The vulnerable majority

Hou Hongbin, senior editor at the Southern Urban Daily, said: "Suppressing women by belittling them is quite common, yet a more effective way to achieve this end is by praising female loyalty, chasteness, endurance and sacrifice to the family, and to deem submissiveness as their virtue."

Changes are really taking place, in thinking and in the actions of the Chinese women.

Domestic violence, once thought to be a skeleton hidden in the closet and sidelined as a private matter, for example, has been brought out into the open bit by bit by women in the last decade.

More and more victims of sexual assault, especially those on campus, are coming out of hiding and efforts are being made to end such crimes.

"We have to fight for our own rights," Xiao Meili, a 25-year-old feminist said. She once wore a wedding dress tainted with blood to call attention to violence between lovers and couples, and took nude photos of herself to urge anti-domestic violence laws. She shaved her head to protest against higher university admission scores for female students. She also participated in an "occupy men’s rooms" activity with her friends to lobby for more public toilets for women.

In 2013, Xiao, together with her friends at BCome, a Beijng-based feminist drama association, took a hike from Beijing to Guangzhou to promulgate feminist ideas.

They traveled to over 20 cities or counties, held more than 10 lectures and wrote to local governments to apply for disclosure of measures taken on the prevention of sexual assaults and similar crimes.

Their efforts have not gone unanswered.

The Chinese Department of Building and Housing, for example, has vowed in response to build on a 1.5:1 pro-rata basis respectively, for female and male toilets, in buildings since November 2014.

The first national anti-domestic violence law was drafted and issued for public outreach on Nov 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.