Voluntas We didn't conduct this activity to steer up a huge crowd.It is like this,if we mobilize a group of 50 people,we influenced exactly these 50 people.But with a journalist,he/she can influence tens or hundreds of thousands of people. That's why we want a media outcome.I don't mean that we don't want the public to join.But the smaller the crowd the better.The bigger the crowd the more likely will it draw the public security's attention to us and our disturbing activities.(Interview 8,translation by author) In line with this rationale,media representatives from traditional and online news outlets were contacted before both actions by members of organizations A,B,and C.Newspapers such as the People3 Daily(人民日报)or the Beijing Review(北京 are reluctant to report about performance art advocacy events;according to one interviewee,the Department of Propaganda issued a statement banning the reporting of such events (Interview 7): We have some media resources,we would contact before the events.(... With regard to journals we would only contact Women of China,which pays special attention to women's issues.For newspapers we would contact the Day and Evening papers,but also the city papers.But in reality these newspapers are very reluctant to report on such events,at least that is the case in Beijing. The Zhongguo Ribao was an exception and published an article online.Beijing has this rule not to publish such activities.(...)They don't want public disturbances published.(...)The Department of Propaganda published such a statement.(Interview 7,translation by author) In this restrictive environment,online media platforms (such as Lady 163.com)and organizations'social media accounts(such as Weibo)function as alternative news providers whose importance for disseminating actions neglected by officially sanctioned discourse is growing.Both actions were reported by online news platforms and widely disseminated by mailing lists focusing on gender(such as Gender and Development)as well as the organizations'media platforms. Since performance art tactics are primarily utilized to mobilize media represen- tatives and gain Chinese media coverage,it is interesting to review the actual representation of these actions in the media.To this end,a sample of media sources was analyzed in regard to the coverage of the Injured Brides'activism.The sample consisted of a selection of newspapers,academic journals,the prominent news agency Xinhua Wang(新华网)，and hits provided by the most popular Chinese web search engine,Baidu().22 This sample was selected to investigate potential differences in coverage from different forms of media,particularly between newspapers and online sources. There isnocomprehensive newspaper database for the PRC.For the purposes of this paper.the Apabi China newspaper database was used,which includes 16 print and online newspapers.The Apabi Chinese database and the academic joumals were sourced using Crossasia:an academic database that includes 9750 journals and almost 50 million articles.Online media outlets were sourced through the news agency Xinhua Wang(China's largest news provider)and Baidu(China's largest web search engine).The period of analysis stretched from January 2010(one and a half years after the first ADV performance art action) to October 2014(one and a half years after the last of these events).The keyword 'Injured Brides'( 的新娘)was used to conduct the searches. ②SpringerWe didn’t conduct this activity to steer up a huge crowd. It is like this, if we mobilize a group of 50 people, we influenced exactly these 50 people. But with a journalist, he/she can influence tens or hundreds of thousands of people. That’s why we want a media outcome. I don’t mean that we don’t want the public to join. But the smaller the crowd the better. The bigger the crowd the more likely will it draw the public security’s attention to us and our disturbing activities. (Interview 8, translation by author) In line with this rationale, media representatives from traditional and online news outlets were contacted before both actions by members of organizations A, B, and C. Newspapers such as the People’s Daily (人民日报) or the Beijing Review (北京 周报) are reluctant to report about performance art advocacy events; according to one interviewee, the Department of Propaganda issued a statement banning the reporting of such events (Interview 7): We have some media resources, we would contact before the events. (…) With regard to journals we would only contact Women of China, which pays special attention to women’s issues. For newspapers we would contact the Day and Evening papers, but also the city papers. But in reality these newspapers are very reluctant to report on such events, at least that is the case in Beijing. The Zhongguo Ribao was an exception and published an article online. Beijing has this rule not to publish such activities. (…) They don’t want public disturbances published. (…) The Department of Propaganda published such a statement. (Interview 7, translation by author) In this restrictive environment, online media platforms (such as Lady 163.com) and organizations’ social media accounts (such as Weibo) function as alternative news providers whose importance for disseminating actions neglected by officially sanctioned discourse is growing. Both actions were reported by online news platforms and widely disseminated by mailing lists focusing on gender (such as Gender and Development) as well as the organizations’ media platforms. Since performance art tactics are primarily utilized to mobilize media represen￾tatives and gain Chinese media coverage, it is interesting to review the actual representation of these actions in the media. To this end, a sample of media sources was analyzed in regard to the coverage of the Injured Brides’ activism. The sample consisted of a selection of newspapers, academic journals, the prominent news agency Xinhua Wang (新华网), and hits provided by the most popular Chinese web search engine, Baidu (百度).22 This sample was selected to investigate potential differences in coverage from different forms of media, particularly between newspapers and online sources. 22 There is no comprehensive newspaper database for the PRC. For the purposes of this paper, the Apabi China newspaper database was used, which includes 16 print and online newspapers. The Apabi Chinese database and the academic journals were sourced using Crossasia: an academic database that includes 9750 journals and almost 50 million articles. Online media outlets were sourced through the news agency Xinhua Wang (China’s largest news provider) and Baidu (China’s largest web search engine). The period of analysis stretched from January 2010 (one and a half years after the first ADV performance art action) to October 2014 (one and a half years after the last of these events). The keyword ‘Injured Brides’ (受伤 的新娘) was used to conduct the searches. Voluntas 123