Chinese Masculinity Research Articles

Masculinities in Chinese boys’ love stories: female imaginations, market forces and state influence

ABSTRACT This study investigates the imagined utopia of Chinese masculinity to uncover contemporary ideals of Chinese manhood and prototypes of gender relationships. To this end, the study involves in-depth interviews with 25 danmei creators and online questionnaires collected from danmei communities in mainland China. This study contributes to previous scholarly discussions by delineating danmei’s fandom and danmei’s literary formulae. The created masculinities in danmei reflect rising female creators’ subjectivities. Nevertheless, danmei’s political implications in China are limited and cannot be generalized as a move to overthrow the patriarchy or oversimplified as a step towards a feminist movement. Among the different archetypes of relationships, the pairing of two strong male characters enjoys the most popularity, which attests to women’s projection of independent subjectivity and rising neoliberal sensibilities in China. However, these emergent masculinities, initiated by female creators, persist in negotiations with the market and the state. The danmei industry in China, although subject to stringent surveillance, continues to flourish through underground avenues such as piracy and overseas purchasing agents.

Reimagining Scholars and Eunuchs: Nationalism, Masculinities, and Historicism in King Hu’s Martial Arts Films

ABSTRACT The historicist and cultural-essentialist filmmaker King Hu set most of his martial arts films in the Ming dynasty, a turbulent but legendary period in Chinese history. This article examines two archetypes in Hu’s films, namely the righteous Confucian scholar-xia and the politically powerful eunuch, who engage in contestations of masculinity within ideal cinematic spaces (jianghu, milieu). These settings and character designs profoundly influenced the martial arts genre. Hu’s cinematography embodied a field for negotiating Chinese masculinities that deviate somewhat from Euro-American theorising about gender binarism and masculinity. By tracing the historical and cultural origins of the scholar and eunuch archetypes, and scrutinising their cultural identities, power structures, gender negotiations, and distinctive notions of nationhood, this article illustrates that Hu’s works parodied and critiqued the problematic authoritarianism of the James Bond film series, despite the prevalence of Bond-esque Western ‘heroes’ in Hong Kong popular culture during the Cold War. He idealised the politically marginalised scholars, critically appraised the hegemonic and transgender eunuchs, and constructed unconventional and resolute swordswomen, and thereby re-articulated the gender and power systems of wen and wu, yin and yang, to revive Chinese cultural traditions and allegorise the sociopolitical landscape.

What do We Know About Men and Masculinities in Hong Kong? A Scoping Review and Content Analysis

In this review, we critically examine existing literature on men and masculinities in Hong Kong, focusing on Hong Kong Chinese masculinity. We employ a five-stage scoping review methodological framework, and analyzed twenty-five relevant studies. We identified themes such as breadwinner masculinity, work, family, social respectability, and manifestations of soft masculinity. The findings highlight the importance of masculinity for men’s well-being, and the need for further research. Specifically, age-specific studies, nuanced exploration of gender dynamics, and the interplay between family dynamics and masculinity. We also advocate for more focused examinations beyond the generic concept of “Chinese masculinity.” Our findings inform future research, interventions, and initiatives addressing masculinities in Hong Kong and beyond.

Chinese Space, Identity, and Presence in Malaysia: Exploring the Yingxiong Haohan Ideal of Wu Masculinity in the Wangkang Festival of Melaka

Abstract The Wangkang Festival has been celebrated for nearly two centuries in Melaka, Malaysia. In 2005, it was recognized as part of the national heritage of Malaysia; and in 2020 garnered global recognition with unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage designation. The festival centers on apprehending evil spirits believed to cause epidemics and chaos, while invoking peace and prosperity. The tradition revolves around the worship of Ong Yah, also known as the “Five Sworn Brothers,” making it a vibrant cultural site to study Melaka’s local Chinese identity through Taoist folk religious practices. This article documents the 2020 festival in the midst of the covid pandemic, observes the notable absence and marginalization of women, explores gender constructions through the notion of wu (武) in Chinese masculinity, particularly through the ideal of yingxiong haohan (英雄好漢), and argues that the Chinese community carves out a Chinese public space, identity and presence in Malaysia within the Wangkang Festival context.

