Zhengyu Yang, a current PhD student in CAMRI, supervised by Dr Anastasia Kavada and Dr Xin Xin, has recently published a peer-reviewed article based on her PhD research in the Asian Journal of Women’s Studies. Her PhD these is entitled “Cyber-nationalism and Feminist Contestations: The Role of ‘Big Vs’ in Shaping Gendered Power Dynamics.”

ABSTRACT

In August 2024, several South Korean women reported on the Chinese social media platform Weibo that they had been subjected to sexual violence through AI deepfake technology, sparking widespread debate. This paper explores the transnational feminist discourse between South Korea and China, with a specific focus on the responses to the deepfake scandal on Weibo. Through critical discourse analysis of highly engaged Weibo discussions, we examine how Chinese feminists interact with South Korean feminist narratives under China’s authoritarian digital landscape. We explore how Chinese feminism navigates gender resistance under authoritarian rule and examine the unique characteristics and value of such transnational feminist activism. By identifying the tensions between nationalist misogyny and cross-border feminist solidarity, this study highlights the paradoxical space within which Chinese feminists operate, balancing state repression, online censorship, and the influence of external feminist ideologies.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay