Consumption, class formation and sexuality: Reading men's lifestyle magazines in China

China Journal

Volumn , Issue 64, 2010, Pages 159-177

  Song, Geng ^a   Lee, Tracy K ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CLASS; SEXUALITY;

CHINA;

EID: 77954775242     PISSN: 13249347     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/tcj.64.20749251     Document Type: Article

References (85)

1. The first women's magazine appeared in China in 1898. See the website "Women's Magazines from the Republican Period" at the Institute of Chinese Studies, University of Heidelberg, for a rich resource on women's magazines in China: http://www.sino. uniheidelberg.de/womag/index.htm (accessed on 5 May 2009).
2. A digitized collection of Linglong, a women's weekly published in Shanghai during 1932 to 1937, can be found at: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/ digital/collections/linglong/(accessed on 5 May 2009).
3. Esquire (Shishang xiansheng), the first men's lifestyle magazine in China, was launched in 1999 and there has been a proliferation of titles since then. Currently there are 18 titles on the market, with Esquire, FHM (Nanren zhuang) ; GQ (Zhizu) and Men's Health (Shishang jiankang) occupying a majority of the market share. For a survey of the men's magazines market in China, see Tracy K. Lee, "Constructing Consumerist Masculinities: Men's Lifestyle Magazines in Contemporary China", in Proceedings of the 17th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia, http://arts.monash. edu.au/mai/asaa/tracyklee.pdf (accessed 5 May 2009).
4. Bethan Benwell (ed.), Masculinity and Men's Lifestyle Magazines (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003), p. 7.
5. Kam Louie, Theorising Chinese Masculinity: Society and Gender in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 148.
6. Geng Song, The Fragile Scholar: Power and Masculinity in Chinese Culture (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004).
7. Martin W. Huang, Negotiating Masculinities in Late Imperial China (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2006), p. 32.
8. R. W. Connell, Masculinities (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), p. 81.
9. For a discussion of the legacies of the Confucian and Maoist masculine discourses in today's TV dramas, see Geng Song, "Chinese Masculinities Revisited: Male Images in Contemporary Television Drama Serials", Modern China, prepublished 15 April 2010; DOI:10.1177/0097700410368221.
10. According to Xueping Zhong, the crisis is primarily caused by a male anxiety that can be explained by the "marginality complex" of Chinese male intellectuals and the presumed Chinese male weakness (along with a male desire for strong masculine identity) and is closely linked with the pursuit of modernity in modern China. See Xueping Zhong, Masculinity Besieged? Issues of Modernity and Male Subjectivities in Chinese Literature of the Late Twentieth Century (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), pp. 11-12.
11. For instance, there is criticism on the internet that the winners of the TV singing contest, Kuaile nansheng (Happy Voice Boy) are "unbelievably effeminate".
12. See http://tren. blog.sohu.com/45602829.html (accessed on 5 May 2009).
13. For a discussion on "a return to more traditional type of more soft and delicate manhood" since at least the mid-1990s, see Nimrod Baranovitch, China's New Voices: Popular Music, Ethnicity, Gender, and Politics, 1978-1997 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), p. 132.
14. See, for instance, David S. G. Goodman, "Why China Has No New Middle Class: Cadres, Managers and Entrepreneurs", in David S. G. Goodman (ed.), The New Rich in China: Future Rulers, Present Lives (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), pp. 23-37.
15. In a widely circulated report on social stratification in contemporary China, Lu Xueyi, a sociologist who works at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) divides the society into ten social groups. See Lu Xueyi (ed.), Dangdai Zhongguo shehui jieceng yanjiu baogao (Research Report on Contemporary China's Social Stratification) (Beijing: Shehui Kexue Wenxian Chubanshe, 2002).
16. A series of "Studies on the Middle Stratum in China" has recently been published by China Encyclopedia Press. The titles in the series, focusing on the consumption, cultural and educational behaviors, identification and political participation of the middle stratum, are the results of a large project led by Zhou Xiaohong of Nanjing University.
