Li Tingting

Li's parents were forced to marry as a young couple after becoming pregnant with her.[3] In 1989, Li was born in Yanqing district, the rural outskirts of Beijing.[4] Li's father worked delivering fertilizer. After her father was dismissed from his work, Li's mother took a factory job in Beijing, but continued to be responsible for all domestic matters.[3] According to Li, her father was "rather chauvinistic." She experienced domestic violence from her father when she was growing up.[3]

Li moved around and lived in different places in Beijing to pursue an education. When Li was three years old, her family moved to Shunyi district for her mother's job. At seven years old, Li moved back to Yanqing district to go to school due to her hukou. She then moved back to Shunyi after solving her hukou problem. For high school, she attended Shunyi No.10 School and chose to study the liberal arts.[4]

Li's activism career started during her undergraduate studies. When a friend of hers was pregnant, Li started to give sexual education to her peers. During her second year of university, Li set up a Lesbian Community Training Group, offering counseling services and support for university students.[2] By 2013, the Group conssited of some 200 active volunteers, who advocated for equal-rights legislation and highlighted discriminatory behavior in government and business.[5] In 2011, Li learned about performance art and was immediately interested in leverage performance art in her activism.

On 6 March 2015, police officers arrived at Li's apartment where she was living with her partner. Around that time, Li and colleagues were planning a demonstration drawing attention to sexual harassment in public transportations on International Women's Day in three cities.[4] At first, since Li couldn't do anything, Li pulled out her ukulele and played a song, while her girlfriend sang.[10] Li initially did not open the door and overheard conversation between the officers that they had monitored her phone calls. She eventually opened the door when the officers called a locksmith to break through the door. Li reports that the police presented her with a blank detention warrant, searched her apartment and confiscated both her and her partner's electronics.[2] The police then took Li and her partner away in separate vehicles. Li was first taken to the local police station, where police went through her private phone calls. When requested to unlock her phone, Li took the opportunity to delete her WeChat history.[2]

On the evening of 7 March, Li was led to a basement carpark and driven away in a van. Her partner had already been released, but the van held fellow activists Wei Tingting and Wang Man.[2] The activists were subjected to repetitive questioning by authorities about the planned anti-sexual harassment activity. The questions moved on to the involvement of foreign forces, which Li reports seemed to have made the authorities extremely nervous. Li was also asked about other public protests she had been involved in. The authorities even printed images of a topless protest, censoring the activists' nipples with black crosses. The office of the NGO Li worked for was also raided, as it was through this work that she had been most involved with gender equality advocacy and LGBT work. Although the authorities wanted information about this company, Li was not in a management position. Since her release, Li has stated that the authorities would suddenly burst into the room and shout: “Li Tingting, you haven’t been honest with us, you’re lying again!” Then attempt to intimidate with non-specified new evidence.[2]

After 37 days of detention, on 13 April 2015, Li was released, along with the other four activists, who later becmae the Feminist Five. According to her lawyer, the release was conditional, which would allow charges to be brought against Li later.[11]

Li has reportedly been put on the Chinese media blacklist, which means no national media will report on or converse with her.[2] The NGO Li worked for was also shut down as an example.[2]

Li graduated from the University of Essex in February 2019.[12]

Li has written opinion pieces for international media, including The Guardian, where she describes her arrest and the situation of women's rights in China.[13] She has also participated in discussion panels and given talks on feminism in China in the United States and UK.[14][15]

As of 2023 April, Li is back to China and started a new round of "Occupy Men's Room" activities.[16]

• 100 Women (BBC) - 2015
• Gold Award, Contemporary Art Schools' Students' Nominated Exhibition, Today's Art Museum - 2007
• Honorable Award, Shanghai Youth Art Exhibition - 2007

Li has had 36 exhibitions from 2005 to 2013. She had:

• 1 exhibition in 2013
• 5 exhibitions in 2012
• 5 exhibitions in 2011
• 5 exhibitions in 2010
• 9 exhibitions in 2009
• 4 exhibitions in 2008
• 5 exhibitions in 2007
• 1 exhibition in 2006 and 1 in 2005

Li Tingting's art is a contemporary modern style. Most of her pieces are watercolor, usually majority blue or pink. Her art often features landscapes, still life, and repeated or a "pile" of one object (usually plastic bottles or glasses).