 yuan (US$7,400) in damages.

However the court ruled the following year there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute Zhu so Zhou appealed and again yesterday that appeal was denied on similar grounds.

"Four years have passed, and the most important thing is that we have raised this question: when a woman encounters sexual harassment in a closed space, is her pain worth paying attention to?" Zhou, also known as Xianzi, said to supporters outside the court.

After the hearing she said: "Victory is not that important to me... I accept this outcome."

Zhou spurred China's #metoo movement

The 29-year-old Zhou said she will focus on gathering more evidence, such as police transcripts of interviews with her parents after she reported the incident -- but was not presented in court -- as well as surveillance footage.

Both may be hard to get now years after the event. But it is important that the landmark case was heard in court for the record. 

Sexual harassment is not uncommon in China, which has a patriarchal culture where men have misogynist views of women. While Mao Zedong may have claimed that "women hold up half the sky", they are not treated as equals in reality. 

Senior female leaders in the upper echelons of government are few and far between, let alone leading companies in the public and private sector.

Despite the growing #metoo movement and a law on sexual harassment passed in 2020, not many women are willing to come forward to take their perpetrators to court. But Zhou hopes she has set the foundation for others to carry the movement forward, saying "... perhaps the next victim that walks into court can receive more trust".

Menacing men standing near the courthouse

Meanwhile Zhu has since sued her for defamation, but Zhou said there hasn't been further developments on the case.