Presumed innocence: an alien concept in China's courts - Zhang Lijia

It took China's courts 27 years to acknowledge Zhang Yuhuan had been in jail innocent, and the reversal of the verdicts shocked the legal community. China's courts have the largest conviction rate in the world, says author Zhang Lijia, but that is because of forced convictions. When Zhang Yuhuan case shows one thing, it is that structural reform of China's court system is still needed, she argues at the South China Morning Post.

Zhang Lijia:

Wrongful convictions are not unique to China, of course, but there do seem to be a lot, including several high-profile cases in recent decades.

In 1994, farmer Zhang Zaiyu had a fight with her husband She Xianglin and ran away. A few months later, a bloated woman’s body was found in a pond near their village in Hubei province. She Xianglin was arrested and convicted of murder. He served 11 years in prison until the supposed victim turned up alive.

There was a similar case in Henan. In 1999, farmer

Zhao Zuohai was sentenced for killing a fellow villager who disappeared after a fight between the men. Zhao also served 11 years before the vanished villager reappeared in 2010.

These cases sparked heated discussion in Chinese media as well as among legal experts on how China could better prevent the miscarriage of justice. Experts have made a case study of She’s ordeal as it is a telling example of what can go wrong in China’s legal system – coerced confessions, misidentification of a body, conflicting statements and almost non-existent evidence.

It is widely claimed that Chinese police often rely on torture to extract confessions out of suspects. With tears in his eyes, Zhang Yuhuan said he was hung and beaten with an electric baton.

I wasn’t surprised. While researching Lotus, my novel about prostitution, I heard many harrowing stories from

sex workers about how they were beaten, burned with cigarettes, sprayed with high-pressure jets in winter and deprived of sleep.

Partly in response to the embarrassing high-profile cases, China has launched a crackdown on forced confessions and made serious efforts to eliminate cases that are entirely pinned on a suspect’s confession. Zhang Yuhuan is a case in point – the evidence found at the crime scene was insufficient, as Zhang’s lawyer argued at his recent retrial.

Even so, forced confessions continue to undermine China’s judicial system. Its Communist-Party-run courts still have one of the highest conviction rates in the world.

As part of a campaign to strengthen the legal system, the authorities have re-emphasised the legal principle of

presumption of innocence, which was first established in China in 1996. Despite its long history and culture, China actually has a young and maturing legal system.

Its first modern criminal law promulgated in 1979 didn’t even address the presumption of innocence – a common presumption in many other countries and a key principle in preventing the miscarriage of justice.

In the wake of Zhang’s release, the Global Times sang the government’s praises, stating that “the overturning of such cases reflects the progress of China's judicial system over the years”. I do believe China has made great progress since reforming and opening up in 1978...

Apart from congratulating themselves, the authorities must take a careful look at what went wrong in Zhang’s case, punish those responsible and consider ways to avoid wrongful convictions in the future. It would be a great comfort for Zhang and his family.

More at the South China Morning Post.

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A TV show for middle-aged makes feminist waves - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

A Hunan reality TV show Sisters who make waves triggers off a heated debate in China on whether the TV show adds to the feminist debate or not. Author Zhang Lijia collects the arguments pro and con, and in the end concluded that the commercial show is making quite some feminist waves, she writes in the South China Morning Post. 

Zhang Lijia:

It is quite a show, I have to admit, eye-catching and lavishly made. Genre-bending, it presents not only the singing competitions but also the whole process of the performers getting ready, socialising, joking and laughing with each other, interspersed with interviews throughout.

Sadly, despite its “girl power” trappings, the show is not about empowerment but about cheap thrills. Obsessed with beauty, it overemphasises the appearance of the contestants, their shapely bodies, smooth skin, youthful looks and fabulous costumes...

Renowned feminist Zhang Leilei told me that although the show does not qualify as feminist, it does promote the diversity of women and places a spotlight on the talents and capacities of women over 30.

I tend to agree with her: it is a good thing that the show is being screened. Due to restrictions by the authorities, feminist discourse lags behind the rest of the world. This show does not make big waves in this regard, but even a few ripples are better than nothing.

More at the South China Morning Post.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your (online) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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China should still focus on English - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

Nationalistic sentiments at the recent National People's Congress (NPC) triggered off proposals to abolish English translations on all government-related events in China. London-based author Zhang Lijia explains why that is the wrong move, and why learning English is still important, also for Chinese, at the South China Morning Post. 

