The discursive construction of identity in chinese english bilingual advertising a critical inquiry 7

CHAPTER THE PORTRAY OF GENDER This chapter shifts to examine gender identities of Chinese men and women (re)presented and gender relations between them embedded in the data Gender, noted previously, is a social concept undergoing transformation over time and across cultures Constructed in the domain of Chinese-English bilingual advertising, gender identities and gender relations might have been varied rather than be fixed, if following Bucholtz’s perception that “as new social resources become available, language users enact and produce new identities, themselves temporary and historical, that assign new meanings to gender” (1999: 20; cf Piller 2001: 153) In this study, English is presumed to have provided the advertisers of China with a great deal of opportunities to enact, create, and index new identities that assign new meanings to masculinity and femininity in contemporary China By conceptualizing gender in terms of the reciprocally constituted and historically variable, the focus of the chapter on gender in relation to the use of English, then, raises at least three questions: (1) Does gender difference and inequality continue to be repackaged, or have they been greatly undermined or even transformed with the use of English?; (2) how gender systems in the local community of China are reciprocally related, in multiple and shifting ways, to other modes of cultural and political organization under the circumstances of globalization?; and (3) how gender relations are normalized and legitimized with the aid of English usage and what ideologies are at work in this process? Alternatively phrased, by examining the construction of gender identities, the main task of this chapter is to address the questions of whether, and how, gender relations in contemporary China have been discursively articulated, maintained, undermined, or transformed through or in relation to the use of English 192 These questions, as outlined in Chapter 5, will be answered by looking closely at the discourses of technology and beauty advertising In linking the construction of gender identities to such products being advertised, the assumption, as noted earlier, is that the gender identification of a product is equated with the construction of gender Thus, the analysis that follows often proceeds from a set of prescriptive norms or gender stereotypes that makes up the “social force” and “social structures” Fairclough (1989) talks about, against which further discussion is made about whether new forms of gender roles have emerged or been emerging In what follows I begin by presenting the predominant stereotypes of masculinity and gender roles of men I analyze, then, in detail the depictions of traditional, subordinate women and new, partially emancipated women, which is followed with a brief discussion of gender ideologies at work 7.1 The Portrayal of Men The quantitative evidence has already revealed that masculine identities cannot be observed among the beauty advertisements, so the construction of masculinity is examined by concentrating exclusively on the technological advertisements Gender roles of men in contemporary China overall rely on conventional notions of masculinity One of idiosyncratic features among the advertisements is that many technological products have social attributes typically ascribed to men, including toughness, competition, risk-taking, and violence that are classically associated with meaningful aspects of aggression, a defining feature of masculinity (Connell 1995) In this context, the term “aggression” is defined in a broader sense; not only does it refer to assertion of the self or forcefulness, a way of acting closely related to male stereotypes like active and assertive, but equally to competitive, dangerous, and vigorous practices In addition to the theme of aggressive and violent masculinity, the supremacy of males 193 continues to be perpetual The social status or prestige of men is implicitly featured higher than women as before 7.1.1 Aggressive and violent men Males are socially expected to be aggressive and violent because of the link of maleness with the positively sanctioned use of aggression and violence (Connell 1995) The need to differentiate the masculine from the feminine by asserting masculinity in the form of aggression and violence chiefly accounts for the ubiquitous representations of aggression and violence There are a number of technological advertisements shaping and reinforcing this hegemonic discourse of masculinity by consciously connecting certain technological products to this norm and value of masculinity The masculine identification of a product has much to with, and is influenced much by, the use of particular English words But this way of representing aggressive and violent masculinity is not as common as expected Among the headlines and slogans of the technological advertisements, only a few set “competition”, “toughness”, or “vigour” as the core of their presentation: Blood of racing (Eneos) Full-blooded (Oris) The power of dreams (Honda) The Power to Surprise (Kia) Toughness beyond all limits (Casio) As will be pointed out at the end of this section, aggression and violence are usually connected to the western men Given difference in expressing potential conceptual meaning, the English words are much more appropriate than their possible Chinese equivalents in presenting these masculine values For an illustration, let us look at the advertisement for