Masculinity in crisis: effeminate men, loss of manhood, and the nation-state in postsocialist China

The phenomenon of “fake women” sparked indignant discourses chastising it as an epitome of the loss of Chinese manhood and a threat to the nation-state. Experts, counselors, and educators called for “saving boys” through revamping the education system and underscoring gender-difference education in schools and families. Effeminate men have become a scapegoat upon which anxiety over the current social problems such as dissolved marriages is displaced. While a dissolved family is pinpointed as one of the key factors that can lead to a child’s effeminacy and gender misrecognition, the media also portrays the lack of manhood not only as a public menace and a threat to the family, but also as a metaphor for passive masculinity and national crisis. Drawing on research of print and electronic media in China from 2010 to 2012, this paper enlightens the inextricably intertwined relationships between a lack of manhood and the strength of the state in the globalizing era of China. It is argued that the crisis of masculinity in effeminate men is considered a peril to the security of the nation because it reflects powerlessness, inferiority, feminized passivity, and social deterioration, reminiscent of the colonial past when China was defeated by the colonizing West and plagued by its image as the “sick man” of East Asia.O fenómeno das “falsas mulheres” gera discursos indignados que o condenam como epítome da perda da virilidade chinesa e uma ameaça ao Estado-nação. Especialistas, conselheiros e educadores apelam ao “salvamento dos rapazes” por meio da renovação do sistema educativo e do reforço da educação sobre as diferenças de género nas escolas e nas famílias. Os homens efeminados tornam-se bodes expiatórios para os quais é transferida a ansiedade a respeito dos problemas sociais atuais, como a dissolução de casamentos. Ao mesmo tempo que aponta a dissolução das famílias como um dos principais fatores que conduzem a que uma criança seja efeminada e não distinga os géneros, a comunicação social retrata a falta de masculinidade como uma ameaça pública e um perigo para a família, e também como metáfora para a masculinidade passiva e a crise nacional. Com base numa investigação realizada em 2010-2012 a partir da imprensa e recursos eletrónicos chineses, o artigo explora a relação inextrincável que interliga uma carência de masculinidade e a força do Estado na era da globalização da China. Argumenta-se que a crise de masculinidade dos homens efeminados é considerada uma ameaça à segurança da nação porque reflete impotência, inferioridade, passividade feminizada e deterioração social, aspetos que remetem para o passado colonial em que a China foi derrotada pelo Ocidente colonizador e assolada pela sua imagem de “doente” da Ásia oriental

Anti-Trafficking Campaign and Karaoke Bar Hostesses in China

This article discusses the adverse effect upon sex workers of China’s abolitionist policy that focuses on forced prostitution and launches anti-trafficking campaigns. The argument developed in this paper is based on over twenty months of fieldwork between 1999 and 2002 in Dalian. I will first discuss karaoke bar industry and China’s policy of anti-trafficking campaigns. I will then demonstrate the impact of this policy on hostesses in karaoke bars. I will follow it with an account of how, unlike the government’s perception of forced prostitution, hostesses voluntarily choose their profession and actively seek sex work in countries such as Japan and Singapore. I will conclude in the final section

Spousal Violence, Women, and Resistance in Postsocialist China

Based on my ethnographic research of spousal violence in Dalian, China, this paper explores women’s responses, attitudes, discussions, and resolutions of practice of “wife beating” that crystalizes women’s agency and resistance in postsocialist China

Complexity of Female Sex Workers’ Collective Actions in Postsocialist China

This paper explores labor resistance amongst rural migrant karaoke bar hostesses, many of whom are sex workers, in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian. I argue that hostesses are subject to exploitation and violence because of hostile public policy and the organization of the sex industry, both of which limit the possibilities for labor organizing based upon localistic networks. While hostesses do form alliances based upon their native place, which supplies them with financial and emotional support, these localistic networks are transient and temporary because hostesses aspire to deflect from their group as a “criminal” group and they also face high internal competitions

Elisabeth L. Engebretsen et William F. Schroeder, avec Hongwei Bao (éds.), Queer/Tongzhi China: New Perspectives on Research, Activism and Media Cultures,

This edited volume collects works from activists, scholars, and artists from China and beyond to address the issue of social activism and community-building among the LGBTQ population in China. Employing diverse methodologies from disciplines such as anthropology, cultural and media studies, Chinese studies, literature, and sociology, this volume presents the voices and perspectives of LGBTQ artists, scholars, and activists who organise communities and disseminate ideas through myriad cultura..

Politique et enjeux culturels du préservatif en Chine à l’ère du SIDA

En analysant le débat animé entre l’État chinois d’une part et l’alliance formée par les « réalistes » de la santé et les fabricants de préservatifs de l’autre, cet article cherche à montrer que, si l’État ne joue pas un rôle dynamique dans la promotion du préservatif, les campagnes publicitaires pour convaincre et donner les moyens à la population de se protéger efficacement contre le virus du SIDA ne produiront pas l’effet escompté. L’attitude de l’État chinois vis-à-vis de ce moyen de prévention entrave la lutte contre l’épidémie

The Cultural Politics of Condoms in the Time of Aids in China

Through an exploration of the lively debates between the state and the alliance of health realists and condom companies, this paper argues that unless the state takes a proactive stance on the marketing of condom use, the empowering and persuading effect that condom marketing should have upon the population will not be achieved. The impediment in this case, the state’s position and attitude towards condoms, can only thwart the progressive cause of HIV prevention