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A growing body of literature shows that adherence to some aspects of Western masculinity norms, including the suppression of emotional vulnerability, avoidance of seeking support from others, and exaggerated physical toughness, is associated with poorer psychological and social outcomes. While existing research suggests that parental gender beliefs and caregiving behaviors might influence the development of children's gendered behaviors, little is known about the developmental origins of individual differences in adherence to masculinity norms. The current study aims to address this gap and presents a longitudinal investigation of how parental gender beliefs and maternal sensitivity during infancy contribute to children's adherence to masculinity norms during middle childhood. Data were drawn from a mixed-method 9-year longitudinal study of 374 urban Chinese families (48.40% with daughters). Parental gender beliefs were assessed at 24 months, maternal sensitivity was assessed with mother-child interaction observations at 14 and 24 months, and children's self-reported adherence to masculinity norms were assessed at age 10 years. Results indicate that while parental gender beliefs had no associations with children's adherence to masculinity norms, maternal sensitivity predicted children's adherence to masculinity norms ([beta] = -0.18, p = 0.008) above and beyond parental gender beliefs and parental education level; moreover, there was a significant interaction of sex on the effect of maternal sensitivity on children's adherence to masculinity ([beta] = -0.23, p = 0.025), and the association was significant only for boys.

This study employs a critical feminist perspective to investigate the experiences of male primary school student teachers in practicum schools in China. It aims to delve into and bring to light the intricate challenges they face when navigating their gender and professional identity. The findings reveal that the prevailing discourses surrounding primary school teacher professionalism, cultural perceptions of masculinity in China, and the scarcity of male teacher peers collectively influence the male student teachers' negotiation of their gender and professional identity. The study proposes the adoption of a more inclusive and culturally responsive pedagogy within teacher training programmes, with the recognition of teacher training as a means to attain long-term gender equality.

Men are traditionally portrayed as being successful in sports, and male teachers in physical activities are portrayed as successful teachers. How do female teachers perceive the gender role of kindergarten teachers in early childhood physical activities? Using hegemonic masculinity theory as an analytical tool, semi-structured interviews with female public kindergarten teachers from four cities in Zhejiang Province, China were conducted. The study found that although most Chinese female teachers had traditional gender stereotypes about the role of physical activity teachers in kindergartens, these gender stereotypes were not firmly established. As the questions were contextualized and deepened, thinking about the deeper elements of early childhood physical activity was activated. They did not seem to believe that women were incapable of leading young children in physical activities, nor did they believe that women were not important in ideal early childhood physical activities. By deconstructing the male-only nature of 'hegemonic masculinity', they reconstructed the masculinity that children need in early childhood physical activities and constructed a more equal concept of teachers' gender in early childhood physical activities.

This study investigated visual arts college students' perceptions of the gender stereotyping of creativity and the influence of this stereotyping on creative self-efficacy. The sample consisted of 1198 Chinese visual arts college students. The results showed that (a) both male and female students identified stereotypically masculine traits as more important to creativity than stereotypically feminine traits are, (b) male students demonstrated higher creative self-efficacy than their female counterparts did, and (c) students' gender significantly moderated the effect of the gender stereotyping of creativity on creative self-efficacy. Specifically, the gender stereotyping of creativity had a positive effect on male students and a negative effect on female students. These findings revealed that gender stereotypes dominate concepts of creativity in Chinese art education and may hinder female students' development of creative self-efficacy, resulting in gendered inequality in the visual arts field. The implications of these findings for visual arts education in China are discussed.

It is well established that China has emerged as a major economic power, resulting from the nation's neoliberal modernization. What is less understood is the socio-cultural and educational impact of this change on public institutions. This article focuses on the education system, which is currently seen as central to delivering the nation's modernization project, particularly through "suzhi jiaoyu" (education for quality). More specifically, we engage with a pervasive public discourse of a boy crisis. We suggest the need critically to explore the local (national) meanings within a contemporary Chinese context of this assumed projected crisis that appears to be established as a western phenomenon. We argue that the discourse of a boy crisis can be read as a strategic move to re-inscribe an earlier discourse, that of the boy preference, that in turn is discursively linked to nation building at a time of globally inflected socio-economic transformations.

This article uses a queer lens in an intersectional analysis of students' schooling experiences in rural China. I argue that a queer perspective has been largely neglected and issues related to sexuality have not been carefully investigated in Chinese educational contexts. Drawing on queer theory and an intersectional framework, I re-interpret one of my earlier qualitative studies 'queerly' and examine the different ways that the discourses of sexuality and gender shape rural Chinese students' schooling lives. Findings reveal that these discourses marginalize both effeminate boys who demonstrate 'too little' masculinity and male 'troublemakers' who perform 'too much' masculinity. This queer route of rereading also disrupts other constructions of normalcy associated with class- and place-based identities, such as students' 'half-rural identity.' The analysis shows the importance of foregrounding the intersectional dimensions of inequalities and embracing a queer theoretical framework in understanding rural education in China.

