Understanding China’s Digital Feminism: Struggles, Resilience, and Businesses

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of digital feminism unfolding on Chinese social media. Situating the discussion within the Chinese context without neglecting its interconnectedness with global feminist momentum, this chapter examines the manifestations of gender power struggles in Chinese-language social-mediated communication and their dialectical relations with the nation’s sociopolitical climate and technoeconomic infrastructure. The analysis foregrounds how diverse civil society actors, including but not limited to NGOs, public intellectuals, digital influencers, grassroots social media users, respond to the visible resurgence of patriarchy in contemporary Chinese society. It assesses various intellectual and grassroots discourses, anchoring the interpretation upon their implications for the advancement or regression of gender equality and justice in China. It is hoped that the outcome of the discussion will serve as a useful foundation for future Chinese feminist studies in the context of social-mediated communication.