Wei Tingting | |
|---|---|
韦婷婷 | |
| Born | 1989 (age 35–36) Hechi, Guangxi, China |
| Occupation | Human rights activist |
| Years active | 2007–present |
| Known for | Feminist Five |
Wei Tingting (Chinese:韦婷婷; born 1989) is aChinese LGBTI+ and feminist activist, writer and documentary filmmaker. She is one of theFeminist Five.[1]
Wei was born inHechi in the southern region ofGuangxi in China.[2]
She received aBachelor of Laws insociology in 2009 and aMaster of Laws inanthropology in 2011, both fromWuhan University.
While in college, Wei became active in the women's and LGBT rights movements. In 2007 and 2009, Wei assisted in coordinating and staging productions ofThe Vagina Monologues. She joined the Wuhan Rainbow, an LGBT organization.[2]
Wei also served as director of Ji’ande, anLGBTQ rights organization inBeijing.[3]
Wei co-founded the National Bisexual Network in China.
From 2011 to 2016, Wei worked as a project manager at the Beijing Gender Health Education Institute, a national agency centered around sexuality and sexual health, raising awareness about gender inequities and sexual diversity.[2] Part of her work included helping to organize an annualAIDS Walk on theGreat Wall, the China AIDS Walk, the first large-scale HIV/AIDS public fundraising project in mainland China, coordinating the Mainstream Media Awards for good LGBT community reporting, and coordinating the organization's Rights and Advocacy program & annual National LGBT conference in China. Wei co-hosted China's first non-profit LGBT webcast called "Queer Comrades", was a member of the China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong-based networkQueer Lala Times, and attended women's conferences inIndia andSouth Korea.[1][2]
In 2012, Wei Tingting and Li Tingting participated in a Valentine's Day protest againstdomestic violence in Beijing.[1]
From 2012 to 2014, Wei was a project manager at Chinese Lala Alliance.
From 2013 to 2014, Wei was a contributor toLes+ Magazine and coordinated a project called “View Beijing+20 from Lesbian perspective”.
From 2015 to 2017, Wei was a coordinator atLGBT Rights Advocacy China, where she worked with victims of LGBT conversion therapies to help them bring legal cases, and also support lawsuits against homophobic teaching materials.
From 2016 to 2019, Wei was the founder and director of the Guangzhou Gender and Sexuality Education Center (GGSEC), anon-governmental organization inGuangzhou,China. The organization conducts gender and sexuality education, training and advocacy activities.
Wei collected material for the first Chinese documentary film aboutbisexuality in China, which was calledBi China and was released in 2017.[1][4]
In 2018, Wei founded the Guangzhou Nalisha Education Consulting Co., Ltd., a company that conducts gender and sexuality research, education, training and advocacy activities, offering mental health support and consulting support for victims in gender and sexuality field to against discrimination to women and LGBTI community.
In 2015, she and four other activists (Zheng Churan, Wang Man,Wu Rongrong, andLi Tingting, collectively known as the "Feminist Five")[5] were detained by the Chinese government just prior toInternational Women's Day, the day they planned to execute a campaign against sexual harassment on public transportation.[6] All five women were released on bail after 37 days of detention.[1] Had they been convicted, the women could have faced up to three years in prison for "creating a disturbance".[7] Since being released, Wei has said she will continue to fight for gender equality. She said:
I have read so many reports and articles about our arrest and they are so touching and encouraging. I had started to feel despondent and thought this incident would be the end for us young, female activists. But the reaction has started an era of magnificent, new activists. They cannot catch all of us and block us all.[5]
Wei is bisexual.[8]
