‘Living-alone’ wanghong: Women’s singleness as a wanghong genre and the configuration of Chinese postfeminist wanghong culture

Abstract

In this article, I explore how women’s singleness is represented by ‘living-alone’ wanghong on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小红书) and discuss the configuration of Chinese postfeminist wanghong culture. The term ‘“living-alone” wanghong’ refers to a group of Chinese vloggers – mostly women – who showcase their daily lives in domestic spaces while living by themselves. ‘Living-alone’ wanghong narrate their singleness as an autonomous choice that leads to a happy, high-quality, and bourgeois life. This narrative is distinct from the stigmatised ‘ shengnü’ (剩女, leftover women) discourse in contemporary urban China. By conducting thematic analysis of 50 sampled ‘living-alone’ vlogs featuring female wanghong, I examine three recurring themes: economic independence; self-care/self-discipline; and enjoyable loneliness. The analysis contextualises these three tropes in the postfeminist wanghong culture on Chinese social media. I argue that while ‘living-alone’ wanghong productively challenge stigmas around single women in the context of urban China, they ultimately transform women’s singleness into a neoliberal and postfeminist object in feminised consumer culture. Within their narratives, the structural struggles that single women face become issues that can and should be resolved by individual women. This transformation overshadows the underlying logic of consumption/commercialisation within Chinese postfeminist wanghong culture. This article further discusses the importance of the intersectional gender dimension in wanghong studies, as evidenced by the case study of ‘living-alone’ wanghong.