By voicing their needs, Chinese women are normalising them

I heard an audible gasp in the audience, just as a gynaecologist on the movie screen tries to shove a speculum – a hollow cylinder used to open up a woman’s cervix – into the lower body of the protagonist. The film’s main character, a 25-year-old woman named Xu Ke, grimaces in pain. “Relax,” the gynaecologist says, but her tone and hand movements are anything but relaxing. After a sudden shove, Xu feels the pain, wriggles off the examination table and falls to the floor. The scene from the dr...

By Phoebe Zhang