季风人文讲坛第107期：李思磐&江雪

Critique of Social Media Feminism

with Li Sipan & Jiang Xue

March 4, 2026｜In English

Social media has enabled feminist issues to transcend geographical and practical limitations, rapidly entering the public eye, and allowing more ordinary people to speak out and participate in discussions. However, "social media feminism" is not equivalent to real-world feminist movements. It relies heavily on platform mechanisms and communication logic, often driven by emotions and hot topics, easily leading to fragmentation, making it difficult to transform into sustained and organized social action, and may even exacerbate antagonism and oversimplify complex issues. As important participants who once promoted feminist actions on Weibo, the speakers will reflect on how social media has changed the way feminism is expressed and acted upon: What unprecedented opportunities has it brought? What limitations and risks are hidden within it?
(This event will not be recorded)

About the Speaker 

Li Sipan, a journalist, feminist activist, and visiting scholar at Stanford University. She comes from two important communities: the Southern Journalists community and the Guangzhou Feminist community. She is both an investigative journalist and one of the founders of the Guangzhou Feminist community. Twenty years ago, she founded "New Media Women Network," taking the lead in investigative reporting on serial sexual assault cases in workplaces and universities, and coordinating important actions such as the Xiamen University anti-sexual harassment initiative and advocacy by non-governmental women's organizations to promote anti-domestic violence legislation.

Jiang Xue entered the Chinese news industry during its "golden age," rising to become chief reporter and director of the commentary department at Huashang Daily, and was named one of the "Eight National Influential Journalists" by CCTV. However, she is perhaps better known for the records she chose to leave behind later – accounts that were blocked and reopened, blocked again and reopened again, with articles being reposted across the entire network before censorship arrived. During the lockdown of Xi'an in 2022, she stayed in the city for ten full days and wrote "Ten Days in Chang'an." That article, before being banned, had already been screenshotted and saved countless times.