She was detained by police on the eve of International Women's Day in 2015, along with four other activists from the "Feminist Five", for planning to protest sexual harassment on public transport.

After her father was dismissed from his work, Li's mother took a factory job in Beijing, but continued to be responsible for all domestic matters.

This incidence prompted Li to change her name from Tingting, a feminine name, to Maizi, meaning the rice plant in mandarin.

[2] By 2013, the Group conssited of some 200 active volunteers, who advocated for equal-rights legislation and highlighted discriminatory behavior in government and business.

In 2012 Valentine's Day, she walked down a shopping street in Beijing wearing a bridal gown spattered with blood stains with two other volunteers to draw attention to domestic violence in China.

From 2012 to 2017, multiple demonstrations happened in major cities throughout China, resulting in a new Regulation on Public Toilet Design Standard.

[6] This demonstration drew much attention from national and international media, as well as online discussion, particularly for the way it encouraged male solidarity with a gendered cause.

In 2013, at a career fair in Xi'an, Li arrived as Dongfang bubai, a fictional character with high martial arts skills.

[8] On 8 April 2013, Li and two friends wore Sailor Moon costumes and held the sign "Not your green tea, nor your slut".

With this demonstration, Li drew attention to new vocabularies, such as "green tea slut" and "black jelly ear", that are in particular discriminatory of women and protested against verbal violence.

In a 2016 video release, Li stated that her current campaign work focusses on preventing forced marriage.

Around that time, Li and colleagues were planning a demonstration drawing attention to sexual harassment in public transportations on International Women's Day in three cities.

Li reports that the police presented her with a blank detention warrant, searched her apartment and confiscated both her and her partner's electronics.

The questions moved on to the involvement of foreign forces, which Li reports seemed to have made the authorities extremely nervous.

The authorities even printed images of a topless protest, censoring the activists' nipples with black crosses.

[12] Li has written opinion pieces for international media, including The Guardian, where she describes her arrest and the situation of women's rights in China.