This study used the technology acceptance model to examine the influence of individually espoused cultural values on teachers' intentions to use technology in Chinese universities. To address the limitations of model parsimony, the lack of studies in developing countries and the cultural biases in the technology acceptance literature, this study was conducted in a developing country -- China. It extended the constructs of subjective norms and facilitating conditions into the technology acceptance model and investigated the influence of individually espoused cultural values on technology acceptance. The four cultural value dimensions, including masculinity versus femininity, individualism versus collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term versus short-term orientation, were measured at the individual level, as technology acceptance was considered an individual concern. To test the hypothesised model, data from 502 teachers in Chinese universities were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results revealed that technology acceptance model was a valid framework for explaining Chinese teachers' technology acceptance. Perceived usefulness, subjective norms, attitudes towards use and culture were all significant determinants of behavioural intentions, with attitudes towards use having the largest effect. This study demonstrated the significant influence of subjective norms on perceived usefulness. Specifically, it showed that they facilitated the influence of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness on attitudes toward use.

Social media are influential sociocultural forces that construct and transmit information about gender, health and bodies to young people in the digital age. In health and physical activity, Chinese people are often represented and positioned differently to other (minority) ethnic groups. For example, Black young people are often understood as having low academic motivations and aspirations but as 'natural' athletes; in contrast, Chinese young people, seen as the 'model minority' who excel in STEM subjects, are fragile, reserved and disinterested in physical movements. These public forms of representation may sit in opposition to the young people's embodied identity. When these misrepresentations are internalised, issues such as micro-aggression and racism may have an impact on Chinese young people's health and wellbeing. This paper aims to examine how Chinese bodies are gendered and racialised in contemporary social media sites (e.g. Google News, LiveJournal, Medium, Wordpress). Drawing on critical discourse analysis and Foucault's concepts of normalisation and discursive practice, the paper will problematise the often taken-for-granted gendered and racialised stereotypes related to Chinese physicality and health on social media sites. Implications for developing future research and teaching resources in critical media health literacy for young people on issues related to gender and equity will be provided. The results affect how we understand, represent, and discuss Chinese (young) people on social media sites, thereby how Chinese young people engage, construct, and perform their embodied identities in Western, English speaking societies.

This paper explores the impact of gender on the employment of men in early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres through the voices of male and female early childhood teachers (ECTs) working in China. Gender imbalance in the ECEC workforce is a global phenomenon, and there has been little research about it in countries such as China. This study was based on online interviews with 16 ECTs from three major cities in China. Findings indicated that ECTs' perceptions conformed largely with traditional gender stereotypes in Chinese culture. Western expectations that men's participation in ECEC could challenge traditional gender stereotypes and promote gender diversity were not reflected in either Chinese academic literature reviewed or the participants' views captured in this research. The appreciation of masculinity in Chinese culture and implied disadvantages are considered within a global context of empowering women and girls.

This article aims to study both similarities and differences in female students' creativity between Mainland China and Taiwan. As two main aspects influencing creativity, playfulness and humor are especially focused on in this comparative study. Empirical data were collected from 831 students in Mainland China and 703 students in Taiwan. Based on data analysis, we find common characteristics, gender differences, and regional differences in the creativity of female postgraduate students. The female students in both regions are less confident in their abilities in scientific research and innovative behavior than males. The female students in Mainland China are less confident in playfulness, humor, and creative life experience than their counterparts. The female students in Taiwan are more masculine than their counterparts in Mainland China.

This article presents a case for adopting a constructivist approach in the teaching of culture to federal, business and civilian personnel. In support of this argument, the author: (1) outlines the history of culture teaching as it progresses from behaviorist through cognitive to constructivist orientations; (2) argues that a constructivist paradigm is key to designing and delivering culture training that meets current U.S. security needs; and (3) illustrates how such a paradigm could be operationalized by analyzing a failed cross-cultural encounter and demonstrating how constructivist pre-departure training could have mitigated the negative outcomes. (Contains 7 tables, 1 figure and 2 notes.)

This study is designed to address aspects of self-regulation and self-efficacy as they relate to critical issues in the design and evaluation of online learning programs. It begins with a discussion of the rapid growth of distance learning programs at all levels and across virtually all disciplines of educational programming. Much of this discussion is based upon the findings of research into the effects of embedded strategies on promoting the use of self-regulated learning strategies (SRLS) in an online learning environment. And it discusses the ways in which the essential differences between face-to-face instruction and instruction through distance mechanisms relate to the readiness of individual learners to efficiently and effectively engage in learning, and key issues in instructional design.