Zhang Lijia:

I am all for the promotion of Chinese culture and language, but I don’t understand why it can’t go hand in hand with learning English. Yet, I am not surprised by these proposals.

Last March, a heated debate about the relevance of English erupted after Hua Qianfang, a farmer turned writer, posted on Weibo that English is useless to most Chinese people and has “cost children their childhoods”. He also described keen students of English as “self-dwarfing slaves” to Western ideology. 

I must beg to differ with Mr Hua and the two delegates...

For me, learning English has been life-changing. Born into a poor working-class family in Nanjing, I dreamt of becoming a writer. Sadly, when I turned 16, I was dragged out of school and put to work at a military factory that produced intercontinental missiles. There, I greased machine parts for a whole decade. As an escape route, I decided to teach myself English. 

It was the early ’80s. “English fever” was just heating up after China began to reform and open up. Chinese people had a thirst for learning and the country needed the skills. It was much harder to teach oneself English back then. I borrowed a radio to follow a popular programme called New Concept English...

China’s rapid rise has unnerved the West and led to fear. The Covid-19 outbreak has only

aggravated such fear. While some misgivings are justified, others are generated by ignorance. It is time for China to behave graciously and open up more channels for cultural understanding.

In today’s globalised world, a knowledge of languages is paramount in facilitating communication. One of my self-appointed missions in life is to serve as a cultural bridge between China and the outside world, in my small way, of course, explaining where China is coming from and why certain events happened. Any bicultural person can be such a bridge. We need more of them, not fewer.

More at the South China Morning Post.

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How Xi Jinping turned his corona drama into a win - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia at the BBC

China was in chaos when the coronavirus emerged in public at the beginning of 2020, but instead of a drama, president Xi Jinping was able to turn the events into a global win for the country, says London-based journalist Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus, a novel on prostitution in China, to Barbara Demick of the New York Review of Books.

NY Review of Books:

I’ve heard this from other overseas Chinese. Lijia Zhang, a writer who lives in London, told me, “In the beginning, it was a mess. People were thinking this could be Xi Jinping’s downfall. Now they are saying China is in a much better position to deal with a crisis, with its authoritarian system. The West is too chaotic.’’
The respective failures of the United States, Italy, and the United Kingdom clearly bolstered China’s confidence. But the turnaround couldn’t have happened without an almost textbook propaganda operation, involving coercion, misinformation, and manipulation.

More in the NY Review of Books.

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Back to basics: Taoism - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

COVID-19 or the Coronavirus has triggered off a lot of soul-searching in China, says social commentator Zhang Lijia in the South China Morning Post. "All these problems at home and abroad are proof that nature has been interfered with, as humans go against the natural order. This is a good time to revisit the philosophical aspects of Taoism, writes Zhang Lijia.

Zhang Lijia:

Scientists have established a link between the emergence of highly pathogenic bird flu viruses and the intensification of poultry production systems. In his 2016 book, Big Farms Make Big Flu, biologist Rob Wallace tracks the ways influenza and other pathogens emerge from an agriculture controlled by multinational corporations in developed countries.
Chicken and other poultry are packed into mega-barns, grown out in a few months, slaughtered, processed and shipped all over the world. If a virus emerges, it can race through a flock packed together without any resistance. If it then spills over into humans, the consequences are dire.
All these problems at home and abroad are proof that nature has been interfered with, as humans go against the natural order. This is a good time to revisit the philosophical aspects of Taoism.

