PENANG, MALAYSIA — On International Women’s Day, Chi Xiaoyan, the Vice President of ifeng.com, delivered a powerful keynote speech titled “The Power of Women: Harmonious Diversity” at the main forum of the 45th International Advertising Association (IAA) World Congress in Penang, Malaysia.
Addressing hundreds of delegates from over 50 countries, Chi Xiaoyan presented the perspective, insights, and reflections of a global media platform. She championed the values of fairness and openness, embodying Phoenix Media Group‘s human centric essence and its commitment to aligning business growth with social good. Her call to action to integrate the “She” perspective into more scenarios for a world of greater possibilities, deeply resonated with the audience, drawing four rounds of applause and culminating in a standing ovation. Her speech became one of the most notable Chinese voices advocating women’s empowerment on the global stage during International Women’s Day 2024.
While Chinese women achieved empowerment relatively early and express their spirit in highly diverse ways, gender bias remains a global challenge, especially in underdeveloped regions. These visible and invisible barriers make the journey toward female empowerment a long one. Enabling the world to clearly perceive, empower, value, and support women has increasingly become a global consensus.
A leading global Chinese-language new media platform, ifeng.com (Phoenix New Media) has long dedicated itself to this cause. For over two decades, the platform has amplified women’s voices and stories, inspiring countless women to pursue their dreams and self-actualization, and shedding light on overlooked corners of society. Coinciding with International Women’s Day at the IAA World Congress, Chi Xiaoyan issued a powerful call to global advertising professionals: “Let there be a ‘She’ perspective in more scenarios, and let the future world hold more possibilities.”
The following is the full text of the speech, “The Power of Women: Harmonious Diversity”:
Dear friends:
Good morning!
This is my second time visiting Penang, and I could not wait to go and taste the street food. Among them is Nyonya cuisine, which I particularly like; it feels both familiar and delightfully new. When a Chinese man married a Malaysian woman, the girl born to them was called “Nyonya.” Obviously, this is a fusion dish. Walking on the streets, I see people of different skin tones, different ethnic groups, and different beliefs living together in harmony, forming the unique charm of this city. Many people come here drawn by this very uniqueness, which once again deepens my understanding of the theme of today’s event: “Inclusivity Transcends Diversity.”
The theme of my speech today is “The Power of Women: Harmonious Diversity”.
“Harmonious Diversity” originally comes from the Analects of Confucius, a Chinese classic written about 2,500 years ago. This coincides with some statements in the first four verses of Chapter 2 of Philippians in the Bible. It is also connected to today’s topic: “Harmony” means advocating for inclusion, and “Diversity” means seeking variety. Whether in ancient or modern times, in China or abroad, sages saw thousands of years ago that only by respecting differences and diversity can a society coexist harmoniously. It is precisely because there is the “diversity” of each displaying its own beauty that we can have the “harmony” of sharing beauty together, and have a vibrant and creative contemporary society.
It is a great honor to deliver a speech today here in Penang, once known as P Prince of Wales Island (Binlangyu). In 1856, Mr. Gu Hongming was born here; he is also an alumnus of my respected mentor at Peking University. In his 1915 book The Spirit of the Chinese People, he used an entire chapter to praise the excellent virtues of Chinese women, even though his thoughts at that time were still very traditional, or even conservative. Dr. Sun Yat-sen also visited here five times and received help from countless overseas Chinese compatriots in Southeast Asia as he traveled and appealed for the future and destiny of the country. In 1912, he issued the “Presidential Decree Mandating the Ministry of Interior to Instruct All Provinces to Advise and Ban Foot-Binding,” which meant that from then on, Chinese women no longer needed to wrap their feet tightly with cloth to grow into deformed small feet. From that point, Chinese women began to gradually break free from feudal shackles and embarked on the road of self-reliance. After a hundred years, Chinese women have journeyed from arduous beginnings into a thriving and flourishing new era.
In today’s China, the scale of the female population is gradually expanding, with female internet users numbering as many as 600 million. In today’s China, the national female employed population reaches as many as 320 million, accounting for 43%. In today’s China, the “She” economy and female consumption capacity cannot be underestimated. Women’s disposable income is increasing year by year, narrowing the gap with men, and forming an incremental market worth tens of trillions of Chinese Yuan. The vast majority of them possess full consumption autonomy and hold the decision-making power for household consumption. It can be said with pride that today’s Chinese women, already “hold up half the sky” in certain fields.
However, looking at the world, this path of female growth remains long, and the current situation is still not optimistic. Taking employment alone as an example, several United Nations departments announced in 2023 that in the global labor market, women account for less than 1/3 of managers. The phenomenon of unequal pay for equal work remains severe; under equal conditions, women’s remuneration is even only half of that of men. These are visible challenges, but the longer road lies within everyone’s heart and by everyone’s side.
