China’s #MeToo Movement Is Just Beginning

Twenty years ago, Gao Yan, a Chinese Literature student at Peking University, “was raped by a professor, her friends and relatives say, and soon after she killed herself”, according to the New York Times.

Recently, there has been a wave of people who have read and shared her story online, and in result of that, the male dominated government has deployed censors to stamp it out.

To much surprise, these universities have been extremely dedicated to their students rights, and have acted on these claims.

According to the South China Morning Post “Shen Yang, the academic accused of raping Gao Yan – who denies the allegations – had been fired from jobs at Shanghai Normal University and Nanjing University after the claims came to light. Peking University where he worked until 2012, announced last week that he “had been given a major demerit in 1998 after being accused of having sexual relations with student Gao Yan.”

#MeToo is unfortunately a controversial subject. With the Communist Party’s tight control of civil society, and universities acting upon these matters, everyone is wondering what’s next to come.