Cui Jing, an advocate who has devoted herself to promoting the rights of deaf people Photo: Courtesy of Cui Jing

"I've set up an electric shock device outside my vagina. If anyone touches it, he'll be electrocuted."This line is from Vagina Monologues, a popular play that encourages women to speak out about their sexual desires. Cui Jing, 28, recites the line in a performance with a difference - it is all done in sign language.Cui, a hearing impaired woman, told the Global Times, "Sign language is a real language, which can be used to express everything, including the Vagina Monologues."The clip of her performance, in which she was joined by several other hearing impaired women, was released last month and soon attracted large online audiences who were overwhelmed by the boldness and distinctiveness of the show. "Many deaf people also contacted me and told me that they wanted to see live versions," she said, adding that deaf women's sexual rights was a subject that few people paid attention to.Cui's awareness of women's sexual rights began in 2014 when she was first exposed to the concepts of women's rights and gender equality, and found that they were naturally linked to the rights of deaf people. "It's an additional weakness. Women are seen as weak and deaf people are also defined as weak," she said.According to media reports, China has about 72 million hearing impaired people, but they are mostly unseen in society and their rights are often neglected. "The difficulty in communication among deaf people makes us more marginalized. And it also leads to more hidden sexual harassment," she said.Cui was born in Wuhan, Hubei Province. Her parents are deaf, but her hearing was fine when she was born. It was only when she reached the age of 3 that she lost her hearing. She remembers playing at home one day when her grandmother called for her, but she didn't respond. It was at that moment she found she couldn't hear anymore.She then had to grapple with a silent world, and forced herself to learn to speak from her grandparents. Cui is more fortunate than other hearing impaired people in that she has a relatively clear speaking voice, which sometimes makes others think she is an "ordinary person." But this doesn't make her any happier. "I want people to realize and see what deaf people truly are," she said.Cui began to host seminars to advocate for women's rights among hearing impaired people four years ago. Most of the time, these seminars are attended by about 20 or so people, including working staff members.One major obstacle for Cui in hosting these seminars is "a lack of people who can use sign language to teach the relevant knowledge.""In China, many deaf children receive rehabilitation training and don't learn much sign language. At school, we have teaching materials which center around making use of the voice [for deaf people], further leading to the gradual disappearance of sign language. So there is only a small number of deaf people who have mastered sign language," she told the Global Times. "What the younger generation uses today isn't real sign language. They're just using their hands. And it's even difficult for their deaf parents to communicate with them."She added that because learning to speak mainly depends on listening, even though deaf people's vocal cords are normal, it's still impossible for them to learn to speak well. This magnifies the obstacles in communication between experts and students in holding seminars.Furthermore, a lack of effective communication abilities makes sexual harassment more difficult to detect at special schools. Cui says she has heard stories of male students raping younger female students and seen many cases of men sexually harassing women at special schools.But when some students try to speak out, they are silenced. "When some female students reported this to teachers, they just told them that the boys were naughty and they shouldn't pay too much attention to it," said Cui.In one case, the parents of a deaf female student asked their daughter to marry the man who had raped her after she had become pregnant. "The parents thought that as she was deaf, she wouldn't have any better options," she said.In such families, children who are deaf often have little communication with their parents, but are closer with their friends, said Cui.Unlike most families, where parents tend to be conservative and usually demand that their children abstain from sex before marriage, Cui said in deaf people's circles, they are actually more liberal in this respect, and her parents supports her when she holds such seminars."Deaf people have a higher tolerance level. Because of educational and communication reasons, we are less exposed to traditional values, so we are less bound by them," she said.In 2014, Cui participated in a summer campaign for disabled young people, where she found deaf people were not only isolated from the public, but also hardly took part in charitable activities. The campaign inspired her to later found a charity group named "Shouyuzhe" with Chen Wanzhen, who had a certificate in sign language."With the proper communication channels, deaf people can do any job," said Cui. As well as providing sign language services, she also organized many classes including one that helped deaf people know their own value and taught them to enter mainstream society.Cui stressed that hearing impaired people should "have the right knowledge about themselves first, then they can let the world know about us." "Society also needs to reflect on itself. When you tell us 'we care about you and accept you,' you should be positive about this. You should think twice when you say such words. Is society really prepared for hearing impaired people to fit in?" she said.