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Hello and welcome to Chinese Whispers with me, Cindy Yu. Every episode I'll be talking to journalists, experts and long-time China watchers about the latest in Chinese politics, society and more.

There will be a smattering of history to catch you up on the background knowledge and some

context as well.

How did the Chinese see these issues?

One of Chairman Mao's most famous sayings was that women can hold up half the sky.

It was a revolutionary statement in a pretty feudal and confusion society to say that women

don't just have to be in the kitchen, that they can go out and work, that they can be educated, and that they can have lives and careers of their own not determined by husbands and children.

But how true is that in modern China, and how true was that ever?

The country might be getting wealthier, but societal expectations on women seem as traditional as ever.

One extreme case which got me thinking about the woman's place in Chinese society is a recent case of the 30-year-old Tibetan

vlogger. Lamu was set on fire by her ex during a live broadcast and she died of her injuries

two weeks later. Unfortunately, cases like hers are not rare at all. It seems it's every few months

when a new domestic abuse case comes to the fall and cuts through social media. Lamu's case

has restarted a national conversation about exactly where women fit in Chinese society.

So are they holding up half the sky? To discuss this and more, I'm joined by Later Holm Fincher, a journalist and academic,

an author of Betraying Big Brother, the Feminist Awakening in China.

So later, welcome to the podcast.

Thanks so much for having me.

So later, I kind of want to talk about two topics in this podcast.

...