The remarkable success of China’s market economy, its burgeoning social media platforms, traditional beliefs about gender roles, and the government’s promotion of a harmonious society and positive energy (zheng nengliang) have given birth to a new form of comedy on Douyin: male cross-dressing videos.

Click here to see a compilation of such videos on YouTube.

However, this new genre is different from online satire videos popular during the first decade of the 21st century. Early satirical videos circulated on the Internet were inherently political and represented a subtle resistance toward Internet control and social injustice. However, in the recent decade, the political has been replaced by the personal, and resistance has given way to the embracement of the ideologies of patriarchy, commercialization, and therapeutic governance.

We studied the portrayal of female roles in male cross-dressing performances on Douyin, China’s preeminent video sharing platform. We focused on the female roles in three interpersonal relationships: mother-son/daughter relationships, heterosexual romantic relationships, and friendships.

Our analysis identified four stereotypical female personalities: fragile, controlling, materialistic, and insincere. These female personalities reflect the deeply ingrained sexism in Chinese society. Women are viewed as inferior to men and are disciplined to conform to gendered roles prescribed by traditional social norms.

Read the full text of the article here

Tang, X., Zou, W., Hu, Z., Tang, L. (2021). Recreating gender stereotypes: Male cross-dressing performances on Douyin in neo/non-liberal China. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 65(6): 660-678(Corresponding author) https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2021.1955888 [Full Text]