17. For a discussion on the rejection of the language of class and the adoption of social strata as the language of social analysis, see Ann Anagnost, "From 'Class' to 'Social Strata': Grasping the Social Totality in Reform-era China", Third World Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 3 (2008), pp. 497-519.
18. Luigi Tomba, "Creating an Urban Middle Class: Social Engineering in Beijing", The China Journal, No. 51 (2004), p. 3.
19. See also his "Of Quality, Harmony and Community: Civilization and the Middle Class in Urban China", positions: east asia cultures critique, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Winter 2009), pp. 591-616.
20. Interview with Liu Jiang, January 2008.
21. Zhou Chunling, "Shishang zazhi: manzu furen, youhuo qiongren" (Lifestyle Magazines: A Gratification for the Rich and Temptation for the Poor), Jingli ribao (The Manager's Daily) (18 August 2002), p. A1.
22. All the translations from Chinese in this paper are our own unless otherwise stated. For a discussion of lifestyle cultures and consumer segmentation that "fuels the engine of emulative spending" in contemporary China, see Jing Wang, "Bourgeois Bohemians in China? Neo-Tribes and the Urban Imaginary", The China Quarterly, No. 183 (2005), pp. 532-48.
23. The information on the benchmarks is obtained from the magazines' official websites (accessed 4 December 2008). According to Jing Wang, "without delimiting and naming the target segment for a product, the engine of emulation could not get started". Ibid, p. 533.
24. Interview with Liu Jiang, January 2008.
25. Xu Rong, Zhongguo zhongjian jieceng wenhua pinwei yu diwei konghuang (The Cultural Taste and Status Anxiety of the Middle Stratum in China) (Beijing: Zhongguo Dabaike Quanshu Chubanshe, 2007), p. 177.
26. Http://chinadaily.cn/hqss/2007-12/21/content-6339774.htm (accessed on 20 January 2009).
27. Xiandai hanyu cidian (A Modern Chinese Dictionary) (Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan, 1999), p. 976.
28. Ann Anagnost, "The Corporeal Politics of Quality (Suzhi) ", Public Culture, Vol. 16, No. 2 (2004), p. 190.
29. See also: Andrew Kipnis, "Suzhi: A Keyword Approach", The China Quarterly, No. 186 (2006), pp. 310-11
30. and the winter 2010 issue of the journal positions: east asia cultures critique.
31. Peter Trifonas and Effie Balomenos, Good Taste: How What You Choose Defines Who You Are (Cambridge: Icon Books, 2003), p. 2.
32. See Bao Xiaogugang, Xiaozi qingdiao (The Petty Bourgeois Lifestyle) (Changchun: Jilin Sheying Chubanshe, 2002).
33. Pierre Bourdieu, "The Forms of Capital", translated by Richard Nice, in John G. Richardson (ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986), pp. 241-58.
34. Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, translated by Richard Nice (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979).
35. Jing Wang, "Culture as Leisure, Culture as Capital", positions: east asia cultures critique, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2001), p. 83.
36. Chris Barker, The Sage Dictionary of Cultural Studies (London: Sage, 2004), p. 37.
37. For the power relations in the formation of middle class taste in China, see also Stephanie Hemelryk Donald and Zheng Yi, "Richer than Before-the Cultivation of Middle Class Taste: Education Choices in Urban China", in David S. G. Goodman (ed.), The New Rich in China, pp. 71-82.
38. See Tracy K. Lee, "Constructing Consumerist Masculinities", for an empirical analysis of a sample of advertisements collected from Shishang xiansheng and Nanren zhuang between 2004 and 2007.
39. "Shida jingliren caifu pinwei (nanshi) " (The Ten Indicators of the Good Taste of Managers [male]), http://biz.cn. yahoo.com/050223/16/80n4. html, accessed on 10 May 2009. The essay was allegedly first published by China Fortune magazine but we were not able to find it in past issues of the magazine.
40. Beatriz Carrillo, "From Coal to Hospital White: New Welfare Entrepreneurs and the Pursuit of a Cleaner Status", in David S. G. Goodman (ed.), The New Rich in China, p. 99.
41. Nanlai Cao, "Boss Christians: The Business of Religion in the 'Wenzhou Model' of Christian Revival", The China Journal, No. 59 (2008), pp. 63-87.
42. Beatriz Carrillo, "From Coal to Hospital White".
43. Http://esquire.trends.com.cn/event/2008-01/page-91572/91572-2.shtml (accessed on 10 November 2008).
