{"id":237943,"date":"2022-02-10T20:33:08","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T04:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=237943"},"modified":"2022-02-14T18:09:58","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T02:09:58","slug":"four-conflicting-statements-on-xuzhous-shackled-mother-of-eight-fail-to-quell-public-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2022\/02\/four-conflicting-statements-on-xuzhous-shackled-mother-of-eight-fail-to-quell-public-outrage\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Conflicting Statements on Xuzhou\u2019s \u201cShackled Mother of Eight\u201d Fail to Quell Public Outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Xuzhou mother-of-eight who <\/span>appeared in a viral video shackled and chained in a freezing shed<\/span><\/a> now has a name and a hometown \u2026 or does she? On Thursday, the authorities in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, <\/span>reported<\/span><\/a> that the woman could be a victim of human trafficking, a finding that flatly contradicted earlier official reports.<\/span><\/p>\n

In two separate statements released on Tuesday and Thursday of this week, the authorities said that they had identified the woman as “Xiaohuamei” (\u201cLittle Plum Blossom\u201d) and traced her origin to a village in Yunnan Province. Previous official statements from late January had identified the woman as Yang *xia [the asterisk represents the middle character of her name, elided to protect her identity], and said that she was legally married to a man named Dong *min, with whom she had eight children. The earlier statements also insisted that \u201cno human trafficking was involved\u201d and that the woman lived apart from her husband and children because she was mentally ill and violent, claims that were met with derision online.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most recent statement confirmed that Xiaohuamei\u2019s husband is under investigation for false imprisonment, and that two other people connected to the case are under investigation for human trafficking.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Tuesday statement contained more detail about Xiaohuamei\u2019s disappearance from her hometown, and how she ended up in a village over 2,000 miles away. According to the statement, Xiaohuamei\u2019s relatives in Yunnan had not heard from her since 1996, when a fellow villager took her to Jiangsu Province for medical treatment. Xiaohuamei first got married in 1994 to a man in Yunnan Province, and began to display \u201cabnormal behavior\u201d after she returned home after her divorce in 1996. Her mother reportedly asked a fellow villager, a woman surnamed Sang, to take Xiaohuamei to Jiangsu for psychological treatment and help \u201cfind a good family to marry her off to.\u201d Shortly after arriving in Jiangsu, Xiaohuamei went missing, and Sang never reported her disappearance to the police. According to the statement, Xiaohuamei\u2019s parents are deceased.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite its inclusion of new details, the Tuesday statement was still too vague and contradictory to quell public furor over the woman\u2019s treatment. Many who had been following the story on social media demanded that the authorities carry out a proper investigation to determine whether the woman was a victim of abuse and human trafficking, a practice that China has attempted to crack down on in recent decades. The following <\/span>netizen comments about the Tuesday statement were compiled and translated by CDT editors<\/strong><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

@\u9601\u697c\u4e0a\u7684\u5b89\u59ae\uff1a\/\/ @\u5f90\u5dde\u53d1\u5e03 In response to your statement, please continue with the investigation and provide more facts. If this was meant to be an investigative report, please be advised that more investigation is needed. <\/span><\/p>\n

1. Xiaohuamei? Is her full name \u201cXiaohuamei\u201d or is it simply a nickname? When was she born, and to whom?
\n2. Regarding her first marriage, could you confirm who her husband was? Would he be able to clarify when she began to suffer from mental health issues? When did they divorce? Did they go to court? Did they have any children?
\n3. Even if her name is indeed Xiaohuamei and her parents have passed away, does she have siblings? Can their DNA be compared with hers?
\n4. If it\u2019s true that she went missing and that neither her parents nor the police were alerted, then how did you find this Sang woman? Is Sang a human trafficker? Is Sang in police custody? Is she believable?
\n5. If Dong found \u201cXiaohuamei\u201d by chance, then how did you find Sang?
\n6. In the past 24 years, Dong *min and a mentally-ill woman gave birth to eight sons [Editor\u2019s note: They have one daughter and seven sons.] without using contraception. Did they ever kill or sell their baby daughters? <\/span><\/p>\n

The Xuzhou Fengxian County government does not realize the seriousness of the matter. The civil servant who wrote this statement failed to get the facts and the logic straight. The statement was incoherent and poorly written, and does nothing to resolve the serious public opinion crisis that Fengxian County faces. I suggest that the writer be punished for their incompetence. Please investigate further and have someone else rewrite the report.<\/span><\/p>\n

