Combating sexual harassment in China

A 13,000-word student report analyzing sexual harassment cases on a university campus has gone viral on Chinese media in recent days.

The report was prepared by 23-year-old Kang Chen-wei, who spent four months researching and looking into 60 reported cases. He analyzed the frequency, locations, motivations and consequences of sexual harassment in Beijing Normal University (BNU).

The report, circulated and highly praised on Chinese social media, also includes a campus map that points out spots where attacks most frequently happen.

"There are discussions about sexual harassment, but there aren't enough analyses as to why the phenomenon exists, the current situation and how to prevent it," Kang, a student of Chinese literature, told DW.

After interviewing victims who had been sexually harassed in the past, Kang concluded in his report that "they are usually confused, but have not realized how bad their experience was."

For instance, after being harassed in a building, a female victim has stopped going into it altogether. Another victim, Kang said, has hated all men wearing square shirts ever since she was harassed by a male student with such a shirt on. "The consequences of their experiences are far more serious than they have imagined," Kang added in his report.

Rising awareness

Kang is not the first to call for more attention to sexual harassment on university campuses. In recent years, victims and women's rights activists have been more vocal on the issue.

One of the most significant campaigns was in September 2014, when young women dressed as Little Red Riding Hood protested outside their respective universities in ten different Chinese cities.

Their protests followed an open letter of complains signed by 256 professors and students to the Ministry of Education, demanding an investigation into a sexual harassment case committed by a history professor of Xiamen University, who was later disqualified from teaching.

In June this year, a doctoral student in Nanjing University sent a letter to the school chancellor suggesting ways to prevent sexual harassment on campus, after a fellow student had been harassed. In the letter, she explained that the case was only one of many that had happened in the university in the previous months.

Superficial discussion

Such cases are routinely reported on Chinese media, at times flaring up public discussion on the issue. Some victims also share their tragic experiences on social media. But precise data on the occurrence and frequency of these incidents are lacking. Compounding the problem are the thousands of attacks that go unreported.

While a victim's reluctance to file a case is not unique to China, there are more reasons for her to keep silent here than in the liberal societies of Europe and North America. This applies even to more serious cases of sexual molestation and rape.

"Chinese culture regards female sexuality as something that's shameful. This justifies perpetrators of sexual assaults, and discourages victims from reporting their cases," renowned Chinese women's rights activist Li Ting-ting told DW.

"One female victim of sexual harassment told me she was blamed by friends for not covering up properly and that seduces harassers," Li added. "China is a patriarchal society, and victims don't get enough support."

And even families suppress victims' demand for justice, says Leta Hong Fincher, a sociologist and author of Leftover Women: the Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China.

"In the vast majority of cases, the victims are females and there is a huge amount of shame associated with that," the Hong Kong-based women's rights advocate added. "The family doesn't want the information to get out because they are embarrassed."

Power play

And in cases where perpetrators are professors, there are all the more reasons why victims won't report them, Li Ying, a prominent Chinese lawyer, told DW.

Having dealt with sexual harassment cases for more than 10 years, Li said many victims of such cases are not only pressured by family and society, but they are also concerned by the prospect of having bad relations with their teachers.

"Many professors take advantage of the admiration and need students have for them. As professors have strong influence on students' academic record and career prospects, these students usually don't dare to offend them," the lawyer underlined.

This strong obedience and dependency of students is also a reason behind the difficulty in gathering evidence against the professors, explained lawyer Li.

This campus power play makes students very vulnerable to unreasonable demands, experts say. "Sexual harassment in China is very serious largely because of this abuse of power," activist Li Ting-ting said.

Legal insufficiency

Sexual harassment is a societal problem that has always existed in China. Although there's increased media attention, laws against it haven't changed much. "The punishment for perpetrators is not severe enough. They could face expulsion from school, or in the cases of professors harassing students, they could be disqualified from teaching," says lawyer Li.

In serious cases such as rape or attempted murder of the victim, the attackers could face criminal charges, but only if there is enough evidence.

Nevertheless, in most cases where the crime involved is not considered to be "serious," the perpetrator only needs to pay the victim a few hundred dollars of compensation to be set free. "The victims would then think that it's not worth it to risk their career prosperity, their relations with families, or even their marriage possibility for an unreasonable outcome," Li Ying stressed.

Moreover, there isn't a specific law in Chinese criminal code that defines what sexual harassment refers to. "Laws that are currently used in sexual harassment cases are those that concern women's rights. But sexual harassment is not just about women's rights, it's about basic human rights," the lawyer noted.

Apart from the lack of legal protection, activist Li said a flawed education system is also a culprit for the phenomenon of victim blaming.

"China's sex education, as well as education on gender rights, is very under-developed. The concept of gender equality is not introduced in the curriculum," the activist pointed out. The public needs education, in a way that victims are not placed in a hostile environment to defend their rights, Li said.