Zhou Xiaoxuan (; born ), better known by her pen name Xianzi (), is a
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
and leading advocate in the
Chinese Me Too movement.
Biography
Zhou Xiaoxuan was born in
Wuhan
Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...
in circa 1993. She moved to
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
when was 18 years old to study
screenwriting. Zhou writes essays under the pen name Xianzi.
Sexual assault allegations
In 2018, Zhou wrote an essay that was widely spread on social media. In it and a more detailed sequel, Zhou alleged that as an intern in 2014, she met with
Zhu Jun, a Chinese television host, in the hope of getting an interview, but he forcibly kissed and groped her for about 50 minutes in his dressing room. She told the BBC that although they were interrupted several times by workers going in and out of the room, she was frozen with fear and shame and could not alert them. The day after, she reported the incident to the police.
Zhou later joined the
#MeToo movement and sued Zhu for a public apology and 50,000 yuan ($7,400) in damages.
Zhu has denied all allegations and countersued Zhou for defamation. In September 2021, a Chinese court rejected her accusations against Zhu on the grounds of "insufficient evidence." Meanwhile, she has faced criticism from nationalist bloggers, and a commentary in the ''
Global Times
The ''Global Times'' () is a daily tabloid newspaper under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper, the ''People's Daily'', commenting on international issues from a Chinese ultra-nationalistic perspective. The publi ...
'' claimed that the MeToo movement was being used by "Western forces to tear Chinese society apart". On 10 August 2022, a court in Beijing rejected an appeal by Zhou after a closed-door hearing, citing as reason that the evidence submitted had been "insufficient". Afterwards, Zhou said that her legal team would focus on getting more evidence and footage that had not been included during the trial. A small group of her supporters showed up on the day of the ruling. Zhu Jun, however, has been absent from the proceedings, and Zhou has not heard of any further developments in his defamation suit against her. She told ''The Guardian'' that she was "very disappointed" but hoped that her loss "could provoke more reflection on the real difficulty of being a woman in today’s China."
She was recognized as one of the
BBC 100 Women in December 2022.
References
Living people
Chinese feminists
Chinese women activists
Year of birth uncertain
People from Wuhan
Year of birth missing (living people)
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