Human Trafficking and Public Discussion in China: Debating the Feng County Incident

Zoom Webinar

On January 28 a post to the video platform Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) captured the attention of citizens across China. The brief video filmed in rural Feng County in Northern Jiangsu province, showed a woman chained by the neck to the wall in a small run-down building that was part of a larger family complex. The woman is not only chained but dirty, inadequately clothed for winter, and not properly fed. The woman struggles to answer questions about her well-being.

As the video rapidly went viral, netizens raised questions about the woman’s situation, and the possible role of human trafficking both in her case and more broadly. Initially, the local government insisted that trafficking was not a factor, explaining that the woman had to be chained because of her mental health problems. Public calls for accountability persisted, and an investigation by higher-level officials has led to arrests for human trafficking, including the arrest of her husband, plus the dismissal of several local officials for dereliction of duty and reporting false information about the case. The woman was identified as originally from Yunnan, a province over 1,000 miles away from which many women leave to become wives to men in richer provinces; this includes a number of cases in which consent is, at best, unclear. She had been in Jiangsu for roughly 25 years, during which time she has borne eight children with the same father.  

This case has sparked intense discussion, both inside China and beyond, about issues including trafficking, mental health, the status of women, government corruption and accountability, law enforcement, and the role of public opinion and digital media. Our expert panel includes Johanna Ransmeier who has studied human trafficking in China, both past and present, Ma Zhiying, who works on mental health and mental health care delivery in China; and Bai Ruoyun who works on media and public discourse in China.  Kenneth Pomeranz will moderate the discussion.

May 5, 2022

9:30pm     Japan | South Korea
8:30pm     Hong Kong | Beijing | Singapore
6:00pm     Delhi
2:30pm     Paris
1:30pm     Ireland | London
7:30am     Chicago

Speakers:

Johanna Ransmeier
Associate Professor of History and the College
The University of Chicago

Zhiying Ma
Assistant Professor at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice
The University of Chicago

Ruoyun Bai
Associate Professor of Media Studies
Department of Arts, Culture and Media
University of Toronto (Scarborough)

Moderator:

Kenneth Pomeranz
Faculty Director
The University of Chicago Yuen Campus in Hong Kong

About Director’s Pick

From current news, STEM, to arts and history, The University of Chicago Hong Kong Campus Faculty Director and Executive Director share a broad range of interests. The Director’s Pick series catalogs an array of webinars covering various topics that our directors wish to share with our audience. Read More