Masculinity crisis or gender reconciliation: A corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of the effeminate Chinese masculinity debate on social media

Sexism and gender controversies often occur on the internet in contemporary China. The prevalence of male effeminacy is a part of the growing diversity of gender representations. This article investigates the dominant discourses surrounding the debate on male feminization, and netizens’ stance in Chinese social media discourse. By employing corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis, the study identifies four dominant discourses: resistance discourse, anti-discrimination discourse, patriarchal discourse, and nationalistic discourse. These discourses are constructed using various strategies, such as abstraction, authorization, categorization, and morality strategies, and are inextricably intertwined with China’s sociocultural background and broader social contexts. This study offers insights into the clash between conventional and liberal views on ‘soft masculinity’ and exemplifies how Chinese netizens actively leverage social media platforms to express views on gender issues.

‘Abstinence is panacea’: Reconstructing the ideal of Chinese masculinity through online community

This article discusses the experience of Chinese young men relating to sexual abstinence through the Abstinence Bar ( jiese ba 戒色吧) – an online community, with over six million members, dedicated to preaching the benefits of sexual abstinence – to identify how it represents a problematic strategy of ‘doing gender’ in post-socialist China. Based on a critical discourse analysis of the posts in the Abstinence Bar, we argue that the prosperity of the Abstinence Bar has re-stabilized the hegemony of dominant masculinities through cultural changes which intersect with individualism and nationalism. Consequently, it is essential to advocate evidence-based sexuality education among Chinese young people.

Cancelling “Effeminate” Men: Discursive Constructions of the Masculinity in Mainstream Media Coverage in China

In response to the trend of Chinese men becoming more “effeminate”, the Chinese government has successively introduced relevant policies to promote masculinity, accompanied by extensive media coverage. Against this background, the study takes the mainstream news media’s portrayal of masculinity as the research object, attempting to deconstruct the discourse concerning masculinity in China. The study draws on coverage of masculinity in mainstream media as data, utilizing the method of critical discourse analysis. It is found that the discourse structure surrounding masculinity in China’s mainstream media mainly concentrates on three aspects. First is the diversification of Chinese masculinity, reflecting the influence of neoliberalism on males, and a call for an understanding of diversified masculinity. Secondly, masculinity in China is also constructed on the discourse of gender conflict, primarily based on the gender binary and the ideology of maintaining traditional gender roles. Lastly, there is a tendency towards politicization of masculinity in China, where it is utilized in the service of national security and strength. By examining how and what kinds of discourses of “masculinity” are constructed, this research can contribute to the studies of masculinity in China, and further explain the issue of societal acceptance of effeminate men.

Wu Masculinities, Traditional Men-Dog Relationships and the Defence of the Dog-Meat Festival in Modernizing Yulin China

Through an 11-month multispecies ethnography in Yulin where the annual Yulin Lychee and Dog Meat Festival is held, this paper examines various types of men-dog relationships in Yulin and explores how such relationships contribute to men’s understanding and performance of their gender and why local men defend the dog meat festival vehemently. It finds that traditional rural men in Yulin keep local dogs for guarding, hunting, and dogfighting while “useless” dogs are eaten. In all these relationships, dogs are understood as humanlike individuals endowed with and serving men’s “ wu masculinities”, a concept that Kam Louie adopts to denote a type of traditional Chinese masculinities that is often associated with working-class men. With a change of lifestyle in the modernization of Yulin, the dog meat festival became the most important platform for the celebration of wu masculinities and is strongly defended by local men for their dignity.

