New goal for gender equality

"As a man, my thoughts don't matter," he says, adding that it is important to let the women's voices be heard, and in the meantime he'd reflect on his male privilege.

A reader named Sha on the social media platform Xiaohongshu posts that she feels really touched to see a so-called "male feminist" and hopes there will be more.

"On our journey toward gender equality, men should not be excluded. And achieving the goal needs men as our powerful ally," she writes.

Cui was born in Yichun, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, and felt the gender inequality at home, with all household chores performed by his mother and grandmother, while men held higher status in the family.

"I was raised by my mother and grandmother, who are kind and resilient, while my stepfather, in my mind, is a negative character, a role I always wanted to fight against," he says, adding that his childhood experience makes him feel more secure around women.

Observing his female friends, he finds that these women do the laundry, cook and take care of the children at home every day, taking on even more work without getting paid or sufficient respect from their husbands.

"They are obedient, silent and frugal, and try their best to be good mothers, good wives, good daughters and good daughters-in-law but always forgetting to be themselves," Cui says.

This led him to the question that has troubled him for a long time: "Why they are so great but have such low self-esteem? Meanwhile, many men are ordinary but confident."

Cui graduated from Renmin University of China in Beijing with a degree in psychology in 2015. He became a movie critic for three years, and then a scriptwriter and theater marketer.