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Laurie Chen

When news of a sexual abuse scandal at the University of Southern California broke last year, Tracy Wen Liu knew she had to say something.
Liu, who did a master’s degree in entrepreneurship at USC and is now a freelance writer based in Texas, knew several victims of the man at the centre of the allegations, the university’s former gynaecologist George Tyndall.
Like Liu, the women were international students from China and had consulted Tyndall on a professional basis.
As women began coming forward to say they were sexually harassed and in many cases left psychologically scarred, Liu’s response was to interview some of them for an award-winning report in a leading Chinese online news outlet.
The article attracted millions of readers and indicated just how far China has to go in understanding the issue.
“It was a big thing that a lot of people knew about but were ashamed or embarrassed to talk about it openly, which inspired me to become the bridge that can help them voice their stories,” she said.
Chinese universities urged to do more to fight sexual harassment in wake of #MeToo cases
Tyndall treated tens of thousands of women during his 27 years as the only full-time gynaecologist at USC until he was reported to authorities by a school nurse in 2016.
Since then, his medical licence has been revoked by the Medical Board of California, and he has been charged with 18 counts of sexual assault and 11 counts of sexual battery from patients who visited his campus health clinic between 2009 and 2016.
Tyndall has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
More than 750 people have come forward to accuse him of sexual harassment, many of them from Asia. Hundreds have joined class lawsuits against Tyndall, but Liu said many more might have returned to China, unaware of or unable to join the legal action.




About half of the roughly 11,000 international students at USC are from mainland China and Liu said she believed Tyndall targeted this group of women, preying upon their perceived sexual naivety, language barriers and their unfamiliarity with the US legal system.
He reportedly hung a Chinese flag and map on his wall, and would ask women patients from China to point out was their hometown. He would also repeatedly profess his love for Chinese culture, which extended to Chinese women.
“I think he targeted Chinese women because he knew he could get away with it,” she said. “I think he definitely is very smart about who to harass, otherwise it wouldn’t have gone on for 30 years. If he was not smart enough about choosing the right victims that would not speak out, this whole scandal would have been revealed sooner.”
How a Chinese #MeToo musical whipped up a storm before the censors stepped in
Liu spoke to one student who went to Tyndall for treatment for an infection only for him to rub at his own groin to show her how to wash her pelvic area.
“You have only just come to the US and may lack this basic knowledge,” he reportedly said.
Liu said the woman did not report the incident because she did not know about the formal complaint procedures, and she eventually assumed that the “creepy” behaviour she experienced was just a cultural norm for American doctors.
“My friend felt it was really weird. She wanted to report, but first of all you are an international student – you don’t really speak perfect English or really know people that well,” Liu said.

“Maybe if you’re from the States, you’d know who to go to, and can hire a lawyer and write a letter to the school or medical board. But because she was an international student in her second semester in the US, she didn’t know who to complain to.”
Another victim in Liu’s report said Tyndall asked her several invasive questions about her sexual history, groped her chest and made inappropriate racialised comments about her body such as: “Your curves are very beautiful, Asians are rarely so full-chested.”
Tyndall also conducted a vaginal examination on another woman featured in Liu’s piece without using gloves, making her feel violated and ashamed for a long time afterwards.
China’s #MeToo claim costs university professor his job
As the scandal grew, some of the women began discussing their experiences with Tyndall on Chinese student online chat groups.
Despite the seriousness of the claims, the women won little sympathy from their male peers, Liu said of several online discussions she observed.
“The male students thought that females were trying to make their alma mater seem bad,” she said.
“A lot of male students were quite concerned that USC’s ranking would go down or there would be less scholarship funds [because people would be more reluctant to give donations when the school’s reputation suffered]. They cared about that and not the female students who were harassed.”
Liu said that unfortunately, these attitudes could reflect attitudes among Chinese men in general towards sexual harassment of women.
“I don’t think Chinese men understand how bad sexual harassment can be for a woman – it can destroy someone and make them feel depressed and anxious, but a lot of guys think ‘oh someone grabbed your butt or touched your boob, it’s not a big deal’,” she said.




