A pattern of dismissal and retaliation: the experiences of Zixin Z. and the Chinese volunteers
We value infinite diversity in infinite combinations. We value all fans engaged in transformative work: fans of any race, gender, culture, sexual identity, or ability. We value the unhindered cross-pollination and exchange of fannish ideas and cultures while seeking to avoid the homogenization or centralization of fandom. -The Organization for Transformative Works, Our Values
The OTW and its volunteer team started off as “mostly white, middle class, middle aged, [American] coastal ladies,” but over time it has grown into an international community spanning across several countries and cultures. Serving a multi-cultural, multi-national community inevitably comes with its own challenges, such as accounting for different community needs and norms and recognizing the varying risk levels associated with volunteer participation.
The experiences of Chinese volunteers at the OTW, including 2023 board candidate Zixin Z., exemplify how the OTW has fallen short. The Chinese volunteers at the OTW have been continually ignored, dismissed, mocked, or threatened for voicing concerns when OTW activities stumble into sensitive political, cultural, or legal issues. They have also faced retaliation for speaking up against the racist behavior of OTW leadership.
We believe that OTW can find a way to handle these conflicts equitably, rather than dismissing or retaliating against volunteers who raise concerns. We’ve provided an overview as well as analysis under the cut.
First and foremost, we’d like to thank all of our fellow fans who have been compiling and sharing information: synonymous on dreamwidth, @221loislane, various nonnies on fail_fandomanon (FFA), Kutti, azarias, and many others. We would also like to commend Zixin, Kutti, azarias, and other volunteers for documenting the racism and abuse they have experienced at the hands of OTW leadership. For consistency, we will be linking primarily to synonymous and Kutti’s dreamwidth accounts. We are not affiliated with synonymous, Kutti, 221loislane, or azarias. We are also not affiliated with other fandom anti-racism campaigns.
Threats to expose Chinese volunteers to legal jeopardy
Recently, an OTW Board Election question directed at Zixin contained an unsubstantiated accusation that she had committed a crime, potentially placing her in legal jeopardy in her home country. This accusation is emblematic of the kind of situation that the organization must learn to navigate better.
In one country, this accusation is at worst in poor taste—just some typical Internet mud-slinging. But in Zixin’s situation, the accusation amounts to an allegation that she committed a crime that can, and has, resulted in real-world harassment, arrest, imprisonment, and disappearances within and outside of mainland China.
We encourage everyone to read through Zixin’s eloquent response, and we would like to thank Zixin for sharing it and Kutti for platforming it. We have chosen not to reproduce the text of the question here given its sensitive nature: Controversy surrounding a targeted question during a candidate Q&A, "The redacted question"
Additionally, on July 29, 2023, azarias reported that this was not the first time Chinese volunteers had been placed in legal jeopardy by OTW leadership. We have chosen to reproduce her full post from FFA here, which can also be found on synonymous' dreamwidth post:
This is Azarias. I'm signing so that this story can be fact-checked. What happened with Zixin this week is the SECOND time I know of a volunteer trying or threatening to get mainland Chinese volunteers arrested and the Org responding with "Meh." Several years ago, there was a PAC volunteer who lived outside of China. They spoke Chinese as a first language themself, but did not like mainlanders. Being on PAC, they had access to AO3 user records in addition to all the info on volunteers anyone with Slack access can get. By design, the OTW doesn't collect much information on users or volunteers, but there's still more information than you want an authoritarian government to have. Another volunteer who spoke Chinese looked at their Twitter and saw that they were complaining about mainlanders in the OTW and "joking" about how they should let the CCP know about what those folks were doing. They also used ethnic slurs to describe mainlanders. The volunteer who saw this let another East Asian volunteer know (sorry I'm being vague here but I don't want to drag people into this without permission) and reported the tweets to OTW leadership. They were told someone would look into it but the process is really long and difficult so be patient. Weeks later this was still going on. The two volunteers who had reported this happened to mention it to me. I was alarmed, so I DMed some Org leaders on Slack and made my own report, reiterating what the original reporters had said. Within 24 hours of a complaint from me, a white woman, this person was fired from the OTW. After weeks of the East Asian volunteers' identical complaints not being addressed. I don't even read Chinese, y'all. I had to use Google translate to get the gist and ask a literate person what the idioms meant. The first complaint was made by someone who could read exactly what was happening, but the Org didn't consider it important when they said it. /azarias
In essence:
A Chinese-speaking volunteer on the Policy and Abuse Committee, who was not in the mainland and who had access to volunteer information, “jokingly” threatened to report mainland Chinese volunteers to the Chinese authorities.
When mainland Chinese volunteers reported this to OTW leadership, they were told that it would take a long time to be resolved.
OTW leadership only took action when azarias, a white, English-speaking volunteer, drew additional attention to the issue.
