Betraying Big Brother Quotes

“Among the majority Han Chinese population, the growing numbers of Chinese women resisting marriage and childbearing pose a challenge to one of the key means of the Party's security apparatus to bring trouble making citizens into line - by threatening the troublemakers own spouses, parents and children, and making them responsible for monitoring their relatives.

For example, one believes that state security subjected Wu Rongrong to more sever abuse than the other members of the Feminist Five because she had a husband and child. It was very easy for the government to use her family members to threaten her.

The others were not married and did not have children so it was much harder for security agents to find something with which to threaten them.”
― Leta Hong Fincher, Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China

“But in her time of greatest need, her activist sisters came through for her. They offered her moral support, assured her that she had done nothing wrong, and confirmed the crucial importance of her work. They also connect her with a good pyscho-therapist. One of them even traveled to her city to speak to mother to tell her that her daughter wasn't a criminal and explained that she had in fact made a huge contribution to women's rights and China.

"The Sisterhood offered me a safe place where I could be myself and feel secure" she said. "That feminist solidarity rescued me.”
― Leta Hong Fincher, Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China

“On the inside "everything was black and white, she said. "I knew that I was innocent and done nothing wrong, so I just needed to survive the experience and get out."

Now, in the outside world, she had to face the heartbreak and disappointment of losing the support of so many she had relied on in the past.”
― Leta Hong Fincher, Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China

“For Wang Man the most painful part of her experience was being absconded by her friends. Those within her closest circle, whom she mostly knew from development work, and not the feminist community, didn't consider themselves feminists and thought her actions too radical [passing out stickers]. Although they said the government was wrong to detain her, they also believed she bore some responsibility.”
― Leta Hong Fincher, Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China

“No institution will ever be 100 percent feminist, and intellectuals who do nothing but criticize others can never bring about a revolution, because they are incapable of making compromises or cooperating with other people,”
― Leta Hong Fincher, Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China

“Chinese women feel very unequal every day of their lives, and the government cannot make women oblivious to the deep injustice they feel.”
― Leta Hong Fincher, Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China

“if sons and daughters are treated equally, raised and educated in the same manner, then the responsibilities assumed by men and women would surely become equal. when that happens, the nouns 'man' and 'woman' would no longer be necessary.”
― Leta Hong Fincher, Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China

“[Wang Man] had lost her job, her apartment, her regular circle of friends and her independent life in Beijing, and was still receiving regular phone calls from security agents monitoring her and her mother.”
― Leta Hong Fincher, Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China

“But the agents still called Wong's mother repeatedly, warning her not to answer any media questions about her daughter. Back in her Beijing apartment the police scared away Wong's roommate and instructed her landlord to evict her because of her "criminal record" so she had no choice but to move back home with her parents.”
― Leta Hong Fincher, Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China

“They were labelled criminal suspects, under investigation for gathering crowds to disrupt order and banned from traveling one year without permission from the government. In spite of their official release, however, the harassment continued. And it began almost immediately.”
― Leta Hong Fincher, Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China