Rice Bunny: China's #MeToo Movement

Endless Thread is a new podcast that collaborates with Reddit's users to bring fascinating stories from around the world.

In this episode, host Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson look at China's #MeToo movement—which is known in China as "Rice Bunny". The episode details how activists are using a blockchain cryptocurrency called Ethereum to circumvent the government censors that are trying to shut these stories down. 

The story starts in 1995 at Peking University, when a student named Gao Yan was allegedly raped by her professor during a study session. Two years later, Gao Yan committed suicide.

Fast forward to to last year, and Gao Yan's story again surfaced after her good friend Li Youyou wrote a blog post about what happened to honor Gao Yan's memory. This post prompted current student Yue Xin to write a public letter (posted on China's primary social media networks—Weibo and WeChat) detailing student activists' attempts to expose the school's larger cover up of sexual misconduct cases. Her activism attracted the attention of the school and Chinese government, which worked quickly to try to shut her down.

But even as the government began removing tags linked to the #MeToo movement, something remarkable happened. Chinese activists began finding clever workarounds to keep the stories live and viral—by embedding Li Youyou's open letter into a public blockchain platform called Ethereum, which cannot be erased by government censors.

And guess what? The letter went viral. It's a fascinating episode that highlights the ingenuity and resourcefulness of online activists, and how #MeToo is affecting China.