Oris watch presented in Figure 7.1 The headline reading “Full-blooded” conveys a number of conceptual meanings, including genuine, purebred, and vigorous and vital, all of which cannot be 194 covered individually by its possible Chinese equivalents: zhengzhong de “ 正宗的 ” (lit genuine), chunzhong de “纯种的” (lit purebred), qiangyouli de “强有力的” (lit vigorous), or jinglichongpei de “ 精 力 充 沛 的 ” (lit vital) When used independently, full-blooded furthermore often describes behaviour and action that are carried out with great commitment and enthusiasm, thereby promoting an impression of high responsibility and passion Figure 7.1 The ad for Oris watch Aside from the one-word headline, the copy features the English slogan “ORIS Swiss Made Watches Since 1904”, eight small illustrations of motor racing, and the close up of the sample product Historically belonging to male territory, motor racing evokes an abstract frame of MOTOR RACING with the actor of male motorcyclists, the properties of being dangerous, competitive, tough and vigorous, and the emotional reward of excitement In the MOTOR RACING frame, motorists is a role for the value male, and the masculine properties count as a value for the role motorists Based on this, the word full-blooded partially encapsulates the fundamental nature of motor racing 195 With the indication of the country of origin and history, the Oris worldwide slogan, then, evokes the cognitive model of the Oris featuring long history and super quality In the ORIS frame, the properties of long history and super quality are a value for the role the Oris Given its symbolic meaning, the English presentation for the slogan is more appropriate for activating the ORIS frame than its Chinese translation By this, it is reasonable to argue that full-blooded also carries the literal meanings of purebred and genuine describing the Oris The word full-blooded explicitly points to the blend Its effect is to build the connection between two separate spaces: the MOTOR RACING frame and the ORIS frame, that are selected as two input spaces in the conceptual integration network, as given in Figure 7.2 The Motor Racing space Male motorists Dangerous Competitive The Full-Blooded space The Oris space Purebred The Oris Genuine Long history Vigorous Super quality Exciting Vigorous Tough Exciting Male motorist Dangerous The Oris Competitive Long history Vigorous Super quality Tough The blended space Figure 7.2 A simplified network diagram of the Oris blend 196 Considering the inner-space Role-Value relation shared by each space and the connection between them set up by full-blooded, a cross-space mapping allows us to assign a new value to the Oris by referring to the value of motorists In the blend emerges one unique version of the Oris having the masculine properties of being dangerous, competitive, tough, and vigorous What is clear now is that the advertisement sets men as potential consumers The appropriateness of full-blooded for describing the gender stereotype of motor racing in terms of vigour is the evidence showing the important role full-blooded plays in verbally assigning to the Oris the masculine property of vigour Yet developed from the blend is evenly clear of the construction of aggressive masculinity being the consequence of full-blooded in collaboration with the illustrations of motor racing Figure 7.3 The ad for Casio G-Shock watch series 197 In much the same way as in the Oris advertisement, the construction of aggressive masculinity in the advertisement for Casio G-Shock watch is closely associated with the use of the English word “toughness” alongside the images of racing cars Reproduced in Figure 7.3, English occurs mainly in the headline “TOUGHNESS beyond all LIMITS” that speaks favourably of the masculine norm of being tough in terms of its overcoming all limits, producing a sense of success A new structure of the Cause-Effect relation between toughness and success yields in the HEADLINE blend At the same time, TOUGHNESS has much correspondence with the gender stereotype of motorists in the MOTOR RACING frame evoked by the images of racing cars That is to say, TOUGHNESS alone is enough to activate all the conceptual meanings of determination, strength, violence, and so on, while its possible Chinese translations: julie “剧烈” (lit violent; fierce), cubao “粗 暴” (lit brutal), or qiangying “强硬” (lit strong) have to work together for the same result This explains the significance of the use of TOUGHNESS for meaning construction The HEADLINE blend and the MOTOR RACING frame are selected as two input spaces to the blend and toughness, the identical element building the connection between them (See Figure 7.4) Based on the inner-space Cause-Effect relation derivable from the HEADLINE input space, toughness is singled out as one valuable element necessary for motorists to overcome all limits in race After having exemplified the important role the use of English has in representing the masculine values of aggression and violence, attention now turns to the commonest way that simply connects the technological products to sport Sport features heavily in the technological advertisements -11 out of 26 watch advertisements, 24 among 40 auto advertisements, out of 15 computer advertisements, and out of 13 TV advertisements are all designed with at least one visual image related to sports activities The link of a product with sport according to Whitson (1990) is one of prominent ways in constructing aggressive and violent masculinity As a highly potent site for constructing masculine 