Introduction

In response to the presence of activism on the Internet, social-movement theorists have coined the concept ‘cyberactivism’ to describe social movements which demand cultural and social change, such as the feminist ones, and can take shape in the virtual world (McCaughey & Ayers 2003; Naples 1998; Rheingold 1994). After comparing collective identity among online and offline feminist activists, one of these theorists, Ayers (Ayers 2003: 161-162) especially calls into question ‘the nature of what comprises a social-movement group in cyberspace’ and ‘how, if at all, social movement(s) work online’. This chapter explores the issue of cyberactivism in the complex cultural context of contemporary China. Specifically, it examines Chinese cyber feminist activism as it responds to and functions within different underlying political and economic conditions.

There have been a number of discussions of Chinese netizens’ involvement with political issues in the global media (Kabul Press 2004; AP 2004). In addition, there has been some interest from academics about state-led feminist-activism in cyberspace (McLaren 2003). However, almost no research has been carried out comparing women's political activities in cyberspace in mainland China with those of Hong Kong. This chapter examines how the growth of feminist net presence reflects the nature and shape of political activism in the women's movements of contemporary China by exploring the emergence of feminist activities in cyberspace across websites maintained by nine feminist websites in China and two in Hong Kong. These feminist websites were all established with the explicit goals of furthering gender equality and/or protecting women's interests. They were selected from a list of active women's groups which updated their websites frequently when the research was conducted. In addition to surfing online to compare the contents of different Web spaces, a respondent interview process has been carried out on a face-to-face manner during my visits to Beijing, Tianjing, Xi’an, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Views were sought from a total of eighteen people, mainly from selected mainland websites, on their online practices. While the majority of the websites are from China, the two chosen from Hong Kong are still useful for showing the similarities and difference in women cyberactivism in these two regions.