The Tao-te Ching says: “Man takes his law from the Earth; the Earth takes its law from Heaven; Heaven takes its law from the Tao. The law of the Tao is its being what it is.” In the eyes of Taoists, mankind and nature are bound together in an organic chain, and therefore in a relationship of reciprocity. If nature is in agreement with mankind, the world is harmonious and prosperous. If nature is mistreated by mankind, it can retaliate by causing calamitous suffering.
So far, two million people around the world have been infected with Covid-19, and millions more have been affected by the pandemic and lockdowns. This is a shrill wake-up call. The world must respond to it.
After the Covid-19 outbreak began in China, the authorities issued a temporary ban on wildlife trade, shutting down nearly 20,000 farms raising peacocks, porcupines, ostriches and other animals. Then a permanent ban on wildlife trade and consumption was announced, but with exceptions for trade for fur, medicine or research.
Some conservationists fear that traffickers might exploit these potential loopholes to continue trading wildfire. Still, the ban is a big step forward in the right direction.
The West doesn’t give China enough credit for its green leadership.
For years, international conservation groups have criticised the way China regarded wild animals as commodities. Corruption has also made it that much harder to police the illegal trade of live wildlife. Biodiversity loss is severe in China, where 61 percent of wild animals face extinction.
The prevention of future global pandemics must be a collective effort by people from around the world, but what China chooses to do is crucial to this battle. We will have to address the roots of the problem – the destruction of our environment – and shift our development model away from an overemphasis on economic benefits towards an environmentally sustainable model.
China’s air and water quality significantly improved during coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Sustainable development is a relatively new idea. Interestingly, Taoism, in its creed and practice, is compatible with sustainable development: notably, it is deeply concerned about harmony with nature, and nature’s ability to provide for mankind’s present and future needs.
Naturally, no religion or philosophy alone can resolve an environmental crisis or a pandemic. But if we are able to hermeneutically reconstruct Taoist teachings and reintegrate them into our culture, we may benefit greatly from ancient wisdom.
Take, for example, the issue of vegetarianism. Although the two main schools of Taoism hold different views on this, the religion generally encourages devotees to avoid meat and minimise harm, because animals are sentient beings. Just imagine how much good it would do the environment if 1.4 billion people could cut their meat intake by half!

More in the South China Morning Post.

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The yellow peril: where is it coming from? - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

The ongoing coronavirus crisis has triggered off much racist behavior outside China and the qualification "Yellow Peril" raised its ugly head again. Journalist Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus, a novel, on prostitution in China, dives into the history of Western racism towards China and the Chinese for the South China Morning Post.

Zhang Lijia:

As China was the sick man of Asia, so Chinese were regarded as the “Yellow Peril”. At the tail end of the 19th century, German emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II reportedly came up with the term after he saw, in his dream, Buddha riding a dragon, threatening to invade Europe. 

Even if he did not coin the term, Wilhelm popularised the psycho-cultural perception of the so-called civilised world – that is, the Anglo-Saxon empires – in danger of being overrun by the yellow-skinned East Asians (the Chinese and Japanese). 

He then encouraged European powers to conquer and colonise China. In 1898, Germany coerced China into leasing it 553 square kilometres in its northeast, including Qingdao, for 99 years. That was another event of national humiliation. 

Even before the aggressive German emperor, however, white supremacists in the US had embraced the “Asian menace” theory, demanding that the government bar immigration of “filthy yellow hordes” of Chinese. 

The white labour unions lobbied to keep out Chinese, claiming that some Chinese malaises were more virulent than white ones. This led to America’s 1882 China Exclusion Act, an immigration law that prevented Chinese labour from entering the US. It was revoked in 1943 but old prejudices persist. 

One editorial from 1954, for example, in the influential New York Tribune newspaper, described the Chinese thus: “They are uncivilised, unclean, filthy beyond all conception, without any of the higher domestic or social relations; lustful and sensual in their dispositions; every female is a prostitute, and of the basest order.” 

In a 2014 review of the book Perceptions of the East – Yellow Peril: An Archive of Anti-Asian Fear, sinologist Leung Wing-fai explains that: “The phrase yellow peril (sometimes yellow terror or yellow spectre) … blends Western anxieties about sex, racist fears of the alien other, and the Spenglerian belief that the West will become outnumbered and enslaved by the East.” 

Some experts have noticed that only certain disease outbreaks have been racialised. Those that originated from China, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and the novel coronavirus, as well as Ebola from Africa, led to a racial backlash. However, this did not happen with the swine flu pandemic that originated in North America or “mad cow disease” from Britain. 

When millions of Chinese are suffering, racist headlines and comments are doubly insensitive and inappropriate. It only perpetuates the stereotype that Asians are disease-ridden. Fear and racism feed on each other, and both hinder our fight against the virus.

More at the South China Morning Post.

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Not only costs disrupt China's more-children policy - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

Not only high costs are stopping Chinese women from getting more children, as the government wants them to for offsetting the dramatic aging process of the country, writes journalist Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus, a novel, on prostitution in China,  in the South China Morning Post. "The reality is far more complex. One important reason, in my view, is that women have changed. They don’t care to be only the reproductive tool of the family or the state," she writes.

Zhang Lijia:

Why don’t Chinese want more babies? The high cost of raising children is often cited as the main reason. Expensive housing, education and health care make raising children a costly business. 

