[WAM!Van] Last 2 days to watch "Hooligan Sparrow" documentary for free on why it is so dangerous to protest rape in China

[Joanna Chiu]

I haven't posted my own work here before, but I think this film deserves a
wide audience and today is the last day to stream for free on PBS (VPN
needed for those outside US). After Oct 31, it will still be available on
Netflix, and PBS plans to run it again during future time slots. Links
below.

http://qz.com/817181/this-month-on-neflix-documentary-hooligan-sparrow
-shows-how-dangerous-it-is-to-protest-against-rape-in-china/

Documentary “Hooligan Sparrow” shows how dangerous it is to protest against
rape in China
Written by Joanna Chiu
[image: On a beach in China's southern island province of Hainan in May
2013, activist Ye Haiyan, also known as "Hooligan Sparrow," holds up one of
her protest signs. Earlier, Ye and other activists had staged a small
street demonstration against an elementary school principal and a
government official who raped six girls aged between 11 and 14 in Hainan's
city of Wanning. The sign reads: "All China Women’s Federation is a farce.
China’s women’s rights are dead. 1949-2013 Fallen."]
"Hooligan Sparrow" holds up a sign that says "China’s women’s rights are
dead." (PBS/Wang Nanfu)

The documentary film *Hooligan Sparrow* begins with Wang Nanfu, a fresh
journalism school graduate, introducing herself while standing on a busy
street. Seconds later, she is surrounded by a group of men. They egg each
other on, threatening to smash her camera and daring her to continue
filming. “This is the story I captured before they took the camera from
me,” Wang says in a voice over.

The rest of the documentary <http://www.pbs.org/pov/hooligansparrow/> is
even more violent, but Wang’s subjects appear better prepared. When eleven
people storm into the home of a Chinese women’s rights activist named Ye
Haiyan, who also goes by the name “Hooligan Sparrow
<http://blog.tianya.cn/post-19329-25443209-1.shtml>” (link in Chinese), Ye
deftly fights off their attacks with a meat cleaver.

*Hooligan Sparrow,* Wang’s first film, was an official selection of the
2016 Sundance Film Festival and debuts this month on the POV series on PBS
<http://www.pbs.org/pov/hooligansparrow/> and on Netflix
<https://www.netflix.com/title/80097372>. The severe harassment it
documents of women’s rights activists is part of a broader clampdown on
civil society
<http://qz.com/673002/chinas-new-ngo-law-raises-doubts-about-its-hosting-of-the-g20-summit/>
in
China. Last summer, police questioned or detained over 300 human rights
lawyers and activists. At least a dozen are yet to stand trial.

Days before the attack on Ye’s home, during the summer of 2013 covered in
the documentary, Ye had organized a small protest in the southern island
province of Hainan, where she held up a poster saying, “Principal, get a
room with me—leave the school kids alone.” A photo of Ye with her sign went
viral, raising awareness of a spate of
<http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/01/world/la-fg-china-child-sex-abuse-20130602>
sexual
assaults in China against schoolchildren. At the time, Ye was already
widely known for volunteering to work for free in a brothel in order to
draw attention to sex workers’ rights.

Like Ye, Wang is from a poor village in China. Wang taught herself English
and won scholarships that allowed her to study journalism in Ohio and New
York. She was planning on making a documentary about Chinese sex workers
when Ye invited her to film their protest.

Their Hainan protest
<http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-06/21/content_16642055.htm> was
aimed at a school principal and a local government official, who had taken
six female students aged 11 to 14 to a hotel and raped them over a 24-hour
period. The men claimed they thought the girls were sex workers. They were
each sentenced to less than 14 years in jail, reflecting the fact that the
punishment for “engaging in sex with underage prostitutes” in China used to
be only five to 15 years in prison. The “prostitute” label was a criminal
classification that legal experts said
<http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/02/seeking-justice-for-china-underage-prostitutes-sex-crimes-law-rights-crackdown/>
shamed
child victims into silence and let rapists off the hook.

In the film, Wang follows Ye and her fellow activists as police and hired
thugs chase them from town to town. In one chilling scene, only the sounds
of Ye getting beaten can be heard. Wang is also followed and interrogated,
with her camera jerking wildly as she tries to run away. All of this
happened because a small group of women were successfully raising
awareness, mostly through social media, about sexual assault cases.

Anti-rape activism wasn’t always so
<https://joannachiu.com/2013/11/19/chinas-emerging-womens-movement/>
controversial
in China. Before president Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, authorities
seemedrelatively tolerant
<http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/women-09282015105143.html> of
advocacy around women’s issues, compared to causes such as religious
freedom and land rights.

Female activists who are currently in jail include former primary school
teacher Su Changlan
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/09/china-jailed-activists-un-summit/>,
who faces up to 15 years in prison on the charge of “inciting subversion of
state power.” Su is a former volunteer for the New York-based Women’s
Rights in China group, and has campaigned for an end to violence against
women, and assisted women who were forced to abort children to comply with
China’s family planning system.

After shutting down Ye’s activism and driving Wang out of the country,
authorities made an even stronger statement last year by arresting five
young feminist
<http://qz.com/363253/as-world-leaders-debate-beijing-equality-five-chinese-feminists-remain-behind-bars/>
activists,
shortly before International Women’s Day on March 8. The five were planning
to distribute stickers with slogans, including a call for police to arrest
sexual harassment suspects, when they were detained.

“Ye can’t hold street protests anymore. She has trouble traveling because
she is under constant surveillance, and her passport has been taken away,”
said Wang, who is married to an American and lives in New York. “Police
threatened my family and urged them to stop me from making my documentary.
I haven’t tried to go back to China yet. I don’t know if it’ll be safe to
go.”


-- 
*Joanna Chiu, Journalist  *
Beijing mobile: +86 17601612801
Portfolio: www.joannachiu.com
Connect with me: *[image: Twitter]
<http://www.twitter.com/joannachiu> [image: LinkedIn]
<http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=90180242&authType=name&authToken=PVJq&locale=en_US&pvs=pp&trk=ppro_viewmore>
 *
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