'Oscar Winner' Liang Zichong: "Please Redirect Attention on Me to Women's Issues"

NYT Op-Ed... Mention of 'Women' Even in Acceptance Speech

Malaysian actress Liang Ziqiong (Yang Ziqiong), the first East Asian to win the Academy (Oscar) Award for Best Actress, appealed for countries around the world to pay attention to social issues such as inequality and discrimination against women occurring globally. As a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), she also mentioned children and women in her acceptance speech.

Malaysian actor Liang Zichong [Photo by Reuters]

On the 13th (local time), Liang Ziqiong published an op-ed in The New York Times (NYT) titled "The tragedies that changed my life eight years ago are still happening." She began the article by saying, "While I am grateful to have experienced unforgettable moments related to my work, I want to redirect the global attention on me to other issues."

The issue Liang Ziqiong referred to was the 2015 Nepal earthquake disaster that claimed the lives of over 8,000 people. At the time, she was on a visit to Nepal and said she felt tremendous fear during the earthquake. She hurriedly evacuated to the airport but felt a sense of "injustice" as she saw people whose homes had been reduced to ruins. She returned to Nepal three weeks later carrying relief supplies and visited again the following year as a UNDP goodwill ambassador.

Liang Ziqiong said the recent earthquake in Turkey revived memories of Nepal, stating, "I witnessed how large-scale disasters deliver an even greater shock to people who originally had very little." She pointed out that after disasters, marginalized groups such as low-income people and women are the last to receive external aid. She argued, "Girls are the last to return to school, and women are the last to receive clean water, medicine, as well as job and loan support."

She also introduced the sharp increase in the risk of sexual violence against women after disasters. Liang Ziqiong emphasized that a fundamental solution requires the activation of women's participation at all levels, including local communities, domestic politics, and international politics. The logic is that only when women actively raise their voices from the discussion stage can policies that resolve gender inequality be established.

Along with this, Liang Ziqiong urged measures to prevent social disparities from deepening due to inequality even as IT technology advances. She said, "Compared to the experiences of heroic women working on the front lines of various disaster sites, my experience is nothing," and stressed, "I want to take this opportunity to draw social attention to women who devote themselves in communities and families but have not been properly recognized."

Liang Ziqiong concluded her op-ed by saying, "Please be mindful not to exclude women from the policy-making processes that most affect women."

Earlier that day, Liang Ziqiong won the Best Actress award at the American Academy Awards for her leading role in the film Everything Everywhere All at Once. She is the first East Asian actor to win the Best Actress award.

In her acceptance speech, she said, "To all the women, please never believe that your golden age is over." She also said, "I dedicate this award to my mother and to all the mothers in the world because they are the real heroes. Without them, none of us would be here today," and added, "This is a historic moment. Thank you."