China’s #MeToo Movement Is Still Humming

The #MeToo campaign has brought together people around the world speaking out against sexual harassment and sexual assault. While the campaign first spread via English language dominant social media, the movement later made waves in China in early 2018 following the posting of a student’s accusations against a former professor on Weibo. 

After that, others followed suit by sharing their own stories, detailing incidents in the workplace, at universities, in newsrooms, and in the film industry. The #MeToo and translated #woyeshi (#我也是）hastags are sometimes used, but another, mitu, #米兔 (literally #ricebunnny), a homophone for the English “me too,” has also been popularized. (Other online movements, social commentary, critiques, and activists have also previously used Chinese homophones to evade censors.)