198 identity, sporting practices are overwhelmingly associated with tough, competitive often violent and sometimes dangerous practices combined with the rejection of that which is associated with femininity (Wright & Clarke 1999: 229) Types of sports predominant include bicycling, football, motor racing, rock climbing, skiing, surfing, and wrestling, which, unlike figure skating and gymnastics defined by aesthetic factors, stereotypically belong to men Besides this, it is male rather than female that is overwhelmingly shown in large size Clearly, dominant narratives still continue to privilege heterosexuality as the unquestioned norm, a framing long associated with sporting representations and the homophobic world of sport The Motor Racing space The Headline blend Male motorists Toughness (Cause) Dangerous Competitive Success (Effect) Vigorous Tough Exciting Tough/Toughness Male motorists Competitive Success The blended space Figure 7.4 A simplified network diagram of the Casio blend 199 In such technological advertisements strongly featured sports, the use of English in the domains of headline and slogan only functions in the local framing that does not necessarily play an important role in the final representation of aggressive and violent masculinity This can be fruitfully demonstrated by taking another look at the Suzuki Jimny advertisement (see Figure 6.1) As discussed in the previous chapter, this advertisement mainly promotes passion and excitement, an index of modern life, through getting possession of a Jimny Yet, another noteworthy property of the Jimny as a SUV is its allusion to tough, sometimes possibly dangerous practices that are combined with norms and values of masculinity The masculine identification and appeal of the Jimny is reaffirmed and enhanced through its connection to football, a signifier of violent masculinity, by the visual information of football field Thus, despite the absence of a male model, football considerably connects the Jimny with manly needs and pursuits The image presented for the Jimny ends up as previous being stereotypically masculine, targeting men as potential consumers Behind this masculine image, of course, is the sociocultural assumption that a powerful vehicle like SUV is gendered From this point of view, we can say that the advertisement is a typical example shoring up the gender stereotype of SUV Referring back to the previous analysis of the constructive processes of emotional orientation closely related to the framing space of HIGH, it is reasonable to infer that the word High makes no contribution to the representation of this masculine image; neither is the slogan Way of Life Instead, it is the Chinese word “野” ye (lit wild) in the headline that has it fulfilled In a word, the portrayal of aggressive masculinity in the data is not always associated with the use of English Where men are designed as participants of sports, in the blend the construction of them as aggressive and violent is even more discernible and without necessarily being associated with the use of English The Audi A4 Sline advertisement is a case in point Figure 7.5 shows that a Sline speeds forward and to the left of it five black football players 200 in uniform seem to run and control the ball in the light of their pose The football players evoke an abstract frame of FOOTBALL with roles of actor, masculine value, and emotional reward Passion, as previously noted, is the emotional reward of this sport An inner-space Cause-Effect relation emerges in the FOOTBALL frame -passion is an effect of aggressive masculinity, the cause The option of black male as athletes in football, notably, sanctions not only the gender stereotype of football, reinforcing the identity of men as aggressive and violent, but also racist stereotypes of black men as violent in western culture (Hooks 2004) Figure 7.5 The ad for Audi A4 Sline The bilingual headline reads “激情 · 为奥运而动” jiqing wei ao’yun er dong (lit passion for the Olympics) and “Passion for movement” “ 激情 ” jiqing is the English translation equivalent of “passion” and jiqing wei ao’yun er dong means that passion is motivated for the Olympics The Sline is associated with the Olympics through the juxtaposition of the Audi emblem in the top right-hand corner with the symbol of 201 The representation of women as dominating can be best illustrated by the LG Xcanvas advertisement, shown in Figure 7.22 In the previous chapter examining the construction of success orientation in the advertisement for the same product (see Figure 6.12), I briefly discussed the relevant issues regarding the representation of successful men fostered through golf sport Interestingly enough, the phrase “TIME YOUR TIME” in this copy is now relocated into its text body Aside from this, the male model is replaced with Yang Lan, unanimously perceived as the model of successful career woman in mainland China for her enormous achievement in media industry The TV program, too, substitutes hurdle race for golf play But the gendered nature of hurdle race is sustained and reaffirmed through the leaping of a robust male athlete over hurdles at athletic track Figure 7.22 The ad for LG Xcanvas TV (II) 232 As discussed earlier, TIME YOUR TIME evokes a specific space of CONTROL with roles of actor (you), target (time), instrument (the LG Xcanvas), and degree (precisely up to second) The visual details here are essentially crucial for the activation of another specific CONTROL space that tempts us to argue that the female model is the actor of control over TV program To be