Wu, Jinxian (2023) Feminist Imagination : ‘Popular Feminism’ in Chinese TV Presentation and Media Culture. NIAS Press. (In Press)
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
This paper attempts to present the gender agenda in Chinese mediated popular culture against the relevant social backdrop since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995), introduce the transnational concept, ‘popular feminism’, as well as discuss the rationale and characteristics of the development and prosperity of ‘popular feminism’ in contemporary China. It, through case studies, focuses on three popular programmes in mainland China: The reality TV show Sisters Who Make Waves (2020, 2021), the online series Hear Her (2021), and an advertisement of PROYA for Women’s Day (2021). Through analysing both contents and the audience’s comments on these programmes, the research explores how ‘popular feminism’ cooperates with the discourses of the state and the market, as well as how the co-operation legitimises feminist discourse, during which the term ‘imagined feminism’ is proposed. It shows that although such co-operation between the state and the market ¬– ‘a co-operation terrain’ within the ‘imagined feminism’ – raises people’s general awareness of feminism, not only does it combines with popular misogyny and backlash against feminism, it also further exploits and excludes marginal groups.