The author investigated the relation between gender-role classifications and prosocial and antisocial behavior for 505 Chinese adolescents in grades 7 to 12. The author found that (a) boys were more antisocial than girls were, (b) there was no significant gender difference in prosocial behavior, (c) prosocial behavior was associated positively with both masculinity and femininity, (d) delinquent behavior was associated positively with masculinity, (e) gender-role classification that was consistent with one's biological gender (e.g., femininity in girls) was more salient in predicting one's prosocial behavior than was a gender-role classification that was not consistent with one's gender (e.g., femininity in boys), (f) delinquent behavior in the feminine group was significantly lower than it was in the other 3 gender-role groups (masculine, androgynous, undifferentiated), and (g) adolescents in the undifferentiated group tended to be less prosocial and fairly antisocial, and their social behavioral pattern was the least favorable among the four gender-role classifications. (Contains 3 tables.)

Examines the relationship between sex role orientation and self-esteem in a study of Chinese high school students. Includes the following self-esteem domains: (1) academic; (2) appearance; (3) physical ability; (4) social; and (5) general. Results generally support the masculinity model. (JS)

This study employs a critical feminist perspective to investigate the experiences of male primary school student teachers in practicum schools in China. It aims to delve into and bring to light the intricate challenges they face when navigating their gender and professional identity. The findings reveal that the prevailing discourses surrounding primary school teacher professionalism, cultural perceptions of masculinity in China, and the scarcity of male teacher peers collectively influence the male student teachers' negotiation of their gender and professional identity. The study proposes the adoption of a more inclusive and culturally responsive pedagogy within teacher training programmes, with the recognition of teacher training as a means to attain long-term gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the discursive production of "there are more 0s (bottoms) than 1s (tops)" in a mediated environment, and its implications on gay communities. It explores why many Chinese gay men perceive it as a "sexual truth." Based on ethnographic research from 2017 to 2021, I argue that this popular discourse is produced by the higher threshold to qualify as a 1 than a 0. The unequal threshold prevents many men from self-identifying, and, more importantly, being recognized as a 1. In addition, the wide circulation of this discourse has intensified effeminophobia, and led to unequal sexual opportunities for gay men based on their embodied masculinities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals' lives depend heavily on their freedom, which is why they may respond with reactance if freedom is threatened. Our research, which spans four studies with 1,486 Chinese students as participants, from the perspective of psychological reactance theory, provides evidence that positive gender stereotypes can provoke targets' negative reactions. In Study 1, participants who heard a speaker state a positive gender stereotype (e.g., "women are beautiful" and "men are strong") disliked the speaker more, believed that the speaker was more gender prejudiced, and experienced stronger negative emotions than those who heard no stereotype. In Studies 2−4, freedom threat was a crucial mediator in the relation between the positive gender stereotype and targets' negative reactions. Furthermore, depersonalization also played a parallel mediating role. Although positive gender stereotypes seem superficially complimentary, they may have detrimental effects on interpersonal relations. Our research suggests that people should refrain from using stereotypes in their interpersonal interactions whenever possible. Even though people may sometimes inevitably convey positive stereotypes to others, they should be given the freedom to minimize the negative consequences of such stereotypes. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/DOI: 10.1177/03616843241242711 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of an international trend of increased paternal involvement in caregiving and a national setting in which the role of disciplinarian and authoritarian are still centralized, the main aim of the current study is to investigate the paternal masculinities of contemporary Chinese fathers. Based on interviews with 30 urban Chinese fathers, our results reveal that paternal masculinity can be understood in contemporary Chinese society as a hybrid version encompassing caring masculinities, but also aspects of protective masculinity and/or masculine care. Our participants perceived themselves as caring fathers who were physically and emotionally involved in routine caregiving activities and who provided companionship for their children, which embodies the traits of caring masculinity. At the same time, some fathers also emphasized their roles as good providers, whereas others highlighted their roles as gender role models, whilst some stressed all three dimensions. By embracing these different elements simultaneously, urban Chinese fathers both confirm and challenge traditional notions of masculinity, but through enacting this hybrid form of masculinity they perpetuate the system of gender inequality in a new and softer way. The findings from this study expand our understanding of hybrid masculinity and masculine care from a local perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Masculinity is validated as a protective factor in mental health for gay population. However, potential mediators between masculinity and mental health remain unclear. Mindfulness, as one of the individual's traits has been proved to play an essential role on mental health. Yet the correlation between mindfulness and masculinity has barely been examined, and whether mindfulness could serve as a key mediator to explain the protective effect masculinity bringing to mental health for gay men remains unknown. To test this hypothesis, we recruited 210 gay men in China to conduct online questionnaires containing scales of FFMQ, BSRI, DASS-21 and demographic features. Based on mediation analysis, we found among gay men, mindfulness significantly mediates the negative relationship between masculinity and stress (SIE (standardized indirect effect) = −.20, 95% CI [–.28 −.11]), anxiety (SIE = −.17, 95% CI [–.26 −.09]) and depression (SIE = −.20, 95% CI [–.29 −.11]). Furthermore, by decomposing sub-dimensions of mindfulness, we found both "describing" and "acting with awareness" exhibit significant mediation effects between masculinity and mental distress. We further found "being analytical", one key sub-dimension of masculinity, positively correlates with mindful describing (r =.369, p <.001). Our results indicate that trait mindfulness serves as a core mediator between masculinity and mental health, the key trait in masculinity (being analytical) closely connects with the essential element of mindfulness (describing) and low in masculinity might undermine gay men's abilities of acting with awareness (staying focused). Our findings may also shed light on developing gay men-aimed mindfulness-based clinical interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of literature shows that adherence to some aspects of Western masculinity norms, including the suppression of emotional vulnerability, avoidance of seeking support from others, and exaggerated physical toughness, is associated with poorer psychological and social outcomes. While existing research suggests that parental gender beliefs and caregiving behaviors might influence the development of children's gendered behaviors, little is known about the developmental origins of individual differences in adherence to masculinity norms. The current study aims to address this gap and presents a longitudinal investigation of how parental gender beliefs and maternal sensitivity during infancy contribute to children's adherence to masculinity norms during middle childhood. Data were drawn from a mixed-method 9-year longitudinal study of 374 urban Chinese families (48.40% with daughters). Parental gender beliefs were assessed at 24 months, maternal sensitivity was assessed with mother–child interaction observations at 14 and 24 months, and children's self-reported adherence to masculinity norms were assessed at age 10 years. Results indicate that while parental gender beliefs had no associations with children's adherence to masculinity norms, maternal sensitivity predicted children's adherence to masculinity norms (β = −.18, p =.008) above and beyond parental gender beliefs and parental education level; moreover, there was a significant interaction of sex on the effect of maternal sensitivity on children's adherence to masculinity (β = −.23, p =.025), and the association was significant only for boys. Public Significance Statement: This is the first longitudinal study to examine the developmental influence of parenting sensitivity and gender beliefs on boys' and girls' adherence to masculinity norms. Results demonstrate that sensitive parenting may have long-term protective effects on boys' adherence to harmful gender norms and represent a pathway for intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on three-month online participant observation in "Jie Se Ba," a male-dominated pornography abstinence forum with 6 million users, this article explores how low-status men in China recode the requirements of Chinese individualisation by using China's traditional ethics in order to make individualisation accessible to themselves. I examine their aspirations as desiring selves, their means of self-mastery and the community culture they have established. Due to a lack of financial power, educational background, and cultural resources, members of this group disengage from mainstream desires for financial success and middle-class-style self-fashioning practices. Instead, by appropriating traditional Chinese sexual ethics, they set more modest family-centred aspirations and adopt jiese, or masturbation abstinence, as a means of practicing self-mastery to build their striving selves. In their efforts to integrate themselves into Chinese individualisation, they accept and express a set of conservative gender-sex and familial ethics. This article argues that such a situation is caused, at root, by a social mechanism within Chinese individualisation that restricts, excludes and stigmatises low-status groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative research aimed to examine stigma of male IPV survivors in Hong Kong and Taiwan context, in particular, three aspects: 1) anticipated stigma and stigma internalization; 2) interplay of hegemony masculinity and cultural stigma in relation to violence against men; 3) their journey of from living in stigma to transforming stigma. 17 Chinese male IPV survivors were recruited both from Hong Kong and Taiwan, who had been in a heterosexual intimate relationship for at least 6 months. Through in-depth interviews, the issues of male IPV survivors facing oppressive forces from societal world views on hegemonic masculinity, their journey of living in stigma, their proactive deconstruction of stigma identity, and the further transformation of their new identity of masculinity are found in this research. This research could lead to recommendations for practitioners and policy makers regarding strategies to support male IPV survivors to live in a nonstigmatized social world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Men are traditionally portrayed as being successful in sports, and male teachers in physical activities are portrayed as successful teachers. How do female teachers perceive the gender role of kindergarten teachers in early childhood physical activities? Using hegemonic masculinity theory as an analytical tool, semi-structured interviews with female public kindergarten teachers from four cities in Zhejiang Province, China were conducted. The study found that although most Chinese female teachers had traditional gender stereotypes about the role of physical activity teachers in kindergartens, these gender stereotypes were not firmly established. As the questions were contextualized and deepened, thinking about the deeper elements of early childhood physical activity was activated. They did not seem to believe that women were incapable of leading young children in physical activities, nor did they believe that women were not important in ideal early childhood physical activities. By deconstructing the male-only nature of 'hegemonic masculinity', they reconstructed the masculinity that children need in early childhood physical activities and constructed a more equal concept of teachers' gender in early childhood physical activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial introduces a themed section that focuses on the production of gender discourse and representations