A 9-year-old girl pushes back against period shame, telling adults at the dinner table, \u201cmore than half the world\u2019s population bleeds.\u201d Two men fight for a woman\u2019s heart by boasting how many books they\u2019ve read by Japanese feminist icon Chizuko Ueno. A stalker following a young woman home is confronted and chased away by a female neighbor. <\/p>\n
These scenes from China\u2019s latest box-office hit, \u201cHer Story,\u201d have become the talk of Chinese social media, where the comedy is hailed by many female viewers as the country\u2019s answer to \u201cBarbie.\u201d <\/p>\n
Comments on Douban, China\u2019s biggest movie review site where the movie is rated 9.1 out of 10, praise its unabashed celebration of \u201cawakened\u201d womanhood and bold social commentary on modern China \u2013 all delivered with laugh-out-loud humor. <\/p>\n
Since its release on November 22, \u201cHer Story\u201d has raked in more than 680 million yuan ($93 million), according to ticket platform\u202fMaoyan, as it became mainland China\u2019s top-grossing movie for 17 straight days. <\/p>\n
But its witty critique of gender norms has also offended some men on Chinese social media, who have accused it of provoking \u201cgender antagonism\u201d \u2013 a phrase often used by state media to police online feminist discourse that authorities deem to have \u201ccrossed the line.\u201d <\/p>\n
Over the past decade, China\u2019s ruling Communist Party \u2013 whose leadership is entirely male \u2013 has cracked down on feminist activism. In 2015, five feminists were detained for planning a protest against sexual harassment and, just months ago, a journalist who promoted the #MeToo movement was sentenced to five years in prison on subversion charges. <\/p>\n
While less politically charged cultural works around women\u2019s empowerment, like feminist comedy, are still allowed, they\u2019re heavily regulated and often targeted by powerful unofficial forces \u2013 conservative men. <\/p>\n
Written and directed by Shao Yihui, \u201cHer Story\u201d revolves around the lives and relationships of three women in Shanghai: an independent single mother, her sharp-witted elementary school age daughter, and their new neighbor \u2013 a young singer and self-described \u201csober romantic fool.\u201d <\/p>\n
He Zeyu, a 29-year-old book editor in Beijing, has seen it three times. <\/p>\n
For Xu, 20, a one-time watcher who gave only her surname due to privacy reasons, the comedy\u2019s focus on \u201cfemale empowerment\u201d rather than \u201crehashing women\u2019s struggles,\u201d is what makes it \u201cunique.\u201d <\/p>\n
Beyond its fresh, female-led narrative, Chinese moviegoers also praise the film\u2019s \u201csubtle yet brave\u201d social critique on issues such as pandemic-era lockdowns, the decline of journalism \u2014 and what they see as the toxic culture of reporting the misdemeanors of others. <\/p>\n
In one scene, a teacher criticizes a student for snitching on his classmate. In another, the young singer shows off her stockpile of daily essentials, while a large elephant statue stands in the living room \u2013 a silent nod to Shanghai\u2019s weeks-long Covid lockdown in 2022. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t help but applaud for such clever expressions,\u201d said Wang Rui, a 48-year-old man who recently took his wife for his second viewing. <\/p>\n
\u201cI laughed a lot during the first screening, but the second time, I picked up the hidden stuff behind the humor and found myself tearing up several times.\u201d <\/p>\n
One online commenter \u2013 who identified as a lesbian \u2013 was impressed by how the director slipped LGBTQ elements past China\u2019s notoriously strict censors, noting fleeting scenes of rainbow flags and a gay couple flirting in the background. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s rare to see such care and acknowledgment of sexual minorities in a mainstream movie presented in a way that\u2019s subtle enough to pass the censorship,\u201d read her post on Weibo, China\u2019s equivalent of X, which has amassed thousands of likes. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a movie that\u2019s all about gender, yet it goes beyond that,\u201d read a popular review on Douban with more than 8,000 likes. <\/p>\n
While \u201cHer Story\u201d has been overwhelmingly celebrated by Chinese women, not all men are fans. <\/p>\n
In Beijing, Xu said she saw an apparent couple arguing about the film as they left the theater \u2013 which she called \u201cthe real movie Easter egg.\u201d <\/p>\n
Speaking loudly enough to \u201cbe heard throughout theater,\u201d the man told the woman the movie\u2019s \u201cnarrative structure is sh***y,\u201d which the woman disagreed with, then walked away, Xu recalled. <\/p>\n
Similar anecdotes of men railing at the screenings or walking out of theaters have circulated on Chinese social media \u2013 mirroring the conservative backlash seen during screenings of \u201cBarbie\u201d in the United States last year. <\/p>\n
\u201cMany plots in this movie have already glorified most men in life \u2026 It looks objective and gentle enough to me,\u201d Xu wrote on Xiaohongshu, China\u2019s Instagram-like platform. The post has garnered over a thousand likes. <\/p>\n
Yet, even \u201cgentle\u201d jokes seem too much for many. <\/p>\n
Users on Hupu, a male-centric Chinese online forum, gave \u201cHer Story\u201d an average rating of 4.8 out of 10. They accused it of \u201cdemeaning and gaslighting men,\u201d and shot down any positive comments about the movie \u2013 already few and far between on the platform. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear how many commenters on Hupu had seen the movie, but Wang and a younger man, Chen Xiaohe, both said on Xiaohongshu that they enjoyed the screening. <\/p>\n
But the film \u201cshouldn\u2019t be labeled as feminist,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Chen, 29, \u201creally loves the light-hearted and humorous movie,\u201d with \u201cflesh-and-blood\u201d and \u201cfully developed\u201d female characters, he posted on Xiaohongshu. Other male users on the female-dominated platform disagreed. <\/p>\n
For Chen, it\u2019s not surprising to see the wave of negative comments on Hupu. <\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time Chinese men on the internet have bristled at women poking fun at them. <\/p>\n
Yang Li, a stand-up comedian known for her razor-sharp jokes about men, is a frequent target of them. Among all her punchlines, \u201chow-come-he-looks-so-average-yet-still-so-confident\u201d hit these men hardest. <\/p>\n
Just last month, those still reeling from the four-year-old quip launched a nationwide boycott against China\u2019s e-commerce giant JD for featuring Yang in a promotional livestream. <\/p>\n
Caving to the online backlash, the company later issued an apology and cut ties with Yang. Yet, the male commenters didn\u2019t stop there. Instead, they even tried to paint the vocal female comedian as an \u201cevil foreign force\u201d after Western media jumped on the story and showed support for skewering gender inequality. <\/p>\n
\u201cFeminist movement in China today is only visible on the cultural front,\u201d said L\u00fc Pin, a prominent Chinese feminist based in New York. \u201cAnd this is exactly a sign of how much the movement has shrunk.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, even the already-restricted voices, such as feminist movies and stand-up shows, often come under attack from conservative men. <\/p>\n
\u201cFeminism in China is still pretty weak and hasn\u2019t achieved much. But these men think their (future) interests are already under threat,\u201d L\u00fc said. \u201cThey see (the rise of feminism) as a dangerous signal.\u201d <\/p>\n
Shao, the screenwriter and director of \u201cHer Story,\u201d said in a promotional video that \u201cfeminism liberates not only women, but also men.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that if they dig into the root causes, they will realize that they need to stand together with women,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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