Social Media Discourse and Gender Ideologies of Hong Kong Girls
港女研究
Since 2012, I have a collaborative project with M. Agnes Kang in which we investigate a salient gender stereotype—“Kong Girl”—and its underpinning gender ideologies and social-political implications. Once neutral term referring to women from Hong Kong, “Kong Girl” has taken on the derogatory meaning of a materialistic woman who loves to be the center of attention and has an entitled attitude, the so-called “princess sickness.” We published three refereed journal papers addressing stages in the growth of this stereotype as well as our theoretical contribution to the field. In Discourse & Society (2014), we trace the development of this stereotype via online archival research of social media and situate its prominence in connection to an emerging gender imbalance in the local heterosexual marketplace: the population structure changed to having more women than men of marriageable age and an increasing number of cross-border marriages between Hong Kong men and Mainland Chinese women, as well as the changing sense of self among Hong Kong women and their struggle against traditionally imposed values and gender roles. In Journal of Language and Sexuality (2015), we developed a two-pronged approach of using the semiotics of demeanour indexicals and discourse analysis in studying stereotypes and its associated ideologies, specifically, such an approach explains how seemingly different practices and demeanours were interpreted as the same indexical persona in stereotype formation. Our latest paper in Journal of Gender and Language (2017) notes how the negative stereotype had taken on a new positive life as some Hong Kong women took ownership of the label and used it as a form of body politics.
Publications
Kang, A. and Chen, K. (2017) “Gender stereotype as a vehicle for social change? The case of the Kong Girl”. Gender and Language (Journal of the International Gender and Language Association) 2017, Vol 11, no.4, pp.460-481. USA: Equinox Publishing. SSCI.
Chen, K. and Kang, A. (2015) “Demeanor indexicals, interpretive discourses and the “Kong Girl” stereotype: Constructing gender ideologies in social media”. The Journal of Language and Sexuality. Issue 4:2. pp. 193-222. USA: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Kang, A. and Chen, K. (2014) “Stancetaking and the Hong Kong Girl in a shifting heterosexual marketplace”. Sage: Discourse & Society, 25(2), pp. 205-220. SSCI.
Presentations
Kang, A. and Chen, K. 2016 Gender Stereotype as a vehicle for social change? The case of the Kong Girl. In an invited panel "Gender impossibility? New boundary practices in Asian Chinese Societies", International Gender and Language Association Conference, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Chen, K. 2015 "The politics of daily life: a gender stereotype in Hong Kong". In the Department of English, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. (Invited talk)
Chen, K. and Kang, A. 2015 Mediatization and Enregisterment of a Gender Stereotype: The Case of the ‘Kong Girl’. In a panel "Mediatization and Enregisterment of Contemporary Asian Values", American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Denver, USA.
Kang, A. and Chen, K. 2015 “Saving the “(Hong) Kong Girl” stereotype in social media discourse”. In a panel “Articulating Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Asia”. The Sociolinguistics of Globalization Conference. The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Chen, K. and Kang, M. 2014 “Demeanor indexicals and the ‘Kong Girl’ stereotype in social media”. Hong Kong Association of Applied Linguistics Seminar series, Hong Kong. (Invited talk)
Kang, A. and Chen, K. 2014 “Social Media as Community of Practice: Stereotype formation in Hong Kong”. The 8th International Gender and Language Association Conference, Simon Fraser University, Canada.
Chen, K. and Kang, M. 2013 “Folded arms and LV bags: Policing (Hong) “Kong Girl’s” desire in the new media”. In a panel “Desire and Identity (Inter)action”. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, USA.
Kang, A. and Chen, K. 2012 “Stancetaking and the Making of the (Hong) Kong Girl”. In a panel “Gender ideologies in public discourses”. Sociolinguistic Symposium 19, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.