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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 006761 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR G/IWI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL KWMN KPAO CH
SUBJECT: CHINA'S 2008 WOMAN OF COURAGE: AI XIAOMING 
 
REF: STATE 126072 
 
¶1. Embassy Beijing is pleased to nominate feminist 
author, documentary filmmaker and activist Ai Xiaoming 
to receive the 2008 Secretary's Award for 
International Women of Courage.  Ai has overcome 
police detention, physical assault and state 
censorship to fight for the rights of Chinese women. 
In her books, films and classrooms, Ai has broken 
through deep-seated taboos to battle discrimination 
and violence. 
 
¶2. Nomination details: 
 
Last name: Ai 
 
First name: Xiaoming 
 
Title: Director of Gender Education Forum, Sun Yat-sen 
University 
 
Date of Birth: ovember 1953 
 
Country of Birth/Citizenship: China 
 
Passport #: TBD 
 
Contact Information: 
Sun Yat-Sen (Sun Zhongshan) University 
Guangzhou, Guangdong 
P.R. of China 510275 
(8620)8403-5157 
email: xiaomai05@gmail.com 
 
Justification: 
 
In a country where topics regarding sexuality and 
violence against women are rarely discussed, and where 
spousal abuse was only outlawed in 2002, Ai Xiaoming 
does not dance around taboo subjects, she confronts 
them directly on the stage and screen.  In 2003, Ai 
translated and directed China's first-ever performance 
of the "Vagina Monologues," which she staged at 
Chinese colleges in conjunction with the global "V- 
Day" campaign against violence against women.  This 
was the first time issues related to gender, sexuality 
and violence were portrayed on the Chinese stage. 
Though authorities in Beijing and Shanghai banned the 
play, she eventually succeeded in overcoming this 
censorship in Shanghai to stage the show at a local 
university. 
 
In 2005, Ai released "Garden in Heaven," a documentary 
detailing the fatal date rape of a young school 
teacher.  Prior to the release of this film, few in 
China had even heard of the term "date rape."  In 
making the documentary, Ai followed the victim's 
mother for two years as she sought justice for her 
daughter.  As a filmmaker/advocate determined to see 
the teacher's boyfriend held accountable, Ai 
personally attended an autopsy and railed against 
official apathy to the crime.  "...(M)any in our 
society are as indifferent to her dead body as the man 
who lay beside her on the last night of her life," she 
wrote in 2003 as authorities were investigating the 
case. 
 
Ai Xiaoming is also a chronicler of citizen activism. 
Her second documentary portrayed the efforts of 
citizens in Taishi, a village in suburban Guangzhou, 
to remove a corrupt official.  In September 2005, Ai 
wrote an open letter to Premier Wen Jiabao protesting 
police brutality and the arrest of several Taishi 
villagers.  Less than two weeks later, Ai was attacked 
in Taishi and warned to stop her advocacy.  Despite 
such threats, Ai continues to risk her freedom and 
career (professors who are too outspoken frequently 
face demotion, or worse) to promote human rights and 
document women's grassroots activism.  In January 
2007, Ai wrote an open letter to Liaoning Party 
Secretary Li Keqiang (a rising star in the Communist 
 
SIPDIS 
Party leadership) protesting the imprisonment of civil 
rights lawyer Guo Feixiong.  In July 2007, police in 
Wuhan detained Ai and confiscated her videotape after 
catching her filming residents demonstrating against 
the demolition of their homes. 
 
Ai Xiaoming is a rare breed in China, a respected 
academic who does not restrict herself to journals and 
campus conferences.  As a pioneer of gender studies in 
China, she links her work to the larger struggle for 
 
BEIJING 00006761  002 OF 002 
 
 
justice and equality in Chinese society.  "To put it 
simply, women's studies is against inequality..." Ai 
once told an interviewer, and inequality "is not 
something that only women undergo." 
 
¶3. Ai Xiaoming was notified of this nomination.  The 
Embassy thanks ConGen Guangzhou for its assistance in 
nominating Professor Ai. 
 
¶4. Political officer Gregory May follows the women's 
issues portfolio at Embassy Beijing.  Contact info: 
(8610) 6532-3831 x6742, or email maygc@state.gov. 
Randt