in the midst of tightening social and cultural control in China's entertainment industry and digital media landscape. In various ways, the two articles featured case studies that exemplify how the production of gender discourses and representations in this context emerges from the interplay of state control, the market, and the digital realm and unfolds against the rise of platform capitalism and techno-nationalism. Both articles center on the intricate and sometimes contradictory configurations of gender within China's state-market nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entertainment industry is driven to sell certain commodities transnationally, particularly in a world where borders are becoming increasingly diffused through the access afforded by the Internet. Media content is easily consumed, making cultural exporting fast and easy. Similar tropes and plot have been replicated in the East Asian film and TV industry, perhaps in hopes of replicating the success. This paper looks at the manufacture of ideal masculinities within East Asia, particularly China. From ex-members of K-pop group EXO to the successful TV series, cross-influence of East Asian popular culture is prominent. Through this paper, I look at the influence of K-dramas on the Chinese TV industry and particularly the manufacturing of a militarized masculinity on Chinese TV. Far from portraying brute and fearsome soldiers, ideal masculinity on TV is portrayed as "steely exterior but gentle internally" and thus desirable romantic partners to heterosexual women. By exploring the basic conception of Chinese masculinity, I then discuss representations of militarized masculinity on the silver screen (Wolf Warrior II) and C-dramas, with particular focus on the series, You Are My Hero (2021). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canglanjue, a xianxia web series about the forbidden love between a fairy and a devil, attracted widespread media attention during the summer of 2022. This series offers a therapeutic space about ideal romance for female audiences by incorporating fantastical elements with the burgeoning ethos of ideal masculinity and female empowerment. Through the conceptual lens of neo/non-liberal China, this article examines how Canglanjue's therapeutic value is intertwined with both "Confucian structures of feeling" as well as contemporary China's emotional authoritarianism. It is argued that xianxia romance is not merely a utopian ideal distinct from materialistic romance but rather a cultural production that contributes to contemporary China's therapeutic governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay offers a timely analysis of how the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian warfare is observed in China through a gendered prism. Accounting for an anti-West axis in China's current political climate, we articulate how misogyny and nationalism converge in Chinese social media users' discussions about the military crisis currently unfolding in East Europe. This is revealed by a vulgar interpretation of the Russo-Ukrainian relationship and the sexualisation of Ukrainian/Russian women, which are both widespread in the Chinese-language social media sphere. With the patriarchal specificities of the Party-State polity in mind, the discussion yields a feminist perspective to foreground China's nationalist politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shift in China's national economy from industrial manufacturing to technology and IT has placed constraints on the lives of rural-to-urban male migrant workers from the lower social strata. As the pace of out-migration in China slows, male rural returnees are harnessing self-reliant masculinities to reclaim status and heighten a sense of collective pride in and affiliation with their natal village. Centering on two ethnographic case studies of Dong ethnic minority male rural returnees in the autonomous district of Guizhou Province, the analysis in this article contributes to critique on the recent unfolding of the state-led "crisis of masculinity" to highlight the wider socioeconomic conditions that continue to deepen the inequalities and felt anxieties of male rural returnees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With sport becoming increasingly mediatized in the global arena that further criss-crosses with the promotion of globalization and Western discourses surrounding manhood and identities, there has been, in contemporary China, a rise of alternate theorizations of masculinities that deviate from hegemonic masculine practices surrounding 'wen' (文) and 'wu' (武) as well as Maoist ideologies. While such accounts, focusing on demonstrating individuality and individualization, cultivating entrepreneurial spirit and possessing wealth, career success and conspicuous consumption, advocate for a greater understanding of masculinities that call for the diversity and fluidity of Chinese gender roles and male identities, there has also been a revival of traditional masculine ideologies associated with the Chinese Dream, a doctrine established and conveyed by President Xi Jinping, which seeks to highlight China's quest for modernization and national power while placing 'wu' masculine values and culture at the forefront of its agenda. Against such a backdrop, this article, drawing on interviews with and observations of male badminton athletes from Mainland Chinese provincial professional and university teams, argues that, in contemporary China, both traditional and newly emerged masculine values and endeavours are integral to the theorization of masculinities of Chinese men, which are contended to be multiple, pluralized and individualized. With a dearth of academic literature that focuses on the co-presence of and inter-relationships between traditional and new masculinities which are embodied by modern Chinese men, this paper contributes renewed theoretical insights into how the various forms of masculinities coexist, intermix and, ultimately, negotiate with one another to reconstruct Chinese contemporary masculinities, in line with the gender order and hierarchy so upheld within China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health problem worldwide. IPV-related perceptions and attitudes are linked to IPV's actual perpetration and related victimization. There is a typical gender paradigm in IPV, wherein women are victims and men are perpetrators, which influences judgments toward IPV. Some socio-cultural norms or unjust notions of gender are also intertwined with this paradigm and influence perceptions