Abstract:Based upon 2 years of ethnographic fieldwork, this study proposes “aspirational taste regime” as a critical concept through which to examine the emergence of a discursively constructed normative system in China’s Pick-Up Artist (PUA) training programs. By unpacking how taste is practiced both digitally and corporeally in these programs, the paper argues that Chinese PUA learners carefully curate taste for an illusionary, at times even deceptive, presentation of idealized masculinities to increase their matrimo… Show more
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