“Red Song Club” (紅歌會網) is an online platform that promotes Mao Zedong Thought, the teachings of the former Chairman that were enshrined as the CCP’s official ideology in 1945. In November 2024, the website published a venomous attack piece on Lü Pin (吕频), a pioneering Chinese feminist who founded Feminist Voices (女权之声) — the country’s leading media platform dedicated to women’s issues and feminist advocacy at one point, until it was shut down by authorities in 2018.

With little more to offer but hate, the post from “Red Song Club” does not deserve readers’ attention. But the dismissive label it slaps on Lü Pin — “radical feminist” (极端女权) — is worth examining. This term is often used as derogatory slang for women brave enough to raise their voices and challenge the Party and social mores. As its brief history shows, it is also a very recent addition to the state media vocabulary.

Great Man Theory

In April 2022, the Chinese Communist Youth League, or CCYL (共青团), received a massive backlash after a post on the Chinese social media platform Weibo (微博) that celebrated male accomplishments in building China — completely erasing, critics said, the major contributions made by women. The CCYL, which runs activities for children and young adults on behalf of the CCP< responded to the backlash by adding pictures of women to the original post. At the same time, though, many women who spoke out online were accused of creating “gender rivalry” (性别对立), including by official media. 

Ten days after the original CCYL post, the Beijing Evening News (北京晚报), a commercial newspaper under the Beijing municipal propaganda department, ran a strongly-worded commentary that offered a definition of the term “radical feminist.” These women, it said dismissively, were the type to make a fuss over equality between men and women just because there are fewer women in fire departments, or about children taking their father’s last name. This wave of official attacks on “radical feminists” angered many women, but it has stuck nevertheless as a term of derision — implying that the demands of women for recognition and equality are excessive.

Of course, all many women in China are asking for is not to be entirely left out of the picture when it comes to their role in society. As one comment under the CCYL post said:

“Here’s a bit of history: During the Long March, the 4th Front Army of the Red Army had an entire Women’s Independent Brigade, with over 2,000 female soldiers. Other units also had women. . . And yet, when we simply want to honor the faces of our female revolutionary predecessors, you throw all sorts of ugly labels at us. I don’t get it — who is really dividing the people here?”