@\u5c0f\u83e0\u83dc\u62cc\u7c89\u6761\u513f\uff1aThree statements tell three different stories. Each one of them is an \u201cauthoritative report.\u201d Which one should we believe?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

@Timetraveler077\uff1aEileen Gu is a hero enjoying her moment in the sun, while the Fengxian woman is ignored, tossed in a dark corner like a piece of garbage. Everyone wants to chase the sun. It\u2019s only natural for people to pursue beautiful things. But don\u2019t forget that everyone has the right to breathe freely in the sunlight. It\u2019s 2022 and there is a woman shackled by her neck, chained up by a man who forced her to give birth to eight children! And the man suffers no consequences. This isn\u2019t normal. This shouldn\u2019t be something that is acceptable in our society! [<\/span>Chinese]<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In China, selling women for marriage has long been outlawed, and convicted traffickers can face the death penalty. However, paying for a wife was not criminalized until 2015, and even now carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some legal experts<\/span><\/a> maintain that showing leniency to bride-buyers may encourage them to return women to their homes, an argument that Luo Xiang, a professor of criminal law at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, disagrees with. In an essay that went viral on Chinese social media, Luo suggests imposing harsher penalties for purchasing a bride. Under current Chinese law, both buyers and sellers of illegal firearms and counterfeit currency are subject to the same punishment. <\/span>Luo argues that buyers and sellers of brides should be treated the same<\/strong><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

In the current state of justice, buying an endangered animal for the purpose of releasing it or improving its welfare likely does not constitute grounds for leniency. Why should buying a bride with the intent of loving her for the rest of her life be treated any differently?<\/span><\/p>\n

[…] When it comes to governance, criminal law is the last resort. Very few problems can be resolved by criminal law. It is impractical to hope that imposing harsher sentences on individual criminals will put a stop to the problem of buying and selling women and children. However, criminal law still has to do something.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[…] <\/span>The fact that we cannot draw a perfect circle does not mean that it does not exist. We should strive for perfection even though we may never achieve it. [<\/span>Chinese<\/strong><\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Xiaohuamei\u2019s husband <\/span>Dong *min <\/span>is currently under investigation for false imprisonment, a crime punishable by up to three years in prison. Many netizens believe that he should be charged with more serious crimes. Others, skeptical of the official conclusions regarding Xiaohuamei\u2019s identity, pushed for further investigation. CDT has collected and translated <\/span>comments made in response to the fourth and most recent official statement on the case<\/strong><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u521b\u9020\u6211\u662f\u8c012013\uff1aWhy is Dong only being investigated for false imprisonment? How about rape and torture?<\/span><\/p>\n

@\u73b2\u73b2Peter\u548c\u56db\u53ea\u732b\uff1aHow old is Xiaohuamei? How can she give birth every year at the age of 52 under such horrendous living conditions? Does illegally imprisoning a mentally-ill person and having sex with her constitute rape? Was she being abused when she lost her teeth, and when she was chained by her neck in a freezing shed with no door, and when she ate cold meals? Who approved her fake household registration, her national ID, her children\u2019s birth permits and household registrations? Should they be held accountable? Please answer. Thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n

@____\u662f\u80a5\u9e3d\u9e3d\u9e3d\u9e3d\u554a\uff1aOh, you finally came to this conclusion, but only after everyone started demanding DNA testing. Whoever Xiaohuamei really is, she is anyone but Li Ying, right? [<\/span>Chinese<\/strong><\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Since the story broke, many social media users have been sharing screenshots comparing Xiaohuamei\u2019s photo to that of Li Ying, a young woman who went missing from Sichuan Province more than 20 years ago. Some netizens believe that Xiaohuamei could be Li Ying, due to their uncanny resemblance. According to Chinese-language media outlet <\/span>The Paper<\/span><\/a>, police told Li’s mother that her missing daughter was not a DNA match to Xiaohuamei. There is also a <\/span>letter<\/span><\/a> circulating online, purportedly written by Li\u2019s uncle Li Dacheng, demanding that police collect new samples from the two families, retest them, and make the results public.<\/span><\/p>\n

Social media censorship of the story has been heavy-handed at each step of the way. On February 8, <\/span>CDT Chinese reported<\/span><\/a> that the hashtag #\u5b98\u65b9\u901a\u62a5\u5f90\u5dde\u4e30\u53bf\u751f\u80b2\u516b\u5b69\u5973\u5b50\u60c5\u51b5# (#Official statement on the situation of the mother-of-eight in Xuzhou, Fengxian County#) was taken off of the Weibo hot topic list, a common censorship method used to tamp down a story. By the time it was downgraded, the hashtag had garnered more than 2.4 billion views.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking for a place to vent their displeasure about the censorship and the tepid official response to the case, snarky netizens flooded the comments section of a months-old post in which Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian <\/span>criticized human trafficking in the United States. Some of the comments are translated below<\/strong><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

