Zishu Chen: Chinese female fans' discursive strategies against misogynist slang: a case study analysis of Niang Pao(娘炮)

My PhD research explores female fans’ discursive strategies to fight against gender discrimination and the conventional gender order on one of the most popular social media platforms in China – Weibo. My research is based on an ethnographic methodological framework including participant observation online, semi-structured interviews and focus groups.

During my online observation on Weibo, a news story broke in China which claimed that many Chinese female influencers were feigning sickness and posting staged photos of themselves on their sickbeds with the aim of hyping themselves and selling products. The news stories named the female influencers ‘Bing Yuan’ (translated as 病媛). The news story was soon been pointed out as a distortion of reality and a defamation of the reputation of those female influencers, and unexpectedly, led to a feminist backlash against the stigamitisation of the character Yuan. In Chinese, Yuan is a gendered commendatory character originally referring to beautiful young ladies, but due to the false accusation, the character has now been associated with ‘sick’, ‘malinger’, ‘hype’, fraud’, ‘disrespect’. I will take this social scandal as an entry point to my conference paper, introducing the context in which an increasing stigmatization of female-related words and misogynist internet discourses has emerged on social media, and explore how female fans (including idol fans, ACG culture, video gamers), as a group of Weibo users who play great role in disseminating and supporting online feminist activism, are using intriguing linguistic tricks to battle with misogynist discourses and fight against the patriarchal norms obscured behind the discourses. In the paper, I will focus on just part of my project, namely female fans’ discursive strategies specifically aimed at the de-stigmatization of female-related or feminine words with a case study analysis of the term, Niang Pao (娘炮).

Jinnin Ren: Contemporary Chinese audiences' responses to the representation of sex work in Chinese films (1951-1994)

After 1949, the Chinese government stipulated that sex work is illegal in mainland China. However, there is still no shortage of attention to sex workers and sex work in several Chinese films. Especially in 2011, with the release of Zhang Yimou's film The Flowers of War (Yimou Zhang, 2011) in America and China, it once again sparked a worldwide discussion about the sex worker community in China. In most Chinese films about sex workers and sex work, the sex worker community has been used as an element of spectacle and artistic creation to generate audiences' interest (Wang and Gong, 2004).

My research is interested in the ways in which audiences in contemporary China respond to the presentation of sex work in cinema. How are their responses influenced by, and in turn influence, discourses of gender and sex work in contemporary Chinese society?

As Gripsrud (2008) argues work on film audiences within the field of film studies is still largely of a historical kind; contemporary audiences get very little theoretical attention (P.210). Only a relatively small number of studies have been concerned with the actual audience of today's motion pictures (Hill, 2007). For my research, I will focus on contemporary Chinese audiences' responses to representations of sex work in two selected Chinese films that focus on sex work, Stand up, Sisters (Xihe Chen, 1951) and A Soul Haunted by Painting (Shuqin Huang, 1994). My research addresses key gaps in existing research by focusing not just on representations of sex work in Chinese films but also on audience responses to such representations.

My research focuses on the audiences’ responses to the films in order to explore more broadly the social attitudes towards sex work, and includes both men and women in the focus groups/one-to-one interviews. In my conference paper, I shall discuss the rationale for my research in more detail. More specifically, I shall consider why I chose the two selected Chinese films; why I focus on contemporary Chinese audiences’ responses; and why I chose focus group discussion to combine with the one-to-one interview as research methods.

Sanna Eriksson: Motherhood as female citizenship in contemporary Chinese TV drama

