This month, feminist blogger 三月vulcanus (Sānyuè vulcanus, "March vulcanus") announced that she would abandon her current WeChat account 三月云 (Sānyuè yún, "March Cloud") after a series of temporary suspensions. A new account, 三月云烟 (Sānyuè yúnyān, "March Clouds and Smoke") has been set up, but remains inactive apart from a single-line greeting. The account’s reincarnation comes in the context of sustained pressure on online feminist voices, including a mass ban on the eve of this year’s March 8 International Women’s Day.

I’ll get straight to the point: you can regard this post as a farewell letter from Sanyue Yun and her sisters.

I received another seven-day suspension from March 21 to March 28. During that time, not only was I unable to post or reply, but it was impossible to follow me, and my account didn’t even appear in search results.

What’s even more ridiculous is that, if I paste a screenshot of the platform ban notice in here, it won’t let me publish this post either.

At the same time, they carried out massive and unwarranted deletion and suppression of my posts. I’ve published 147 in total, but how many can you see on my main page? Only 36.

There’s not even a fraction left.

For unwavering perseverance and striving to speak out in every case, I’d like to thank myself. I’m also grateful to all you brave, insightful readers out there at your screens.

I’d be extremely grateful if my sisters who can spare the energy could help share my posts, and if those who can spare the money could hit the tip button at the end of the post.

In any case, please put yourselves first. We’re the ones who are the hope, the embers. I’m grateful to you just for reading this far. I’m beyond grateful to you, my sisters, for your goodwill.

Now, as this post draws to a close, I’ve been wondering how to end it. What does the future hold? How will I keep on writing my posts? How will I keep sharing them? I’m still not sure if there’ll come a day when I’m back to full strength, and I can’t make any promises. But in this moment, I also realize: women will always find a way. [Chinese]

Following a 15-day ban last August, Sanyue vulcanus wrote that she had frequently been tempted to close her account, citing past struggles with anxiety and ongoing exhaustion. The post also mentioned the lesser impact of constant threats and harassment from “tiánlì” 田力—a sarcastic online term for men comprising the dismantled components of the character 男 nán, meaning "man” or “male." "This isn’t the first or second time; I’ve had countless posts taken down one after another, and barely a tenth are now visible on my account page. But the tianli’s smears and incitement of antagonism always go untouched, and even get boosted by the platform. The very field we’re fighting them on is tilted in their favor." The reference to inciting antagonism turns the official accusation of "inciting gender antagonism," often aimed at feminist discourse, around on her attackers. This, and the double standards surrounding it, were discussed in a response to Sanyue Yun’s farewell post on the WeChat account Li Yueliang’s Notes:

I know some people will say "Her viewpoints were too extreme," "She incited gender antagonism," or "She had it coming."

I’d like to ask them:

Why is it "inciting antagonism" when a woman says "We’re treated unfairly," but a "legitimate grievance" when a man says the same?

Why is it that when women get angry, it’s interpreted as "extremism"?

Why is it that when women speak out, it’s perceived as "stirring up trouble"?

Sanyue Yun isn’t the first.

How many *feminist* accounts were reported, “bombed,” and disappeared before hers?

I’ve lost count.

Every time, it’s the same story:

She speaks out → someone feels uncomfortable → an angry mob reports her to the platform → the platform takes her content down → she disappears → everyone says “it’s about time someone dealt with her”

What is it we’re actually afraid of?

Women realising they’ve been treated poorly?

Women actually starting to hold people to account?

Women no longer accepting that "things have always been this way"? [Chinese]

In October, Sanyue vulcanus wrote about her efforts to pursue legal action against participants in these harassment and malicious-reporting campaigns against her. The post was deleted. The account then fell quiet for three months, leading to rumors that the account had been permanently banned, or even that the author had died, but it returned in January with an apology for the silence and an update on the Sisyphean legal process.

Sanyue vulcanus has also been vocal on topics such as the history of women’s rights in China, accusations of "gold-digging" over high bride-prices, women’s access to education, misogynistic online discourse targeting female college students, and last year’s sexual harassment scandal at Wuhan University and the expulsion of a female student from Dalian Polytechnic University for "undermining the national dignity" of China with "improper contact with a foreigner." On the latter case, Sanyue vulcanus commented:

There are no rights without obligations, and no obligations without rights. Rights and obligations must be reciprocal. If women are to be held responsible for upholding the “dignity” of the entire nation, then first please classify the manufacturing of substandard sanitary pads as "profiteering at the expense of the nation"; treat companies and individuals who engage in workplace gender discrimination as "agents of international espionage"; regard violations of women’s rights as an affront to the Chinese nation and the Chinese people; punish those who covertly videotape or photograph women as severely as those who leak state secrets; and treat the mandated divorce cooling-off period as a national disgrace on a par with the [1901] Boxer Protocol. Given that women are excluded from receiving their due share when the pie is being divided, how dare those tianli indulge in fantasies of forcing women to shoulder an unfair share of the collective blame? [Source]