But the reality is far more complex. One important reason, in my view, is that women have changed. They don’t care to be only the reproductive tool of the family or the state. 

A large percentage of today’s women of childbearing age are from the one-child generation, who have grown up in an affluent society and enjoyed the lavish attention of their parents and grandparents. They tend to be assertive people who dare to pursue their own dreams. Many urban women are well educated and career-minded. 

The story Jojo Zhang, a 36-year-old bank manager in Beijing, narrates is quite typical. Zhang was one of the women who responded to a post I put up on WeChat, looking for women to interview who have given motherhood a miss. 

An only child, she had loving parents and a happy childhood. But she never had a burning desire to have children. About 10 years ago, some of her friends got married and started to have children. 

Few found the experience rewarding. “It just takes too much time and energy,” they advised her. “Don’t bother having children.” She took it to heart.

More in the South China Morning Post

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China's divorce spikes, because women want more - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

China's women are no longer satisfied with the marriages they took in the past for granted, says Zhang Lijia, journalist and author of  Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China, in the South China Morning Post. "Although gradually easing, there’s still stigma attached to divorce," she adds.

Zhang Lijia:

Although gradually easing, there’s still stigma attached to divorce. My mother never told the neighbours about my divorce, which took place almost 14 years ago. “Why should I hang out the dirty laundry?” she would say. For her, divorce was a disgrace for the woman and her family. Luckily, these days, her view has become less common and divorce is more tolerated, especially in cities.

The rising number of divorces has apparently upset the authorities. Obsessed with maintaining stability, they see massive numbers of divorces as a destabilising force and have stepped up efforts at curbing the trend.

In 2016, the Supreme People’s Court instructed judges to balance respecting people’s wishes with defending stable families, which, in their view, is the basis for a harmonious society. Last year, local courts introduced methods such as a cooling-off period, free mediation and even a quiz to deter couples from seeking a divorce.

There’s little surprise that more than half of the filed divorce cases were rejected by courts.

The government shouldn’t have bothered to interfere. Of course, divorce should never be taken lightly, especially when children are involved. Still, restricting wives from getting out of a bad marriage will reduce women’s freedom and agency. In any case, it is a woman’s civil right, which must be respected. Even if divorce is not good for society, are miserable women better for it?

The fact that women are driving divorce in China is in line with the trajectory of a developing country in the middle of rapid modernisation. In developed nations such as US and Britain, more women file for divorce than men. It’s not that terrifying in a modern world, where the types of family have become more diverse.

More at the South China Morning Post.

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Zhang Lijia: a Chinese sensation at Jaipur Literary Festival

Zhang Lijia

A raving review of the appearance of Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus, a novel, on prostitution in China, at the Jaipur Literary Festival in London, at The Citizen. "I was very fascinated by prostitutes. However, the only prostitution I have done was intellectual prostitution,” Zhang Lijia says.

The Citizen:

A Chinese author has emerged as one of the sensations of the Jaipur Literary Festival underway in London where writers and their admirers have been mingling in the open air. 

Nanjing-born Lijia Zhang, who was employed in a Chinese rocket factory in her younger years, is the author of ‘Socialism is Great’, ‘China Remembers’ and ‘Lotus’, said “Writing in English freed me because in China there is censorship and writing in English meant I did not have to go through censorship.” Zhang was appearing on a panel headlined ‘Words Are All We Have’, alongside Indian writer Anjali Joseph and Sri Lankan novelist Rohan Gunesekera. In her presentation Zhang revealed how she discovered that her grandmother had first been a prostitute and later evolving into her grandfather’s concubine in 1948. 

“I was no rocket scientist, I was just a factory worker”, Zhang said about her own life.. “But I was very fascinated by prostitutes. However the only prostitution I have done was intellectual prostitution.”

More at the Citizen.

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The abyss between Hong Kong and mainland people - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

Western media too easily assume the protests in Hong Kong are supported by many mainland Chinese. Wrong, says author Zhang Lijia. There is a wide dived between mainland Chinese and Hongkongnese, and that is not only because of the media censorship in the mainland, she adds at the South China Morning Post.

Zhang Lijia:

When I travel around the world, people like to guess when I am from. “Hong Kong?” “The mainland,” I like to correct them, and add: “We are all Chinese.” 

Ethnically, we are all Chinese. But mainlanders’ reaction to the Hong Kong protests tells me that there’s a deep divide between the two – a geopolitical one. 