Since the start of the reform period, Chinese official state ideology has shifted from socialism to nationalism influenced by Confucian culture. Simultaneously, ‘traditional’ ideas of women’s greater domestic role, intergenerational dependency, filial piety, and the importance of children’s education have entered public discourse and individual lived experience. Contemporary domestic arrangements where women play a central role in elderly and childcare take centre stage in popular television dramas such as Nothing but thirty (2020) and A love for dilemma (2021). Notably these series have emerged at a time when the party-state emphasises the importance of ‘family values’ while women struggle between careers and family expectations. In nationalist projects, women function as biological and socio-cultural reproducers of the nation (Anthias & Yuval-Davis, 1989). From a Chinese party-state perspective, women ensure national stability through their role at the centre of the family, a core unit of society (Wu & Dong, 2019). I use Gramscian ‘hegemony’ and ‘common sense’ to analyse TV dramas as means for the party-state to distribute and ensure popular consent to elite patriarchal, nationalist values. I enquire to what extent TV dramas like the above can be understood as domestic soft power vehicles for strengthening popular views of female citizenship as centred on caring responsibilities, and emphasising and shaping the role of the mother at the core of the family unit. I explore to what extent these TV dramas form a part of the party-state’s nationalist project in envisioning gender specific roles for women in the 21^st century Chinese nation.

My overall PhD research addresses motherhood in the contemporary Chinese context of three-child policy from the point of view of ‘childbearing-age’ women themselves, official sources, and popular culture. This research on TV drama addresses the popular culture aspect.

Antonia Fox: Creating a path to positivity, inclusivity, and comfort: Waiving anonymity and ethical decision making whilst researching queer communities on tumblr

This paper aims to explore the ethical decision making around waiving anonymity, which has informed my research design whilst researching queer communities on tumblr. My research aims to investigate the importance of queer communities on tumblr during its transitional period, as the micro-blogging social network site continues to experience shifts in ownership and a declining popularity, with a particular interest in how tumblr users think, theorise, and discuss topics of gender, sexuality, queerness, and identity. Approaching the end of my field work, I reflect on how my research design needed to be accommodating and flexible to ensure success in recruiting participants from a space no longer as popular as it once was, whilst also minimising potential risks for participants. Drawing on previous literature around research ethics, feminist and queer methodologies, as well as participant’s personal reflections on waiving anonymity, I consider the ethical decision making that led to waiving anonymity for participants that wished to be known within my research. Whilst anonymity has been the default position and a fundamental part of ethical and legal research, the assumption that this is the only viable option for participants is not always appropriate to research conducted online and removes autonomy from research participants. This paper indicates why a one size fits all approach to research ethics does not work for all research projects and explores the practicalities of how waiving anonymity when chosen by participants can both enhance flexibility, whilst also honouring their contribution to the research.

Siham Akaka : Ethical Dilemmas of an Outsider-Within

I am Algerian and in my country wearing Hijab is a religious and cultural expectation for girls, generally after menstruation.

While the dress of Muslim women in Algeria has been researched ( Boariu 2002, Lazreg 2009, Perego 2013, Perego 2015 and Rahnama 2020), the lived experiences of those who wear the Hijab were made inconsequential.

My PhD research started as a quest to define and interpret my own story with Hijab. In an attempt to understand further my own experience, I sought young women’s stories of Hijab in contemporary Algeria. I was particularly interested in studying representations of Hijab by Algerian women on Instagram, whose accounts reflect an image of a modern Muslim woman, their connection (s) to the cultural as well as religious construction of identity through young women’s lived experiences. I followed in-depth semi-structured interviews with a photo elicitation technique ( using posts from Instagram ) to gather data about the Hijab experiences of 25 female Algerian university students who share language, religion and ethnicity yet never a single Hijab story.

In this paper I focus on my positionality in the process of data collection. I explore, drawing on my experiences, a few of the ethical dilemmas that emerged as a result of my outsider-within (Collins 1986) or outside-insider status (Smith 2012), which I personally define as a hybrid (researcher) identity, a state of in-betweenness.

Melissa Chahin: Theorising Hijra Life Writing as Linguistic Collage

In this paper, I will present a section of my research which centres around theorising three works of hijra life writing as collages of narrative, form and language. The language used in the texts are a mix of English and bhashas, primarily Hindi and Tamil. Although the texts are largely written in English, there are sections where the authors write in their native tongue and do not provide an English translation. I will discuss what the challenges are for a reader and researcher who only speaks English when encountering these sections, and ask why the authors have made these stylistic choices.