44. "The important thought of the Three Represents", first put forward by former CCP leader Jiang Zemin in 2000, maintains that the Party must always represent "the development trend of China's advanced productive forces, the orientation of China's advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people". It has been enshrined in the Party constitution as a guiding ideology of the CCP in the new era, together with Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory. See http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90002/92169/92211/6274616.html (accessed on 9 January 2009).
45. The "complicity" between the Party ideology and the middle-class lifestyle can also be interpreted as a sign of the political "conservatism" of the new rich in China. As observed by many a scholar in the West, the upper/middle classes in Chinese society, far from becoming a force that champions "democracy", see continued CCP authoritarianism as a layer of protection from the lower classes. See, for example, Jonathan Unger, "China's Conservative Middle Class", Far Eastern Economic Review (April 2006), pp. 27-31.
46. Pierre Bourdieu, "The Forms of Capital", p. 244.
47. Tan Qiong, "Shixi nanxing zazhi wenhua dingwei zhong de si zhong 'duili' guanxi" (On the Four "Confrontations" in the Cultural Positioning of Men's Magazines), Chuban faxing yanjiu (Publishing Research), Vol. 5 (2008), pp. 63-67.
48. David Barboza, "A People's Sexual Revolution in China", International Herald Tribune, 4 March 2007.
49. Http://aduo.blog.sohu.com/(accessed on 15 January 2009).
50. Xin Liu, The Otherness of Self: A Genealogy of the Self in Contemporary China (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002), pp. 47-48.
51. Rosalind Gill, Karen Henwood and Carl McLean, "Body Projects and the Regulation of Normative Masculinity", Body & Society, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2005), p. 37, original emphasis.
52. John Berger, Ways of Seeing (London: BBC, 1972), p. 47.
53. Rosalind Gill, Karen Henwood and Carl McLean, "Body Projects and the Regulation of Normative Masculinity", p. 40.
54. See Geng Song, The Fragile Scholar.
55. Tan Qiong, "Shixi nanxing zazhi wenhua dingwei zhong de si zhong 'duili' guanxi".
56. Interview with Shouma, January 2008. According to Shouma, apart from looking for pictures of attractive male stars/models, some female readers read their magazine in order to buy the trendiest gifts for their boyfriends/husbands, or to regard the sexy girls in the magazines as something they would aspire to be if they want to be with a (rich) man. Women who are looking for hypergamous marriages therefore may also be a potential audience.
57. For instance, Current TV has aired a feature entitled China's Rich Women, focusing on the stories of the self-made female millionaires.
58. "Yang Makes It Two in a Row for China's Rich Women", China Daily, 2 November 2007.
59. Pat Kirkham and Janet Thumim (eds), You Tarzan: Masculinity, Movies and Men (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1993), p. 12.
60. "Luonan, xing'ai cheng shishang xuetou, nalei zazhi zao tongzhi xiai?" (Naked Men and Sex are in Vogue, What Kind of Magazines Are Liked by Gays?) http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog-49dbcbc801000b9r.html (accessed on 19 January 2009).
61. According to the Survey on the Health Condition and Consciousness on Prevention of AIDS of Chinese Gays, the homosexual population in China numbered 30 million. Among them, 20 million are gays, http://love.enorth.com.cn/system/ 2008/04/01/003068735.shtml (accessed on 14 October 2008).
62. This magazine was officially registered in Hong Kong with an international standard serial number. During an interview on 16 October 2008, the publisher, Yi Shengguo, said that he was facing serious financial difficulty. In fact, his home was the editorial office and he was the only person producing the magazine. When asked why he established a gay magazine, he said that he was trying to fulfill his social obligations and to help gays as a minority and marginalized group in society. Despite a potentially large readership, the magazine ceased publication after March 2008, due to various reasons. As it does not have a local serial number, it cannot be sold publicly in the newspaper stands. In Beijing and Xiamen Zero Space was confiscated by local police. In addition, according to Yi, even when his magazine is available on the market, very few people dare to buy it from the stands, as gay identity is still hidden in most cases. Yi also told us that subscriptions constitute the main source of his readership, but there are less than a hundred of them. An alternative way to reach readers is to place copies of the magazine in gay bars. Another reason contributing to financial constraints is that no advertiser is willing to advertise in Zero Space because, in Yi's words, they think that advertising in a gay magazine will "downgrade" the image of their products.
