Image from original Chinese article, reading:
"The Dragon Spirit assigns you a mission:
to exterminate the demon of capitalism
The Wind Spirit grants you magical powers
to destroy the ancient monster of patriarchy”1
A translation of “Set a modest goal for yourself: study the crotch-kick and aim it at those who harass women on public transit!” (定个小目标，学好撩阴腿，专踢公交狼) by Ma Xiaoling from the Women’s Weekly News column of WeiGongHui[1] (April 2017). Original Chinese below.
We’ve chosen to translate this for several reasons. Ever since the “Feminist Five” were held in criminal detention for 37 days in early 2015, sexual harassment on public transit has become a focal point for feminists and other activists in China. As discussed in Peng X’s article “‘We should all be feminists’? Repression, recuperation and China’s new women-only metro carriages,” last year feminists in Guangdong raised money and designed billboards to increase awareness of this problem, only to have the designs rejected repeatedly by transit authorities. Activists responded by carrying the billboards around with them in an “#iamawalkingbillboard” campaign, for which several have since been visited by police and even evicted from their homes. Meanwhile, the state has tacitly sought to address the widespread concern reflected in such activism by introducing “priority metro carriages for women” in two cities and women-only buses in another—although official media has explained that these are mainly intended for pregnant women and mothers. As one feminist put it sardonically, “their main concern is not for us but for our children, those still in our bellies or those we’ll have in the future.”
Feminists have responded to the carriages in two ways that reflect a broader division between those who advocate increased rule of law and those who focus on promoting direct action as a means toward “building an entire society in accord with the goals of women’s liberation”—as the piece translated below puts it. One of the Feminist Five wrote a critique of the metro carriages for Tootopia, a popular leftist platform oriented toward college students. There she writes that the policy shows that the state indeed cares about women’s rights, but that this concern should instead be focused on improving relevant laws and policing measures, including the increased use of surveillance cameras. In contrast, the article quoted above (published on another leftist platform called Jianjiao, oriented toward migrant women workers) argues that the policy seems at best to express concern not for women but for their children, and at worst to reinforce traditional gender roles while the state uses its other hand to harass feminists in their homes.
The article translated below is another example of this more critical and radical approach to feminism in China today. Not only does it call for direct action as a means toward broader social goals and provide specific suggestions for women’s self-defense (recommending Wing Chun as particularly appropriate for this purpose, for example). It also provides a window into the worldview of many young leftists, citing the young Mao Zedong alongside the present-day YPJ in Rojava. The article is also a good example of the ways that the contemporary Chinese left operates under the hegemony of a latent (albeit broadly defined) Maoism. Within this political climate, terms and anecdotes from the revolutionary era still act as a sort of lingua franca among activists across the political spectrum. In this instance, even the style of the original emulates many features of older socialist-era writings in ways that are difficult to translate. In future writings we hope to address the changing perspectives and concerns of left and right politics in China more systematically, but for now this and other translations published here and on Gongchao.org provide some sense of that universe.
—
A few days ago, I unexpectedly came across a news article titled: “Young woman riding public transit is surprise-attacked by breast-grabbing selang[2], posts selfie proving her conservative outfit.”
Screenshot of the woman’s microblog post with photos as proof of the epsisode
After being harassed like this, should victims really even need to post selfies proving their modesty?
In fact, this is the same as saying that workers who are being exploited by their boss ought to meticulously record their own hours and experience at work, proving that they’re fully in accord with the demands of capitalist wage-slavery. This would show that they’re actually working like good slaves, but their particular owner is just more detestable than the average slaveholder, and they therefore have no choice but to defend their meager rights.
What a ridiculous joke! Embedded in a social environment that presumes tacit consent, all victims of sexual harassment will automatically blame their own lack of modesty. But even if the victim can prove herself “pure,” there will still be people who come out and say things like: “She’s just doing it for the attention.”
Two trolls’ comments on the post. The first says: “This woman is just talking nonsense. Who do you think you are? You’re just making this up to become popular online.” And the second: “Why didn’t she take a selfie of her fucking him? Obviously she’s just making this up to become popular online.”
People like this have successfully unearthed a violence concealed inside me that even I never knew about!
And there are so many of these bastards! Just enough for boxing practice!
Surely, the best method for dealing with men who harass women like this is to beat them to the edge of death!
In real life, however, many women lack fighting experience. Moreover, the men who harass them have the advantage when it comes to build and body type. Absent any combat skills, any attempt to meet force with force will leave us at a disadvantage.
