1887
Volume 32, Issue 2
  • ISSN 1018-2101
  • E-ISSN: 2406-4238

Abstract

Abstract

This article examines the multimodal construction of ideal manhood in male participants’ self-introduction videos in a Chinese reality dating show. A framework is developed to model identity as evaluative attributes and to explicate how they are constructed through linguistic and visual resources. Analysis of 91 videos shows two versions of idealized Chinese masculinity, namely, modern masculinity (mainly embodied by participants who have won a date), and traditional masculinity (mainly embodied by participants who have not won a date). Modern masculinity highlights career-oriented qualities, socio-economic status, and luxurious lifestyles, while traditional masculinity highlights family values, skills in Chinese cultural heritage, and class mobility. The findings provide new understandings of the complexity of Chinese masculinity in the dating show context, which reflects the influence of capitalist globalization on the one hand, and the government’s attempt to govern public conduct and morality on the other.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/prag.20024.fen
2021-08-24
2025-02-12
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/prag.20024.fen.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1075/prag.20024.fen&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Baker, Paul
    2003 “No Effeminates Please: A Corpus-Based Analysis of Masculinity via Personal Adverts in Gay News/Times 1973–2000.” The Sociological Review51 (1): 243–260. 10.1111/j.1467‑954X.2003.tb03614.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2003.tb03614.x [Google Scholar]
  2. Baker, Paul, and Erez Levon
    2016 “‘That’s What I Call a Man’: Representations of Racialised and Classed Masculinities in the UK Print Media.” Gender and Language10 (1): 106–139. 10.1558/genl.v10i1.25401
    https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v10i1.25401 [Google Scholar]
  3. Baudinette, Thomas
    2017 “Constructing Identities on a Japanese Gay Dating Site: Hunkiness, Cuteness and the Desire for Heteronormative Masculinity.” Journal of Language and Sexuality6 (2): 232–261. 10.1075/jls.6.2.02bau
    https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.6.2.02bau [Google Scholar]
  4. Brady, Anne-Marie
    2009 “Mass Persuasion as a Means of Legitimation and China’s Popular Authoritarianism.” The American Behavioral Scientist53 (3): 434–457. 10.1177/0002764209338802
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764209338802 [Google Scholar]
  5. Butler, Judith
    1990Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Caldas-Coulthard, Carmen Rosa
    2008 “Body Branded: Multimodal Identities in Tourism Advertising.” Journal of Language and Politics7 (3): 451–470. 10.1075/jlp.7.3.06ros
    https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.7.3.06ros [Google Scholar]
  7. Chen, Siyu
    2017 “Disciplining Desiring Subjects through the Remodeling of Masculinity: A Case Study of a Chinese Reality Dating Show.” Modern China43 (1): 95–120. 10.1177/0097700416648278
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0097700416648278 [Google Scholar]
  8. Connell, Robert William
    1995Masculinities (first edition). Cambridge: Polity Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. 2005Masculinities (second edition). Los Angeles: University of California Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Connell, Robert William, and James W. Messerschmidt
    2005 “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept.” Gender & Society, 19 (6): 829–859. 10.1177/0891243205278639
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243205278639 [Google Scholar]
  11. Connell, Robert William, and Julian Wood
    2005 “Globalization and Business Masculinities.” Men and Masculinities, 7 (4): 347–464. 10.1177/1097184X03260969
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X03260969 [Google Scholar]
  12. Coupland, Justine
    1996 “Dating Advertisements: Discourses of the Commodified Self.” Discourse & Society7 (2): 187–207. 10.1177/0957926596007002003
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926596007002003 [Google Scholar]
  13. 2000 “Past the ‘Perfect Kind of Age’? Styling Selves and Relationships in over-50 Dating Advertisements.” Journal of Communication50 (3): 9–30. 10.1111/j.1460‑2466.2000.tb02850.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2000.tb02850.x [Google Scholar]
  14. Deery, June
    2015Reality TV. Cambridge: Polity Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Eriksson, Göran
    2018 “Critical Discourse Analysis of Reality Television.” InThe Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies, ed. byJohn Flowerdew, and John E. Richardson, 597–611. Oxon: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Feng, Dezheng (William)
    2016 “Promoting Moral Values through Entertainment: A Social Semiotic Analysis of 2014 Spring Festival Gala on China Central Television.” Critical Arts29 (1): 87–101. 10.1080/02560046.2016.1164387
    https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2016.1164387 [Google Scholar]
  17. 2019 “Analysing Multimodal Chinese Discourse: Integrating Social Semiotic and Conceptual Metaphor Theories.” InRoutledge Handbook of Chinese Discourse Analysis, ed. byChris Shei, 65–81. London: Routledge. 10.4324/9781315213705‑5
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315213705-5 [Google Scholar]
  18. Foucault, Michel
    1991 “Governmentality.” InThe Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, ed. byGraham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller, 53–72. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Gong, Yuan