63. Http://www.china-zerospace.cn/(accessed on 19 January 2009).
64. Paul Baker, "No Effeminates Please: A Corpus-based Analysis of Masculinity via Personal Adverts in Gay News/Times 1973-2000", in Bethan Benwell (ed.), Masculinity and Men's Lifestyle Magazines, p. 243.
65. Simon Elegant, "The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name-Discreetly", Time (13 January 2008), http://www.time.com/time/world/ article/0, 8599, 1703180, 00.html (accessed on 26 June 2009).
66. Peter Jackson, Nick Stevenson and Kate Brooks, Making Sense of Men's Magazines (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001) ;
67. Sean Nixon, Hard Looks: Masculinities, Spectatorship and Contemporary Consumption (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 123-95;
68. and Leon Hunt, British Low Culture: From Safari Suits to Sexploitation (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 56-73.
69. Chang Xiaowu, "Woguo nanxing shishang qikan shichang saomiao" (A Survey of the Market of Men's Lifestyle Magazines in Our Country), Bianji xuekan (Editors Bimonthly), No. 1 (2001), pp. 57-61.
70. Interview with Wang Feng, January 2008.
71. Esquire 2008 Mediakit, p. 10.
72. Http://esquire.trends.com.cn/event/2008-01/91572.shtml (accessed on 1 February 2009).
73. For a discussion of the nationalist resurgence of traditional culture in recent years, see Yingjie Guo, Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary China (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003).
74. Rosalind Gill, "Power and the Production of Subjects: A Genealogy of the New Man and New Lad", in Bethan Benwell (ed.), Masculinity and Men's Lifestyle Magazines, p. 37.
75. Tim Edwards, "Sex, Booze and Fags: Masculinity, Style and Men's Magazines", in Bethan Benwell (ed.), Masculinity and Men's Lifestyle Magazines, p. 132.
76. Mark Simpson, "Metrosexual? That Rings a Bell", http://marksimpson. com/pages/journalism/metrosexual-ios.html (accessed on 9 December 2008).
77. Tim Edwards, "Sex, Booze and Fags", p. 144.
78. Gail Dines, "Dirty Business: Playboy Magazine and the Mainstreaming of Pornography", in Gail Dines, Robert Jensen and Ann Russo, Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality (New York: Routledge, 1998), p. 49.
79. For a discussion of the marketing strategies of "mainstreaming" the pornography industry by Playboy, see Gail Dines, "Dirty Business", pp. 37-63.
80. Laura Kipnis, Bound and Gagged: Pornography and the Politics of Fantasy in America (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), pp. 174-75, original emphasis.
81. See, for instance, Beverley Skeggs, "Refusing to Be Civilized: 'Race', Sexuality and Power", in Haleh Afshar and Mary Maynard (eds), The Dynamics of "Race" and Gender: Some Feminist Interventions (Basingstoke: Taylor and Francis, 1994), pp. 106-26;
82. and Martha Hodes (ed.), Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History (New York: New York University Press, 1999).
83. for the relationship between potency and political status during the Communist era, see Zhang Xianliang's novel Half of Man Is Woman and Xueping Zhong's reading of it in Masculinity Besieged?, pp. 52-86.
84. Lost in Beijing, a controversial 2007 film directed by Li Yu, can perhaps be read as a good footnote. Liu Pingguo, a young woman from the countryside who works as a foot masseuse in a massage parlor in Beijing, is raped by her employer, Lin Dong. The rape is witnessed by her husband, An Kun, who washes windows for the massage parlor. When An goes to Lin's wife to reveal the scandal, he is also seduced and sexually exploited by the middleaged woman. Later when it is discovered that Liu Pingguo is pregnant, the two men negotiate. Lin agrees to pay An 20, 000 yuan for his "mental suffering" and, if the child turns out to be his, he will pay another 100, 000 yuan to buy the child. See also, Geng Song, "Chinese Masculinities Revisited".
85. Jonathan Rutherford, "Preface", in Bethan Benwell (ed.), Masculinity and Men's Lifestyle Magazines, p. 3.