Zhou, who is now 27, went viral on Chinese social media in 2018 after she wrote a long account of her alleged sexual harassment by Zhu in a dressing room during her internship at state-run CCTV in 2014. The case finally came to court in Beijing's Haidian district on Wednesday, with crowds of supporters, many of them young women, showing up to support Zhou, who goes by the nickname Xianzi.
Zhou accused Zhu, who presented the CCTV New Year TV gala for two decades until the allegations surfaced, of groping her and forcibly kissing her during a conversation about a potential career at the state broadcaster. She said in her online account that the assault only ended because a guest came into the room.
