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Xianzi Silenced, Again

One of China’s most prominent feminist activists once again has had her Weibo account banned as authorities continue to suppress the voices of the country’s #MeToo movement.
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Zhou Xiaoxuan (aka. Xianzi) reads out her statement following the loss of her case in a second court trial in 2022. SOURCE: Wikimedia Commons.

Since she rose to prominence as the face of China’s #MeToo movement in 2018 after publicly accusing a celebrity television anchor of sexual harassment, Xianzi (弦子) has suffered continued victimization by the state and its vast system of information controls for her efforts to speak out. In the latest effort to silence her, the social media platform Weibo banned her account on May 26, citing unspecified violations of its community guidelines, according to Radio Taipei International.

Xianzi, whose full name is Zhou Xiaoxuan (周曉璿), first came to public attention in 2018 when she accused Zhu Jun (朱軍), a well-known host at state-run China Central Television, of groping and forcibly kissing her while she was an intern there in 2014. A court rejected her case in 2022, citing insufficient evidence. The latest ban is not her first. Her account has been silenced multiple times since 2018, including for a full year following the 2021 court ruling that first dismissed her claims.

Among the slogans Xianzi has posted to Weibo, where she will likely re-emerge if the past is anything we can go by: “Stand tall and straight, and you need not be afraid” (堂堂正正，就不要害怕).

David Bandurski is the director of the China Media Project, leading the project’s research and partnerships. David joined the team in 2004 after completing his master’s degree at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He is the author of Dragons in Diamond Village (Penguin/Melville House), a book of reportage about urbanization and social activism in China, and co-editor of Investigative Journalism in China (HKU Press).

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