Chai Ling

Chai Ling
Chai Ling (2009)
Born	(1966-04-15) April 15, 1966 Rizhao, Shandong, China
Alma mater	Peking University Beijing Normal University Princeton University (MLA) Harvard Business School (MBA)
Occupation	President & Chief Operating Officer of Jenzabar
Spouse(s)	Feng Congde Robert Maginn

Chai Ling (Chinese: 柴玲; Pinyin: Chái Líng) (born April 15, 1966) was one of the student leaders in the Tian'anmen Square protests of 1989. Today she is Founder of All Girls Allowed, a humanitarian organization working to restore value to girls in China.

Education and protest

She participated in demonstrations asking the government for democratic reforms in 1987, even though she realized that speaking out could have enormous implications. Chai Ling emerged as one of the student leaders on the Square at a later stage of the movement. Chai Ling along with other student leaders such as Wuerkaixi and Wang Dan "led six weeks of protests." The movement was the biggest threat ever to Communist Party rule."^[1]

Chai Ling organized many of the hunger strikes during demonstrations.^[2] She was known as the "general commander" during the student protests and was then listed as one of the 21 most wanted students by the Chinese government after the military crackdown.^[3] Chai Ling is still active in discussing China and the democracy movement as she gives speeches talking about her experience.^[4] According to the Associated Press on June 2, 2009, the eve of the 20th Anniversary of the Chinese government's crack down, Chai Ling issued a statement calling for the release of political prisoners in China.^[5]

Later career

Chai Ling fled from China in April 1990, with the help of Hong Kong-funded organizations. After 10 months of hiding, she settled in Paris, France, where she then accepted a full scholarship to Princeton University. She later received an honorary Masters degree in Political Science from Princeton University. After this, she served as a junior consultant at Bain & Co., a leading strategic consulting firm, during 1993–1996 in its Boston office. Then she moved on to acquire an MBA at Harvard Business School in 1998.^[6]

In 1998, Chai founded an Internet company called Jenzabar. Jenzabar provides ERP software to universities across the United States of America.^[7] She has been President since founding Jenzabar and Chief Operating Officer since 2001.^[8]

In June 2010, Chai Ling started a nonprofit called "All Girls Allowed" with the aim of stopping the human rights violations related to the One-Child Policy.^[9]

In October 2011, Tyndale Publishers released "A Heart for Freedom", a memoir authored by Chai Ling in which she reveals her role in China's struggle for freedom and the Tiananmen Square massacre.^[9]

She has been called to testify before Congress 8 times, most recently on Jun 3, 2013. Her testimony has mainly related to Human Rights Issues in China.^[10]

Faith

Chai Ling became a Christian on December 4, 2009 and was baptized on April 4, 2010 at Park Street Church in Boston.^[11][12]

Chai Ling has since felt a calling to bring Christianity to China. Her conversion has played a central role in her decision to establish a new organisation, 'All Girls Allowed'.^{[9][13][14][15]}

Controversies

Documentary controversy

The Gate of Heavenly Peace documentary contains footage, dated May 28, 1989, in which a quote from Chai appeared to imply that the student leaders were making use of the students' lives and well-being to further their personal careers and financial interests.^[1] However, Chai claims that she was misquoted in that documentary.^[16] In a letter in her defense submitted to the creators of The Gate of Heavenly Peace, a group of students also involved in the 1989 protests in Beijing say that filmmakers and other critics used "selective quotes and interpretive and erroneous translation" in their portrayal of Chai, and that she and the other student leaders remained united right up until the end of the protest when they fled the Square in the last hour.^[17]

Chai and her firm have launched multiple lawsuits against the non-profit organization that created this film. An initial suit, in which Chai alleged defamation, has been dismissed. An additional suit claims that the organization infringed upon Jenzabar's trademark by mentioning the firm's name in the keyword meta tags and title tag for a page about Jenzabar on its website.^[18] Her lawsuits have been criticized by some commentators, including columnists for the Boston Globe and the New Yorker.^{[19][20] [21][22]} In the end, Chai has lost all the lawsuit cases in the Massachusetts appeals court.^[23][24]

"Insufficiently Religious" discrimination lawsuit against Jenzabar, All Girls Allowed and Chai Ling

Jing Zhang and Women's Rights in China sued Jenzabar Inc., The Jenzabar Foundation, All Girls Allowed and their founder and Jing's former employer, Chai Ling. ^[25]

Jing Zhang, is a Chinese activist who once spent five years in a Chinese prison for promoting freedom and democracy. In the United States, Zhang had established her own nonprofit, Women’s Rights in China, when she joined forces with Chai to develop programs to prevent forced abortions in China. Then, she alleges, Chai fired her for being insufficiently religious and for declining to engage in “weekly corporate worship.” ^[26]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chai Ling.

• Jenzabar – Chai Ling's company (official website)
• Garry Emmons: Chai Ling – The meaning of freedom (Harvard Business School)
• All Girls Allowed – Official website