This week IKEA, a well known furniture and appliance chain, received an immense amount of backlash after they aired a controversial ad in China that many believed to be sexist. Although IKEA immediately removed the ad due to disapproval, a lot of people in China are still outraged. The ad consisted of a Chinese mom stating to her daughter "Don't call me your mom if you cannot bring back a boyfriend." The ad continues by the daughter bringing home a boyfriend and everyone is happy. The ad concludes with "celebrate everyday easily." Social media users, mostly Chinese women, have been expressing their anger towards this ad on Weibo.
According to the article, Ikea Faces Social Media Backlash After Airing "Sexist" Ad in China, Ba Ge Zhuan Yong, a Weibo user with over 6 million followers, stated "Whether having a romantic partner or not is one's own business and does not need any interference from others, let alone an advertisement," This remark has over 4,000 likes and 3,000 shares. Ikea has received these comments, apologized, and has taken down the advertisement. This constitutes as a sexist image because it minimizes women. Its understandable why feminists and advocates who continue to fight for gender equality in China are so outraged because of this ad. Companies need to be more aware of Chinese culture and what could be considered sexist imagery from a Chinese perspective.
In the section A Digital Protest That Dare Not Speak Its Name, from the article “Hard Times for Feminists in China” by Jiayun Feng, she talks about the Women’s March in Washington DC last January and how protests like this happen worldwide, except in China. She stated “The Chinese government rarely allows any form of street protest. However, the concept of gender equality and other issues that feminists are fighting for globally are now firmly on the government’s radar.” So these Chinese feminist use the internet to stand up for there rights (although words like march and protest were censored). They created a group using WeChat called “Walking with women from all over the world” where people would share videos and photos with people who couldn't participate. This just goes to show how important gender equality is to Chinese feminist.
The Chinese government actually uses the term "leftover women" if they do not get find a man and get married before they are 27. The government wants young women to get married in hopes of balancing out the gender ratio. Right now, due to the one-child policy and the favorability of having a boy, their are many more men in China then women. Women used to abandon their daughters or get an abortion because they wanted their one baby to be a boy. The article, "Emotional Advert About China's "Leftover Women" Goes Viral by Heather Chen, shows a video and brings some really powerful ideas to this issue. A quote from the video stated, "In Chinese culture, respecting your parents is the most important quality. And not getting married is like the biggest sign of disrespect. People think that in Chinese society, an unmarried woman is incomplete." Many Chinese women are now standing up for what they believe in and not obeying by the desires of Chinese officials.
Nationalism and women's rights are two very sensitive topics when it comes to China, so I understand the anger toward a well established company reinforcing these ideas that these feminist have worked so hard to change. Gender bias is a huge issue in China. Since patriarchal attitudes are still very prevalent in China, feminist do face many difficulties when trying to promote change and enforce new laws. Although change undergoes an extremely slow process, the use of social media platforms to bring awareness to this movement is highly beneficial.