Table Of ContentA Feminist Reading
of China’s Digital
Public Sphere
Altman Yuzhu Peng
A Feminist Reading of China’s Digital
Public Sphere
“A very valuable addition to the literature on China’s vigorous and constantly
growing digital public sphere. By bringing in the gender dynamic and engaging
with it critically, this book fills a gap in recent scholarship on a vital subject.
Strongly recommended.”
—Daya Thussu, Professor of International Communication,
Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
“Benefiting from his professional training as a media and culture researcher and his
feminist analytical edge and social conscience, Peng examines the intersection
between gender and politics as it is manifested, represented, and reproduced in the
Chinese cyberspace. This book is one of the first to study gender construction on
the Chinese Internet as an effective lens through which one can get a glimpse at a
much larger dynamic field of social reproduction. It offers useful theoretical insight
into post-Mao China’s gender culture and politics, backed up with fresh empirical
cases ranging from the rise of pseudo-feminism to Internet users’ debate on gen-
der issues and their discursive construction of top female business and political
leaders as particular gendered beings.”
—Fengshu Liu, Professor of Comparative and International Education,
University of Oslo, Norway
Altman Yuzhu Peng
A Feminist Reading
of China’s Digital
Public Sphere
Altman Yuzhu Peng
Media Culture and Heritage
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
ISBN 978-3-030-59968-3 ISBN 978-3-030-59969-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59969-0
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I am so grateful for having the opportunity to write a book
on this topic. The book is for my family, friends, and all women
and men in the world. As a feminist, I always believe that there should
be a true alliance between women and men; together we will overcome
gender inequality across the globe in the foreseeable future!
A
cknowledgements
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all my colleagues and
friends for your kind help and encouragement. I could never have com-
pleted this book without your enormous support.
I wish also to express my gratitude to Lianlian Chen, Tong Yao, Xuhui
Zhang, and Hannah for their assistance with the data collection.
Special thanks go to Camille Davies, Craig Moore, and two anonymous
reviewers for their highly constructive feedback. The writing of the book
has benefited so much from your insightful comments throughout the
production process.
I would like to take this opportunity to also thank my parents. Words
cannot express how grateful I am for all the sacrifices that you have made
on my behalf over the years. You are the best mom and dad in the world.
Love you!
The book was developed upon my previous works, including Neoliberal
feminism, gender relations, and a feminized male ideal in China: a critical
discourse analysis of Mimeng’s WeChat posts (online publication date: 13th
August 2019) and Alipay adds “beauty filters” to face-scan payments: a form
of patriarchal control over women’s bodies (online publication date: 18th
June 2020) published in Feminist Media Studies (journal website: https://
www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfms20/current; publisher: Taylor & Francis).
vii
c
ontents
1 I ntroduction 1
An Overview of the Book 1
Feminist Scrutiny of Digital Cultures 4
A Note on Methodology 7
Organisation of the Book 10
References 11
2 Social Transformation and Digital Cultures in the
Post- Reform Era 17
Introduction 17
The Market-Oriented Reform of Chinese Society 18
Improvements and Inequalities 18
The Post-Reform Social Stratification 19
An Overview of Internet Use in Contemporary China 21
The Apolitical Dimension of Chinese Digital Cultures 22
The CCP’s Political Control Over the Internet 24
Participatory Social Media and the Digital Public Sphere 26
Chinese Internet Users’ Digital Civic Engagement 27
Towards an Exploration of the Gender-Politics Axis 29
Conclusion 30
References 31
ix
x CoNTENTS
3 The Gendered Nature of China’s Digital Public Sphere 39
Introduction 39
A Feminist Cultural Studies Perspective 40
The Revival of Patriarchal Values 41
The Past and the Present of Chinese Women’s Socio-Political
Status 41
The Post-Reform Heteronormative Turn of Chinese
Womanhood 44
The Ambivalent Gender Power Relations 47
The Shaping of Contemporary Heteronormative Chinese
Manhood 48
The Masculine Crisis 49
Approaches to Patriarchal Values in Chinese Digital Cultures 51
A Techno-Feminist Analysis 51
The Limits of Gender 53
Conclusion 57
References 57
4 Pseudo-Feminism and Chinese Digital Influencers 63
Introduction 63
Conceptualising Pseudo-Feminism 64
Pseudo-Feminism in Post-Reform China 66
Case Studies: Mimeng and Ayawawa 67
Targeting Female Chinese Internet Users in Practice 68
Promoting a Contemporary Chinese Male Ideal 73
Conclusion 77
References 78
5 Debates between Women and Men on Gender Issues 83
Introduction 83
The Confusion Created by Pseudo-Feminism 85
Digital Nationalism and Gender-Issue Debates 86
Debates on the ‘Wrongdoing of a Women’s Organisation’ as an
Example 88
The Boycott of Women-Focused Digital Influencers and Aversion
to Feminism 89
A Nationalist Discourse Distorting the Gender-Issue Debates 93
Conclusion 98
References 99
CoNTENTS xi
6 Stereotyping Women in Powerful Positions 105
Introduction 105
Women in Powerful Positions as a Subtype of Women 106
Mingzhu Dong and Angela Merkel as Case Studies 109
Mingzhu Dong as a Female Boss 109
Angela Merkel’s ‘Funny Stories’ 114
Conclusion 118
References 119
7 Conclusion 125
Feminist Scrutiny of Chinese Digital Cultures 125
A Note on the Contributions 128
References 129
Index 133
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Abstract This chapter provides an overview of the entire book by outlin-
ing the theoretical approach it adopts to integrate the gender-politics axis
in China’s digital public sphere. The chapter also explains the execution of
empirical research and discusses the methodological issues associated with
the case studies. In this way, it articulates the logic and rationale behind
the research design that informs detailed discussions of how the notion of
gender intersects with both state and everyday politics in the context of
Chinese Internet users’ civic engagement with socio-political affairs on
social media platforms.
Keywords China • Digital public sphere • Feminism • Gender-
politics axis
An Overview Of the BOOk
This book assesses the gender-politics axis established in China’s digital
public sphere.1 Following Habermas’ (1991) notion of the public sphere
and Castells (2009) and van Dijk’s (2006) conceptualisation of the
1 In this book, China refers to Mainland China. In the constitution of the People’s Republic
of China, the Chinese territory also includes Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. However,
these regions are not discussed in this book, because they are subject to different political and
© The Author(s) 2020 1
A. Y. Peng, A Feminist Reading of China’s Digital Public Sphere,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59969-0_1
