Female subjugation and political resistance: from literati to entrepreneurial masculinity in the globalizing era of postsocialist China

Abstract

Drawing on 24 months of ethnographic research on karaoke bar hostesses and male clients, in this article I seek to illustrate the ways in which entrepreneurial masculinity is constructed, enacted and performed in the space of bars, in the location of Dalian, during the globalizing era of China. This article not only examines the historical processes that have helped produce the entrepreneurial masculinities in postsocialist China, but also the nuanced ways in which the place of Dalian, the Chinese state, and the space of bars have facilitated the production of entrepreneurial masculinities articulated in everyday activities. Such an exploration contributes to the literature on the spatial politics of geographic knowledge production and the geographical understandings of the salience of masculinities and femininities, the potency of place and the impact of the politics and the economy on social relationships.