Who is the Me in 'Me Too'? China's fight against sexual harassment
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The Me Too campaign began to spread rapidly in the West in October. In China, such a movement has yet to take place, but this issue has drawn great public attention. Allegations have been made against men in academia, and the Ministry of Education announced that authorities would look into a mechanism that prevents sexual assault on campuses. CGTN correspondent Han Bin talks with a number of the country's top political advisors, as well experts from NGOs, for their solutions.
"I can't forget about it after so many years. I dare not tell my parents to this day. Can a man be harassed by a man? I used to feel sick and dirty about myself. I kept a diary about my hatred for him."
WEI TINGTING, FOUNDER GUANGZHOU GENDER & SEXUALITY EDUCATION CENTER "The reason I do this research, is because I realized that sexual harassment is a serious issue, but no one really pays enough attention to it."
HUANG XIQIN CPPCC MEMBER "A parent told me his child had encountered this in primary school. It left a deep shadow over the kid."
CHEN ZHONGHONG CPPCC MEMBER "Verbal harassment is very common.
"There're some sexual harassments happened in campus, universities, public spaces, and even one happened in an office of a teacher."
GAO JIE CPPCC MEMBER "From the left-behind children to college students and adults in the workplace. I think sexual harassment is a common problem."
WEI TINGTING, FOUNDER GUANGZHOU GENDER & SEXUALITY EDUCATION CENTER "In 2016, we started to do this research. Over the 6000 samples, around 60 percent, but only 4 percent of victims go to report. Women did not get enough empowerment to help them to speak out about the story. Like what we see now in the Me too movement. But because of our traditional value or moral, it's really shameful for women to speak that.Only when sex is not a stigma, that the victims can stand up and speak out their stories. They don't feel shame about it. Only Me too is not enough because it only solved the problem of no victim stand up to speak out, but what happens after victims speak out? which means I think everyone has to get involved."
WEI TINGTING, FOUNDER GUANGZHOU GENDER & SEXUALITY EDUCATION CENTER "I think one is we have to have gender equality education in society, in our educational systems. Also, to empower women. We have to build up a complete system to prevent sexual harassment."
HUANG XIQIN CPPCC MEMBER "Preventative education starts from kindergarten, through primary school and senior middle school. I think it's really necessary."
CHEN ZHONGHONG CPPCC MEMBER "Education in prevention should be implemented for both men and women."
GAO JIE CPPCC MEMBER "We can try to explore creating sexual harassment laws from/through legal channels. If the issue is raised, there will be more CPPCC members to think about how to deal with it, through more intensive research."
WEI TINGTING, FOUNDER GUANGZHOU GENDER & SEXUALITY EDUCATION CENTER "That's my dream. I think everyone like police, like staff, like civil society people, also the government, could all come involve together to solve this problem."