Chen Lan

Chinese writer Chen Lan (pictured) was praised for helping expose a high-profile child sexual abuse case on her personal Sina Weibo account in late August. According to Chen, an anonymous netizen reported the scandal to her, saying she saw a young man hold a little girl at a train station in his lap and put his hand through her dress to fondle her chest. The alleged abuse lasted about five minutes, but nobody intervened. Chen shared the story alongside what appeared to be pictorial evidence. Chen’s online popularity saw the post garner thousands of retweets and drew attention from local police, who quickly located and detained the man. It later emerged the girl was his adopted sister. Chen said she was repeatedly threatened online but did not care. The writer has worked to protect the rights of women and children for a number of years, including by founding the NGO Xiaoxiwang (Little Hope) in 2013. Some of her moves have triggered controversy, like when she tried to establish a monument for a little girl starving to death, but Chen has been praised for pushing China’s society and legislature to take the rights of children and women seriously.