Research

Overview

I hold a M.A. in Gender Studies from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Bachelor of Social Science in Communication with a minor in Sociology from Hong Kong Baptist University.

My research interests include feminist media studies, social media activism, transnational feminisms, digital intimacies, and East Asian popular cultures and fandoms. I use qualitative methods and critical/culture theories in my research projects.

Dissertation Research: 6B4T Feminism in China

My doctoral dissertation aims to capture the latest power dynamic of feminist activism in post-pandemic China, where Xi Jinping’s authoritarian government continues to suppress bottom-up activism and profit-driven corporations appropriate feminist discourse to attract female consumers while stripping feminism of its political potential. While feminist knowledge produced by neoliberal university becomes less appealing to young Chinese feminists who desire radical social change, digital platforms emerge as an alternative site for grassroots production and dissemination of oppositional knowledge and discourse that problematize Chinese women’s everyday experience with patriarchy.

Among all emerging feminist discourses and identities in post-2020s China, I primarily focus on “radical feminism (jijin nüquan, 激进女权),” which is related not to the radical feminism of the Western second-wave feminism but is inspired by recent South Korean radical feminist campaigns, including the Tal-Corset (Escape the Corset) movement and 4B (4-No’s) movement.

Through a feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA) of online radical feminist writings and in-depth interviews with self-identified radical feminists, I explore two key radical feminist agendas in Chinese cyberspace: (1) women’s refusal to acquiesce to patriarchal social relationships (i.e., heterosexual marriage and childbearing), and (2) women’s refusal to partake in “beauty service.”

This dissertation aims to contribute to the decolonization of Western-centric feminist scholarship by moving beyond the East-West dichotomy and delineating feminist dialogues within East Asian countries. This project also serves as a critical intervention for ongoing Chinese feminist activism by providing practical implications for Chinese feminist scholars and activists.

Chinese Feminisms

#MeToo activism without the #MeToo hashtag

My co-authored paper with Ling Han analyzes Kris Wu's rape scandal and Leehom Wang's divorce scandal to explore how Chinese digital feminist activism happens without the presence of activist-created hashtags. We delineate the latest endeavors of Chinese digital feminisms and reveal its promises and pitfalls when rallying online activism without a hashtag.

This article has been published in Feminist Media Studies.

Nationalism, disinformation and anti-feminism

I combine critical disinformation studies with postcolonial feminist critiques to understand the online circulation of anti-feminist disinformation by Chinese nationalist bloggers.

This commentary article has been published in Feminist Media Studies, as part of Commentary and Criticism Special Section: the Mixed-Up Politics of Disinformation, Anti-Feminisms, and Misogyny, guest edited by Michele White.

Feminism and nationalism in digital China

This collaborative research project with Ling Han explores the conflicts and synergy between Chinese digital feminism and cyber-nationalism.

Part of this project has been published in Women's Studies International Forum. We conceptualize "pink feminism" as a form of Internet-based nonconfrontational feminist activism revolving around nationalism, in which “pink” connotes young female nationalists.

Part of this project has been published as a book chapter in Feminist Activism in Post-2010s Sinosphere: Identifying Issues, Sharing Knowledge, Building Movements, edited by Elisabeth L. Engebretsen and Jinyan Zeng.

Feminism and popular culture

Alternative self-representations of female PhDs on RedNote

I discuss neoliberal feminism in the Chinese context with a focus on alternative self-representations of Chinese female PhDs on RedNote, aiming to challenge the biased portrayals of well-educated women in mainstream media. In doing so, a neoliberal feminist subject has been constructed, who manages to "have it all" – namely, knowledge, career, family, as well as physical beauty. I argue that the Western solution of "collective action" is less viable in authoritarian states and thus call for a transnational perspective to study neoliberal feminism.

This article has been published in Continuum.

Digital Intimacies

Through in-depth interviews with Chinese women who play otome games (a female-oriented genre of digital games featuring heterosexual romance), I examine their understandings of virtual romance in digital games and their strategies to reconcile tensions between their feminist awareness and relatively conservative gender ideology in game narrative. I situate this study into the broader context of how emerging media technologies transform intimacies.

This article has been published in Chinese Journal of Communication.

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