@\u6211\u662f\u7cbe\u795e\u75c5\u4f60\u4e0d\u8981\u6311\u6218\u6211\uff1aNow I can get a green card without having to leave my country.<\/span><\/p>\n

@\u6cb3\u91ce\u5c3e\uff1aXuzhou, Fengxian, is in which American state?<\/span><\/p>\n

@\u77eb\u60c5\u7684\u9713\u9713\uff1aThe state of Xuxas.<\/span><\/p>\n

@\u5b89\u63d0\u6208\u6d85_WhiteBlade\uff1aSo this is how we catch up with the West.<\/span><\/p>\n

@\u6b64\u4eba\u5df2\u6b7b\u6709\u4e8b\u70e7\u7eb8_\uff1aStrike hard against America while turning a blind eye to China. Keep reminding Americans to pay attention to these various social issues. You truly are a contemporary American Lu Xun<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

@\u82e6\u95f7\u6708\u4eae\uff1aYou\u2019re absolutely right. Looks like you are well aware that \u201chuman trafficking is closely tied to deliberate disregard by the government.\u201d [<\/span>Chinese<\/strong><\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some netizens have compared Xiaohuamei\u2019s plight to that of Bai Xuemei, the protagonist of the trafficking-themed “<\/span>Blind Mountain<\/span><\/a>,” a 2007 film directed by <\/span>Li Yang<\/span><\/a>. Li has been praised for <\/span>his recent decision to make the film copyright-free<\/span><\/a> to encourage public discussion of the issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

A smaller number of activists have pushed for accountability via offline actions. Weibo users <\/span>@\u6211\u80fd\u62b1\u8d77120\u65a4<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>@\u5c0f\u68a6\u59d0\u59d0\u5c0f\u62f3\u62f3<\/span><\/a> drove hundreds of miles from their respective hometowns to Xuzhou, hoping to visit Xiaohuamei in the psychiatric hospital where she is reportedly receiving treatment. According to Weibo posts shared by the duo, the hospital was heavily guarded by police, who turned them away. The activists also suffered retaliation: the former had their Douyin account shut down after posting videos of their activism, and the latter\u2019s Weibo account was suspended.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to anger and skepticism directed at the authorities, Chinese citizens have expressed deep empathy with Xiaohuamei. <\/span>CDT has translated a poem<\/strong><\/a> by an anonymous author that was widely shared on Weibo and WeChat:<\/span><\/p>\n

Xiaohuamei, Xiaohuamei<\/span><\/p>\n

They say you were lost<\/span><\/p>\n

But you were clearly chained up<\/span><\/p>\n

Wearing clothes too thin for winter<\/span><\/p>\n

Xiaohuamei, Xiaohuamei<\/span><\/p>\n

They say you’re a mother of eight<\/span><\/p>\n

That there are no raped wives or mothers in this world<\/span><\/p>\n

That you\u2019re just an abandoned daughter<\/span><\/p>\n

Yagu Village, Fugong County, Yunnan Province<\/span><\/p>\n

To Huankou Town, Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province<\/span><\/p>\n

You wandered from abyss to abyss<\/span><\/p>\n

They robbed you of your name, your intellect, your speech<\/span><\/p>\n

They say those who suffer are fools, and those who resist are mad<\/span><\/p>\n

Xiaohuamei, Xiaohuamei<\/span><\/p>\n

You were the victim<\/span><\/p>\n

The rebel who never quit resisting<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyone who doesn’t admit that<\/span><\/p>\n

Is covering up the crime<\/span><\/p>\n

Xiaohuamei<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you know about Li Ying,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another girl who disappeared?<\/span><\/p>\n

We thought she might be you<\/span><\/p>\n

But it turned out to be<\/span><\/p>\n

Two separate tragedies<\/span><\/p>\n

There are thousands of similar tragedies<\/span><\/p>\n

In Feng County, in Xuzhou, in the whole country<\/span><\/p>\n

Women abandoned, bought and sold, raped<\/span><\/p>\n

But then they say<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, they’re lawfully wed wives and mothers<\/span><\/p>\n

Xiaohuamei, Xiaohuamei<\/span><\/p>\n

You walked into the void and never escaped<\/span><\/p>\n

You must be exhausted<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s your time to rest<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us take up the fighting<\/span><\/p>\n