Chinese authorities have previously arrested and imprisoned fans in mainland China for writing so-called “pornographic” male/male stories, both fanfiction and original. In 2014, more than 20 female college-aged fanfiction authors in China were jailed for writing male/male fanfiction on a popular fanfiction archive called Danmei Xiaoshuo Wang (Danmei Fiction Website). In 2018, popular author Tianyi was arrested and sentenced to ten years in jail for “producing and selling pornography” featuring erotic relationships between two male characters. Recently, members of Chinese fanfiction communities have also begun to report each other to the authorities due to interpersonal feuds.
Ultimately, the OTW leadership responded appropriately to these Twitter threats. But it should not have taken weeks of inaction and the proactive involvement of a third party to get to that point. Whether through “joking” threats or explicit accusations, putting people in real, physical danger is clearly unacceptable behavior in the community. It is especially inappropriate behavior for individuals working for and representing the organization.
Tai-gi (Taiwanese) and Cantonese language tags
A quick rundown of events, originally compiled by synonymous from a series of FFA comments (synonymous post, “Dismissal of Chinese volunteers regarding their concerns of an additional language tag during Weibo recruitment”):
In March 2020, the Archive of Our Own (AO3) was banned in mainland China. However, Chinese OTW volunteers continued to maintain the OTW Communications account on Weibo, one of the biggest social media platforms in China.
In August 2020, the OTW began to recruit for Chinese language tag wranglers on Weibo. The OTW also added Cantonese and Tai-gi (also known as Taiwanese) as language tags on AO3 without consulting the Chinese-speaking volunteers
Approximately a week before the launch of the language tags, OTW leadership (individuals unspecified) told the Chinese volunteers moderating the Weibo account to announce that works could be re-tagged with Tai-gi and/or Cantonese.
When the Chinese volunteers moderating the Weibo account pushed back against the mandate due to security concerns, then-board-elect Alex Tischer, who subsequently served as OTW Board Director from 2020-2023, told the volunteers to prioritize personal safety concerns and consider leaving the organization.
There is an enormous difference between an individual assessing their personal risk and choosing to volunteer for the OTW, and organization leadership mandating that volunteers put themselves at risk for an initiative for which they were not consulted.
Our most charitable reading is that the directive to promote Tai-gi and Cantonese tags was a well-intentioned but ill-conceived initiative to encourage community engagement. Unfortunately, it also crossed real-world political lines with potentially serious consequences.
In June 2020—two months before the directive regarding the Weibo post—the Hong Kong National Security Law went into effect, criminalizing secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign governments, along with any open speech, verbal promotion or intention of Hong Kong's secession from China. Article 38 of the law also asserts extraterritorial jurisdiction, meaning the law can apply to anyone in the world, even individuals living outside of Hong Kong and/or individuals of different nationalities. In this context, promotion of a Cantonese language tag could be interpreted as support of Hong Kong independence, especially given ongoing tensions between the role of Cantonese vs. Mandarin in Hong Kong.
Similar to the Hong Kong National Security Law, mainland China also has its own National Security Law which was passed in July 2015. It declares cyberspace as part of China’s national security interest, and its vague and all-encompassing language does not define specific actions that would be considered a violation of state security, Per Article 15:
The state shall: “prevent, frustrate, and legally punish any conduct that betrays the country, splits the country, incites rebellion, subverts or incites the subversion of the people's democratic dictatorship; prevent, frustrate, and legally punish any conduct that compromises national security such as stealing and divulging state secrets; and prevent, frustrate, and legally punish any penetration, destruction, subversion, and secession activities of overseas forces.”
Tensions between the Republic of China (located in Taiwan) and the People’s Republic of China (located in mainland China) have existed for over 70 years. The Beijing government considers Taiwan a breakaway province, while Taiwan considers itself a distinct entity from China with a democratically elected government. Promotion of a Tai-gi (Taiwanese) tag could be considered several different violations of national security, thus putting the Chinese volunteers moderating the Weibo account and the OTW itself at risk on multiple levels.
As an aside, Weibo is a social media platform used in mainland China. It is not a Taiwanese or Hong Kong platform. The most popular social media platform in Taiwan, where Tai-gi would be used, is Facebook. This further highlights the failings of OTW leadership to recognize the complex geopolitical tensions inherent in this decision.
Once again, we would like to direct everyone to Zixin’s response (synonymous post, “The redacted question”) for her personal account of this incident.
Weibo account shutdown
The proposed shutdown of the OTW Communications Weibo account is another example of dismissing Chinese volunteer concerns.
In May 2023, the OTW Board and Communications Committee chairs told volunteers that the Weibo account would be shut down in 30 days—once again, without consultation of any of the Chinese volunteers.
Reportedly, the Board and Comms chairs had been planning to shut down the Weibo for years. They cited “excessive workload for the mods” as justification for the shutdown, when in fact the mods of the Weibo account had not been consulted.
