Pub Date : 2023-05-22DOI: 10.1177/20594364231176967
L. Tsang
With sport becoming increasingly mediatized in the global arena that further criss-crosses with the promotion of globalization and Western discourses surrounding manhood and identities, there has been, in contemporary China, a rise of alternate theorizations of masculinities that deviate from hegemonic masculine practices surrounding ‘wen’ (文) and ‘wu’ (武) as well as Maoist ideologies. While such accounts, focusing on demonstrating individuality and individualization, cultivating entrepreneurial spirit and possessing wealth, career success and conspicuous consumption, advocate for a greater understanding of masculinities that call for the diversity and fluidity of Chinese gender roles and male identities, there has also been a revival of traditional masculine ideologies associated with the Chinese Dream, a doctrine established and conveyed by President Xi Jinping, which seeks to highlight China’s quest for modernization and national power while placing ‘wu’ masculine values and culture at the forefront of its agenda. Against such a backdrop, this article, drawing on interviews with and observations of male badminton athletes from Mainland Chinese provincial professional and university teams, argues that, in contemporary China, both traditional and newly emerged masculine values and endeavours are integral to the theorization of masculinities of Chinese men, which are contended to be multiple, pluralized and individualized. With a dearth of academic literature that focuses on the co-presence of and inter-relationships between traditional and new masculinities which are embodied by modern Chinese men, this paper contributes renewed theoretical insights into how the various forms of masculinities coexist, intermix and, ultimately, negotiate with one another to reconstruct Chinese contemporary masculinities, in line with the gender order and hierarchy so upheld within China.
{"title":"Multiplicity, diversity and individualization behind shuttlecock play: Chinese sportsmen’s masculinities in today’s China","authors":"L. Tsang","doi":"10.1177/20594364231176967","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364231176967","url":null,"abstract":"With sport becoming increasingly mediatized in the global arena that further criss-crosses with the promotion of globalization and Western discourses surrounding manhood and identities, there has been, in contemporary China, a rise of alternate theorizations of masculinities that deviate from hegemonic masculine practices surrounding ‘wen’ (文) and ‘wu’ (武) as well as Maoist ideologies. While such accounts, focusing on demonstrating individuality and individualization, cultivating entrepreneurial spirit and possessing wealth, career success and conspicuous consumption, advocate for a greater understanding of masculinities that call for the diversity and fluidity of Chinese gender roles and male identities, there has also been a revival of traditional masculine ideologies associated with the Chinese Dream, a doctrine established and conveyed by President Xi Jinping, which seeks to highlight China’s quest for modernization and national power while placing ‘wu’ masculine values and culture at the forefront of its agenda. Against such a backdrop, this article, drawing on interviews with and observations of male badminton athletes from Mainland Chinese provincial professional and university teams, argues that, in contemporary China, both traditional and newly emerged masculine values and endeavours are integral to the theorization of masculinities of Chinese men, which are contended to be multiple, pluralized and individualized. With a dearth of academic literature that focuses on the co-presence of and inter-relationships between traditional and new masculinities which are embodied by modern Chinese men, this paper contributes renewed theoretical insights into how the various forms of masculinities coexist, intermix and, ultimately, negotiate with one another to reconstruct Chinese contemporary masculinities, in line with the gender order and hierarchy so upheld within China.","PeriodicalId":42637,"journal":{"name":"Global Media and China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73712162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-26DOI: 10.1177/20594364231171785
Keyu Alexander Chen
The scholarship of “wolf warrior” diplomacy either studies the label under China’s digital diplomacy targeting the overseas audience or associates it with digital nationalism within China. However, we still know little about how “wolf warrior” is viewed by the Chinese diplomats and the Chinese digital public, respectively. This study identifies six moments when the Chinese diplomats publicly responded to the media question about the “wolf warrior” label. Through discourse analysis, this study finds that the Chinese diplomats defend and justify their assertive communication styles as counter-attacks to the Western attacks while refusing to recognize “wolf warrior” as the hallmark of China’s foreign policy. Meanwhile, by examining the most popular and representative user comments under Weibo posts featuring diplomatic responses, the study finds that most Chinese digital public exhibit varied nationalist sentiments, whereas some users defy the mainstream nationalist sentiment and challenge diplomatic assertiveness. This study shows more nuances in the interactions between the top-down and bottom-up nationalist approaches in China’s foreign policy. It suggests top-down state-driven forces’ essential but restrained role in shaping bottom-up nationalism.
