Many Chinese women are under threat of sexual harassment from their teachers on campus. Photos: IC

Heated discussion over how to prevent sexual assault by people in authority rose on China's social media platforms after more than 10 females took to the internet accusing Chinese screenwriter Shi Hang of sexual harassment, which was a trending topic on Chinese-twitter like Sina Weibo during the May Day holidays.

On April 28, Douban user "Young editors" posted an anonymous submission in which a female accused Shi of harassing her verbally and physically, including smelling her hair and kissing her ear, according to media reports. The allegation quickly became a heated topic on the internet and several other females followed the post, saying that they had also been sexually harassed by Shi in a similar way.

Amid the controversy, Shi replied on his Sina Weibo account on Monday, saying that he is sorry for bringing such feelings to the females, but denied all their assault accusations.

Five females who accused Shi of harassment then released a joint statement on Tuesday and provided some evidence, including screenshots of chat records from WeChat, according to The Paper. 

Among the five females, three of them said they are Shi's fans and one said that she was first harassed verbally by Shi in 2016 during work. Another was harassed by the screenwriter around 2008 or 2009, according to the announcement. They demanded that Shi publicly apologize to all the "victims" of his sexual harassment after the statement was issued.

It should be pointed out that in most cases, Shi and the "victims" had been put in unequal situations, such as "opinion leader" and "fans," "guests" and "working staff," so that it's very hard to resist Shi when being harassed, said the announcement.

As a well-known screenwriter and planner, Shi participated in some well-known TV series, such as The Eloquent Ji Xiaolan. He is also a jury member of the Wuzhen Theatre Festival.

On Tuesday, Shi denied the accusations again and said that he and the females involved were in a relationship to different degrees. Shi also released a few chat records via his Weibo account, which showed that some records the victims released in the announcement had been edited with some ambiguous replies they made to Shi's remarks being removed. 

As of press time on Wednesday, at least 12 females had claimed to be "victims" who were harassed by Shi. Related topics gained more than 170 million views on Sina Weibo. 

The issue led to heated discussion over how to prevent sexual harassment by famous people in authority.

"How should women deal with dirty jokes from famou people in authority in the industry?... Telling dirty jokes is a way of males in authority to quickly demonstrate their social status in front of women, but women do not want to be faced with such jokes during work, they want to be treated equally… the reason they tolerate this is because such harassment is so normal in society," a Weibo user commented on Tuesday. 

Some other netizens called for calm as little solid evidence has been provided to support the accusations except the WeChat recordings. "It should be based on the law and evidence to judge if a person has conducted sexual harassment," another Weibo user said.  

Meanwhile, the controversy has led to some organizations suspending cooperation with Shi.  

Xiron Books announced via its official Weibo account on April 30 that the company has deleted Shi's recommendation for Fang Si-chi's First Love Paradise - a book that tells the story of 13-year-old student Fang Si-chi in China's Taiwan island, who is raped by her 50-something Chinese teacher. The company said that it has paid close attention to the recent media reports and has zero tolerance for any infringing act.

Guangdong-based New Weekly said via its Weibo account on May 1 that the company has removed Shi's qualification for one book award committee, and suspended all cooperation with him.

Global Times