CHINA'S 2008 WOMAN OF COURAGE: AI XIAOMING

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 006761 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR G/IWI E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PREL KWMN KPAO CH SUBJECT: CHINA'S 2008 WOMAN OF COURAGE: AI XIAOMING REF: STATE 126072 ¶1. Embassy Beijing is pleased to nominate feminist author, documentary filmmaker and activist Ai Xiaoming to receive the 2008 Secretary's Award for International Women of Courage. Ai has overcome police detention, physical assault and state censorship to fight for the rights of Chinese women. In her books, films and classrooms, Ai has broken through deep-seated taboos to battle discrimination and violence. ¶2. Nomination details: Last name: Ai First name: Xiaoming Title: Director of Gender Education Forum, Sun Yat-sen University Date of Birth: ovember 1953 Country of Birth/Citizenship: China Passport #: TBD Contact Information: Sun Yat-Sen (Sun Zhongshan) University Guangzhou, Guangdong P.R. of China 510275 (8620)8403-5157 email: xiaomai05@gmail.com Justification: In a country where topics regarding sexuality and violence against women are rarely discussed, and where spousal abuse was only outlawed in 2002, Ai Xiaoming does not dance around taboo subjects, she confronts them directly on the stage and screen. In 2003, Ai translated and directed China's first-ever performance of the "Vagina Monologues," which she staged at Chinese colleges in conjunction with the global "V- Day" campaign against violence against women. This was the first time issues related to gender, sexuality and violence were portrayed on the Chinese stage. Though authorities in Beijing and Shanghai banned the play, she eventually succeeded in overcoming this censorship in Shanghai to stage the show at a local university. In 2005, Ai released "Garden in Heaven," a documentary detailing the fatal date rape of a young school teacher. Prior to the release of this film, few in China had even heard of the term "date rape." In making the documentary, Ai followed the victim's mother for two years as she sought justice for her daughter. As a filmmaker/advocate determined to see the teacher's boyfriend held accountable, Ai personally attended an autopsy and railed against official apathy to the crime. "...(M)any in our society are as indifferent to her dead body as the man who lay beside her on the last night of her life," she wrote in 2003 as authorities were investigating the case. Ai Xiaoming is also a chronicler of citizen activism. Her second documentary portrayed the efforts of citizens in Taishi, a village in suburban Guangzhou, to remove a corrupt official. In September 2005, Ai wrote an open letter to Premier Wen Jiabao protesting police brutality and the arrest of several Taishi villagers. Less than two weeks later, Ai was attacked in Taishi and warned to stop her advocacy. Despite such threats, Ai continues to risk her freedom and career (professors who are too outspoken frequently face demotion, or worse) to promote human rights and document women's grassroots activism. In January 2007, Ai wrote an open letter to Liaoning Party Secretary Li Keqiang (a rising star in the Communist SIPDIS Party leadership) protesting the imprisonment of civil rights lawyer Guo Feixiong. In July 2007, police in Wuhan detained Ai and confiscated her videotape after catching her filming residents demonstrating against the demolition of their homes. Ai Xiaoming is a rare breed in China, a respected academic who does not restrict herself to journals and campus conferences. As a pioneer of gender studies in China, she links her work to the larger struggle for BEIJING 00006761 002 OF 002 justice and equality in Chinese society. "To put it simply, women's studies is against inequality..." Ai once told an interviewer, and inequality "is not something that only women undergo." ¶3. Ai Xiaoming was notified of this nomination. The Embassy thanks ConGen Guangzhou for its assistance in nominating Professor Ai. ¶4. Political officer Gregory May follows the women's issues portfolio at Embassy Beijing. Contact info: (8610) 6532-3831 x6742, or email maygc@state.gov. Randt