Invitation Letter

The Honorable President of People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and the Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka,

We cordially invite you to attend the “Photography Exhibition of Young Feminist Activism in China,” held from September 23^rd to September 27^th, 2015, in New York, including the opening reception at 4:30-7pm September 24^th.

On September 26^th this year, the Chinese government and UN Women will be co-hosting a global women summit at the UN headquarter in New York. This summit will surely attract global attention and display the achievements and determination on the part of Chinese government and the UN in promoting gender equality and women’s rights. Such determination also motivates us to host the “Photography Exhibition of Young Feminist Activism in China” because we believe that gender equality and women’s rights are topics not exclusively relevant to the government, but also belonging to the civil society and the self-determining fields of ordinary people. At this moment, it is indispensably important to review the achievements made by grassroots women’s movement, to explore future strategies for action that are both developed on its own and by its collaboration with the government, and to search for new opportunities and directions. Doing so would surely make complementary contributions to the summit, as you would like to see.

In September 1995 in Beijing, the leaders of China put forward “the basic state policy of equality between men and women” at the opening ceremony of the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women. On the special occasion of “Beijing Plus 20,” it remains a question whether this is a moment deserving celebration given the current situation of gender equality and women’s rights in China. We hope to highlight China’s grassroots women’s movement, in particular the actions taken by the younger generation, with their wisdom and courage in breaking through the barriers, pushing forward agendas, revitalizing ideas and making creative changes over the past few years. An unspecified group of people, loosely identified as “Young Feminist Activists,” have refreshed public memories with their efforts and achievements in advancing policies and social consciousness, which also enriched the global repertoire of activist strategies.

However, despite their wides support from the general public, the young feminist activists still lack legitimate acknowledgement from the government. In March and April this year, five young feminist activists were detained for 37 days under unwarranted reasons. The absurdity of their detainment has sent shock waves around the world. This incident provoked widespread suspicions about the Chinese government’s sincerity in delivering its promise to women. After all, it is hypocritical to suppress feminist activists in Beijing while chanting women’s rights in New York. And it should not get support from the international community.

We hope that President Xi Jinping could take advantage of this visit to New York to validate your good will towards women’s rights, human rights and the civil society. Therefore we invite you to our exhibition in the hope to expand mutual understanding and to start dialogue. We would also like to invite Mr. Ban Ki-moon and Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka to our exhibition to obtain information from the civil society that are not available from the global women’s summit. Such visit will surely be beneficial to informing China’s and UN’s future decision-making in this area, and this will be our mission and our honor.

We look forward to you or your representative’s coming!

About the exhibition:

Time: 9/23-9/27, 2015, 3:30pm-7pm

Reception: 9/24/2015, 4:30pm-7pm

Address:  The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center (The Clemente), LES Gallery, ground floor 107 Suffolk Street NY, NY 10002

Direction:  F,J, M or Z trains to Delancey/Essex Street. Main entrance on Suffolk st. (btw Delancey and Rivington)

  China Rights In Action     Feminist Task Force Asian  Asian American Arts Centre

Please RSVP to [email protected]

777 United Nations Plaza, Suite 6E New York, NY 10017