Besides the fact that its crowded and anonymous interiors allow for easy opportunities, one of the main reasons that groping is so prevalent on the Beijing subway is due to societal constraints that tend to shame victims of sexual crimes more heavily than its perpetrators.
Well, no more. Chinese women aren't so willing to suffer in silence as a Beijing woman made national headlines for her bravery in publicly confronting a man who groped her on the subway.
Video of the unidentified woman grabbing the lapel of the groper and loudly accusing him has been covered by state-run media like the People's Daily and the Global Times while being praised for her actions by Chinese netizens.
READ: Peep Peep: A Guide to Stopping Perverts in Their Tracks
Whereas this same matter would have been a cause for embarrassment in previous cases, the woman displayed no compunctions towards identifying herself as a victim of a sex crime. Instead, the woman focused the shame upon him with emasculating questions such as "Tell me; what did you touch?" and "Are you a man or not? Admit you did it." Leaving him no moral ground to stand on, the woman even mocked his stance as a victimizer by asking: "Does it make you feel good? Is it soft?"
Although the man initially rebuked the woman's accusation in the Monday night rush hour incident on the Batong Line, the man eventually capitulated to the woman's demands for an apology. However, that wasn't enough for the woman who then further turned the screws on him by asking, "Do you think we young females are so easy to pick on?"
READ: Hidden Camera in Chaoyang Office Restroom Explained Away as "Fengshui"
According to an eyewitness named Dapeng that took a video of the incident, the woman hauled the man off the train at Guanzhuang Station.
Beijing police confirm that a man named Zhang fully confessed to the crime and has been sentenced to five days of administrative detention.
Subway groping had been such a problem on the Beijing Metro that the city once considered establishing "female-only" cars to protect them. Instead of that, the city sent undercover police to crowded subway trains last year to catch the perverts red-handed in a campaign that recently made it first conviction.
READ: Undercover Police Cracking Down on Beijing Subway Perverts
A subway commuter named Liu told the Beijing Youth Daily that she commended the woman for her bravery whereas she herself had suffered in silence in similar instances. Another commuter named Zhang also praised the woman but warned that women should be careful when making such public accusations.
During the crackdown on public transit molestations last July, a woman was attacked with a knife by the man she accused of groping her.
Publicly accusing subway gropers is rare in China and produces mixed results. During a previous instance last May, a man who received one such accusation was simply unrepentant, brazenly saying, "I'll touch whomever I want."
READ: Pervert or Troll? Subway Creep Hunts Female Calves on Beijing Metro
As seen over the past year, the more common way for women to fight back against subway gropings is to record images of the molesters and then post them online. And if Beijing's subways aren't going to become any less crowded, we certainly hope this will mean fewer incidents like these.
More stories from this author here.
E-Mail: charlesliu1 (at) qq (dot) com
Twitter: @Sinopath
Images: Miaopai
Unfortunate update: even though this pervert supposedly was given administrative punishment and received a public shaming on the national stage, he simply can not give up his molesting ways. This same guy was publicly accused by another woman of another molestation, this time on the Beijing #312 bus on May 30th.
If you see this man, don't stand near him. Watch the video of him here.