    2016 “Online Discourse of Masculinities in Transnational Football Fandom: Chinese Arsenal Fans’ Talk around ‘Gaofushuai’ and ‘Diaosi’.” Discourse & Society27 (1): 20–37. 10.1177/0957926515605964
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926515605964 [Google Scholar]
  20. Grewal, Inderpal, and Caren Kaplan
    1994 “Introduction: Transnational Feminist Practices and Questions of Postmodernity.” InScattered Hegemonies: Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices, ed. byInderpal Grewal, and Caren Kaplan, 1–36. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Guo, Shaohua
    2017 “When Dating Shows Encounter State Censors: A Case Study of If You Are the One.” Media, Culture & Society39 (4): 487–503. 10.1177/0163443716648492
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443716648492 [Google Scholar]
  22. Hill, Annette
    2015Reality TV. Oxon: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Hilton-Morrow, Wendy, and Kathleen Battles
    2015Sexual Identities and the Media: An Introduction. New York: Routledge. 10.4324/9780203114513
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203114513 [Google Scholar]
  24. Hiramoto, Mie
    2012 “Don’t Think, Feel: Mediatization of Chinese Masculinities through Martial Arts Films.” Language & Communication32 (4): 386–399. 10.1016/j.langcom.2012.08.005
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2012.08.005 [Google Scholar]
  25. 2017 “Powerfully Queered: Representations of Castrated Male Characters in Chinese Martial Arts Films.” Gender and Language11 (4): 529–551. 10.1558/genl.31592
    https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.31592 [Google Scholar]
  26. Hird, Derek
    2009 White-Collar Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Urban China. Ph.D. thesis, University of Westminster, UK.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Itakura, Hiroko
    2015 “Constructing Japanese Men’s Multidimensional Identities: A Case Study of Mixed-Gender Talk.” Pragmatics25 (2): 179–203. 10.1075/prag.25.2.03ita
    https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.25.2.03ita [Google Scholar]
  28. Jaworski, Adam, and Nikolas Coupland
    2014 “Editors’ Introduction to Part Five.” InThe Discourse Reader (3rd edition), ed. byAdam Jaworski, and Nikolas Coupland N, 407–414. London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Jefferson, Tony
    2002 “Subordinating Hegemonic Masculinity.” Theoretical Criminology6 (1): 63–88. 10.1177/136248060200600103
    https://doi.org/10.1177/136248060200600103 [Google Scholar]
  30. Johnson, Sally, and Ulrike Hanna Meinhof
    (eds) 1997Language and Masculinity. Oxford: Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Jones, Rodney
    2000 “‘Potato Seeking Rice’: Language, Culture, and Identity in Gay Personal Ads in Hong Kong.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language143 (1): 33–62. 10.1515/ijsl.2000.143.33
    https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.2000.143.33 [Google Scholar]
  32. Kiesling, Scott F.
    2002 “Playing the Straight Man: Displaying and Maintaining Male Heterosexuality in Discourse.” InLanguage and Sexuality: Contesting Meaning in Theory and Practice, ed. byKathryn Campbell-Kibler, Robert J. Podesva, Sarah J. Roberts, and Andrew Wong, 249–266. Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and Information.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Kline, Susan L., and Shuangyue Zhang
    2009 “The Role of Relational Communication Characteristics and Filial Piety in Mate Preferences: Cross-cultural Comparisons of Chinese and US College Students.” Journal of Comparative Family Studies40 (3): 325–353. 10.3138/jcfs.40.3.325
    https://doi.org/10.3138/jcfs.40.3.325 [Google Scholar]
  34. Koller, Veronika and Stella Bullo
    2019 “‘Fight Like a Girl’: Tattoos as Identity Constructions for Women Living with Illness.” Multimodal Communication8 (1): 1–14. 10.1515/mc‑2018‑0006
    https://doi.org/10.1515/mc-2018-0006 [Google Scholar]
  35. Kress, Gunther, and Theo van Leeuwen
    2006Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2nd edition). London: Routledge. 10.4324/9780203619728
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203619728 [Google Scholar]
  36. Lakoff, Robin
    1975Language and Woman’s Place. New York: Harper and Row.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Li, Luzhou
    2015 “If You Are the One: Dating Shows and Feminist Politics in Contemporary China.” International Journal of Cultural Studies18 (5): 519–535. 10.1177/1367877914538906
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877914538906 [Google Scholar]
  38. Louie, Kam
    2002Theorising Chinese Masculinity: Society and Gender in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. 2015Chinese Masculinities in a Globalizing World. London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Lunt, Peter
    2009 Review of Discipline and Liberty: Television and Governance, by Gareth Palmer, and Better Living through Reality TV: Television and Post-Welfare Citizenship, by Laurie Ouellette and James Hay. Media, Culture & Society31 (6): 1023–1027. 10.1177/0163443709344254
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443709344254 [Google Scholar]
  41. Luo, Wei
    2017 “Television’s ‘Leftover’ Bachelors and Hegemonic Masculinity in Postsocialist China.” Women’s Studies in Communication40 (2): 190–211. 10.1080/07491409.2017.1295295
    https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2017.1295295 [Google Scholar]
  42. Luo, Wei, and Zhen Sun
    2015 “Are You the One? China’s TV Dating Shows and the Sheng Nü’s Predicament.” Feminist Media Studies15 (2): 239–256. 10.1080/14680777.2014.913648
    https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2014.913648 [Google Scholar]