But the development of things is always dialectical. Xu Laofeng, one of the screenwriters of the Yip Man movie The Grandmaster, once said that during pre-modern martial arts challenges, boxing masters were actually afraid to see women enter the competition. This was because, having a body-size disadvantage, women would seek methods that would catch their opponents unaware, aiming to kill with every move.
Sisters, if you come across a selang, your fury must be unceasing. But remember: When hitting people don’t aim for the face! This isn’t to let them save face, but instead because striking the face only provides a psychological advantage, without causing much actual harm.
In the image above, as soon as this woman is assaulted, she bravely carries out a counter-attack. But she also commits the most common error made by the average person thrown in a fight: she uses the selang‘s soft hat to angrily slap at him. Not only does this fail to cause any harm, but it also forfeits the opportunity to surprise-attack the harasser, giving him the ability to follow up with a somewhat prepared response.
When confronting such people, the first rule is to be as sudden as a flash of lightning. You should also quickly, ruthlessly and accurately set your mind on these targets: The eyes! The bridge of the nose! The throat! The genitals! When all else fails, even fiercely stomping the big toe will give you the advantage.
For an example, watch the above video from South Korea on how to defend yourself from harassment. It doesn’t matter if you can’t read the subtitles, the essence is simply to take advantage of the moment in which the selang is unprepared, attacking the crotch, striking the nose and throat, and then seizing the opportunity to flee.
Of course, in reality the selang may have ample experience in all kinds of iniquity. He might even have an unexpected advantage when it comes to self-defense. In these situations, aside from directly and immediately attacking the vital targets, we must also have superior technique: causing the attacker to be unable to preserve his center of gravity and guarding our own weak points. Only then can we carry out an effective attack.
Of course, this requires study. In the video below, we can see several Wing Chun techniques for defending against harassers. It appears very simple: you essentially want to control your own center of gravity, be fundamentally sturdy, and ultimately move such that your hips and legs work together to generate force.[3] Only then will you begin to see results.
In light of the fact that today’s selang regularly choose to commit their offences on public transit, we recommend that our sisters consider studying the elegant, fast and nimble art of Wing Chun.
On public transit, space is relatively cramped and selang take advantage of the times when many people are riding to provide cover for their crimes. Within this sort of environment, the advantages of the male body-type are weakened. When a fight actually breaks out, it becomes difficult to throw elbows or swing haymakers, though this is the type of brawling that men often turn to. Wing Chun’s straight-line attacks produce results with much more ease in such cramped quarters.
What use is training the body? The body is the means to revolution!
In defending against sexual harassment, solely advocating that women do physical training is not a realistic solution. At the same time, Chairman Mao once said: “Civilize the mind, but make savage the body!”
In his early years, Chairman Mao would bathe in cold water and travel on foot around Hunan. On the one hand, this gave him first-hand experience and increased his knowledge. On the other, it tested the resilience of his willpower. This would later provide substantial information that justified the party line of “encircling the cities from the countryside,”[4] while also building the confidence that would be necessary for the Red Army to survive the Long March.
Physical training is not at all in contradiction with a women’s liberation movement critical of patriarchy.
Sexual harassment itself is simply one expression of the vastly superior position men occupy relative to women, both socially and individually.
In the public sphere, men’s acts of sexual harassment are more likely to be met with acceptance, even to the extent that much of the world didn’t have a concept of “sexual harassment” as such prior to the 1970s. Before this, women had long been the vassals of men, and men sexually harassing them was simply “no big deal.”
In the private sphere, women had long been discouraged from participating in physical activities. Instead, they had to behave “like girls,” meaning that they had to be gentle, quiet and obedient. In such conditions, it’s obvious that the gap between men and women’s physical skill level would only widen.
Solely advocating that women do physical training while ignoring women’s social rights is of course unacceptable. But, conversely, only focusing on the fight for social rights while ignoring women’s efforts to build their fighting capacity, though probably a “politically correct” concept, will nonetheless prove unable to protect the gains of the struggle.
The video below shows the Rojava Women’s Defense Units in Northern Syria (in Kurdish: Yekîneyên Parastina Jin, abbreviated as YPJ). These women are one of the pillars holding up the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria. Of the women’s rights that they have fought for, all have unquestionably been won through practical fighting capacity. And the most common patriarchal enemies that these women have faced are not simply uncouth men on public transit, but fully-armed ISIS terrorists.