Liu said the lack of support for the victims from the wider Chinese community at USC could also reflect how China still has a long way to go in the fight for gender equality.
“For those women [victims], their first instinct is to think that if you are sexually harassed, it is because you did something wrong,” she said. “I think that concept is rooted in Chinese culture, so right now not only is it that men in China are not supporting #MeToo, a lot of women are not supporting it either because they say that there’s something wrong with those women.”
She said many of the women who spoke to her did so because they had already established a life in the US and were less concerned about Chinese social norms. In contrast, another interviewee asked for her quotes not to be published because she was returning to China to get married and feared that her fiancé would somehow find out she was abused by Tyndall.
Liu said she hoped that her attempt to shed light on the Tyndall scandal would bring more understanding between Chinese men and women who had experienced sexual harassment, still a widely misunderstood issue in China.
“When I write about sexual harassment, I’m not going against men, I’m actually trying to help men understand women. I want them to understand that we don’t like to be touched improperly, we don’t like to be asked all those weird flirty questions,” she said.


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The American sexual abuse scandal that could have lessons for China

When news of a sexual abuse scandal at the University of Southern California broke last year, Tracy Wen Liu’s response response was to interview some of them for an award-winning report in a leading Chinese online news outlet. Photo: Handout

Former USC gynaecologist George Tyndall has been accused of abuse by hundreds of female patients during his 30-year career. Photo: AFP

University of Southern California gynaecologist accused of groping student as he told her ‘Taiwan ob-gyn doctors have fun with girls’

A recent USC graduate and patient of Dr George Tyndall, is photographed in downtown Los Angeles on May 16. Photo: TNS

Undated handout photo of Dr. George Tyndall. An additional 30 women sued USC on Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2018, claiming that the university failed to protect them from abuse and mistreatment by the longtime campus gynecologist. (USC/TNS)

FILE - In this Tuesday, May 22, 2018, file photo, people enter the University of Southern California's Engemann Student Health Center in Los Angeles. More than 50 former and current students of the University of Southern California say in a new lawsuit that the school mishandled complaints that a longtime gynecologist engaged in inappropriate behavior during pelvic exams. The court filing Monday, July 23, 2018, by the firm D. Miller and Associates brings the number of people suing USC and Dr. George Tyndall to more than a hundred. Tyndall's denied wrongdoing and hasn't been charged with a crime but police are investigating dozens of allegations. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)

Attorney Gloria Allred listens as her client, Danielle Mohazab, speaks about an alleged incident during a 2016 exam with University of Southern California (USC) gynecologist Dr. George Tyndall at the schools Health Center during a news conference in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 22, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Lawsuit says University of Southern California turned blind eye as gynaecologist George Tyndall molested Chinese students

Chelsea Wu, a recent USC graduate and patient of Dr George Tyndall. Photo: TNS

An undated handout photo of Dr. George Tyndall. (Handout/TNS)

Portrait of Viva Symanski, 30, on the USC campus in Los Angeles, Calif. on Sunday, May 20, 2018. Viva states she was a victim of Dr. George Tyndall. (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

A student wearing a USC sweatshirt over his shoulders walks on the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, California on May 17, 2018. USC was in turmoil as it was accused of being too slow to act on accusations of abusive sexual practises by Dr. George Tyndall. A gynaecologist who saw student patients at the Engemann Student Health Center. USC has already received more than 85 current and former student testimonies accusing Tyndall of abuse during examinations. / AFP PHOTO / Robyn Beck

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US-based writer Tracy Wen Liu is giving voice to Chinese women who say they were abused by a campus doctor in California



US-based writer Tracy Wen Liu is giving voice to Chinese women who say they were abused by a campus doctor in California.


Women and gender

Sexual harassment and assault

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