Gendering Transnational Business Spaces: Cross-Border Burmese Women Jadeite Traders in Yunnan, China

As the world’s primary source of top-grade jadeite, Myanmar is the home to a thriving black market in which raw stones are smuggled from the Kachin State across the border into China. Among the people of different nationalities and ethnicities facilitating the cross-border trade and networks, Burmese women are increasingly highlighted through popular short videos on a video-focused Chinese social media application, Douyin. These scripted popular short videos show bargains and negotiations between Chinese businessmen and Burmese women jadeite traders, while highlighting Burmese women’s sexuality. In order to understand their representations in these short videos, this paper adopts digital ethnography approaches to capture the cultural expectations placed on Burmese women jadeite traders in China. I argue that these videos (re)produce gendered expectations of these women traders by amplifying their femininity, physicality, romantic availability, and representation as ‘Third World subjects’ to affirm Chinese masculinity and nationalism.

The manufacture of militarized masculinity in Chinese series You Are My Hero (2021)

The entertainment industry is driven to sell certain commodities transnationally, particularly in a world where borders are becoming increasingly diffused through the access afforded by the Internet. Media content is easily consumed, making cultural exporting fast and easy. Similar tropes and plot have been replicated in the East Asian film and TV industry, perhaps in hopes of replicating the success. This paper looks at the manufacture of ideal masculinities within East Asia, particularly China. From ex-members of K-pop group EXO to the successful TV series, cross-influence of East Asian popular culture is prominent. Through this paper, I look at the influence of K-dramas on the Chinese TV industry and particularly the manufacturing of a militarized masculinity on Chinese TV. Far from portraying brute and fearsome soldiers, ideal masculinity on TV is portrayed as “steely exterior but gentle internally” and thus desirable romantic partners to heterosexual women. By exploring the basic conception of Chinese masculinity, I then discuss representations of militarized masculinity on the silver screen (Wolf Warrior II) and C-dramas, with particular focus on the series, You Are My Hero (2021).

A Critical Reflection on Chinese Masculinity: Are Chinese Men in Modern Hong Kong and Taiwan the Same?

Abstract This paper offers a critical review of the study of masculinity among overseas Chinese. Rather than turning to Confucianism which has been deployed as the “deep structure” for explaining Chinese masculinity, this paper argues that attention should be directed to the Chinese kinship ideology, which will prove to be a more helpful tool in conceptualizing Chinese masculinity. Through ethnographic cases in Taiwan and Hong Kong, I will show how Chinese masculinity has derived from the Chinese kinship system, on the one hand, and how men in Taiwan and Hong Kong ended up expressing Chinese masculinity differently because of the different geopolitics on the other. This paper concludes that the nature and character of Chinese masculinity overseas, after all, hinges upon another two contexts: geopolitics and its relationship with femininity. It follows that Chinese masculinity cannot be studied in isolation but must be considered in relation to contexts.

Masculinities and the Brunei Chinese “Problem”: The Ambivalence of Race, Gender, and Class in Norsiah Haji Abd Gapar’s Pengabdian

The identity and position of the Chinese are problematic in Brunei Darussalam, where the primary identity of the Malays as “authentic” natives and citizens is upheld by the state ideology of Melayu Islam Beraja (Malay Islamic Monarchy; henceforth MIB). MIB moreover warns of the threat posed by the difference of non-Malays, in this case, the Chinese, while noting their potential contributions to social and economic development. Brunei’s ambivalent treatment of the Chinese Other is reflected in the Malay novel Pengabdian (“Submission,” 1987). Authored by Brunei’s most famous woman writer, Norsiah Abd Gapar, Pengabdian employs the strategies of stereotyping and idealising to produce an MIB-compliant narrative in which the dangers posed by difference, specifically represented by Chinese masculinity, are erased while Brunei Malay masculinity is defended as the hegemonic ideal through the trope of conversion. Using Connell’s theory of masculinities in relation to the strategies of stereotyping and idealising, this article examines how the representations of Brunei Chinese men engage the intersections of race, gender and class that undergird ethnic identities as well as citizenship in Brunei. In so doing, my analysis considers why the Chinese are still treated with such ambivalence and unease, and what this means for interethnic relations on the ground.