The Board stated that they would meet with the Comms chairs to discuss the shutdown before it went into effect. Chinese volunteers, including the Weibo mods, were not invited to the meeting.
To express their frustration with this incident as well as past mistreatment, Chinese volunteers began posting messages in Chinese in the internal OTW chat program.
Then-board member Alex Tischer posted the following message in German:
Wir können uns gegenseitig alle möglichen Dinge an den Kopf werfen aber wenn wir uns nicht auf eine Lingua Franca einigen erreichen wir nicht viel. [Translation: We can throw all sorts of things at each other, but if we don't agree on a lingua franca, we won't achieve much.]
The Board apologized for Alex’s response: "We also want to apologize for the dismissive and inappropriate behavior of Board director Alex, who replied in German to your comments with the intention of making herself harder to understand. The Board absolutely does not condone this behavior in any way, and we are ashamed that this has taken place.”
However, the Board did not apologize for misrepresenting the Weibo moderators’ workload and implying that it was the moderators’ fault that the Weibo account was going to be shut down.
Alex herself did not apologize, and in fact doubled down on her response while she was still a Board member.
The OTW Comms Weibo ultimately did not get shut down.
Initiatives such as the Weibo account shutdown and the Tai-gi and Cantonese language tags are initiatives that would have directly impacted the Chinese fandom community. The Chinese volunteers at OTW are in a unique position to understand the geopolitical, social, and cultural implications of such actions and the effects it might have—both on their individual well-beings and the OTW’s standing on the platform. Additionally, these volunteers are also subject to laws that could generate serious real-world consequences.
However, rather than listening to the people in the trenches who would have provided on-the-ground insight, OTW leadership gave the volunteers ultimatums. In the case of the Tai-gi and Cantonese language tags, it was: Break the law and put yourselves in danger, or leave the organization. In the case of the Weibo account shutdown, it was: Do what we tell you and take the blame, or suffer racist mockery from a Board member.
When a volunteer tries to tell the organization about circumstances unique to their country or culture, the organization needs to be equipped to understand and act upon that information. Heedlessly ignoring, dismissing, or mocking the feedback from Chinese volunteers did not serve the best interests of the community, the volunteers, or the organization; it simply perpetuated a pattern of racist behavior that appears to be deeply engrained in the OTW.
Excuses for disciplinary action
The same election question asker(s) mentioned previously accused Zixin of sharing Weibo user conversations in a Chinese language channel in the internal OTW chat program. Zixin answered in the OTW Elections discord, and the text was later compiled on FFA and then by synonymous: Controversy surrounding a targeted question during a candidate Q&A.
At the time of this incident, Zixin was one of the moderators of the OTW Comms Weibo account. Zixin clarified that these conversations were public comments on the OTW Comms Weibo account, which could be viewed by anyone with a link to the post, with or without a Weibo account. The Communications Committee chairs at that time talked to Zixin and her Weibo co-mod after another volunteer brought up concerns about this, and she proceeded to deleted all public comments and reposts.
We, at Fandom Antiracism, would like to emphasize the definition of public:
Merriam-Webster Dictionary Est. 1828 Definition | public | adjective pub·lic ˈpə-blik 1 a: exposed to general view : open b: well-known, prominent c: perceptible, material
We have also verified that the OTW Comms Weibo account is indeed public.
We believe this speaks for itself. We would also like to direct everyone to read the full text of Zixin’s gracious response: Controversy surrounding a targeted question during a candidate Q&A
As another example, we would like to link to Kutti’s post about the disciplinary action that she received, which also contained unsubstantiated allegations as well as tone policing. Kutti is another volunteer of color who has been documenting the racist mistreatment she has experienced at the OTW. We would like to express our gratitude to Kutti for sharing this as a further example of racism within the OTW: Copy of CCAP sent to me by OTW Chairs, and My Response to It
We are hard-pressed to see the disciplinary actions carried out against Zixin and Kutti as anything other than trivial excuses to perpetuate racism within the OTW.
Conclusion
As we stated in our introductory post, we are long-time OTW members who believe the OTW can and should reform. We also support the following: anti-censorship, anti-harassment, and anti-racism. We are not seeking to take down the OTW. We want it to succeed.
The upcoming Board election has made us optimistic that the racism presented here has a chance of being addressed. However, we would like to call on the current OTW leadership to acknowledge its pattern of dismissal and retaliation against volunteers when they attempt, in good faith, to help the OTW serve fans everywhere across the world. Ignoring or attacking volunteers who raise legitimate cultural or legal concerns represents an abject failure by the OTW to uphold the values it purports.
If the OTW seeks to fulfill its mission and live up to its own values, it needs to adapt its organizational structure, policies, and leadership so that it can navigate the political and cultural realities of its international fanbase. We remain hopeful that it will.
Reblogs are welcome and encouraged.