Performing The Vagina Monologues in China

[ismnotwasm]

"When I first heard about The Vagina Monologues, I was shocked. I thought, how could someone give a play a name like that?" says Xiao Hang. That was five years ago, when Xiao Hang was, by her own admission, "mainstream and quite conservative." But after volunteering for an NGO in her sophomore year at college, she began to see society through a different lens. She no longer thinks, as she once did, that "it isn't elegant to talk about your vagina in public." In fact, she thinks it's vital to.

Today Xiao Hang is one of the organizers behind Bcome, the Beijing-based feminist group which has put on around a dozen performances of The Monologues this year to mark the ten-year anniversary of its first showing in China. Performed in over 150 countries worldwide in some 50 different languages, Eve Ensler's play was first shown in the Mainland at Guangzhou's Sun Yatsen University in 2003.

In their offices just outside Beijing's third ring road, Xiao Hang and Bcome's other volunteers are preparing leaflets to send out for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The leaflets have titles such as "20 Misconceptions about Sexual Violence," "The ABCs of Feminism," and "Resist Verbal Abuse."

"We've already done lots of online and print promotions as well as panel discussions. The Vagina Monologues is new, fresh and attention-grabbing," says Ai Ke, another organizer. "It's not just a play, it's a tool for spreading feminism, a method for public education."

http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/11/performing-the-vagina-monologues-in-china/281924/


We're everywhere.

[niyad]

1. k and r--thank you for posting this. definitely gives one a bit of a lift.

[Sheri]

2. good news for women everywhere. thanks. nt