Using Bakhtinian theories of dialogism and polyvocality, and Soviet theories of montage and collage, I will explore how the authors use linguistic collage as a method of representing their lives in autobiographical writing. I will also investigate the texts as representations of a complex and ongoing debate about the state and location of English as a language in India. Although much has been written about the role of English as a colonizing language, far less has been written about the indigenization of English in India. How might these discussions play out in texts which, in part, examine with the consequences of colonial attitudes to gender difference in India?

Yue Liu: Single Chinese Women: Resisting Normative Marriage in Contemporary urban China

Historically, there was a regional marriage resistance movement practised by Chinese women from the late 19^th century to the early 20^th century. Since the reform era, an increasing number of women attempt to challenge the institutionalised marriage and marital norms in China, though monogamous heterosexual marriage is still a near-universal practice there. This study aims to explore the possible forms and major reasons for single Chinese women to resist the marriage institution and prevailing marital norms in urban China. According to my fieldwork, I propose five types of single women - romanticists, familists, resisters, pragmatists, and “Buddha-like (foxi)” singles - based on their attitudes to marriage and marital norms, and investigate their various resistant practices on the normative marriage. “Romanticists” refers to the women who are eager for love marriage, or have romantic ideas about marriage. Familist women normally have a high sense of responsibility for future marriage, and expect of both their potential spouses and themselves to be capable enough to take family responsibility. Both romanticists and familists tend to postpone marriage or remain single until they meet their satisfied partners or are well-prepared for marriage. Resisters are those single women who want to keep singledom as they hope to avoid the risks within marriage or practise non-marital intimacies. The attitude to marriage of the “Buddha-like” singles is to “go with the flow”, that is, they do not expect marriage, do not worry about it, and do not resist it. The pragmatists usually use marriage as a tool to achieve personal goals or gain individual interests, subverting traditional gender roles in domestic space and challenging modern people’s general understanding of marriage about satisfying financial and emotional needs.

Xiao Ge: The Journey of Reclaiming One’s Own Postpartum Experiences in Contemporary China

Historically in China, it was believed new mothers should stay secluded for the crucial first month post-birth, during which time they were instructed to follow many restrictions such as wearing long clothes, avoiding cold air and not showering. Sitting the month as a kind of rite of passage, a period that transformed a woman’s identity and position in the family is to ‘help’ women acquiesce to a role as a managed part of the system of reproduction in her husband’s family. It was usually the older female kin's (i.e. mothers-in-law) responsibility to supervise the confinement within the family to maintain the hierarchy in patriarchal family ideal. The classic patriarchy as the mainstream familial unit has been challenged during socialist revolutions (Sechiyama, 2013). Nuclear family becomes more common, especially in urban areas in Contemporary China. Chinese women have been rebelling against patriarchal elements in Confucian models of gender roles and the family, and reclaiming their reproductive autonomy. However, the extended family network is still highly relied upon for child-rearing and other supports facing financial constraints and insecurities (Ji, 2017), women’s postpartum care practices may remain a family issue to some extent. Now with the emerging postpartum care-providing industry, women are encouraged to purchase the care from a commercial setting. They are offered the opportunity to control how much they want their family to be involved in their postpartum care practices. This paper, based on 12 open-ended interviews with postpartum women who have purchased postpartum care, will discuss how women are negotiating the terms with other power actors and manoeuvring the power structure within the family to gain the best postpartum care experiences.

Daisy McManaman: “A Girl Resembles a Bunny” A Feminist Reanalysis of Representations of Women in Playboy

The aim of this paper is to explore themes of the gaze and subjectivity in relation to women who have posed for Playboy Magazine. I will argue that whilst Hugh Hefner had maintained, to his presumed straight male readership, that the women featured in Playboy were passive, and despite many critiques from feminists such as Gloria Steinem and Ariel Levy of Playboy’s depiction of women as harmful and disempowering, that there are women within the pages of Playboy who disrupt the male gaze and present a complicated, yet empowering portrayal of high-feminine sexuality. Founded in 1953 in Chicago, IL by Hugh Hefner, Playboy is one of the most influential magazines to have ever been published. As of January 2022, 816 women have posed as a Playmate of the Month. Yet there has been very little academic research published that focuses on the women of Playboy, whose aesthetic labour and performance of feminine sexuality not only made Playboy famous, but also influenced western beauty standards and the way in which women are represented, sexualised and consumed in media. Using textual analysis of case studies such as photographer Bunny Yeager and pin-up model Bettie Page, as well as discussion of my own self portraits that draws on and seeks to subvert the imagery of Playboy, I will aim to draw attention away from Hugh Hefner, who up until now has been the focal point of texts on Playboy, and onto the women who both consume, produce and feature in Playboy content.