specific, it is Yang Lan who holds the remote control With this technological apparatus, she not only claims some connection with the product, but is also empowered to exercise control over the ongoing program of hurdle race Through this way, Yang Lan, the hurdle race, and the remote control are assigned to the three roles -of actor, target, and instrument -in the PROGRAM CONTROL space An Analogy mapping takes place across the two CONTROL spaces -the Time Control and the Program Control In the local blended space diagrammed by Figure 7.23 emerges a new structure that Yang Lan imaginarily controls precisely up to second the process of hurdle race on show Because of the gender stereotype of hurdle race, the control over hurdle race in the blend can be further interpreted as the control over the male athlete This gender relation mediated through remote control, needless to say, is the reversal of stereotypical roles of men and women The gender relation is strengthened by the strategic visual designing With the smile of confidence on her face, Yang Lan stands upright and looks the viewer straight in the eye This visual information, as Goffman (1979) pointed out, signals her bringing the viewer under control The “demand” status (Kress & van Leeuwen 1996) is complemented and reinforced through the “protrusion of parts” of her body beyond the bottom confine of the copy (Cross 2006: 182) These visual details suggest that the female stereotype of being passive and subordinate is also by and large overthrown A YANG LAN space has an aggressive, dominating Yang Lan, as well as a successful career woman Due to the Identity relation, this space is connectable to the local blended space In the final blend, Yang Lan is depicted as aggressive and socially dominant in addition to being re-inscribed 233 as a professional within the frame of herself The significance of this advertisement perhaps lies in its evoking such an emancipated image and inspiring the fantasy in compatible with the social expectation of females The Time Control space The Program Control space You Yang Lan Time Hurdle race LG Xcanvas Remote Control Precise You/Yang Lan Yang Lan Time/Hurdle race Aggressive LG Xcanvas/Remote control Precise Dominant Male athlete Professional Dominant Successfu Yang Lan/Yang Lan Dominant/Dominant Male athlete Aggressive Professional The blended space Figure 7.23 A simplified network diagram of the LG Xcanvas II blend An image of aggressive and dominant women, however, is usually contradictorily combined with the representation of submissive and subordinate women, as significantly 234 proved by the Mio DigiWalker advertisement given in Figure 7.24 The promoted product, Mio DigiWalker, is especially powerful in locating position precisely, as overtly vocalized in the text body below the sample products The female model is certainly an eye-catcher due to the occupation of her back nearly up to the whole page On the back of the white top she wears is printed with the English verbal phrase “Don’t follow me” in bold black letters Close to this phrase on the right reads the Chinese interrogative “想去哪” xiang qu na (lit want to go where?), and the English imperative “Follow Mio DigiWalker” accompanied with three sample products in varying size What is interesting is that they all sound as if uttered by the female model herself in a conversational tone Figure 7.24 The ad for Mio DigWalker 235 The imperative Don’t follow me in its negative form is indicative of a blatant rejection The interrogative xiang qu na is not simply meant to inquire of the exact place the viewer intend to go; it also indicates the model’s assurance of their intention to go to some place With Follow Mio DigiWalker, the model is proclaiming herself as an expert giving the instructions on how to get the place they want to go Thus, these phrases individually evoke a REJECTION space, an INVITATION space, and a DIRECTIVE space The viewers are overall tapped into the notions of the female model verbally fighting back and resisting the conventional status of being passive and ordered When the conceptual elements of them are projected into the blend and fused there with each other, a new structure of aggressive, confident, and authoritative women will come to light This new image for women is to some extent enhanced by the visual information of the model striding on the street No doubt, this emergent structure is in conflict with the cognitive model of women This is a typical example of “gender crossing” (Thorne 1993) achieved by adopting the direct feature of masculine speech As such, the traditional portrayals of women seem to have been thoroughly overthrown and transformed into the emancipated one Of fundamental relevance, the literal meanings of the rejection and the directive expressed in and through English can be fruitfully accomplished by choosing, instead, their Chinese equivalents, “ 别 跟 我 ” bie gen wo (lit no follow me) and “ 去 跟 Mio DigiWalker” qu gen Mio DigiWalker (lit go to follow Mio DigiWalker) respectively Despite this, we cannot deny the difference between the English ones and their Chinese counterparts in terms of communicative effects The major difference is that the former could bring in certain pragmatic functions that the latter no doubt misses Rather than merely for the manifestation of a modern and sophisticated identity for the female model 236 as the addresser , it seems far more fruitful to understand and interpret the choice of English as a useful means for partially mitigating the plainness and straightness of her