gisw13_chapters

domestic violence, and the exacting requirementsfor evidence in such cases – stipulated by local lawsdrafted at the provincial or municipal level – oftenact as systemic disincentives against going to courtover abuse.Later that month Li Yang admitted to state-runnewspaper China Daily that “I hit her sometimesbut I never thought she would make it public sinceit’s not Chinese tradition to expose family conflictsto outsiders.” Li failed to attend therapy to dealwith the issue, and began making appearances onTV talking about it to mixed reactions.On 27 October 2011, Kim Lee filed for divorceat the Beijing Chaoyang District Court, requestingequal division of the couple’s property and full custodyof their three children. In weibo posts Lee saidshe insisted on using the Chinese legal system toboth teach her daughters a lesson and to providean example for other women suffering domestic violence.By this time Lee’s weibo account had around61,000 followers, according to the blog Shanghaiist.Over the course of the next year Kim Lee postednot just about her experiences building her caseand dealing with an intransigent legal system, butof her life raising her daughters. Li Yang occasionallysent her threatening text messages which shewould then post to Sina Weibo, such as one on 12April 2012 reading: “In America you should be killedby your husband with gun. This is real Americanway. You’re so lucky to be in China!”On 3 February 2013, Chaoyang District Court finallygranted Kim Lee a divorce on the grounds ofdomestic abuse and, in a first, issued a three-monthrestraining order against Li Yang. The ruling orderedLi to pay CNY 50,000 in compensation to Lee and anannual fixed stipend of CNY 12 million until all threedaughters reached 18. But the amount was minusculecompared to what Li had made from his CrazyEnglish empire, which the court did not force himto disclose.Still, the ruling was landmark, and Lee told theInternational Herald Tribune’s Rendezvous blogthat since going public in 2011 she had received1,141 letters and emails from abused women andtheir children. “It quickly became a matter of theother women and their stories,” she told the blog.“No one else was speaking out. I just felt I had to.”ConclusionsFeng’s case clearly demonstrates the power of netenabledcamera phones and microblogs to raiseawareness both of a specific incident and broaderissue, provided conditions are right. The incidentonly truly vaulted itself into the public consciousnessvia weibo; Deng’s post and the accompanying mobilephone photos combined with a screenshot oftext messages from local authorities were visceralenough to prompt reactions from netizens that quicklyspread knowledge across a broad swath of usersand attracted attention from commercial media.Later, more central government organs steppedin to conduct an official investigation, and statemedia ran opinion pieces condemning those responsible.However, state media also announcedthe “solution” to Feng’s case, after which media coverageof Feng and weibo-based discussion of familyplanning in China dropped off precipitously. Despiteshort-term popular awareness within China, the incident’sconnection to a central government policyultimately limited criticism and further discussionof family planning enforcement.Kim Lee’s case is admittedly exceptional givenher background as a US citizen and high profileas the wife of a Chinese celebrity. However, herinsistence on treating the issue as one of domesticviolence, her continued efforts at keeping it inthe public eye, her refusal to settle out of court,and her decision to work within the Chinese courtsystem while drawing public attention to the trialsand travails of the process can serve as a model forthose who find themselves thrust suddenly into thespotlight by similar incidents. Even so, it remains tobe seen whether national legislation will be passedaddressing domestic violence in China.Both cases are particularly important for thesubstantial portion of Chinese women who still livein the countryside, and may be echoed by subsequentincidents as more become net-savvy. Thelatest reports from China’s Ministry of Industryand Information Technology indicate the numberof mobile phone-only internet users is on the riseas PC-only users decline, and rapid growth of theformer cohort is set to continue in many of China’spoorer, less-industrialised provinces.Action steps• Visceral subject matter (particularly pictures)is a key component for initially drawing attentionto an issue online such that it can become apopular social cause.• Caution should be exercised when pushing forreforms that run counter to major central governmentpolicies (e.g. population control). Evenin areas characterised by a lack of explicit policy(e.g. domestic violence), the perception of anybroader organisational effort may lead to aclampdown on discussion.95 / Global Information Society Watch