of IPV. This study explored judgments and attributions of IPV in the Chinese context while extensively considering directionality, gender stereotypes, and ambivalent sexism by surveying 887 participants online. Participants read 1 of 12 scenarios and made judgments and attributions of responsibility regarding IPV. The results indicate that hostile sexism is negatively correlated with IPV perception but positively correlated with its justification. The direction of perpetration and gender stereotypicality had some main effects on judgments of IPV, and there were some interactions between these factors. The perception level of IPV involving a traditional male partner was higher when the man was the perpetrator or when his female partner was traditional. In the unidirectional IPV scenarios, the perpetrators were judged as significantly more responsible than the victims, while in the bidirectional IPV scenarios, men were judged as significantly more responsible than women. Moreover, the relationship between gender stereotypicality and responsibility attributions to female partners was significantly moderated by benevolent sexism (BS). Participants with a high level of BS tended to attribute less responsibility to traditional women than non-traditional women in bidirectional IPV scenarios. Future studies on IPV should pay attention to the influence of directionality and gender stereotypes. More efforts ought to be made to reduce IPV and overcome gender role stereotypes and sexism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequent consumption of sexually explicit material (SEM) on the internet may influence attitudes toward sex (e.g., sociosexuality), and sociosexuality may influence people's preferences for potential partners' facial dimorphism. However, few studies have focused on the association between dimorphism preference and pornography consumption, and fewer have examined it in heterosexual‐identifying and homosexual‐identifying men. A total of 234 heterosexual‐identifying and 133 homosexual‐identifying men were asked to respond to questions regarding their preferences toward facial dimorphism, sociosexual orientation, and frequency of viewing SEM. Frequency of SEM consumption was related to sociosexuality and preference for potential partners' sex‐typical facial features, sociosexuality worked as a full mediator in this relationship, and similar mediating associations were found among heterosexual‐identifying and homosexual‐identifying men. The results identified associations between consumption of pornographic material and sexual dimorphic preference for the first time. Findings suggest not only that homosexual‐identifying men prefer masculinity in same‐sex partners but also that the sexual script theory that pornographic material consumption may influence men's short‐term relationship orientation among sexual minorities and under a conservative sexual culture. This study contributes to the understanding of the preference for facial dimorphism from a perspective on social learning and mate choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space and bodies have been conceptualized as products and producers of social relations. They are woven together to shape identities, belongings, and cultures. This paper links culture to the mutual construction of space and bodies to spatialize the embodied lives of rural Chinese boys. Stories from a qualitative study of two middle schools illustrate how these rural boys experience embodied exclusions during the making of a learning space. These students also redefine the dominant meaning of the school space through an embodied-discursive construction of their lives. They shift their interests away from academic learning and move to emphasize social knowledge that focuses on social relations and social abilities. However, their re-appropriation of the space is interpreted as a gendered expression of noncooperation, which leads to their further marginalization within the academic-oriented space. This analysis examines in which body and which space is the rural boys' resistance produced. Turning to spatiality and embodiment provides an alternative interpretation of the counter-school culture of rural Chinese boys, which helps us more fully recognize the need for re-placing rural bodies in the Chinese education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper investigates the commonalities and differences of contemporary feminist theories by proffering a comprehensive comparative analysis of the Western feminist agenda and Chinese woman's concerns in relation to the philosophical discourse on global justice. Interpretation of feminist accounts delineates the persistent gender inequalities presented by Western feminist thinkers, such as Maria Lugones, Elizabeth Spelman, and Sally Haslanger, while highlighting the historical and constitutional approach to understanding the roots of gender distinctions and norms in Chinese culture through the philosophies of Ruism, Daoism, and Buddhism, as well as the Civil Code of marriage. Reflection assesses the extent of translatability concerning feminist matters given the dissimilar social contexts and political circumstances between China and the United States. This paper draws attention to the need for embracing the historical and cultural heterogeneity of grievances of women from all over the world to acknowledge the cross- and multi-cultural conditions regarding the life prospects of both men and women. Such initiatives encourage mutual engagement in promulgating the multiplicity of feminist voices to prompt more productive conversations about the identities and meanings of masculinity and femininity instead of expecting or imposing a universal consolidation of woman's experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the emergence of soft masculinity has incited much controversy in China, little research attention has been given to the discussion about the effeminate Chinese masculinity in the news media featuring public opinions at the national level. To fill this gap, this study employed critical discourse analysis to investigate the dominant discourses surrounding the "Prevention of Feminisation of Male Teenagers" debate and its ideological implications in the Chinese-language news media. The findings show that the media constructed anti-feminine discourse, nationalistic discourse, and anti-gender stereotype discourse with ideological implications for patriarchy, nationalism, and egalitarianism via various discursive strategies, specifically abstraction, authorisation, categorisation, morality, and