International Women’s Day 2020 in China

Although International Women’s Day has widely been adopted as a day for commercial opportunities in China under the name of 女神节 ‘nvshenjie’ (Goodness’ Day) and 女王节 ‘nvwangjie’ (Queens’ Day), this year, brands put more focus on independent personalities and freedom of the spirit.

Stereotypes towards women are always a global hot topic but many Chinese women are still suffering from gender inequality and lack of freedom. “Women should sacrifice more than men when having a family”, “it is women’s responsibility to get married and have a baby”. In light of the Novel Coronavirus outbreak, women have often bee too often been suffering on the front lines, sacrificing themselves to cure others.

We have picked out our ‘Top Five’ 2020 International Women’s Day campaigns from China that show how brands are celebrating women by helping them to express their hidden desires and aspirations (Click here for last year’s top picks). We’re impressed at how these campaigns were produced so well, considering the whole coutry was in lock-down.

Chinese skincare brand Chando’s International Women’s Day campaign is based on the story of the ancient Chinese fictional character Mulan. The Chinese warrior woman is asked to defend China in the army in order to protect her elderly father and serve the country.  Chando uses Mulan as a metaphor to celebrate all women who have been fighting against the Coronavirus, including female medical staff, construction workers and soldiers. The hashtag topic of “every contemporary Mulan is beautiful” hit 120 million views on Weibo, while the video was watched 9.6 million times.

NEIWAI, a domestic Chinese lingerie brand, called to embrace realistic ranges of body types this year. Their documentary film featured six women with different body shapes and personalities, talking about how they feel about their bodies. Once published, netizens quickly expressed their opinions about this video: “girls’ beauty cannot be defined by other people.” “You should accept yourself and your body.” “There is no such thing as a ‘perfect body’. Everyone is special in her own way.” The successful campaign garnered 139k views on Weibo and 100k reads on WeChat.

It was difficult to produce International Women’s Day videos during the Coronavirus outbreak, but Tantan, a Chinese dating platform, still found a way to promote their campaign on female freedom. Although their simple video only featured words, Tantan’s empowering and galvanizing messages struck a chord with their female audience, reaching 6.5k views on Weibo. Staring from the question of “what is the freedom of women?”, Tantan gives their answers: Women don’t need to be defined by their lifestyle, age, appearance or relationship status. Every woman deserves the opportunity to reach her full potential, with respect and recognition in the workforce, with security and dignity in society.

Apart from the video, Tantan also created special posters called “to wonderful women” to celebrate women from all walks of life, especially for those dedicated females working on the front line of the coronavirus outbreak, including delivery women, police, medical staff and factory workers.

Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, Watsons decided to film their video in Vancouver. By combining statistics, this video places a spotlight on young women’s lifestyles and personalities and also acknowledges the significant role that females play in combatting Coronavirus. 70% of medical staff fighting the virus in China are female. They are brave enough to face this test. Not all girls in the world are the way we expect them to be.

Global apparel brand Levi’s won young Chinese people’s recognition and trust on International Women’s Day this year. Their video features six women with six different types of LEVI’s jeans, asking them to share their own stories through monologues. Levi’s hope to inspire their customers to reflect on their expressions and feel compelled to shape their own world.