The vulnerable majority

Chinese scholar Zhou Guoping, known for his studies and translated works of Nietzsche, tactfully apologized for his microblog post after backlash by Chinese women labeling him a hopeless chauvinist. [Photo/IC]

Chinese scholar Zhou Guoping, known for his studies and translated works of Nietzsche, tactfully apologized for his microblog post after backlash by Chinese women labeling him a hopeless chauvinist.

"I admit that I am a straight man, but I’m not a helpless chauvinist," Zhou Guoping, a well-known Chinese scholar and writer, said on his microblog last Monday. A week ago, his post saying "women have but one ambition", and that "to love and to give birth to babies is the most important thing in their lives" was criticized by thousands of angry netizens.

Adding fuel to the flames are his other claims, such as, "no matter how talented, how accomplished a woman is, if she cannot be a gentle lover, wife or mother, I would think less of her in terms of beauty."

Most of the criticism came from women, who argue that Zhou is a helpless chauvinist, or in Chinese, 直男癌 zhinan’ai.

Zhou said he did not create this post to intentionally irritate the public. Actually, the claims were excerpts from his article, Contemporary: Misunderstandings of Feminine Charm, that published in the magazine Chinese Women in 1991.

It seems hard for him to digest the fact that after 24 years, these claims, once acknowledged by males and females alike, have lost their original appeal.

Yet more unexpected for him is that, within a day, he had became the target of criticism.