Grave, Adagio cantabile, Rondo: Rape, Outrage, and the President’s Dance.
Updated on October 29, 2020
Child molestation is still a kind of taboo topic in China, although it is a severe social problem. According to a report of the South China Morning Post on May 31, 2019, there are 2.7 million children estimated to be the victim of sexual assault in China. It happened mostly in the schools or among the family circle, where the perpetrators are known to their victims. Very few cases have brought to the court, because of social stigma. People do not want to be involved in any form of sexual related matter. Children are more easily assaulted by adults because there is no adequate sexual education in the school. From the parents they learn nothing, its an untouchable topic.
The Sichuan-author Ao Ge has done some research, he published an article on aboluowang.com, he said there exists a business chain of pedophile in China, the daily business value is over 764 million US$.
The article below shows only the tip of the iceberg.
“Principal, get a room with me, leave the school kids alone” has become a popular phrase in China over the past few weeks. The trend had its beginnings on May 8th when the principal of the Wanning No. 2 Primary School in Hainan spent a night in a hotel with a government officer and six schoolgirls who were between 11 and 14 years old. The two men were accused of raping the girls, yet the police and authorities tried to cover the situation up as best they could. The official medical investigation showed that the girls’ hymen had not been ruptured, although the parents claimed the opposite, insisting that their daughters had been bleeding days after the incident.
Finally, the authority could not stand the pressure and the People’s Procuratorate of Hainan Province prosecuted the suspicious principal and officer for rape. Within 20 days, many other cases of child molestation at the hands of teachers were exposed. Now people are outraged.
Mrs. Ye Haiyan, a women and children’s rights advocate, was the first to protest. Ye and her supporters traveled for hours by train and ferry to reach the Wanning No. 2 Primary School. For the next three hours they stood in front of the school, under the sweltering sun, and held placards with the words “Principal, get a room with me, leave the school kids alone” written on them. That day the demonstration seemed to provoke no response from the school’s authority.
Their revenge came soon, however. After Ye returned home to Guangxi Province, where she lives with her daughter, nine men and two women broke into the house and attacked her. Ye grabbed a kitchen knife and hurt three of the invaders in self-defense, but because of the violence she was taken away and detained by the police.
Ye’s arrest has since triggered a wave of mocking protests. Images of men, women, cartoon figures, and even pets posing with placards bearing the same, increasingly popular sentence, have appeared online. All invite the principal to have sex with them instead of the kids. Two Japanese actresses working in Beijing made the same request. Their actions spurred heated discussion: “Do we need Japanese women to safeguard the virginity of our children?” The Global Times. criticized the behavior of the Japanese actresses as “offending the business ethic,” but this time, even the Chinese citizens were on the Japanese actresses’ side and have been chastising the official media, saying, “It’s the dirty guys and the authority, not the young Japanese actresses, who lack morality and ethics.”
Among the prominent protesters are Ai Weiwei and scholar and filmmaker Professor Ai Xiaoming. While Ai Weiwei inked the protest’s sentence onto his exposed belly, Mrs. Ai Xiaoming posted a half-naked photo of herself holding a huge pair of scissors on her website. On her breast is scrawled “Get a room with me, let Ye Haiyan go.” On her Weibo page she wrote: “For Ye Haiyan, I take the fight. This is my body, which has given birth and nourished. These are my breasts, the evidence of a mother. Come to me and let the school kids and Ye Haiyan go.”
This is indeed a heroic act. Professor Ai Xiaoming, an internationally renowned filmmaker and human rights defender, laid down her pride and, with only the naked truth, showed her rage. In the picture, her eyes are piercing and penetrating, proud but sad. No words are needed. It’s a powerful appeal for justice and a strong challenge to power. No wonder her good friend, the famous playwright Sha Yexin, said: “I am in dismay. I saw Professor Ai Xiaoming expose her upper body. She is already the age of a grandmother, yet she needs to cry out for us. I wail for our rotten society without its bottom line, I weep because there is a volcano everywhere, I wail for the abnormal silence, I weep that there is no man in China. Power to the people, implement the constitution, don’t force people to grab a weapon.”
Now what, you may ask, was President Xi Jinping doing in response?
He was busy flying around the world, meeting with leaders from Russia, Africa, and Latin America, before “privately” meeting with President Obama. Essentially he was dancing with many partners before finally going to the one he really wants—the U.S. Isn’t his foreign policy intention clear? The disguised, arrogant attitude of a “superpower” indicates both longing for a good relationship with and a fear of America. Granted, Xi wears many veils and not everyone can see through them all. But in this, and his actions since taking office, the Los Angeles Times has labeled Xi more of a Maoist then a reformer.
Reformer or not, Xi is a cunning strategist who plays games in world politics, as well as with the Chinese people. On one hand, hiding behind the veil of integrity, he proclaims his determination to fight against corruption. On the other hand he tightens the grip of censorship. Yet his strategy is like playing with fire; one day he will singe his fingers and burn his own house down. Why not stop playing games and lend ears to the people, hear their wails, complaints, and roars? Remember the first virtue of a politician: Do not talk or act, but listen.
First published at Sampsoniaway.org on June 19, 2013.
