Feminist Analysis Of The "Rights Versus Harmony" Discousrse In The Rhetoric Of Chinese Anti-domestic Violence Movement

This research intends to provide insights into China’s anti-domestic violence movements by introducing a new theoretical reform gaining currency in western feminist legal theory.China’s anti-domestic violence movement has enjoyed a significant development since the last decade of 20 th century under the influence of western feminism and its global incarnation,in which anti-domestic violence activists were quick to adopt the human right perspectives with its liberal framework centered upon woman assumed as an independent,abstract and assertive individual,and found themselves having to address the Chinese perspectives of woman assumed as an inter-dependent,contextualized being deeply embedded in her social relations.Due to lack of sophisticated theoretical independence and critical reflection,Chinese anti-domestic violence activists chose to pit their feminist project of promoting women’s rights against the traditional valuing of harmony which prioritizes family intactness,resisting official intervention and defying litigations when domestic violence occurs,accusing this cultural sentiment of conceding women’s well-being to the maintenance of family and social stability,hence creating a “rights versus harmony” discourse in their campaigns.However,what the Chinese anti-domestic violence movement has not come to recognize is that,through applying feminist legal critique to the concept of “right”,western feminists,especially those in the liberal and difference feminism camp,is already starting to cast doubt on the credibility of a “rights talk” in the realization of women’s ultimate demand for equality.In light of this,many feminists have begun to criticize and re-theorize “rights” in ways more responsive to the relational,inter-dependent and collectivistic aspects of human nature that women’s experience has predominantly revealed.Therefore,it appears meaningful that while Chinese women activists are encouraging women to view themselves as rights-holder independent from their social networks,western feminists is now putting individuals back into their relationships where women are thought to be presented with more support and protection.Following the rationale of this reflective effort,this essay argues that the aforementioned “rights versus harmony” discourse cannot survive a feminist scrutiny.By applying neo-Confucian approach to the alternative interpretation of the concept of “harmony” in Chinese culture,this essay finds out that “harmony” has been wrongly charged with causing women’s subordination.In the process of doing so,this essay not only render the opposition invalid,but also demonstrated the cultural irrelevance in the cause of gender disparity,that is,women in both western and Chinese cultures are faced with common challenges regardless of how differently these challenges operate in their respective societies.This further leads to the critique of the tendency of abandoning traditional values in introducing feminist reforms.The significance of this attempt is two fold: one is to raise the awareness of Chinese anti-domestic violence activists to the peril of uncritically adopting the “right” framework in their strategies,whereas the other is to remind western feminists of the alternative form of patriarchy grown out of a collectivistic society.After this,an innovative construction of the harmony norms of teleological rather than ontological significance to the protection of women is proposed in order to liberate the current movement in China from the “rights versus harmony” dilemma and explore the potential of “harmony” being re-theorized,in the hope of further facilitating effective responds to domestic violence in China.