While the world faces the great scourge of ISIS, these YPJ fighters express their contempt through jokes and cheerful laughter.
And just like them, in waging our own battles we should demonstrate through strength and force of arms Simone de Beauvoir’s dictum: “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”
But in Rojava, the goal of women’s struggles is not to increase women’s rights laws, to get more women figureheads into certain fields, or to elect a female president. No, instead these women hold their own power directly, and they therefore have the opportunity to build an entire society that is actually in accord with the goals of women’s liberation.
Women’s own fighting capacity is extremely important. If we can’t even stop a handful of uncouth selang, how do we expect to smash the patriarchy that has ruled the world for millennia?
Translators’ notes
[1] WeiGongHui (originally written 微工汇; after the WeChat account was shut down, it re-opened by changing the last character to 荟) is an independent labor news platform whose name could be translated as “WeChat Union” or “A Little Place Where Workers Gather.” On WeChat, search under official accounts for the ID “wei-gonghui.” Its self-description: “focusing on Chinese workers and promoting Marxism, love for life and love for the struggle” (立足中国工人，传播马克思主义，爱生活，爱战斗).
[2] Selang (色狼—literally “sex wolf” or “lecherous wolf”) could be translated as “lecher” or “pervert,” but since the term is used repeatedly in the original and its English equivalents often sound archaic or carry different connotations, we’ve decided to just use the Chinese term.
[3] This is, in the original, a reference to a famous martial arts dictum popularized by Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon: “腰马合一” (yao ma he yi), with the 马 referring specifically to the horse stance used by many Chinese martial arts. In its general usage here, the phrase simply refers to the idea that any proper fighting stance is a function of coordination between legs and hips, and striking power derives not from one’s arms or muscular strength but from the entire coordinated chain of movement, which begins with the coordination of the stance.
[4] The reference here is likely to both Mao’s youth in Hunan and his political activities in the 1920s, including early writings on the rural class structure of China, specifically his 1927 Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan. Written after a month of travel in the province, the report gave a rudimentary economic analysis of rural China while also arguing that the peasantry would play a central role within the revolutionary movement.
Original Chinese (minus images)
【妇女周报】定个小目标，学好撩阴腿，专踢公交狼
by 马晓玲
April 24, 2017
微信号 wei-gonghui
功能介绍 立足中国工人，传播马克思主义，爱生活，爱战斗
核心提示
