The troll who shamed Yang Liping for childlessness condemns online abuse after controversy

The woman who stirred up an internet controversy with her highly offensive comment about internationally acclaimed Chinese dancer and choreographer Yáng Lìpíng 杨丽萍 having no children now claims that Yang is her “favorite celebrity” after receiving what she called “a torrent of vicious messages online.”

On June 6, in response to a video shared by Yang, who is now 61 and has no kids, the woman wrote a comment saying Liu failed as a woman because she wouldn’t be able to “experience the joy of having a full room of children and grandchildren” when she turns 90. “A woman’s biggest failure is having no children. You are lying to yourself if you feel good about just living for yourself,” she wrote.

In a video (in Chinese) posted on Douyin (TikTok’s Chinese sister app) on June 8, the woman, who used the name “龙宝宝女装” (lóng bǎobǎo nǚzhuāng) on the platform, nows says that she is a huge fan of the dance legend and had no intention of hurting Yang’s feelings while making the controversial remarks. “I’m not good with words. I don’t know how to express myself. After all, I’m in no position to judge,” she said while slapping her own hand as a way to show her remorse.

The clip then took an unexpected turn as the woman went on a rant about the backlash she faced in the past few days. “Do you people have nothing else to do? The messages I received were really harsh and atrocious,” she stated.

At no point during the video did the woman explicitly apologize to Yang for what she said and address criticism about her opinions.

Over the weekend, the woman’s comment initially attracted hundreds of thousands of likes on Douyin. But then, negative reactions to it rapidly spread across several social media sites, including Weibo, with people slamming the woman for perpetuating a deep-seated social bias against child-free women. “Yang chose not to have kids but she introduced the beauty of dance to the whole world. The troll had children but she will be nothing when she gets old!” a Weibo user commented (in Chinese).

The controversy was further amplified when a few famous actresses spoke out strongly against the idea that in spite of their professional accomplishments, child-free women are less personally fulfilled than those with kids.

Judging from a screenshot shared by the woman, her Douyin and Weibo messages were flooded with critics using crude language to blast her for being “ignorant” and “misogynist.” “You stupid sow. You have no use but to procreate,” one Douyin user messaged her. “We’ll dox you and release your personal information,” another one threatened.

Unsurprisingly, the woman’s combative response achieved nothing but more online hate directed at her. “Apparently, she didn’t think she was engaging in some abusive activities when she wrote that nasty comment about Yang,” a Weibo user wrote (in Chinese). Meanwhile, some people called for others to stop giving the woman the attention she wanted.