Trigger Warning: Content mentioning sexual exploitation
MaskPark has exposed how misogyny thrives online in China, and one feminist is determined her voice will carry beyond its borders.
A teenager in Shanghai, just months away from turning 18, logs into Instagram through a VPN and posts a reel. Her subject is something no young woman should still have to confront eight years after #MeToo. She exposes a secret Telegram group – recently leaked online – where men share explicit images and videos of the women in their lives, whether daughters, sisters or girlfriends. The images are non-consensual, often intimate, and in some cases of underage girls.
The scandal centres on a Telegram channel known as MaskPark (also called the “MaskPark tree-hole forum”), which for months served as a hub for sharing non-consensual content on an almost industrial scale. Over 100,000 members, mostly men in and outside China, exchanged images secretly filmed in public places – fitting rooms, transport stations, even hospitals – and private spaces, sometimes using pinhole or hidden cameras disguised as everyday objects.
Victims’ personal information was also reportedly circulated. The Chinese legal system, however, lacks strong mechanisms for tackling revenge porn or voyeurism, especially when the content is hosted on encrypted, overseas platforms. Even where laws do exist, penalties are minor if the material isn’t explicitly “pornographic,” giving perpetrators and platforms far too much room to evade accountability.
The New Feminist had the opportunity to interview the young Chinese feminist, Jennifer*, who published an Instagram reel about the MaskPark scandal, its contributing factors, and the #MeToo movement in China. Demonstrating how political agendas are barriers to women’s rights, and how she believes we can move forward.
When we asked Jennifer about the men involved in MaskPark, she said, “They definitely know what they are doing is wrong, but they are trying to normalise it as a fetish.”
“I feel like just by looking at the manosphere, you can see how it contributes to online misogyny”. According to a report from Ofcom, published in June 2023, the term “manosphere” was first coined in 2009. It is an umbrella term that describes online groups that hold misogynistic right-wing ideals. Arguably, the most well-known groups that fall under this term include Incel ideas and Men’s Rights Activists.
While most of the discourse around the manosphere focuses within the Western world, it is far from a uniquely Western phenomenon. Across East Asia, these spaces and ideologies are increasingly visible, and have been for a long time. Results from the same report described the manosphere as a “fragmented landscape”.
The young feminist explained, “In East Asia, we see a borderline pattern like in Korea, there is the Nth room, and Japan also have issues with hiding cameras and sharing unconsensual content. I feel like MaskPark is just an expression of this regional trend.”
Between 2018 and 2020, in Korea, thousands of non-consensual sexually explicit videos were being sold online through the same messaging platform, Telegram, by a sexual exploiter known as ‘The Doctor’. Over 60,000 people purchased images using cryptocurrency. Over 100 women, including more than 20 who were underage, were sexually abused in the videos. This scandal came to be known as The Nth Room.
Jennifer also highlighted concerns about raising awareness of these issues from both Chinese and Western governments and media.
Chinese human rights activists have long faced persecution. In 2018, during China’s MeToo movement, to circumvent the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) censorship, Chinese online feminist communities started to use the term ‘Rice Bunny’ as a nickname for the movement. This is a transliteration of “MeToo”, pronounced as “Mi Tu”. Often used in conjunction with the emojis of a rabbit and a bowl of rice.
“They [Chinese Government] haven’t stopped people from talking about Mask Park so far, but I do think they’re trying to hide it.”
However, there are also factors that prevent these scandals from being brought to a sensible discourse in America. “At the same time, Western media, especially the US, they’re throwing a lot of propaganda about China towards their people. So, it’s really hard to find the real truth. I feel like that’s kind of the problem, like a lot of [women’s] stories never made into Western media.”
A recent article explained the ongoing propaganda between the USA and China as a result of Trump’s tariff war. With either government casting aspersions, Jennifer pointed out, “that means many women’s voices are lost internationally, and it’s part of the reason why I make videos, it’s to help bridge the gap and to bring those voices into wider awareness.”
Despite the CCP’s censorship, she described the gaps in government censorship on Chinese social media, which still allows relevant content to seep through onto her ‘For You’ page.
“The problem is they ban the tag. When you search for Mask Park, you can’t find any relatable content. But if you scroll on your ‘For You’, it will pop up. So to hear about it, you have to be quite active on a certain side of social media.”
As a result, it also further widens the generational gap between the older and younger generations on social issues: “There is definitely a generation difference, like younger women, especially students, they’re active online. But older people don’t see a lot of this.”
Jennifer explained the mindset of older generations: “They’re often emphasising family duty and stability. I don’t think there’s a fight, because the aim is to have a better life for yourself and for your family.”
While having supportive parents herself, she still experienced sexism growing up. I remember we used to do family meetings when I was really young, and they were talking about how beautiful I am and how great a husband I can find, and I was so young. So I just asked them, ‘Why do I have to find a husband?’ My parents agreed with me immediately.”
When asked how people can help, Jennifer was well aware that it is an ongoing struggle, recognising the problems within her country. “The ratio of newborn children is really low. I think the easiest way for them is just to push more women into having a family. So that’s why they are trying to go back to traditional. It’s good for the governments to promote having more babies. It’s very Handmaid’s Tale.”
“For China, it’s more, even more complicated because we need to translate the information, and we need to translate correctly.”
She continued with her suggestion. “I feel like the real question is how can we move beyond both and create a new framework that centres women as whole human beings, because, they’re [Western and Chinese Governments] both patriarchal.”
In spite of the political agendas of both the US and Chinese governments prioritising their own interests and, in the process, impeding on women’s rights, Jennifer described engaging with a global network of young, like-minded women. “I think it’s really important to spread the message in different languages. I saw that a German feminist saw my video, and she translated everything into German. That’s really sweet.”
Highlighting that while influential factors such as the government or the manosphere have their own agendas. However, as Jennifer has shown, there is a new generation that wants to make a difference.
MaskPark is yet another example that exposes how misogyny adapts to digital spaces and how political agendas, both in China and the West, silence women in different ways. Yet Jennifer’s voice shows that these stories are still breaking through. By translating, sharing and amplifying across borders, young feminists are refusing to let women’s experiences be buried or distorted. Change will not come easily under governments or cultures that benefit from patriarchy, but every act of resistance, from a VPN login to a translated reel, chips away at that silence. And it is in these small but persistent acts that a new framework for women’s rights begins to take shape.
*Jennifer is a fake name to protect the identity of the interviewee