  43. Martin, James R.
    2008 “Tenderness: Realisation and Instantiation in a Botswanan Town.” Odense Working Papers in Language and Communication29: 30–58.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Martin, James R., and Peter R. White
    2005The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/9780230511910
    https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230511910 [Google Scholar]
  45. Matley, David
    2020 “‘I Can’t Believe# Ziggy# Stardust Died”: Stance, Fan Identities and Multimodality in Reactions to the Death of David Bowie on Instagram.” Pragmatics30 (2): 247–276.   10.1075/prag.18061.mat
    https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.18061.mat [Google Scholar]
  46. Milani, Tommaso M.
    2013 “Are ‘Queers’ Really ‘Queer’? Language, Identity and Same-Sex Desire in a South African Online Community.” Discourse and Society24 (5): 615–633. 10.1177/0957926513486168
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926513486168 [Google Scholar]
  47. Morrow, Katherine
    2014 “Fei Cheng Wu Rao (非诚勿扰): Staging Global China through International Format Television and Overseas Special Episodes.” New Global Studies8 (3): 259–277. 10.1515/ngs‑2014‑0038
    https://doi.org/10.1515/ngs-2014-0038 [Google Scholar]
  48. Neff van Aertselaer, JoAnne
    1997 “‘Aceptarlo Con Hombria’: Representations of Masculinity in Spanish Political Discourse.” InLanguage and Masculinity, ed. bySally Johnson, and Ulrike Hanna Meinhof, 159–172. Oxford: Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Oostendorp, Marcelyn
    2015 “The Multimodal Construction of the Identity of Politicians: Constructing Jacob Zuma through Prior Texts, Prior Discourses and Multiple Modes.” Critical Discourse Studies12 (1): 39–56. 10.1080/17405904.2014.962066
    https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2014.962066 [Google Scholar]
  50. Ouellette, Laurie and James Hay
    2008Better Living through Reality TV. Oxford: Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Palmer, Gareth
    2003Discipline and Liberty: Television and Governance. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. 2008Exposing Lifestyle Television: The Big Reveal. Oxon: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Saito, Junko
    2012 “Construction of Institutional Identities by Male Individuals in Subordinate Positions in the Japanese Workplace.” Pragmatics22 (4): 697–719. 10.1075/prag.22.4.07sai
    https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.22.4.07sai [Google Scholar]
  54. Shei, Chris
    2013 “How ‘Real’ Is Reality Television in China? On the Success of a Chinese Dating Programme.” InReal Talk: Reality Television and Discourse Analysis in Action, ed. byNuria Lorenzo-Dus, and Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, 43–65. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/9781137313461_4
    https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137313461_4 [Google Scholar]
  55. Smith, Angela
    2019 “‘How the Hell Did This Get on TV?’: Naked Dating Shows as the Final Taboo on Mainstream TV.” European Journal of Cultural Studies22 (5–6): 700–717. 10.1177/1367549419847107
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549419847107 [Google Scholar]
  56. Song, Geng
    2010 “Chinese Masculinities Revisited: Male Images in Contemporary Television Drama Serials.” Modern China36: 404–434. 10.1177/0097700410368221
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0097700410368221 [Google Scholar]
  57. Song, Geng, and Derek Hird
    2014Men and Masculinities in Contemporary China. Leiden: Brill. 10.1163/9789004264915
    https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004264915 [Google Scholar]
  58. Su, Hang
    2015 Judgement and Adjective Complementation Patterns in Biographical Discourse: A Corpus Study. PhD thesis, The University of Birmingham, UK.
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Sunderland, Jane, and Lia Litosseliti
    2002 “Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis: Theoretical and Empirical Considerations.” InGender Identity and Discourse Analysis, ed. byLia Litosseliti, and Jane Sunderland, 1–39. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. 10.1075/dapsac.2.01sun
    https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.2.01sun [Google Scholar]
  60. Tannen, Deborah
    1990You Just Don’t Understand! Women and Men in Conversation. New York: William Morrow.
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Xi, Jinping 习近平
    2013 “习近平阐释中国梦 [Xi Jinping Interpreting the Chinese Dream]”. Available at: www.xinhuanet.com/politics/mzfxzgm/ (accessed28 August 2018).
  62. Yang, Chao
    2017Television and Dating in Contemporary China: Identities, Love and Intimacy. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1007/978‑981‑10‑3987‑4
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3987-4 [Google Scholar]
  63. Zotzmann, Karin, and John P. O’Regan
    2016 “Critical Discourse Analysis and Identity.” InThe Routledge Handbook of Language and Identity, ed. bySiân Preece, 113–127. London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/prag.20024.fen
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/prag.20024.fen
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Chinese masculinity; identity; multimodal construction; reality dating show
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error