LOS ANGELES—Filmmaker Nanfu Wang, based in New York City, filmed her first feature documentary in China on a trip to visit a provocative women’s rights activist nicknamed “Hooligan Sparrow.” She said that during that summer trip she was deeply shocked by the events she witnessed in her home country.
“All I wanted to do at the moment was I wanted to document it,” she said. “I wanted to show the world. I wanted people to see it.”
The film is named after “Hooligan Sparrow,” whose real name is Ye Haiyan. In the film, Ye leads a group of activists and lawyers in protest of the rape of six girls aged 11 to 14 in Hainan Province, where they were taken to a hotel by their principal and a government official. The girls were missing for nearly 24 hours and were paid the equivalent of US$2,000 after the incident.
Wang interviewed parents of the children in the film, who explained to her exactly what happened. But when lawyers sought to represent the parents, they refused, saying they were warned by officials not to go to court.
Powerful sexual offenders in China often avoid lengthy jail sentences by arguing that they paid the victims money and were merely involved in child prostitution, explained Wang. “Sparrow” and other activists wanted to draw attention to this case to help people understand that such actions should clearly constitute sexual abuse and rape.
At the protest, human rights lawyer Wang Yu handed out copies of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which China is bound to follow, to families in front of the Wanning No. 2 Elementary School. The CRC is the most ratified of all UN treaties and is considered the most complete guide for the protection of children under the age of 18.
