China’s city elites wake up to scale of trafficking after chained woman shows human side of age-old crime

This is the first in a series of stories about gender equality in China to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8. Here, Phoebe Zhang looks at how the case of one trafficked woman led to unprecedented public attention and calls for action in China.

“Is she China’s mother? Is she China’s reproductive organ? The bloody leash she wears around her neck is ringed with your coldness. The chains she wears are the shackles on your soul. On this mystical land, she is multitudes,” reads the poem Heavy Moments by Yang Jingrong.