Opinion | Rape victims, imperfect or not, are not to blame

Within three months, Cheng, a married man, promotes Zhao from a trainee to the position of senior assistant, multiplies her salary and showers her with gifts worth 880,000 yuan (US$122,170). She makes little attempt to stop him. Then one rainy night, the police turn up at the company’s apartment suite, having received an anonymous tip-off about rape. Zhao, traumatised and confused, denies she has been violated. Five days later, she files a lawsuit against him.

The popular and high-quality drama led to a heated discussion among the audience about the nature of sexual harassment, gender inequality, the unbalanced power play in the office and, interestingly, who is really the victim.

Many viewers disliked Zhao, accusing her of being weak, vain and greedy. One said the character was someone “who wants to be a mistress but also wants a chastity arch” – a memorial used to mark a woman’s extraordinary chastity in feudal times. Some said Zhao had hardly said “no” throughout the drama. “A girl, no matter how naive and stupid, knows how to say no. So, Zhao Xun is just a cunning woman who wants to have things without putting in the effort,” one said. Some – mostly male, I imagine – even claimed the president was the real victim.

In the show’s opening scene, Zhao, wrapped in a white towel, is curled up in a bathtub, crying while it rains outside and her boss sleeps in the bedroom. Her pained expression tells me clearly that she felt violated.

Even if she did not fight back when he forced himself upon her, her silence did not mean she was willing. As long as a person does not give consent for the sexual intercourse, it is rape. It is obvious to me that she didn’t. Before entering the bedroom, it’s clear she wants to leave but he picks her up and takes her to bed. It’s clear to me that he committed sexual violence, a crime.