China continues to grapple with sexism in the workplace, as a video of a sexually explicit game played during an annual party in one of Tencent Holding's divisions made the rounds online. The Chinese tech giant, best known for its online messaging service WeChat, has since apologized for the incident.
Mashable reported that the party's attendees captured and shared a footage online depicting female staff kneeling to open bottles placed in between men's crotches using their mouths. It quickly became viral on Twitter and other social media platforms, much to the dismay of Tencent's representatives.
Tencent released an official statement on the incident via Chinese social media website Zhihu. Bloomberg said the firm's spokeswoman Canny Lo, slammed the game's highly unacceptable nature, as it assured the public that it will no longer allow such actions to take place.
However, several people found that the video has been wiped off Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media website. Such led many of them to accuse the microblogging platform of deliberate censorship, to the point where they downplayed Tencent's apology.
Sexism continues to permeate China's workplace, and that doesn't exclude firms that have a more progressive image. JD.com controversially featured a Japanese porn star in one of its events, while Alibaba scrapped a gimmicky job posting looking for porn star-like cheerleaders for programmers.
Not a single woman currently figures in any of Tencent's management positions - just one of many indications that patriarchy continues to rule over Chinese firms. Sentiments against placing women in management positions have long been a lingering issue in private circles within the tech industry.
But venture capital magnate Luo Mingxiong, who owns Jingbei, opted to echo that outlook publicly in a conference early this year. Luo's brazen remarks discouraging investment on female CEOs have attracted both tumultuous and supportive responses.
The setback involving Tencent contrasts that of ongoing efforts by China's tech groups to banish sexist attitudes in workplaces. Currently, Chinese employees have few legal options to protect themselves against sexist behavior in the corporate setting within public and private enterprises alike.