Blog #2 China's Most-Watched Divorce Case

An American woman by the name of Kim Lee has gone against her rich and famous husband Li Yang publicly on domestic violence. Her case has been publicized across the Internet in microblogs and across the media. Mrs. Lee went to court to seek a divorce on the grounds of domestic violence. Her husband threatened her and failed to appear in court for the verdict.  The court granted a protection order, acknowledge domestic violence on the grounds of divorce, and order Mr. Yang pay 50,000 renimbi in compensation for the violence. Overall Mr. Yang will be paying 12 million renminbi or about 1.9 million dollars in American money fixed until all three of her daughters reach 18 years of age. Mr. Yang has gone public against the accusations saying violence is acceptable in China. The Chinese courts did not reveal all of his true assets so they cannot force him to pay commensurately. The state does not force the rich to reveal their true assets and does not allow lawyers to do so as well. It is a societal thing for this to not happen. Mrs. Lee has revealed that the journey has not been easy she has spent months documenting the abuse and has received threats from police offers and people on the street. At the same time she has received letters from Chinese women and their children who have been abused which kept her going. She felt inspired to keep moving forward and standing her ground. She was speaking on her behalf and theirs. 

This article is significant in the fact that the lady who spoke out against her Chinese husband was not Chinese. Mrs. Lee was a white American woman. Her race and nationality speaks out about her culture as an American. American women speak out about their oppressions freely in comparisons to women in collectivistic cultures. In America as it is no one is going to look down on her for being a white woman and speaking out against her oppressions. Minorities in American are still looked down upon for these things because some think they are complaining for noth8ing and have brought their oppressions upon their selves. Then again minority women like her can freely speak out about violence just like Mrs. Lee. Mrs. Lee. Speaking out is not going to shame her people in America like it could in China.  In China she has become a hero to some women who have been abused. They may not speak out about it but they are grateful that she had the courage to do so. I do think that these women seeing an American women speak out is encouraging because they can see that there is a way out and what they have grown to known may not be the best way or may not be healthiest to live through. This article also shows that people from a higher SES can speak out without much reprimand from society and can also get out of revealing their wealth or paying money because they have money to keep those out of their lives. It also speaks on privileges in many facets.

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/in-chinas-most-watched-divorce-case-3-victories-1-defeat/

Chanel Martin
February 9, 2013 3:38pm