There’s no poll on the carefully censored topic on the mainland. From measuring the pulse on the internet and talking to friends, I sense that there’s indifference, confusion, anger, fascination, and even admiration. Overall, I would say that most are not sympathetic to the protests.

The propaganda has certainly played a role. Some have readily bought the government line that the protests are being fuelled by foreign influence – the black hands. 

A lot of ordinary Chinese simply don’t understand why millions of Hongkongers would take to the street over the extradition law. “They already enjoy a lot more freedom and rights than us. What’s the fuss?” asked my brother-in-law, a small-business owner from Nanjing. 

Interestingly, even some well-educated Chinese who have access to international reports don’t necessarily support the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. 

Nick Shen, an English tutor based in the southern city of Zhuhai, has been following the developments from the very beginning, reading reports from both domestic and international media, partly because he can see Hong Kong from the sea front, a sling shot away from his apartment. 

“These silly young people,” he said in a phone interview. 

“They are wasting their time. They are going to achieve nothing, but to destroy Hong Kong’s economy and ultimately hurt the mainland itself.” 

The problem is that mainlanders and Hongkongers have little understanding of each other since they come from drastically different places.

More at the South China Morning Post.

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More needed to stop child abuse - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

Sexual child abuse, especially those left behind by their migrant parents, needs more attention, writes author Zhang Lijia, who wrote a bestseller on prostitution in China in the South China Morning. She applauds actions taken by the Supreme People's Court of China but sees it only as a start.

Zhang Lijia:

Last month, the Supreme People’s Court of China held a press conference following the publication of four so-called typical cases of sexual abuse of children. It vowed to use all means, including the death penalty, to punish child sex offenders. I was also a victim of child sex abuse, one of many girls molested by a teacher at my primary school in Nanjing. 

This is a hidden but growing epidemic. News portal Caixin.com reported that some 8-12 per cent of China’s 270 million minors may have experienced sexual assault, including rape for 1 per cent.

“It means that nearly 30 million Chinese children could have been the victims of sexual abuse,” Shang Xiaoyun, director of Beijing Normal University’s Family and Child Research Centre, was quoted as saying. 

I believe various factors contribute to the worrying trend. As is the case elsewhere, the internet has become an increasingly treacherous place for young minds. In two of the cases presented by the court, the perpetrators met their victims online; one was promised a starring role in a film.

Left-behind children are particularly vulnerable. In the past four decades, some 300 million people have moved from their villages to seek work in the city, leaving millions of children behind, often without adequate care.

More at the South China Morning Post.

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How prostitution came on my radar - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

Author Zhang Lijia tells in The Millions how she became interested in prostitution in China, after discovering her grandma was a 'working girl'. It took years to write her bestselling novel Lotus: A Novel.

Zhang Lijia:

I’ve been interested in prostitution ever since a “deathbed revelation” in 1998. As my beloved maternal grandmother lay dying, my mother, an only child, cried her eyes out. She said to me: “You have no idea how much she has suffered: the famine, the Nanjing Massacre, all these political movements, and she was a working girl in the ’30s.” 

A working girl? I had a hard time reconciling the image of a sex worker with my grandma, a devout Buddhist who chanted Amitabha all day long and who raised me. A strikingly beautiful woman, she had high cheekbones and almond-shaped eyes. Dimples danced on her cheeks as she talked, always softly. As a traditional woman, she insisted on wearing a Chinese-style cotton jacket with a high mandarin collar, fixed by butterfly buttons. In the morning, she plaited my hair and, in the evening, she cooked for me and the family. 

My mother explained that grandmother had become an orphan as a child and was later sold into a local brothel in Yangzhou, a small town in Eastern China. She worked for 10 years until—while on the job—she met my grandfather, a small-time grain dealer. 

I kept wondering what her life was like inside the brothel. How did she cope? I quizzed my mother about grandma’s former life, but she was unable to enlighten me; she said the brothel was a middle-class establishment set in a traditional courtyard house named Pavilion of Spring Fragrance, its front always lit up by bright red lanterns. My grandma had never liked to talk about herself. 

I keenly read books, both fiction and nonfiction, on prostitution in China. I became fascinated with the subject. In China, the oldest human profession was wiped out after the Communists took power in 1949. Prostitution, in their view, was the vice produced by evil capitalism. In the reform era, however, it has made a spectacular return due to growing wealth, relaxed social control, and a large and mobile population. Although illegal, in every city in this vast country, there’s at least one “red light district” where working girls operate from massage parlors, hair salons, or bathing centers—all of them fronts for brothels.

