China

She decided the comments would stay online, and she will not be deterred. Had she decided to delete the whole conversation, it would not have been the first time.

Leung has previously felt forced to remove political videos and pictures from her Facebook page, against her will, because an overwhelming number of comments targeted and sexualised her appearance, she told HKFP.

In skinny jeans and chilly pepper red sneakers matching her lipstick, Kao Chia-yu was greeted like a film celebrity by her constituents.

Shouts of "Congratulations!" echoed through the narrow streets, and fans chased her down for selfies and autographs. Instinctually darting between Putonghua and Taiwanese, Kao, 39, was on her last thank-the-voters victory lap on the Lunar New Year break.

Taiwan has forged a reputation as Asia’s most progressive democracy, and it boasts a higher proportion of women in parliament than anywhere else in the region — yet misogynistic insults have littered its presidential race.

The campaign for the Jan. 11 polls has exposed an undercurrent where female politicians face a gauntlet of personal abuse and jibes that their male counterparts rarely suffer.

Liao Bin, from the Hunan province in China, was elected as the head of her Village Committee at 27.