Jinü in 2020s China: Non-cooperative Feminist Praxis and Praxis-based Knowledge Production

This thesis examines an emerging online feminist formation in 2020s China—jinü (radical feminists). The group initially formed around the identification with and practice of 6B4T, and later developed a distinct set of practices and discourses in the Chinese context. Drawing on 12 in-depth interviews and an autoethnographic component, this study explores their practices and attitudes regarding exiting xingyuan (relationships with men), refusing filial piety, and building women-only communities. It shows how these seemingly non-cooperative practices can take the form of resistance, and how they generate effects at both private and collective levels. Guided by postcolonial theory, the thesis situates these practices within China’s cultural-political context and within the participants’ personal histories. It also argues that jinü praxis is accompanied by the rewriting and invention of language: through the use of specific terms and the consolidation of key concepts, these feminists re-define the practices themselves, so that praxis becomes part of knowledge production.