Wang Jing and The Scarlet Website

Several months ago, we heard about a Shandong woman named Wang Jing who created a website denouncing her own father as an adulterer (report in Chinese). On Feb. 5, a local court ruled that the website, which contained writings denouncing Wang's father Wang Zhihua and his alleged mistress Li Cuilian, was "insulting" and ordered that Wang Jing take it down. In August, Li had filed a lawsuit against the younger Wang. The "insulting" verdict is, we think, less serious an offense than libel. However, the court did order the website to be taken down and the younger Wang placed under some kind of supervision (and we don't know what that "supervision" entails), unless the younger Wang decides to file an appeal.

You can find some more information and translations of Chinese media sources here, where it is also suggested that the wife — Wang Zhihua's wife and Wang Jing's mother — might also have been at fault in the situation that led to their separation and divorce. Wang Zhihua claimed, after being seen with Li Cuilian, that the latter was not his mistress, but rather a distant relative. People who knew Wang said that Li, being a plain-looking woman and a peasant, was not exactly what most people would consider mistress material.

Another report (in Chinese) recaps much of what happened. It seems that Li Cuilian is indeed Wang Zhihua's lover — in fact, they were engaged at one point, but eventually called off the wedding. As the situation got worse between her mother and father, Wang Jing could sense that despite her efforts, her parents were going to be divorced, and her family as she knew it was no longer going to exist. She went to Beijing several times to some committee and report on her father's actions. She also decided to create a website which she said would not just serve to denounce her father, but also be a warning to a society that desperately needed "familial anti-corruption."

The website that Wang Jing started was called "My Dad is Worse Than Ximen Qing." In case you're wondering, Ximen Qing is a character from the Ming dynasty Chinese novel "Jin Ping Mei" (金瓶梅), which is often translated as the Golden Lotus and is perhaps the first Chinese novel to contain graphic depictions of sexuality. Ximen Qing is all about sex and money, roughly in that order.

It's not hard for most people to sympathize with Wang Jing on a certain level; divorce is tough on children. However, instead of internalizing her anger, she let it out in a major way: on the website there was a picture of a man hanging by a noose and a cat with a dead mouse in its mouth. She also is reputed to have said to her father that she would ruin his name and reputation, and then poison him with rat poison.

Nevertheless, Wang Zhihua knows that although his marriage is over, he isn't ready to give up on his daughter. The elder Wang says that Li wasn't even really his "mistress" in the sense that it's understood in China—a young woman kept by a rich businessman or official who is still legally married to another woman. Wang said the process of reconciliation would likely take several years, and expressed hope that when his daughter matures, gets married and has her own children, she will understand the whole situation better and that they can slowly get back on more friendly terms.

Photo from news.163.com.