Abstract
In this paper, I investigate a popular Chinese term, ji-you, which can be used to refer to gay and/or straight young male friends. Discourse analysis is employed to analyze online data of people using the term ji-you. Drawing on the concept of the chronotope, I explore how ji-you can be conceptualized in terms of chronotopically organized social identities and how its cultural meanings are caught up within the contrasted chronotopes of homosocial relations among straight men, gay men, and mixed gay–straight men. The analysis demonstrates the complex and nuanced meaning-making and identity work that people perform in the construction and positioning of differing social identities of ji-you. The findings shed light on the negotiation of the ideological underpinnings of homosociality, masculinity, and heteronormativity in contemporary China.
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