‘Be a real man for our motherland’: Masculinity and national security in Chinese Korean War films

There has been increasing societal discussion and criticism on the ‘lack of masculinity’ among Chinese young men. In response, the Chinese Ministry of Education in 2021 advised schools to ‘foster the students’ masculinity’. The Chinese National Radio and Television Administration also set strict rules for casting and choosing performing styles, custom and makeup in order to eliminate the ‘abnormal aesthetic’ and the ‘male feminization’ in Chinese television, film and advertisement. At the same time, various war films and television shows present characters and circumstances that highlight an ‘ideal’ masculine archetypes as well as the quality of a Chinese male character – patriotism, heroism, selflessness, strength, loyalty and intelligence. This article examines and compares the male images in two Chinese Korean War films, Shangganling and Changjinhu. It analyses the changing portrayal of male war characters based on three levels of analysis, namely nationhood, leadership and individuals. This study argues that the ‘masculinity crisis’ has led to the securitization of Chinese masculinity, a process and outcome driven by the Chinese government’s continued efforts to control and channel the broad social and cultural changes which have impacted popular culture, sexuality, gender and women’s rights and roles across Chinese society over the past several decades.

Chinese Masculinity Redefined: Brian Castro’s After China

ABSTRACT Influential Australian author Brian Castro has a mixed ethnic background that often identifies him as a multicultural writer. To Castro, however, this label imposes upon him a static identity he has long tried to break away from. His agenda is to unshackle himself from both the Australian and Chinese cultures he straddles. This effort is evidenced by his attempts to redefine Chinese masculinity in his novel After China. In Chinese masculinity studies, Chinese masculinity can be best understood in terms of the wen–wu paradigm—the wen ideal being conditioned by Confucianism. The male protagonist in After China, however, You Bok Mun, is influenced by Taoism and Western postmodernism in his expression of masculinity. Furthermore, while in traditional gender discourse masculinity is equated with sexual potency, in this novel, Castro eliminates sexual prowess from You Bok Mun's masculinity and replaces it with his ability to narrate stories. Although You Bok Mun experiences displacement and alienation in Australia, he does not intend to elevate his manhood for the purpose of being admitted into the Australian mainstream. Instead, he chooses to remain an outsider and uses this status to unsettle and challenge stereotypes of Chinese masculinity.

“Saving Our Boys!”: Do Chinese Boys Have a Masculinity Crisis?

Highlights The issue of the boy (masculinity) crisis was examined in both the global and Chinese contexts. To examine the authenticity of the masculinity crisis in China, we first historicized the debate on the boy crisis between Yunxiao Sun (孙云晓) and An'qi Xu (徐安琪) in China and its implications. Then, we examined the contributing factors to the masculinity crisis from the social-ecological perspective, which encompasses the familial (helicopter parenting style), educational (burdensome academic pressure), and societal (feminine and misleading social media) factors. We concluded that the Chinese masculinity crisis has evolved into a socio-cultural issue in recent years. We suggest the potentials of gender-relevant pedagogy and the collective capability among various stakeholders in addressing the boy crisis.

The anxiety over soft masculinity: a critical discourse analysis of the “prevention of feminisation of male teenagers” debate in the Chinese-language news media

ABSTRACT Although the emergence of soft masculinity has incited much controversy in China, little research attention has been given to the discussion about the effeminate Chinese masculinity in the news media featuring public opinions at the national level. To fill this gap, this study employed critical discourse analysis to investigate the dominant discourses surrounding the “Prevention of Feminisation of Male Teenagers” debate and its ideological implications in the Chinese-language news media. The findings show that the media constructed anti-feminine discourse, nationalistic discourse, and anti-gender stereotype discourse with ideological implications for patriarchy, nationalism, and egalitarianism via various discursive strategies, specifically abstraction, authorisation, categorisation, morality, and rationalisation. This study sheds light on the diverse voices and concerns of the emergence of soft masculinity that have not been given much attention in the literature.

