Gender Essentialism in Chinese Reality TV: A Case Study of You Are So Beautiful

Abstract

This article provides a feminist analysis of Chinese reality TV, using the recent makeover show— You Are So Beautiful (你怎么这么好看) as a case study. I argue that the notion of gender essentialism is highlighted in the production of You Are So Beautiful, which distances the Chinese show from its original American format— Queer Eye. This phenomenon is indicative of how existing gender power relations influence the production of popular cultural texts in post-reform China, where capitalism and authoritarianism weave a tangled web. The outcomes of the research articulate the interplay between post-socialist gender politics and reality TV production in the Chinese context.

Women on and Behind Chinese Entertainment Television: De/Constructing the Female Authorship of National Treasure

“…Chinese television has experienced several crucial reforms since it was first introduced in the 1950s, which have not only modernized the industry, but have also gradually impacted content creation, production processes, and the financing of television programs (Bai, 2015;Keane & Zhang, 2017;Luo & Sun, 2015;Peng, 2021;Sun, 2007). Originally, emerging in the context of a socialist system that completely regulated all aspects of cultural production, the Chinese television industry was "intended to function as a propaganda weapon" (Wang & Mihelj, 2019, p. 40).…”

“…Academic discussions of women and Chinese television frequently attend to various televisual representations of women in China and their socio-political meanings (e.g., Feldshuh, 2018;Peng, 2021;Wang & Mihelj, 2019;Yang, 2020), and part of this article examines key representations of women on NT. However, the analysis focuses on the shifting roles of women not only on the television screen but also behind it, identifying the emergence of female authorship in the context of post-2010 Chinese entertainment television and how a specific case of it-Yu Lei's role in producing NT-has been constructed through relevant paratextual content.…”

Becoming a Good Chinese Father – Reality TV in China and its Reception

“…As if to foreground the very fact of state withdrawal, in 2010 the Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television decided to intervene, trying to contain the risk of leaving matters of norm and value construction to media companies; from then on the women's choice clearly goes to a caring and respectful man, rather than a rich guy (Chen, 2017). A study of a more recent makeover show You Are So Beautiful confirms the persistent textual essentialization of gender, and the dominant neoliberal and cultural norms and values in contemporary China (Peng, 2021). While there are studies who offer alternate ways of reading these shows-more diverse gender representations (Hu and Wang, 2020); enhancing public discussion on gender issues (Wang, 2017)-the thrust of these studies in the intersection of reality show and gender politics is to critically examine the governance impact and its analytical lens is textual.…”

A wen-wu Approach to Male Teenage Chinese Sports Fans’ Heteronormative Interpretation of Masculinity

“… 1 Wolf Warrior is a commercially successful film series (see Wolf Warrior , 2015; Wolf Warrior 2 , 2017), with the storyline centring on a retired People’s Liberation Army officer fighting against international criminal organisations (Talmacs, 2020). The protagonist embodies a manly male ideal well aligned with the government’s promotion of sex essentialism in popular cultural production (Peng, 2022), rendering the film title a term widely used to describe macho men in Chinese society. …”