BEIJING, China — The woman is bruised and battered, one ear bleeding, a goose egg on her forehead. As she posted the pictures online, she wrote of being beaten by her husband, the well-known businessman.
The very public, recent airing of what many Chinese consider a private affair came as a shock. It generated thousands of online responses, from support for the woman to criticism of her for making her abuse public. After a more than a week of silence, Li Yang, the founder of “Crazy English” language training, finally apologized for beating his American wife.
The case shed light on a problem not often discussed in China, but one that experts say is pervasive here. There are no official statistics, in part because there’s no specific law against domestic violence.
A report from the All China Women’s Federation released last year found that 64 percent of Chinese adults have experienced violence at home at some point. Another study from from the China Law Institute estimates that more than one-third of Chinese families have experienced domestic abuse and the vast majority of victims are women.
Yet this is also a society where few people are willing to talk openly about domestic abuse. It’s unusual to discuss one’s private problems outside the home, and domestic violence is still largely considered a family affair.
Advocates hope the pending passage of the country’s first domestic-abuse law could change that, and make families more aware of the problem.
Thirty years ago, Beijing resident and women’s rights activist Wang Xingjuan saw the problem worsen when China began restructuring its economy and closing down state-owned companies, laying off thousands of workers in the process. Laid-off, unemployed men would often take out their anger and depression in violence against their wives, Wang recalled.
In an attempt to combat the trend, Wang opened China’s first help center for both victims of domestic abuse and abusers in the Chinese capital. The center, which now operates a domestic-abuse hotline, counseling services and a host of other services, appears to get busier as China gets wealthier and more developed.
The very public, recent airing of what many Chinese consider a private affair came as a shock. It generated thousands of online responses, from support for the woman to criticism of her for making her abuse public. After a more than a week of silence, Li Yang, the founder of “Crazy English” language training, finally apologized for beating his American wife.
The case shed light on a problem not often discussed in China, but one that experts say is pervasive here. There are no official statistics, in part because there’s no specific law against domestic violence.
A report from the All China Women’s Federation released last year found that 64 percent of Chinese adults have experienced violence at home at some point. Another study from from the China Law Institute estimates that more than one-third of Chinese families have experienced domestic abuse and the vast majority of victims are women.
Yet this is also a society where few people are willing to talk openly about domestic abuse. It’s unusual to discuss one’s private problems outside the home, and domestic violence is still largely considered a family affair.
Advocates hope the pending passage of the country’s first domestic-abuse law could change that, and make families more aware of the problem.
Thirty years ago, Beijing resident and women’s rights activist Wang Xingjuan saw the problem worsen when China began restructuring its economy and closing down state-owned companies, laying off thousands of workers in the process. Laid-off, unemployed men would often take out their anger and depression in violence against their wives, Wang recalled.
In an attempt to combat the trend, Wang opened China’s first help center for both victims of domestic abuse and abusers in the Chinese capital. The center, which now operates a domestic-abuse hotline, counseling services and a host of other services, appears to get busier as China gets wealthier and more developed.