More in The Millions.

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Modern China faces new feudal attitudes towards women - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia at the BBC

Morality classes are popping up all over the country, teaching past traditional attitudes towards women, warns author Zhang Lijia in an opinion piece in The South China Morning Post who signals a backlash towards banned feudal behavior. The government steps in when those excesses are discovered, but it remains unclear what stays under the radar, Zhang adds.

The South China Morning Post:

Premarital sex is commonplace and prostitution, wiped out by the communists in the 1950s, has returned as a major industry. Sexually transmitted diseases, crime and divorce rates have all rocketed. Some lay the blame on the so-called Western decadent lifestyle. As a result, morality classes targeting women have sprung up across China. In May 2017, for example, during a lecture on traditional culture at Jiujiang University College in southeastern Jiangxi province, senior lecturer Ding Xuan preached on chastity, claiming that “a woman’s best dowry is her virginity”

She also cautioned against casual sex, claiming that the sperm of three men, when mixed together, formed a potent poison that could cause cervical cancer. Later that year, footage was leaked of classes at the Fushun Traditional Culture School in northeastern Liaoning province, where women were taught to scrub floors, bow to their husbands, never seek divorce and never fight back if beaten by their husbands.

In August, a summer camp in Wenzhou, in southeastern Zhejiang province, meant to promote traditional culture and kinship, taught that “men are heaven and women the earth”, adding that women, being inferior, should stay at the bottom. These cases were met with sharp criticism and the authorities shut down the Wenzhou camp. But no one knows just how many more “female virtue” classes are being held throughout China. They tend to pop up in small towns and wear the cloak of promoting traditional culture.

More in the South China Morning Post.

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Women miss equal position in China - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

Tradition and an unequal political system hamper women in their development in China, says author Zhang Lijia at the Addison Gazette. "Women are being left behind in terms of political participation and the salary gap between men and women is becoming wider."

The Addison Gazette:

No woman has ever led the Communist Party of China, and currently there‘s only one woman among the 25 members of its Politburo. 

Author of “Lotus” – a book that talks about prostitution, based on extensive research – Zhang Lijia, said that the CPC was sexist. 

Zhang added that Chinese women are being left behind in terms of political participation and the salary gap between men and women is becoming wider. 

According to the United Nations Development Programme, among the members of the decision making bodies of the Chinese government, only 24.2 per cent are women. 

China must guarantee a minimum quota for women in the National Assembly, which continues to have very few women representatives, Zhang says. 

The CPC, she adds, took a concrete step to improve women‘s lives in the 1950s, when it abolished child marriage and introduced the right to education and work, but after that gender equality has not been prioritised. 

According to Zhang, if China wants to improve the lives of women, it will first need to accord them equal status in society and politics.

More at the Addison Gazette.

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The true legacy of the May Fourth protests - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

One hundred years ago students protested in Beijing for patriotism and democracy. President Xi Jinping has jumped on the centennial anniversary by praising the patriotism of the May Fourth protests. Commentator Zhang Lijia notes that he ignored that democracy was an inherent part of its legacy, she writes in the South China Morning Post.

 Zhang Lijia:

Back in May 1989, as a patriotic young factory worker in Nanjing, I organised a protest among factory workers in support of the pro-democracy movement in Beijing because I was inspired by our forebears of 1919. As both the centenary of the May Fourth Movement and the 30th anniversary of the June 4 incident approach, I can’t help but link the two events and wonder about China’s future. 

Xi is keen to situate the May Fourth Movement in the context of the history of the Communist Party, which was founded by revolutionaries, including Chen, in 1921. At school, we all learned how the party ended China’s “century of humiliation” at the hands of Western powers and put the country on the road to rejuvenation. Many party leaders emerged during the May Fourth Movement, including Mao Zedong, who was an activist in Changsha in the summer of 1919. 

However, this is just part of the story. There is also an anti-authoritarian streak in the May Fourth Movement. In the lead-up to the 1919 protests, intellectuals such as Japan-educated Chen and his Peking University colleague, US-educated Hu Shih, not only revolted against traditional Chinese culture but also explored liberalism, pragmatism, individualism, feminism and even anarchism. Freedom of thought and tolerance were two highly prized values.At the centre of this intellectual ferment were Mr Democracy and Mr Science.

