More than a thousand netizens, composed mainly of feminists, signed a letter stating their plan to boycott China Central Television's (CCTV) Spring Festival gala this year, citing concerns over the show’s “discriminatory” content against women.
The joint letter signed on Sunday urges China's media regulator to take action by preventing CCTV from airing programs with discriminatory themes.
Apart from this, the letter also appealed to the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television that the broadcasting network, together with the gala's production team, should give an apology.
According to the letter, the performance contains at least 44 sections that include sorts of mockery to women from different walks of life--single parents, civil servants and full-time mothers. Discrimination against short people was also raised by the netizens.
One of the signatories, Zheng Churan, shared with the Global Times why she joined the campaign:
"We signed this letter because we found that most Chinese people lack an awareness of their rights, especially women. They do not realize that such cultural events could have a very bad impact on the social status of women," Zheng remarked on Tuesday.
Furthermore, Feng Yuan, co-founder of gender-equity-promoting NGO, Equality, said that advocacies like this should be encouraged as it raises public awareness about the rights of women.
"Messages contained in the programs such as comparing girls to 'second-hand' goods and describing single women as 'leftover' have hurt many people and they feel discriminated against," Feng enthused.
Meanwhile, a netease.com-posted survey shows that out of 33,184 respondents, almost 70 percent believe that the programs did not contain discriminatory messages as opposed to what the advocates argue.
CCTV's Spring Festival gala is regarded as one of the most watched television programs in the world. In 2014, a total of 700 million people tuned in to the show.