There have been shouts of, Sexism”, on the local Chinese internet of late, after a Nanjing wildlife park launched a promotion that comprised free entry for women, an incident which is highlighting a range of gender-discriminatory practices in China.
Jinniu Lake Wildlife Kingdom in Nanjing is located in the city’s northerly Liuhe District. Toward the end of last year, the park launched a “warm winter” promotion, which comprised free entry for women, while ticket prices remained at ¥99 for men, and ¥69 for the elderly and children.
But not all welcomed the move, believing that it not only undermined the enthusiasm of men, children and the elderly to visit the park, but that it also arose suspicions of gender discrimination.
The park, however, remains a commercial enterprise, and as such is free to set entry prices. It, like many other such attractions, has been hit hard by the Pandemic and has formulated that it judges as appropriate incentives to bring visitor numbers back up.
At Jinniu Lake Wildlife Kingdom, women visitors account for 67 percent of the total, reported The Paper on 11 January. Hence the move, which the park believed would also attract more fee-paying visitors to accompany the women.
In the aforementioned media’s editorial, commentator, Tutu Rong (土土绒), argues, “If this promotion strategy is identified as ‘discrimination’, I’m afraid it’s too high on the agenda. In fact, there are many zoos in and around Nanjing. If consumers are dissatisfied, they can choose to vote with their feet and visit other zoos”.
But the park was quick to respond to the allegations, admitting there was deficiency in the expression of their activity content and promising to learn lessons from it.
Such gender discrimination has also been rearing its head elsewhere recently. Not long ago, a heated internet discussion was the result of a video in a which a woman in Shenzhen mocked male passengers on a train with female-passenger-priority carriages for not giving up their seats.
Up north, last September, girls attending Beijing Normal University proposed that boys without heavy luggage staying on the lower floors of the dormitory should not use the lifts. On account it is a unisex dormitory, the girls found it embarrassing for both girls and boys to be in the lift together after bathing. The boys responded by accusing the girls of an attempt at sexualising and privatising unisex resources.
Back here in Nanjing, the international community also knows a thing or two about discriminatory practices. Long-term foreign residents may remember a popular policy by local bars to offer free drinks for foreigners at particular times. To say that stoked the ire of many a Chinese drinker would be an understatement, while numerous foreigners also chose to stand with their local compatriots in boycotting such bars.
Finally, there are also all the many “ladies nights”, offering free or discounted cocktails for the fairer sex as a means to attract men to the venue to spend money they might not otherwise. But we think that’s best left there.
