As China censors homegrown feminism, a feminist scholar from Japan is on its bestseller lists

In the last few years, China’s government has promoted increasingly conservative social values, encouraging women to focus on raising children. Ueno’s popularity reflects a surge in interest in women’s rights, said Leta Hong Fincher, a research associate at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute who has written about gender discrimination and feminism in China. About a decade ago, China had a rambunctious feminist movement that staged protests like occupying a men’s restroom to demand more toilets for women, or marching in wedding dresses spattered with fake blood to draw attention to domestic violence.