{"title":"Digital nationalism: How do the Chinese diplomats and digital public view “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy?","authors":"Keyu Alexander Chen","doi":"10.1177/20594364231171785","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364231171785","url":null,"abstract":"The scholarship of “wolf warrior” diplomacy either studies the label under China’s digital diplomacy targeting the overseas audience or associates it with digital nationalism within China. However, we still know little about how “wolf warrior” is viewed by the Chinese diplomats and the Chinese digital public, respectively. This study identifies six moments when the Chinese diplomats publicly responded to the media question about the “wolf warrior” label. Through discourse analysis, this study finds that the Chinese diplomats defend and justify their assertive communication styles as counter-attacks to the Western attacks while refusing to recognize “wolf warrior” as the hallmark of China’s foreign policy. Meanwhile, by examining the most popular and representative user comments under Weibo posts featuring diplomatic responses, the study finds that most Chinese digital public exhibit varied nationalist sentiments, whereas some users defy the mainstream nationalist sentiment and challenge diplomatic assertiveness. This study shows more nuances in the interactions between the top-down and bottom-up nationalist approaches in China’s foreign policy. It suggests top-down state-driven forces’ essential but restrained role in shaping bottom-up nationalism.","PeriodicalId":42637,"journal":{"name":"Global Media and China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86434635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-18DOI: 10.1177/20594364231171013
S. Trevaskes, Ausma Bernot
Surveillance infrastructure in China monitors and enables authorities to react to potential risky, miscreant or criminal behaviour. What type of behaviours are perceived to be so, is determined in large part by ideology. Therefore, surveillance infrastructure relies on the machinery of ideology to define the boundaries of its use. In this paper, we outline six key ideological concepts relating to governance in Xi Jinping’s China that have helped to expand the boundaries of surveillance. We identify terms embedded in promotional material of Hikvision and other surveillance technology firms as a springboard for conceptual discussion. The aim is to survey the ideological lexicon of concepts that position surveillance within the Party-state’s broad capacity-building ambitions for governance in Xi’s China. This positioning amplifies the political responsibility of state, social and market actors to work together to broaden surveillance activities for ‘society-building’ purposes, and ultimately for the realisation of Xi Jinping’s goal of National Rejuvenation.
{"title":"Surveillance infrastructure in China: Key concepts and mechanisms enhancing the Party-state’s governance ambitions","authors":"S. Trevaskes, Ausma Bernot","doi":"10.1177/20594364231171013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364231171013","url":null,"abstract":"Surveillance infrastructure in China monitors and enables authorities to react to potential risky, miscreant or criminal behaviour. What type of behaviours are perceived to be so, is determined in large part by ideology. Therefore, surveillance infrastructure relies on the machinery of ideology to define the boundaries of its use. In this paper, we outline six key ideological concepts relating to governance in Xi Jinping’s China that have helped to expand the boundaries of surveillance. We identify terms embedded in promotional material of Hikvision and other surveillance technology firms as a springboard for conceptual discussion. The aim is to survey the ideological lexicon of concepts that position surveillance within the Party-state’s broad capacity-building ambitions for governance in Xi’s China. This positioning amplifies the political responsibility of state, social and market actors to work together to broaden surveillance activities for ‘society-building’ purposes, and ultimately for the realisation of Xi Jinping’s goal of National Rejuvenation.","PeriodicalId":42637,"journal":{"name":"Global Media and China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77600063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-14DOI: 10.1177/20594364231168658
X. Yang
{"title":"Book Review: Transformation of Contemporary Film Genre: The Aesthetics of Chinese Mainland Mainstream Cinema","authors":"X. Yang","doi":"10.1177/20594364231168658","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364231168658","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42637,"journal":{"name":"Global Media and China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76187509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-05DOI: 10.1177/20594364231169076
Keith Negus
{"title":"Book Review: Made in Hong Kong: Studies in Popular Music","authors":"Keith Negus","doi":"10.1177/20594364231169076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364231169076","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42637,"journal":{"name":"Global Media and China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80685565","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-27DOI: 10.1177/20594364231166768
Tongzhou Ran
{"title":"Book Review: for Reporting China on the Rise: Habitus and Prisms of China Correspondents","authors":"Tongzhou Ran","doi":"10.1177/20594364231166768","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364231166768","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42637,"journal":{"name":"Global Media and China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88603844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-27DOI: 10.1177/20594364231166541
Anna Lehman-Ludwig, Abigail J. Burke, David A. Ambler, Ralph Schroeder
The Chinese Communist Party and its supporters are increasingly using social media platforms to shape China’s public image. This online image is a means of strengthening domestic nationalism and of projecting “soft power” abroad. This paper examines various forms of anti-Westernism that are central to this image-making. It analyzes several recent topics—the Belt and Road Initiative, climate change, the COVID-19 vaccine, the Beijing Olympics, and the conflict in Ukraine—on the r/Sino subreddit page of Reddit and compares them with two online news outlets, the South China Morning Post and China Daily. The paper focuses on how these media frame the contest between a rising China and a failing West, so creating a discourse that competes with the negative portrayals of China outside the country. The paper contrasts the aggressive strengthening of China’s image against the West on social media with more sober accounts of the same topics in China’s official media and in commercial news outlets. The contribution of the paper is to document an emerging online anti-Westernism that is playing an increasing role in the changing geopolitical landscape.