Negotiating Masculinity in a Post-Socialist Society: The Case of Chinese Male Nurses

Occupational gender inequalities are an important sociological concern. Studies on men in female-dominated occupations, such as nursing, have offered rich insights to advance our understanding of gender dynamics in contemporary society. However, current theoretical and empirical accounts have been mostly dominated by Westernized discussions. Utilizing insights from critical studies on men and masculinities, alongside Chinese masculinities studies, this article seeks to enrich the discourse by examining the working experiences of 12 Chinese male nurses in a city hospital. It identifies a culturally specific stigma faced by filial Chinese men. It unravels the masculinity strategies and gender capital, and their effects, used by Chinese male nurses to defend their ability and contributions. It reveals the difficulties and paradoxes arising when men negotiate new hegemonic masculine ideals in post-socialist China. This article provides a nuanced understanding of non-Western masculinities and insights into practices that have been used to sustain male dominance in female-dominated and emotionally demanding jobs.

Tradition, modernity, and Chinese masculinity

Abstract This article examines the multimodal construction of ideal manhood in male participants’ self-introduction videos in a Chinese reality dating show. A framework is developed to model identity as evaluative attributes and to explicate how they are constructed through linguistic and visual resources. Analysis of 91 videos shows two versions of idealized Chinese masculinity, namely, modern masculinity (mainly embodied by participants who have won a date), and traditional masculinity (mainly embodied by participants who have not won a date). Modern masculinity highlights career-oriented qualities, socio-economic status, and luxurious lifestyles, while traditional masculinity highlights family values, skills in Chinese cultural heritage, and class mobility. The findings provide new understandings of the complexity of Chinese masculinity in the dating show context, which reflects the influence of capitalist globalization on the one hand, and the government’s attempt to govern public conduct and morality on the other.

Contemporary Danmei Fiction and Its Similitudes with Classical and Yanqing Literature

Danmei, aka Boys Love, is a salient transgressive genre of Chinese Internet literature. Since entering China’s niche market in 1990s, the danmei subculture, predominantly in the form of original fictional creation, has established an enormous fanbase and demonstrated significance via thought-provoking works and social functions. Nonetheless, the danmei genre is not an innovation in the digital age, in that its bipartite dichotomy between seme ‘top’ and uke ‘bottom’ roles bears similarities to the dyad in caizi-jiaren ‘scholar-beauty’ anecdotes featuring masculine and feminine ideals in literary representations of heterosexual love and courtship, which can be attested in the 17th century and earlier extant accounts. Furthermore, the feminisation of danmei characters is analogous to an androgynous ideal in late-imperial narratives concerning heterosexual relationships during late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and the depiction of semes being masculine while ukes being feminine is consistent with the orthodox, indigenous Chinese masculinity which is comprised of wen ‘cultural attainment’ epitomising feminine traits and wu ‘martial valour’ epitomising masculine traits. In terms of modern literature, danmei is parallel to the (online) genre yanqing ‘romance’ that is frequently characterised by ‘Mary Sue’ and cliché-ridden narration.

Resistance or Complicity? Chinese Canadian Men Negotiating Whiteness and Masculinity in the Canadian Prairies

In this essay, I critically analyze the practice of masculinity negotiation based on data collected through a qualitative study of hegemonic masculinity. Reflecting some dynamics of the historical subordination of Chinese masculinity in Canada, the Chinese Albertan males who participated in the research framed a somatic white masculinity, via which they discursively displaced themselves from the domain of the masculine. Some of them employed sport-participation to negotiate their masculine statuses. Underscoring whiteness as a material aspect of masculinity that cannot be performatively constructed by Chinese men, I argue that masculinity negotiation does not constitute an equitable means of resistance, as the very practice entrenches an archetypal masculine subject with whiteness at its centre. Through this discussion, I wish to incite conceptualizations of resistance in more critical terms.