Law and ethics in cases of rape
This is the 1510 Digest, a weekly roundup of recent essays and articles published on the Chinese web, with links to translations on the Marco Polo Project.
China just celebrated International women’s day, even offering women half a day off work. This celebration of women’s contribution to society aligns with the communist rhetoric of women ‘holding half the sky’. However, a long road remains to gender equality, and Chinese women in their daily life are still exposed to multiple forms of violence and discrimination.
Today’s post will look more closely into sexual violence against women – with articles analysing the question of rape from different angles. The selection below does not pretend to cover the full extent of the debate, but only serve as a starting point for further reflection. Sociologist and gender specialist Li Yinhe lines up arguments in favour of punishing marital rape, historian Liu Zhaoxing questions why so few rapes were recorded in former periods of Chinese history, and Shi Po discusses the growing phenomenon of ‘date rape’.
