Masculinities and the Construction of Boyhood in Contemporary Chinese Popular Fiction for Young Readers

Abstract

Masculinities and the Construction of Boyhood in Contemporary Chinese Popular Fiction for Young Readers Lisa Chu Shen (bio) The marriage between masculinity studies and children's literature is a fairly recent phenomenon. Compared with the attention received by femininity and female bodies in children's fiction, masculinity as an object of inquiry arrives rather late on the scene, not least because it was only toward the end of the twentieth century that masculinity studies emerged as an academic discipline. The problem with the continued focus on women and girls in children's literature could "run the risk of further naturalizing masculinity" (Wannamaker 122). Since manhood is a continuation of, rather than a flight from, boyhood, examining how boyhood is represented and constructed offers us insight into the kinds of masculine identities being propagated in children's books and the extent to which such identities conform to normative standards. Academic studies of gender in Chinese fiction, both modern and contemporary, have been largely confined to the study of women (Chow; Liu; Sang; Zhu). As Evans and Strauss note: "narratives on masculinity . . . are notably absent, in part reflecting how gender in academic studies of China is still largely associated with the study of women" (825). This imbalance is being redressed by an emerging body of studies on masculinity in modern and contemporary China, especially in the recent decade (Hird; Louie; Song; Xiao; Yang; Zhong). Nevertheless, in the field of Chinese children's fiction, studies of gender have been largely confined to the representation of femininity, with narratives on masculinities being almost nonexistent. As this essay will show, however, examining how masculinity is constructed in contemporary Chinese fiction for young readers reveals the continuing struggle between tradition and modernity, a topic of paramount importance in studies of Chinese literature and culture. On the one hand, [End Page 221] contemporary Chinese conceptions of masculinity, hegemonic masculinity in particular, have been largely Westernized in the process of modernization and globalization. On the other hand, there are alternative models that hinge upon the prospect of modernity but which reflect the persistent influence of the Chinese tradition. The Chinese case illuminates the intersections between masculinity studies, children's literature and modernity studies, intersections that have not yet been explored, due largely to the marginalized positions, in Chinese studies, of both masculinity studies and children's literature. As such, the Chinese case brings light to the role of children's literature in global studies of masculinities in patriarchal societies caught between tradition and modernity where gender categories are being constantly shaped and defined in relation to the tensions inherent in this ever-evolving dyad. Masculinity Studies and Chinese Masculinities Masculinity studies has emerged as a serious academic discipline in the past decades, as gender scholars in sociology, literature, and culture alike are regarding masculinity as a subject worthy of scholarly investigation. As with femininity, masculinity is now being recognized as a constructed concept, rather than innate or inherent (Gilmore; Connell; Kimmel). Manhood, rather than static or timeless, is historical, constructed in relation to "a set of 'others'" (Kimmel 182). Although masculinity is not the exclusive domain of men or manhood (for discussions of female masculinity, refer to Halberstam), it is usually in the context of men's/manhood studies that masculinity is taken as a serious object of inquiry. Since children's literature serves to prepare children for their future roles as gendered adults, it is understandable that authors tend to project their ideas of manhood onto their construction of boyhood. According to sociologist R. W. Connell, hegemonic masculinity is "the configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy, which guarantees (or is taken to guarantee) the dominant position of men and the subordination of women" (Masculinities 77). Rolf Romøren and John Stephens point out, with reference to Connell, that hegemonic masculinity is taken to be "the version of masculinity which is considered normative within a particular society's expressions of masculinity" (233). They argue that currently, within media images of global popular culture, forms of masculinity grounded in "domination, physical assertiveness, and egocentric individualism" dominate (217). What needs to be made clear is that these forms...