Siyu Chen: “He wanted me to be his woman”: the Experiences and Consequences of Chinese Female Journalists Encountering Various Forms of Gender Discrimination at Work

So far, with the significant increase in the proportion of female journalists around the world, the gendered phenomenon in newsrooms has inspired further attention. However, there is a distinct lack of related research in the Chinese context. This paper critically explores various forms of gender discrimination against Chinese female journalists in a patriarchal Chinese context. Analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews with 16 female journalists in four different cities in China demonstrates that gender discrimination is endemic in the Chinese news environment, presenting in the form of: a) sexual harassment either by male editors or male interviewees; b) cyber-attacks on female journalists in the workplace; and c) lack of career promotion opportunities and decision-making power. These phenomena demonstrate the ways in which Chinese female journalists are sexually objectified and treated unprofessionally, while their professional abilities are undervalued in a sexist working environment. This paper adopts a feminist approach to specifically reveal the gendered work environment of Chinese female journalists in the patriarchal context from multiple aspects, and contributes to the empirical research literature on #MeToo, gender and media studies in East Asia.

Nicki Roy: Between postfeminism and ‘gender madness’: Right-wing women’s narratives about feminism in Austria and Germany

In this conference paper, I explore how women in the right-wing political parties Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, AfD) and Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (Freedom Party of Austria, FPÖ) narrate feminism. This paper is part of my doctoral project, in which I analyse women’s narratives about their reasons for actively supporting right-wing parties and their negotiation strategies in those male-dominated parties. My research is based on the analysis of 25 open-ended interviews with women members and on the analysis of social media data of 45 of the parties’ women career politicians and the FPÖ’s women organisation. Paradoxical from a feminist viewpoint, nine interview participants named ‘women's equality’ as one of their main reasons for joining the androcentric parties, which are part of a broader antifeminist movement. I argue that there are many contradictions within my participants' narratives and elements of feminism and antifeminism are included. I use feminist approaches to postfeminism (e.g., Gill and Scharff, 2011) to analyse the women’s narratives about feminism and their contradictions. With this approach I am using a new angle to look at right-wing discourses about feminism. I illustrate that the right-wing women’s narratives incorporate and exacerbate postfeminist perceptions of feminism, which are dominant in the surrounding German and Austrian societies. Despite a few participants who did not reject feminism, my other participants either depicted feminism ‘positively’ but reject it as no longer necessary or negatively and reject it as an extreme ideology. Finally, I pose the question if the narratives about ‘gender madness’ used by some of my participants can be defined as an exacerbation of postfeminist gender anxiety.

Yulin Pan: Actual Experiences of Academic Women in Chinese universities

The teaching profession is widely viewed as a decent career suitable for women in China. As one of the highly qualified teaching workforces, women represent half of the academic body at higher education institutions. Thus, It is worth questioning why the university teaching profession is suitable for women, and is it really friendly to women? Although there has been a growing interest in academic women’s career progression and dilemma among academics and the public, women’s daily experience and perception of academic work and family negotiations within this academic profession deserve fuller attention. This research focuses on female research-teaching academics, and aims to reveal the phenomenon of gender equality and inequality in the work of higher education institutions in China. Drawing from interviews with 20 academic women who currently work in Chinese universities and are at different academic ranks, I will illustrate how gender affects academic women’s work and family life, and how particular teaching professions create specific challenges as well as supports for work and family. In this presentation, I will mainly discuss women’s actual experience at academic work from four aspects - recruitment, heavy workloads, pregnancy and maternity leave, and academic promotion. Although my academic participants generally perceive that university teaching job is relatively fair and equal, their actual working life presents a contradictory status based on their daily experience.