Chinese feminist Xie Lihua tells her story of working for women’s magazines and documenting female empowerment in China over 40 years
Stories centering on women, their experiences, and their rights have been a mainstay of the Story FM podcast over the last few years. Online, the word “feminism” in China is inevitably tied to controversy. That’s the reality for modern feminism: It contains many different currents, disagreements, and tensions.
The journey toward gender equality in China since 1949 has been slow and is ongoing. What kind of deeply rooted challenges did the early feminists of the PRC face, and how did they respond? In today’s episode, originally aired on International Women’s Day on March 8, guest host Alexwood (host of the podcast Be a Dodo, or 别任性) chats with Xie Lihua (谢丽华, Xiè Lìhuá), a true veteran whose fight for Chinese women’s issues and rights spanned over four decades. Her story is a first-hand look into how it all began, and how feminism reached the point it’s at today.
Founded in 2017 by Kou Aizhe, Story FM is one of the most renowned podcast in China. Each episode focuses on ordinary people’s lives and viewpoints, including the difficulties of marginalized people. Through intimate and private interviews, Story FM digs out first-person experiences and lets listeners immerse themselves in another person’s voice and feelings. You can listen to their podcast in Chinese on Ximalaya, Qingting FM, Apple Podcasts, and the 故事FM mini-app on WeChat.
Translated By
Ana Padilla Fornieles is a Spanish translator, writer and creative currently based in Beijing, where she is part of Spittoon International Arts Collective and a regular contributor to The Beijinger. You can find her prose and poetry featured in The Shanghai Literary Review, Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, Womanhood, Sledgehammer and more. Her comics and linocut prints have appeared in Shaving in the Dark, F*EMS and Celestite Poetry. Her literary translation work has been published or is forthcoming with a series of publishing houses and magazines, such as Penguin, De Gruyter, Spittoon Magazine and Books from Taiwan.