rationalisation. This study sheds light on the diverse voices and concerns of the emergence of soft masculinity that have not been given much attention in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In China, betel nut users were initially concentrated in specific regions and ethnic groups. However, in recent years, public health concerns have been raised because betel nuts, addictive substances, have become largely used by Chinese migrant workers. Methods: This study adopts an anthropological fieldwork research methodology to investigate the rise in betel nut consumption among Chinese migrant workers. We observe the everyday lives of migrant workers in the rural-urban area of Wuhan. We use in-depth interviews to understand their psychology and behaviors toward betel nut consumption. Discussion: The study's results indicate that the observed increase in betel nut consumption among migrant workers is not only the result of the spread of betel nuts across regions and groups, but more importantly, it is related to the working and living conditions, social interaction, consumption culture, and masculinity image of migrant workers. The consumption of betel nuts reflects the political-economic structure and socio-cultural background to which Chinese migrant workers belong. Conclusion: The increasing consumption of betel nuts is a social issue that requires thorough research and government engagement. We contend that anthropology research may help identify the social mechanisms incentivizing betel nut consumption and solve the related public health issues among Chinese migrant workers from public policy and social governance perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have established China's pro-mediation policies in policing domestic violence public security offense cases. However, the mediation process remains obscure. This ethnographic study revealed that officers adopted a gender-based morality to press female and male victims into accepting mediation. Specifically, the police moralized victims' choices and urged male victims to forgive their wives to protect their masculinity while asking female victims to forgive their husbands to protect their children's well-being. This work advances the scholarship on domestic violence intervention by showing how such a gendered policing strategy disempowers victims of both genders and results in another form of victim-blaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the dangai phenomenon and the web series Word of Honor (WoH), this paper investigates the entanglement of neoliberal management of queer desires, authoritarian regulation of consumer-citizenship, and traffic in various forms of nationalism. Creating an ambient space for queer agency, danmei practices is often regarded as utilizing queer "opacity" as liberatory strategy to outfox the state and societal constraints on non-normative gender and sexuality. Yet the dangai industry in the People's Republic of China (PRC) shows that the economization of queerness finds "opaque" ways to profit through managing risk and anxiety of "missing out" even when a state explicitly censors queer commodities. Situating WoH in the "she economy," the paper demonstrates the ways in which queer potential dangai is cahooted with neoliberal and authoritarian state imperatives for fostering proper gendered consumer-subjects and heteronormative social harmony for national building through embracing the "beautiful, powerful" but "caring and loving" nuan nan ("warm men"). Drawing connections between the newly constructed soft masculinity and other cultural exports such as the "wolf warrior," the paper argues that dangai allows the militant masculinity to be "homonationalized" in service of rebranding Chinese nationalism in a time when Chinese global expansion is fiercely criticized on the global stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 15 years, Chinese videogames and fan communities have become a site where state-sanctioned gender norms are reproduced, altered and challenged. This article analyzes the representation of masculinity in the MMORPG Jian 3 and how fan-fiction writers transform this representation. The videogame predominantly evokes soft masculinity, a sexually ambiguous form of masculinity that represents men with traditionally feminine characteristics but not as explicitly homosexual. Much of the fan-fiction removes this ambiguity, transforming the game's soft masculinity into an explicit form of homosexual masculinity. This diminished ambiguity has political valence in the Chinese context, where national identity is intertwined with a specific form of heterosexual masculinity. The fan-fictions serve to disentangle the relationship between nationalism and masculinity by advancing an alternative form of masculinity and decoupling it from the national project. These two textual strategies – the advancing of a homosexual form of masculinity and the decoupling of masculinity and nationalism – are present in other Chinese games and their fan-fictions, and indeed can be found in other media forms too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupational gender inequalities are an important sociological concern. Studies on men in female-dominated occupations, such as nursing, have offered rich insights to advance our understanding of gender dynamics in contemporary society. However, current theoretical and empirical accounts have been mostly dominated by Westernized discussions. Utilizing insights from critical studies on men and masculinities, alongside Chinese masculinities studies, this article seeks to enrich the discourse by examining the working experiences of 12 Chinese male nurses in a city hospital. It identifies a culturally specific stigma faced by filial Chinese men. It unravels the masculinity strategies and gender capital, and their effects, used by Chinese male nurses to defend their ability and contributions. It reveals the difficulties and paradoxes arising when men negotiate new hegemonic masculine ideals in post-socialist China. This article provides a nuanced understanding of non-Western masculinities and insights into practices that have been used to sustain male dominance in female-dominated and emotionally demanding jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the tension between public gender expressions and official regulations in mainland China. Utilizing a critical discourse analysis, we investigate a transition in state-initiated criticism and censorship against the danmei genre and male effeminacy. Focusing on the pandemic period, we