For instance, I noticed that many female friends sitting here today are wearing shawls; I estimate it still feels a bit cold, because I feel cold too, even though my heart feels very warm at this moment. But I believe our male friends here should feel very comfortable. People might say, isn’t this very normal? Women are more afraid of the cold than men. That’s right! But has everyone ever thought about why the temperature in all offices and shopping malls is set to make men feel comfortable and women feel cold? Rather than making women feel comfortable and men feel hot? Everyone probably doesn’t have time to think about this question seriously because everyone has long been used to it, but the reason behind it is worth noting. Modern offices have an internationally common calculation formula for temperature. This formula was formulated in the 1960s, and the data engineers referred to at that time were the physiological indicators of men—more precisely, the indicators of an average 40-year-old man. However, the metabolic rate of women in the office is about 35% lower than the male standard value, which means that if women were used as the standard, the current office temperature should be raised by 5 degrees Celsius.
Regarding this issue, everyone might think I am being a bit too pedantic. Then let’s look at a slightly more “life-threatening” example. Nowadays, more and more women are driving. Compared to men, women have a 47% higher probability of being seriously injured in a car accident, a 71% higher probability of being lightly injured than men, and a 17% higher probability of death. These three sets of data make us feel very uncomfortable, right? The underlying reason behind this is almost identical to the temperature standard mentioned above. In the automotive design process, the crash test dummies used for collision tests adopted data from male bodies. Such dummies were used until 2011, when engineers finally realized they needed a female dummy for testing. But up until now, most manufacturers use nothing more than a scaled-down version of a male dummy, without making more precise designs based on the physical structure of women. Of course, the good news is that cars specifically designed for women are already under development. Such problems actually permeate various fields, such as drug research and development, smartphone design, and so on. Even in the artistic field that women are passionate about, the size of the piano is determined for men, leading to 78% of female pianists suffering from repetitive strain injuries. Problems are everywhere and many are unknown; for women, many heartbreaks cannot be expressed one by one.
How do we bring these long-ignored issues into the public view and bring about change? How do we let the world feel female power more clearly?
This is a road that countless people have tried and many have given up on, but it is a road worth opening up. The good news is that when we communicate with society with these questions, no one wants to stop change from happening. Most men express that this is just a blind spot in everyone’s awareness—we didn’t know, and we overlooked these issues. Exactly. So the challenge we face now is: How do we get the whole society to work together to jointly advance these cumulative gender issues, so that the problems can be solved step by step?
As a media platform, first of all, we want to allow them to express themselves, to let the world hear their demands and perceive their value. On social media, people often see ridicule directed at female pilots and female drivers; in the process of women’s growth, they still encounter various forms of skepticism. But in reality, they can also go up to the sky and down into the sea; they can become excellent astronauts, pilots, and captains. They can hustle in the business world, remain faithful and sincere, and win global renown, becoming outstanding entrepreneurs who do not yield to men. They are practitioners of the Olympic spirit of faster, higher, and stronger. They emit light and heat in various fields such as culture, public welfare, art, education, healthcare, and technology, and have even made outstanding contributions with unique female advantages. They are also moving forward carrying lanterns, never ceasing their actions. Over the past 20-plus years, ifeng has enabled more people to hear their expressions and their stories, inspiring more women to achieve their dreams and realize their self-worth.
At the same time, we want to allow them to communicate, to let more women tell more unknown but noteworthy stories, and to illuminate these unknown corners with actions. Here, there are their suggestions and proposals for caring for young girls; here, there are the generous and tragic songs of women in wars; here, there are the calls and cries of female public welfare figures. They have the courage to speak out, focusing on corners of this society that have never been noticed from a female perspective, and illuminating these corners with actions. Here, they have the courage to progress, and they also have the composure to converse freely, contributing reflections, suggestions, and actions from a female perspective to this society.
Many social issues, if they can be combined with commerce, can often advance the sustainable resolution of problems more effectively. We co-create with many partners to gain insight into women’s demands, open up new paths, and expand new business opportunities, aligning business with goodness and moving forward with both commerce and benevolence, so that this cause can develop sustainably. After years of co-creation with multiple brands, we have gained win-win experiences, which not only help women better realize their value but also assist brands in achieving commercial success. Female marketing has become a marketing topic that more and more enterprises attach importance to, and excellent cases emerge one after another. We firmly believe that those who work with heart walk together, and those who walk together win together.
The bit-by-bit efforts over these years have achieved some results. More and more women are expressing and communicating, and more and more people across the entire society are taking action. Next month, we will host the Third Women’s Influence Gala in Shanghai, China. We invite everyone to follow and participate, and we look forward to working with you to let the world see female power.
Standing here today, standing on Prince of Wales Island (Binlangyu), recalling the opening of the Maritime Silk Road, which allowed a Chinese female ethnic group famous for “Nyonya” to take root here. Their diligence, bravery, and kindness catalyzed the inclusion, innovation, and openness of this land. Their stories are passed down to this day, and they also witness the harmonious diversity, integration, and symbiosis of Chinese and foreign cultures.
Thank you to the organizers for setting up such a topic. More stories of women with harmonious diversity require you and me to work together, to let there be a “She” perspective in more future scenarios, and to let the future world hold more possibilities.
Thank you, everyone.