More in the South China Morning Post.

 Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more political experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

China women lack leverage in both politics and salaries - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

Women in China might be regaining some tracking in the economy, they are still lacking political leverage and earn on average less than men, says author Zhang Lijia at Wion. "According to Zhang, if China wants to improve the lives of women, it will first need to accord them equal status in society and politics."

Wion:

China also has a long way to go as far as representation of women in politics goes. 

No woman has ever led the Communist Party of China, and currently there's only one woman among the 25 members of its Politburo. 

Author of "Lotus" - a book that talks about prostitution, based on extensive research - Zhang Lijia, said that the CPC was sexist. 

Zhang added that Chinese women are being left behind in terms of political participation and the salary gap between men and women is becoming wider. 

According to the United Nations Development Programme, among the members of the decision making bodies of the Chinese government, only 24.2 per cent are women. China must guarantee a minimum quota for women in the National Assembly, which continues to have very few women representatives, Zhang says. 

The CPC, she adds, took a concrete step to improve women's lives in the 1950s, when it abolished child marriage and introduced the right to education and work, but after that gender equality has not been prioritised. 

According to Zhang, if China wants to improve the lives of women, it will first need to accord them equal status in society and politics.

More at Wion.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more stories by Zhang Lijia? Do check out this list.  

The crude reality for women in the China market - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Liijia

London-based author Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus, a novel, on prostitution in China, recalls at Varsity the crude reality women have to face in China's economy, a story many outside China might not see, speaking at Cambridge PEN, about the process of writing her latest book.

Varsity:

“I want to show the crude reality of the Chinese market economy and the resilience of women struggling in the bottom of society,” Zhang adds. 

Like the characters in Lotus, Zhang has experienced what life is like in a rapidly changing China, having spent a decade working at a factory that produced intercontinental missiles. Although Zhang had dreamed of becoming a journalist and writer from a young age, she was taken out of school to work at a factory at the age of sixteen. Whilst working at the factory, Zhang taught herself English. 

“Reading gave me escape and enlightenment, and it gave me a route to escape the tough reality [of the factory] and to broaden my horizons”, she says. 

Upon completing a Master’s degree in Creative and Life Writing in London, Zhang returned to China and her dreams took flight as she began to write. She wrote a memoir about her time at the factory, titled “Socialism is Great!”: A Worker’s Memoir of New China. With Lotus being Zhang’s first fictional novel, she mentions how the transition from fiction to nonfiction writing styles was “extremely challenging”. 

“The freedom to create a fictional world was both exciting and intimidating.” Freedom also takes on another meaning in the context of contemporary China when it comes to censorship. A previous book she wrote in Chinese about the Western image of Chairman Mao was censored, Zhang decided to write in English in order to “freely express” herself. 

This helped Zhang overcome another type of censorship that was not political, but rather “a writer’s own self-censorship”, as she calls it. 

“By writing in English, I gained unexpected literary freedom. By not being inhibited by my mother tongue, I can also be bold as I experiment with the language. I use different words and I structure my sentences differently, consciously and unconsciously. Of course, my experiment doesn’t always work. But I enjoy the adventure.” 

Although having studied English for thirty years, Zhang says she still faces great challenges when writing in English, “I write too slowly, and I don’t understand the subtle meanings of certain words, so in that sense, I still regard myself as being a novice.” 

Throughout her journey, Zhang draws upon many literary inspirations. She cites George Orwell’s four reasons for writing: egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and political purpose, as key drivers of her motivation to write. In particular, she remains drawn to Jane Eyre, “a plain-looking character full of spirit and longing”, Zhang comments. In more recent years, she mentions how reading her MA professor Blake Morrison’s memoir And When Did You Last See Your Father shaped the techniques she had used to complete her own memoir. 

Following the success of Lotus, Zhang is now turning her focus back towards non-fiction. She is working on a narrative non-fiction book about the children of migrant workers in China, also known as their ‘left-behind’ children. “There are currently 61 million children living in villages across the country without both or one parent,” she says. The book will focus on a rural community in Southwest China’s Guizhou province, to examine the human cost of China’s economic miracle. As preparation, “I am reading or re-reading outstanding literary non-fiction books on China, such as Wish Lantern by Alec Ash and Factory Girls by Leslie Chang.” 