And carry on the battle<\/span><\/p>\n

We must liquidate this phase of history<\/span><\/p>\n

This complicity in women being abandoned and abducted\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bought and sold as wives and mothers<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s a war we can’t retreat from<\/span><\/p>\n

January 28th, the day you were seen<\/span><\/p>\n

Commemorates the history of women’s suffering in this Republic<\/span><\/p>\n

We need to take back what was done to you<\/span><\/p>\n

We need to say we are not by nature madwomen or fools<\/span><\/p>\n

We need to identify murderers within the patriarchy<\/span><\/p>\n

We need to reclaim our own destiny as women<\/span><\/p>\n

We cannot help but cry out your name<\/span><\/p>\n

Xiaohuamei<\/span><\/p>\n

Xiaohuamei<\/span><\/p>\n

Your name is our history [<\/span>Chinese<\/strong><\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hugo-award-winning author <\/span>Hao Jingfang<\/span><\/a> recently weighed in with <\/span>an essay<\/span><\/a> about the broader issues behind the Xiaohuamei case, and the national female awakening that it portends. The author of \u201c<\/span>Folding Beijing<\/span><\/a>,\u201d Hao Jingfang also holds a Ph.D. in economics and has conducted extensive research into <\/span>economic inequality<\/span><\/a>. In this CDT-translated excerpt from her essay, she <\/span>addresses a well-worn economic argument often used to defend the practice of \u201cbuying wives\u201d<\/strong><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Some internet discourse seems deliberately obscurantist, designed to muddy the waters of public opinion. One formulation goes thus: “But the poor also have the desire to marry and have children. If they are not allowed to purchase wives, what are they to do?” This essentially hijacks the discussion by shifting the topic from the violation of women to the issue of income inequality. Were I to employ the same logic to refute it, I could say: “But poor women also have the desire to choose their own spouses. And if impoverished women wish not to marry, they should also have that choice.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The fundamental difference between these contrasting arguments lies in whether one views the issue from the female perspective or not. It has nothing to do with rich versus poor. And just because some elderly bachelor desires children, why should others be forced to satisfy his desire? [Chinese<\/strong><\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Xiaohuamei is not the only abused or trafficked woman in Fengxian to make the news recently. In a now-deleted video posted to TikTok\u2019s Chinese counterpart Douyin, another woman in the same county is seen lying on a dirt floor. She appears to be confused and incoherent. Xiao Hui and Li Hang, reporting for Chinese media outlet Caixin, identified her as Zhong *xian, a mother of two, one of whom is now an adult. The woman\u2019s husband allegedly bought her for 1000 yuan (approximately $150), and paid a fine of the same amount to the village authorities. According to the vlogger who posted the video, the woman has been lying on the floor for 20 years. The Chinese version of the Caixin report has since been deleted, although <\/span>the English version<\/span><\/a> remains on the site.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Additional translation by Cindy Carter.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Xuzhou mother-of-eight who appeared in a viral video shackled and chained in a freezing shed now has a name and a hometown \u2026 or does she? On Thursday, the authorities in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, reported that the woman could be a victim of human trafficking, a finding that flatly contradicted earlier official reports. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[99,34,14744,5806,5,4202,14747],"tags":[2360,4275,2255,6858,207,16826,631,74,694,96,185,409,58,836,3041,904,2062,2730,1251,39,14574,4916,73,6275],"class_list":["post-237943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cdt-highlights","category-human-rights","category-level-2-article","category-focus","category-society","category-translation","category-vov","tag-abandoned-children","tag-abduction","tag-activists","tag-cdt-translation","tag-children","tag-disability","tag-dna-data-bank","tag-domestic-violence","tag-family","tag-family-planning","tag-human-trafficking","tag-kidnapping","tag-laws","tag-legal-reform","tag-legal-system","tag-marriage-law","tag-medical-system","tag-mental-health","tag-police","tag-poverty","tag-rape","tag-rural-women","tag-women","tag-womens-rights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nFour Conflicting Statements on Xuzhou\u2019s \u201cShackled Mother of Eight\u201d Fail to Quell Public Outrage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2022\/02\/four-conflicting-statements-on-xuzhous-shackled-mother-of-eight-fail-to-quell-public-outrage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Four Conflicting Statements on Xuzhou\u2019s \u201cShackled Mother of Eight\u201d Fail to Quell Public Outrage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Xuzhou mother-of-eight who appeared in a viral video shackled and chained in a freezing shed now has a name and a hometown \u2026 or does she? 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