rejection and directive It is thus claimed simply because such unfeminine ways of speech are conventionally conceived of as improper for women in Chinese culture The tactical choice of English, in a sense, is primarily motivated to perform the model’s resistance against sexist assumptions embodied in her in a rather indirect, traditionally feminine, way This realization naturally points to the argument that the employment of English-mediated utterances contradictorily serves to convey the female model’s intention of mitigating the voices of rejection and directive, while still insisting on her authority Following this, it may make sense to argue that English has become a rhetorical resource performed to accomplish such a conflicting communication effect At this stage, it is reasonable to argue that although the female model is perhaps more authoritative and charge-taking through the blatant rejection and directive, the feminist discourse in the REJECTION and DIRECTIVE spaces enacted in and through the use of English is largely undermined by the appeal to English as the medium We may say with confidence that the crucial concern of replacing English with Chinese lies only in its temporary provision of women with some agency and opportunities of a new representation, meaning-making In a similar vein, Thorne (1993) suggests this when she says that crossing should be seen as a continuum Hence, it makes more sense to argue that the application of masculine speech is only an indication of temporarily breaking rules of gender relations rather than to set up and form new ones What is equally relevant is that the subordinate role of women is subtly sustained via the expression Don’t follow me (as well as its Chinese equivalent) Don’t follow me does potentially generate a number of presuppositions within the REJECTION space Neither is there any evidence encouraging us to associate the appeal to English, instead of Chinese, as the medium with the authority in its symbolic terms In contrast to the use of English for the rejection and directive, the use of Chinese for the invitation seems to make it explicit and friendly 237 regarding women and sexuality that need to be unpacked before the statement could be responded to They may include, for instance, that young women are sexual objects; that men are active in pursuing a young woman while women are assumed to be passive; and that women are innately emotional and often misleading in direction compared with men The close-up of the female model’s back and her attire is surely supportive of the first presupposition And although the male character is not present, his existence feels in some way more powerful because of his silence and invisibility The Rejection space Female model The Invitation space Female model The Directive space Female model Aggressive Aggressive Authoritative Submissive Confident Submissive Emotional Subordinate Emotional Female model Aggressive Authoritative Submissive Subordinate Emotional The blended space Figure 7.25 A simplified network diagram of the Mio DigWalker blend 238 The above discussion makes it manifest that although the utterances pay lip service to women’s taking charge and giving directions, the presuppositions contradict this This suggests similar patterns of women’s oppression: the only way for female to achieve power is by using their sexuality and looks The Mio DigiWalker advertisement does by no means subvert a dominant male gaze, but re-inscribes already socialized and institutionalized female bodies and female power And, finally, the proposal Follow Mio DigiWalker might be principally grounded on the unmentioned problem of getting lost if blindly following the female model and women in general, in addition to the assumed capacity of the promoted product.5 The REJECTION, INVITATION, and DIRECTIVE spaces are now selected as the inputs of the conceptual integration network In the blend fused with elements projected from these spaces illustrated in Figure 7.25, it is quite obvious that the advertisement pivots on juxtaposing and connecting the conventional with the unconventional -the conventionality of a subordinate and submissive woman is matched with the unconventionality of an active, aggressive, and authoritative woman The combination of two potentially conflicting forces represents one of a number of contradictory elements of femininity concurrently appeared and held together in the blend Women are paradoxically depicted as wanting to be both subjects in control of their social situations and objects of desire The advertisement provides an interesting picture women are neither constructed as traditionally passive, submissive and subordinate, nor necessarily as aggressive and authoritative as men Among the beauty advertisements, the one for Hugo Boss is most appropriate to explaining how social attributes of dominance, independence, and subordination are united in presenting feminine identity In Figure 7.26, the headline “pure purple The new Interestingly, it is through drawing a sharp contrast between the enduring negative stereotype of women’s poorness in direction and the sophisticated capacity of Mio DigiWalker in precisely fixing position that the advantages of the promoted product are finally articulated and highlighted 239 fragrance from HUGO” printed in small typeface tells us of nothing but the birth of a new perfume product by Hugo Boss Besides the informative meaning of newness, the use of English presumably works to evoke its symbolic meaning of modernity and super quality With these