As for aspiring writers, Zhang’s words of advice is to just “read and write and live your life.” “Just going ahead and writing is the best thing you can do,” she says with a smile.

More at Varsity.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more female experts on China at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

State tv pulls 'negative' dramas for a good reason - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

State TV has been pulling a set of historical dramas from their channels because they were having a negative influence on their audiences, according to state media. Journalist Zhang Lijia, the author of Lotus, a novel, a bestseller on prostitution in China, understands the ratio behind this action, she tells in the South China Morning Post.

The South China Morning Post:

Chinese social commentator Zhang Lijia said she understood the concerns of the people and the authorities. 

“I do see some points that the article [critizing the historical dramas] made. To go far in life, you have to play tricks and be ruthless and nasty to each other. Already there’s moral decline in today’s China,” she said. 

Zhang also saw the article’s criticism as a reflection of the current general crackdown, recalling that some conservatives had made similar noises in the past when the political atmosphere was tightened. 

For example, a few years ago a senior retired official had criticised young girls with dyed hair clad in sexy outfits on a talent show for being out of line with socialist values. 

“These costume dramas are hugely popular and therefore money makers. I’d be very surprised if they are banned. Then, who knows. The top leaders have become less predictable,” Zhang said.

More in the South China Morning Post.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more stories by Zhang Lijia? Do check out this list.  

Sex, money and guanxi - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

Author Zhang Lijia of Lotus, a novel on prostitution in today's China talks ahead of her lecture at Spittoon Book Club talk January 19 at Timesdirect.tv in Beijing. (Follow the links for more details)

Timesdirect:

It seems that in your book, prostitution is portrayed as a legitimate choice when rampant capitalism condemns a young woman to a life without any thrill or space for individual expression. 

I certainly wouldn’t use the word “legitimate.” Rather, for some of the most vulnerable women, it is one of the few or only choices they have – to sell their own bodies. For girls serving the upscale market, it is sometimes a lifestyle choice, a way to obtain quick money. For clients, yes, some visit prostitutes seeking thrill, among other reasons. 

At some point in the book Lotus, the protagonist, finds pleasure with one of her clients, one pleasure that she never felt before. The stigma of prostitution is one thing, but the stigma of women’s sexuality is also another subject that you touch upon. 

I’d like to portray women as three-dimensional human beings with sexual desires. I found it quite interesting that some women experienced sexual pleasure that they never experienced with their husbands. Some felt bad about it as they regarded their work as “dirty” and it felt wrong to get pleasure out of this disgraceful job. This is one of the reasons that Lotus turns to Buddha – to cleanse herself. 

Lotus finds a very understanding and open-minded man in the character of the photographer Bing but their relationship is still complicated. What was the meaning behind Bing’s character? 

The photographer Bing is obsessed with photographing the girls. Apart from his noble reasons, there are also selfish reasons. It is a complicated relationship because they come from such different backgrounds and have different expectations. By introducing the character Bin, a better educated urban man, I was able to discuss some broad social issues. 

In the end, we learn that Lotus’ happiness is not going to be dependent on her relationship with a man. 

Yes, for me, it is a novel about a young woman finding herself. 

We need more novels about sex, money, and guanxi. 

Of course!

More at Timesdirect.tv

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more experts on cultural change at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

Doubts rise on Single's Day - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

Internet giant Alibaba might have sold for close to 31 billion US dollar at China's Single's Day, but author Zhang Lijia notices also growing concern on the massive shopping festival, she tells Upm Pulp. Consumerism and environmental concerns emerge with the growing turnover.

Upm Pulp:

The Singles’ Day shopping bonanza means also over one billion packages flying across the globe. Millions of packages add up to tonnes of cardboard, plastic, tape and bubble wrap. Along with impressive sales figures, Singles’ Day has also become to signify a huge amount of waste. 

Last year Singles’ Day sales resulted in an estimated 300 000 tonnes of unrecycled packaging waste in China. Recently many have started to voice concern over the impact of the one-day shopping spree on the environment. One of those uneasy about the blatant commercialism is the author and journalist Lijia Zhang. 

“Online shopping has really caught on in China in a big way,” Zhang says. “The Chinese Government has realized the problems for the environment and has set a body to oversee the environmental impact of logistics companies. But many ordinary people don’t know or care about the disastrous result this shopping festival has on the environment.”

More at Upm Pulp.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Are you interested in having her as a speaker? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more experts on cultural change at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.