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A scene from a state-sponsored program praised the men who volunteered, but downplayed women’s contributions. Internet users are asking for the display to be removed from the air.
By Vivian Wang
The scene took place seven minutes in a new Chinese government-sponsored television drama, so short it would have been easy to get lost: The head of a bus company in Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus outbreak began, asks his drivers if they are in a position to carry out emergency procedures during the closure of the city. None of them are women.
The one-minute clip raged on Chinese social media and users described the scene, in which the official then asks why no woman has mobilized, a blatant example of sexism in Chinese society, and an attempt to erase women’s contributions to government-opposing combat. In fact, women made up the majority of frontline staff during the crisis, according to the official media.
On Sunday, a hashtag in the segment, released Thursday, had been seen more than 140 million times and tens of thousands of people had asked for the screen to be removed.
The cry reflects persistent tensions as China emerges from an epidemic that has made it sick, destroyed its economy, and disrupted the daily lives of millions of people. the silence of dissenting narratives, and anger at persistent discrimination against women, whether in crisis and in general.
In fact, many other people were irritated by the perception of legitimacy towards women, given their primary role in controlling the virus. The women accounted for two-thirds of the more than 40,000 medical staff who traveled to Wuhan and the surrounding province, Hubei, to fight. The epidemic, People’s Daily, the official spokesman for the ruling Communist Party, said in March. Xinhua, the state’s official news agency, said more than a portion of doctors deployed to Wuhan from Shanghai were women, as were more than 90% of nurses.
“In past TV dramas, women were dirty. But I think anything would replace this year, after the joy of the epidemic, because a lot of women took part in the fight,” said Zoe Shen, a feminist activist and blogger in Beijing, in an interview, “I didn’t think there was such a plot now. “
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