Chinese Tech Giant Made Its Female Staffs Perform Simulated Oral Sex On Male Colleagues
What were they thinking?
By Sadho Ram — 15 Jan 2017, 04:50 PM
Tencent, the largest Internet company in Asia, organised a humiliating sexually suggestive game at a division's annual party
The game featured female staffs of the company on their knees, attempting to remove caps from water bottles placed between their male coworkers' thighs.
The sexually suggestive game was a simulation of oral sex being performed on stage.
The party was at the instant messaging department of Tencent, which is known for its messaging service WeChat. The company is now facing a major PR crisis after a video was leaked online.
The leaked video, which is just 7 seconds long, was shot by one of the attendees at the party held by the company's instant messaging department before the annual Chinese New Year (CNY) break.
In the video, as the two female staffs are seen trying to use their mouth on bottles placed between the legs of their male colleagues, coworkers in the audience can be heard cheering them on.
Tencent has now apologised for the sexist game at its annual party
In the statement, the company said that they have "lapsed in our oversight of the party games, and have caused much inconvenience" and have announced "demerit points" for the employees involved. It's not clear there will be any real punishment, though.
"We apologise sincerely to our employees, their relatives, and the public for this incident that has resulted in hurt feelings and has had a negative social impact," the statement said, adding, "Although the annual meeting was an internal entertainment event, it must adhere to the values of the company and of society."
But the damage has been done. Users on Weibo —which is owned by Tencent — expressed their disgust with the company's behaviour.
According to Shanghaiist, one user asked, "How could a company treat its workers in this way? Do they not have any sense of decency?"
One answer to that question, as Gizmodo reported, could have to do with the fact that Tencent doesn't have a single female executive, board member or division chief.
Sexism is rampant in China's tech companies, even among companies considered the most progressive. For example, Alibaba.
Back in 2015, Alibaba was forced to withdraw a job advertisement for female candidates with porn-star qualities to be office "cheerleaders for programmers".
Then in 2016, a senior Baidu executive gave an incredibly sexist presentation.
In the presentation, he told the audience, "If a girl says to me, 'The air conditioning in my dorm doesn't work, and I don't want to go home,' what does she mean? I think it means she wants to kiss and have some sex."
While China's tech community is beginning to win praise for abolishing sexism, the incident at Tencent confirms the community is still not doing enough. In fact, just last week, an early stage venture capitalist firm, in a public presentation in Beijing, said: "Rule number 10: we usually don't invest in female CEOs"