遇骚扰，踢色狼，妇女打翻男权狂
前几天，晓玲我突然看到这么一个新闻，《女孩称坐公交遭色狼袭胸 发自拍证明穿着不暴露》。
被色狼骚扰了，受害者还要发个自拍来证明自己衣着不暴露？
这不等于说工人受到老板剥削了，还得自己先记录考勤，证明自己真的已经符合了资本主义奴隶制的要求，像奴隶般工作了，只是老板这个奴隶主的可恶程度真的超出了大部分奴隶主，所以工人才不得不进行维权？
荒谬！可笑！在一个对骚扰者采取纵容默许的社会环境里，性骚扰受害者首先都会被指责为自身不检点，但即使受害者能自证清白，也会有人出来说，“这是炒作”。
这些人成功地把晓玲我从来没有掩藏过的暴力因子激活了！
色狼那么多，正好用来练拳！
对付色狼最好的方法，就是把色狼打得生活不能自理！
但现实生活中，许多姐妹缺乏搏击经验，而色狼在体型上占据优势，没有学过搏击技巧的姐妹，和色狼硬碰硬很容易吃亏。
但事物的发展都是辩证的。叶问电影《一代宗师》的编剧徐浩峰曾经说过，古代武术决斗，其实拳师们非常害怕看到女人来跟他们比试，因为她们由于体型劣势，所以追求出其不意的方式，务求招招致命！
如果姐妹们碰到了色狼，怒不可歇的话，请记住：打人不要打脸！！不是为了保存色狼脸面，而是打脸只能从心理上赢得优势，但从实际上不能造成杀伤力！！
上图这位姐妹在遇到色狼侵犯时，就英勇地进行了反击，但也犯了一般人打架最常见的错误：用软绵绵的帽子，向色狼怒挥一下，既不能给色狼造成任何杀伤力，又丧失了突袭色狼的机会，给了他后续有所反应的准备！
对付色狼，第一下一定要迅雷不及掩耳，而且请快、狠、准认准这几个地方：眼睛！鼻梁！咽喉！下阴！再不济，狠狠地往脚的大拇指踩下去也可以占据主动啊！
韩国防狼小影片，字幕看不懂没关系，反正精髓就是趁其不备，攻其下阴，击其鼻喉，趁机脱逃。
当然了，现实中色狼也可能是经验丰富，作恶多端的！色狼可能对关键部位的保护，出乎我们的意料！这个时候，除了直接攻击要害之外，就需要更多的技巧，使色狼无法保持重心，防御出现破绽，那我们才可以对其进行有效的攻击。
当然了，这些技巧都是需要学习的。以下为咏春的一些防狼技巧，看似简单，实质上要掌控自己的重心、基本功扎实、甚至要做到腰马合一，才能够起到效果。
鉴于现在色狼们经常选择在公共交通工具作案，推荐姐妹们学习探研一下讲究快速灵巧的咏春拳。
在公共交通工具里，空间比较狭窄，色狼们也常常趁人多的时候打掩护作案。在这样的环境下，男性的体型优势其实是被削弱的，真起冲突的时候，男性常用的大力摆肘挥拳都很难施展出来，咏春的直线冲拳更容易起效果！
锻炼身体做什么？身体是革命的本钱啊！
防止性骚扰，光提倡妇女锻炼身体素质肯定不现实。但毛主席也曾经说过：文明其精神，野蛮其体魄！
毛主席早年的时候，洗冷水澡，徒步湖南。这一边是增长了自己的见闻，另一边是锻炼了自己强韧的意志。这都为后来的“农村包围城市”的正确路线提供充实的客观事实，为后来的红军长征建筑了强有力的信心。
妇女身体的锻炼，与批判男权的妇女解放运动并不矛盾。
性骚扰行为，就是从公共社会上、个体上男性都要比妇女占有更多优势的表现。
从公共社会来看，男性的性骚扰行为更能得到其他人的“理解”，甚至在上世纪70年代之前，全世界还没有“性骚扰”的概念！在此之前，妇女长期是男性的附庸，男性对妇女的性骚扰根本就“没什么大不了”。
从个体来看的话，妇女长期不被鼓励进行体育活动，要表现得“像女孩子”一般文静、听话。但这样的发展模式，就是妇女的体育活动水平与男性水平进一步拉大。
光提倡锻炼妇女身体素质，却忽视妇女的社会权利肯定不行，但反过来只着眼于争取妇女的社会权利，忽视了妇女本身的战斗力建设，则很可能只有“政治正确”的概念，却无力保护斗争成果。
看看在北叙利亚的罗贾瓦女子保卫军(库尔德语:Yekîneyên Parastina Jin,简称YPJ)，她们就是她们所支持的北叙利亚民主联邦的支柱力量之一！她们所争取到的妇女权利，无一不是她们通过实际的斗争力量争取回来的。她们最常面对的男权敌人，不是在公交上的猥琐男，而是全副武装的ISIS恐怖分子。
在全世界对视ISIS为洪水猛兽的时候，女子保卫军成员则“谈笑风生”地对他们表示蔑视。
也正是她们，通过了自己的战斗，再一次有力地，用枪杆子论证了波伏娃的笔下名言：女人不是生下来就是女人，而是后来才变成女人。
但这一次，妇女们的争取成果不是多了一条对妇女有利的法律，不是在某些领域多了几位女性XX家，不是终于又出现了一位女总统。这一次，她们拥有了自己的政权，拥有了依照妇女解放运动来建设一个新社会的机遇！
妇女自己的战斗力非常重要，连几个猥琐色狼都干不掉，怎么消灭在地球上存在了数千年的男权制度？！
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Note on header image
- This meme imitates the imagery and language of Chinese martial arts (wuxia) fiction both for the sake of humor and to present the topic of defense against sexual harassment as a dramatic part of a larger epic struggle. Part of the text was cut off in the version at the top of this page. The full version (reproduced here) reads: “Exorcist Ma Xiaoling [the author of this article], inheritor of the teachings of the Ma Clan of the Dragon Tribe / The Dragon Spirit assigns you a mission: to exterminate the demon of capitalism / The Wind Spirit grants you magical powers to destroy the ancient monster of patriarchy.” The Dragon Tribe probably refers to the Chinese nation. The Dragon Spirit (or God) and the Wind Spirit (or God) refer to deities from Chinese folklore.