use official regulations and state media feature articles as data, 'reticent / han-xu ' politics as a grounding theoretical basis, and statements from mainstream media platforms as secondary resources. We argue that han-xu politics functions as the Chinese party-state's strategic response to a perceived 'crisis of masculinity'. They first invisibilize and marginalize soft masculinities, and if this is not effective, then suppress and prohibit cultural forms that violate hegemonic masculinity, which works to perpetuate the hetero-patriarchal social-familial system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study based on 34 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with cis-gendered tongzhi (men who are attracted to men) critically explores the factors influencing their decisions to enter mixed-orientation marriages (MOMs) in China. Theoretically, the study weaves together insights from queer and feminist theorizing and analyzes the role of heteronormativity and patriarchy, especially in relation to hegemonic masculine ideals, in the context of marriage norms in contemporary China. Our examination showcases the contradictory role heteronormativity and patriarchy play in simultaneously marginalizing and privileging these groups of men along the axes of sexual, gender, and lineage (inter-generational) hierarchies. It also underscores the continued role of filial piety norms. Overall, the study contributes to deepening our understanding of the complex nature of MOMs and discussions of MOMs as marriage fraud. We argue that examining these non-normative marriages furthers explication of the social structures underpinning gender and sexuality in a context of patriarchal marriage-normative societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the gender undertone of China's nationalist discourses, especially in familial metaphors of nationalism, and how such an undertone shapes people's understandings of state authority and state‐citizen relations. Conventional nationalist discourse of the 'motherland' evokes the image of an insulted and raped mother as the symbol of national humiliation and calls for actions from patriots (masculinised in the discourse). In recent years, however, we have seen the emergence of a new discourse that depicts the nation‐state as a rich, powerful and masculine 'daddy'. Using discourse analysis and Foucauldian genealogical methods, this article argues that the discursive development has to be analysed against China's historical backgrounds, especially considering new standards of masculinity and femininity in the era of economic reform. Capital is equated to masculinity and righteousness, whereas femininity is shaped by the middle‐class values of consumerism and political disengagement. The 'daddy state' discourse conjures strong paternalistic power from China's economic capacity that can be projected onto challengers of state authority, while also constructing the nationalist public as feminised consumers whose consumerist enjoyment relies on patriarchal state protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study contributes to the inconclusive literature on the relationship between board gender diversity (BGD) and green innovation (GI). It empirically examines the moderating role of normative, mimetic and coercive pressures in the relationship between BGD and GI, derived from an industry‐specific isomorphic exhibition of institutional theory. Appertaining to A‐share listed firms of China, the findings highlight the moderating effect of masculinity, environmental sensitivity, environmental regulation level and export orientation of an industry on the said relationship. Moreover, the coercive isomorphism exhibits pronounced impact with the intensity of export orientation. However, firms associated with high‐tech industries have not been confirmed for significant effect on the relationship. Thus, the findings imply that the dynamics of the corporate governance and institutional isomorphism in case of BGD and GI relationships, in the organisational field of industry, are likely both pertinent and prevalent. Moreover, the increase in the number of females on the corporate boards could enhance the green performance of a firm, subject to the fulfilment of industry specific boundary conditions, predefined by the unique set of industry specific institutional pressures. These pressures amid affiliation with a specific industry should be evaluated and controlled for, on the bases of coercive, normative, and mimetic isomorphism it hatches, to device an optimum composition of the corporate board. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 matrimonial chances. In doing so, this paper extends the literature on taste regimes by moving beyond its typically Western focus. It directs attention to an aspirational taste regime that capitalizes on young men's aspirations for idealized masculinities and prescribes a seemingly effortless but in fact highly curated online presentation of cultural-capital-oriented consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the context of gender diversity, the concept of heterosexuality is also changing, emerging as a diversified sexual orientation and identity. This study aims to challenge the orthodoxy about heterosexuality by exploring the psychosocial characteristics and attitudes toward "fourth love" in China. Two studies initially explored the current status of fourth love as a sexual minority. In Study 1, The Sex-Role Inventory and the Marital Attitude Scale were used to assess fourth-love (N = 144) and traditionally heterosexual participants' (N = 145) gender roles and marriage attitudes. In study 2, the Attitudes Toward the Fourth Love Scale was developed to assess college students' (N = 315) attitudes toward fourth-love men and women. Fourth-love women often identify with masculine gender roles and significant differences were found between fourth-love and traditionally heterosexual women their gender roles. Fourth-love men identified with a neutral gender role, while there are significant differences between fourth-love men and traditionally heterosexual women in masculine gender roles. Fourth-love people's marriage attitudes were more negative than those of traditionally heterosexual people, especially for women. Various demographic factors influenced college students' attitudes toward the fourth love. As a sexual minority within the umbrella of heterosexuality in China, fourth-love individuals require further research attention and increased support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]