understandings, conceptual elements contained in the verbal space are nothing special or specific, but of newness, modernity, and superiority in general about the promoted perfume In spite of this, the verbal information is still important but the advertisement has to require the visual information to achieve impact Figure 7.26 The ad for Hugo Boss Visually, the young and tall female model nearly occupying the whole-page could, in general terms, be perceived as beautiful and sexy She is being displayed and objectified for heterosexual male desire in the light of her semi-translucent purple skirt, bared 240 shoulders and arms, and long hair But according to Marchin and Leeuwen (2003), beauty and sexuality also attribute to the presentation of the female model as powerful and independent Furthermore, as logically indexed by holding her arms upwards and shouting and the background of skyscrapers and blue sky, she is dancing with no inhibitions at the street This visual detail is significant for it depicts the model as an expression of unbridled femininity featured with openness and unreserved freedom of mind and from worry (Machin 2004: 332) With this design, the advertiser seems to appropriate feminism for the purpose of presenting the female body, and female sexuality, as not simply the object of a male gaze, but as a site of women’s own pleasure and empowerment In a word, the visual details overall present a multi-layered identity for the female model -beautiful, sexy, free, empowered, independent, and unreserved The identical purple colour builds a cross-space mapping between the verbal and the visual space Inside the verbal-visual blend diagrammed in Figure 7.27, a Cause-Effect relation emerges and an equivalency can be drawn between the new fragrance and the possession of openness and freedom In other words, in addition to enhancing beauty and sexuality of women mentioned earlier, the advertised perfume empowers women to have a new image of being entirely free and to take action against hierarchical structures constraining them in a passive and reserved position And the product becomes a means to the female model for self-definition and self-expression But it is still an illusion to declare that this new image presents a shift in recognizing real power Instead, the female model still depends almost exclusively on her body and bodily movement for seeking the social value of freedom, power, and independence The domain of physical body is unconsciously treated as a significant, inevitable, element in determining the degree of power and independence A strong suggestion develops that while women are empowered to be free and take charge themselves, the socially embedded ideology serves a similar end, using beauty and 241 sexuality as power for the pursuit of these social attributes, instead of encouraging them to develop other means The acquirement of control by women over their own bodies and the appearance given off by their bodies actually is the basis on which “male domination gets reproduced” (Goldman 1992: 123) Thus being realized, the advertisement continues to incorporate the stereotype of female in marketing the fragrance product, and the female model is still ultimately subject to male approval for personal freedom, power and independence Since the reflective approach of positioning female viewers “disarm[s] viewer resistance to a male gaze carrying meanings of submissiveness or subordination” (Goldman, Heath & Smith 1991: 349), the female model is simultaneously an expression of subordination in the blend The presentations of freedom and openness available for women to claim their social identity according to Machin (2004: 333) actually have already become “a fashion statement” across the world The model option of a western white woman rather than a Chinese one might be unconsciously motivated by the cognitive model among Chinese people of gender discourse that Chinese women are prototypically conservative and reserved in contrast to their western counterparts It is probably with this metapragmatic stereotype in mind that the advertiser breaks the association of freedom and openness with Chinese women through setting a western white woman as the model In other words, while a new dimension, the inspiring feminine “Other”, against which people appraise femininity in China, is created in and added to the iconic set of gender stereotypes, the advertisement simultaneously suggests the perpetuation of the gender stereotype of Chinese women as conservative and reserved The blend is a typical third space presenting an in-between, conflicting image available to Chinese women Like the problematic identities constructed for women in the above examples, the presentation of an in-between, conflicting woman in the Hugo Boss advertisement also derives from the tension between 242 different levels of identity assumed in relation to a priori socialization or expectation and a temporary state The Visual space The Verbal space Perfume Female dancer Purple (in)Purple New Beautiful Super quality Sexy Independent Empowered Unreserved Free (in)Purple/Purple Female dancer Sexy Perfume New Independent Empowered Unreserved Free The blended space Figure 7.27 A simplified network diagram of the Hugo Boss blend The foregoing discussion of feminine identity shows substantial efforts are made to reconstruct women as conventionally feminine, attractive, and beautiful But evidence of anti-tradition is also observed, rejecting some older models of how Chinese women should be or behave, and occasionally encouraging