When the manuscript of Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends first arrived in Peng Lun’s inbox, he hesitated. It was 2017, and Peng – who had worked in publishing for a little over a decade – had just started his own house in Shanghai, Archipel Press. He had heard about the clamour from publishers that resulted in a heated auction for the rights to the young Irish author’s first novel and thought it might be worth having it translated into simplified Chinese. He decided to commission readers’ reports from two women.…
Tag: Women
High-profile China #MeToo case settled in US out of court
One of China’s biggest and most divisive #MeToo cases, which had been set to play out with extraordinary transparency because of its US location and was closely watched by millions inside China, has been settled out of court. Liu Qiangdong, a 49-year-old online retail billionaire who also goes by Richard Liu and is known as China’s Jeff Bezos, had been accused of sexually assaulting a then 21-year-old Chinese graduate when she was studying at the University of Minnesota and he was visiting on a business trip. Liu has always denied…
HRT: inside the complex global supply chain behind a $20bn market
In the centre of the factory stand 31 reactors: giant metal globes that can hold up to 10,000 litres of liquid each. Every week, gleaming stainless steel drums arrive by truck at this plant on the outskirts of Oss, in the Netherlands. Their contents are poured into the reactors through a funnel, dissolved, and then heated to boiling point. Standing by one of the vast containers, the factory manager, Robert Dam, compares it to a “cooking pot”. Peering inside, we can see the light liquid bubbling away. At Dam’s factory,…
Chinese government attempts to boost birth rate with new policies
The Chinese government has pledged to improve pre- and post-natal services to encourage more people to have children and reiterated its intent to “discourage” abortions as it seeks to turn around a declining birth rate. The measures announced by the country’s national health commission include a pledge to make fertility treatments more accessible. For several years authorities have flagged expanding IVF access to single women but it remains available only to married couples. A court challenge by a woman was recently struck down. The commission said it would guide local…
Woman at centre of China #MeToo case vows not to give up after appeal rejected
The woman at the centre of a landmark case in China’s #MeToo movement has vowed not to give up after a court rejected her appeal for an apology and damages. In 2018 Zhou Xiaoxuan accused a high-profile state TV presenter, Zhu Jun, of forcibly kissing and groping her during a 2014 internship. The case inspired many others to share their experiences of sexual assault and caused a social media storm. On Wednesday the court in Beijing ruled after a closed-door hearing that evidence submitted by the 29-year-old was “insufficient” in…
Papua New Guinea election: what’s at stake?
In the coming days, Papua New Guineans will head to the polls to vote in the first national election in five years. A struggling economy, the impact of the pandemic and growing frustrations about failing public services are among the leading issues. The results of the election will be important not only to the country’s almost 9 million people, but also for the increasingly complex geopolitical landscape in the wider Pacific region. The election process Of the 2,351 candidates running in the national election, 118 members will be elected. Members…
China mulls bolstering laws on women’s rights and sexual harassment
China is considering strengthening its laws on women’s rights to provide more robust protection against gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace. The draft regulations come amid the rise of a nascent #MeToo movement in China, which activists say has been hampered by the country’s strict regime of censorship and oppression against all signs of dissent. The major draft revision was presented to China’s top lawmaking body for deliberation on Monday. The amendment marks a significant development in the country’s women’s rights legislation since it was implemented almost three…