{"title":"Chinese Anti-Westernism on social media","authors":"Anna Lehman-Ludwig, Abigail J. Burke, David A. Ambler, Ralph Schroeder","doi":"10.1177/20594364231166541","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364231166541","url":null,"abstract":"The Chinese Communist Party and its supporters are increasingly using social media platforms to shape China’s public image. This online image is a means of strengthening domestic nationalism and of projecting “soft power” abroad. This paper examines various forms of anti-Westernism that are central to this image-making. It analyzes several recent topics—the Belt and Road Initiative, climate change, the COVID-19 vaccine, the Beijing Olympics, and the conflict in Ukraine—on the r/Sino subreddit page of Reddit and compares them with two online news outlets, the South China Morning Post and China Daily. The paper focuses on how these media frame the contest between a rising China and a failing West, so creating a discourse that competes with the negative portrayals of China outside the country. The paper contrasts the aggressive strengthening of China’s image against the West on social media with more sober accounts of the same topics in China’s official media and in commercial news outlets. The contribution of the paper is to document an emerging online anti-Westernism that is playing an increasing role in the changing geopolitical landscape.","PeriodicalId":42637,"journal":{"name":"Global Media and China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90314390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-20DOI: 10.1177/20594364231157049
Yingpei Zhang
{"title":"Book Review: The politics of dating apps: Gender, sexuality, and emergent publics","authors":"Yingpei Zhang","doi":"10.1177/20594364231157049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364231157049","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42637,"journal":{"name":"Global Media and China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135134445","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-10DOI: 10.1177/20594364231163444
Alexander Trauth-Goik
Foreign imaginaries of surveillance and informatization in China are commonly connected to notions of omnipresence, advanced technology, and coherent governance. In reality, however, the Chinese government’s efforts at the building of a digital society are permeated by confusion over the meaning of central edicts, interdepartmental and regional fragmentation, and overlap between different digital governance systems. This article interrogates the connection between two emerging governance infrastructures embedded in the Chinese Party-state’s latest informatization drive, the “National Civilized Cities Award” (NCCA) and the “Social Credit System Project” (SCSP) through a mixed methods approach. It combines data from an analysis of a recent NCCA assessment system government work manual, project websites, and findings from thirty qualitative video interviews with residents from twenty different cities in China to demonstrate that overlap between these projects is clear in terms of 1) criteria and indices measuring project development; 2) promoted virtues and individual behaviors; and 3) data sharing between systems. Local governments charged with the design and implementation of these initiatives frequently conflate their targets and objectives, prompting occasional reprimand from higher-level authorities. Public confusion about the meaning and purpose of both the NCCA and SCSP has meanwhile accompanied haphazard system development, demonstrating that the path towards a “digital society” in China is fraught and far from uncontested.
{"title":"Civilized cities or social credit? Overlap and tension between emergent governance infrastructures in China","authors":"Alexander Trauth-Goik","doi":"10.1177/20594364231163444","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364231163444","url":null,"abstract":"Foreign imaginaries of surveillance and informatization in China are commonly connected to notions of omnipresence, advanced technology, and coherent governance. In reality, however, the Chinese government’s efforts at the building of a digital society are permeated by confusion over the meaning of central edicts, interdepartmental and regional fragmentation, and overlap between different digital governance systems. This article interrogates the connection between two emerging governance infrastructures embedded in the Chinese Party-state’s latest informatization drive, the “National Civilized Cities Award” (NCCA) and the “Social Credit System Project” (SCSP) through a mixed methods approach. It combines data from an analysis of a recent NCCA assessment system government work manual, project websites, and findings from thirty qualitative video interviews with residents from twenty different cities in China to demonstrate that overlap between these projects is clear in terms of 1) criteria and indices measuring project development; 2) promoted virtues and individual behaviors; and 3) data sharing between systems. Local governments charged with the design and implementation of these initiatives frequently conflate their targets and objectives, prompting occasional reprimand from higher-level authorities. Public confusion about the meaning and purpose of both the NCCA and SCSP has meanwhile accompanied haphazard system development, demonstrating that the path towards a “digital society” in China is fraught and far from uncontested.","PeriodicalId":42637,"journal":{"name":"Global Media and China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87299275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-26DOI: 10.1177/20594364231160106
Z. Chen
{"title":"Book Review: A Feminist Reading of China’s Digital Public Sphere","authors":"Z. Chen","doi":"10.1177/20594364231160106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364231160106","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42637,"journal":{"name":"Global Media and China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79899554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}