Chinese women to embody certain 243 kind of “liberated” identity instead Yet, it is false to simply follow that bipolar sexuality in China is under assault; instead, women are intrinsically subordinate and submissive and never encouraged to step outside their imagined boundaries of the “sexy” Often, what appearing as a significant transformation for women is reappearances of traditional gender relations in a new guise6 The fundamental and traditionally accepted image of women at least in relation to heterosexuality has hardly ever changed in contemporary China Instead of viewing the “newness” as a radical life choice or as a positive desire among women to be different, Chinese women are persuaded to see the “newness” often as an extension of patriarchal order The findings are suggestive of the argument that “commodity feminism” (Goldman 1992) does not pose a challenge to androcentric structures, although women at individual level may be occasionally entitled with a sense of reflexive self-transformation and empowerment This leads to the final point Gender roles of Chinese women have become conflictual Where the new women are concerned, this is often depicted as causing tension, and that women are implicitly suggested to keep a balance between the new and the traditional images Sometimes Chinese women are positioned in a third space where their gender roles are contradictorily hybrid, bearing the combination of emancipation and tradition even in a single advertisement As the argument shared by many scholars (e.g., Lazar 2000, 2005; Mills 2008), gender roles of Chinese women have become multilayered, variable, diverse, fluid, shifting, and fragmented, reflecting often the necessary paradoxes and contradictions of feminism Summary In a historical perspective Zhu presents a persuasive account of feminism in China, claiming that “feminism in China has never developed beyond the nationalist male gaze and control” (2007: 161) The nationalistic stress of this gender discourse probably is the main reason accountable for the problematic situation that while gendered roles for women may have been tremendously redefined and refashioned, sexism is still strongly upheld 244 This chapter has explored the potentially heterogeneous nature of gender as a social category, and sought to unravel this heterogeneity in terms of gender identities that Chinese men and women can take vis-a-vis modernity and localness By way of summing up, I want to point to interesting findings derivable from the analyses First of all, the meanings and expectations attached to femininity have gone through considerable changes and become variable, while its opposition is still being preserved the same Although the boundaries demarcating what is permissible for women may have substantially changed, the way the discourse of bilingual advertising defines women’s sexuality in relation to men remains almost the same and women’s autonomy, often denied With heterosexual relationships, inequalities of gender relations between men and women remain almost the same In the absence of a transformation of wider social systems and values, true equality of gender relations still remains a distant goal in China The findings suggest that the “normal” and “natural” standard of masculinity and femininity in contemporary China overall seems to be influenced much by the West Chinese masculinity and femininity, to a remarkable extent, are articulated and evaluated against this template This raises the possibility of the fairly radical implication that Chinese men and women are encouraged to present themselves by blending and restructuring the gender culture of other, suggesting the aspects of Chinese masculinity and femininity have been hybridized With regard to the role the use of English plays in the construction of gender identity, it is observed overall much more polyvalent than is often assumed While English is proved to have no impact on the configuration and formation of new identities for male, it does make some contribution to developing and forming new roles and expectations of female In spite of this, English does not always play an essential or determinate, but often conflicting and sometimes marginal, role in the conceptualization of new woman and in the vagueness of gender boundaries Not infrequently, with the aid of English the 245 advertisers continue to work hard to ensure that only culturally dominant and binary versions of masculinity and femininity are subtly maintained in China On grounds of this observation, it is rational to see the use of English as an exercise of power just based on gender inequalities that benefits men, but one that can also conditionally advantage individual women occasionally The occurrence of English is not motivated or determined by women themselves; quite the contrary, it is the foundation for daily practice that enhances and reinforces male domination and male power at the primary expense of women 246 ... modernity and its local meaning in China as a language of 211 high quality, the use of English is far more forceful than Chinese in presenting the aspects of female beauty ideal as the core of the headlines... subject to a heterosexual male gaze With a male demographic intended in the VIDEO-GAMING frame, an absent male gaze actually remains paramount in defining the girl climber as a sexual object In the. .. presentation of these masculine values in the headlines and slogans Of equal significance, the invisibility or absence of the Chinese male and the displaying of the Occidental one to signify male