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WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/westminsterresearch White-collar men and masculinities in contemporary urban China. Derek Hird School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages This is an electronic version of a PhD thesis awarded by the University of Westminster. © The Author, 2009. This is an exact reproduction of the paper copy held by the University of Westminster library. The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. Users are permitted to download and/or print one copy for non-commercial private study or research. Further distribution and any use of material from within this archive for profit-making enterprises or for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. Whilst further distribution of specific materials from within this archive is forbidden, you may freely distribute the URL of WestminsterResearch: (http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/). In case of abuse or copyright appearing without permission e-mail [email protected] WHITE-COLLAR MEN AND MASCULINITIES IN CONTEMPORARY URBAN CHINA DEREK HIRD A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Westminster for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2009 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Westminster is solely my own work 2 Abstract This work investigates the characteristics of masculinity that are at the symbolic heart of China’s economic success, and of which the figure of the white-collar man is emblematic. Based on fieldwork observations, interview and media publications, it examines the gendered practices, aspirations and attitudes of men who identify with or aspire to white-collar status alongside discursive representations of the Chinese white-collar man, interrogating the links between practice and discourse. Drawing on various approaches to theorizing subjectivity, it argues that white-collar masculinity is performed in ways that suggest both radical shifts and continuities in understandings of gender, which challenge the prevalent teleological narrative of China’s modernization. The first chapter sets the scene for white-collar masculinity in the reform era and discusses fieldwork methodologies. Chapter two sets out the theoretical framework adopted to analyse the gendered white-collar subject, and examines academic literature on masculinities in China. Chapter three examines the ‘body culture’ of informants, and how they ‘bring themselves’ to white-collar discourse through attention to their bodies in areas of daily life such as dress, movement and hygiene. Chapters four and five look respectively at the production of corporate masculinity both inside and outside the office, through an exploration of business and leisure practices, and their overlap. Chapter six takes a close look at the young white-collar man as (heterosexual) boyfriend and husband and the final chapter investigates sexualisations of young urban middle-class males, and comments on their transformative possibilities. 3 Acknowledgements My fieldwork in China was partially funded by the Universities' China Committee in London and the Carnegie Trust, to whom I am very grateful. I would like to express my gratitude to all my informants and those people in China who helped me in any way during my time there. I am extremely grateful to my supervisor Harriet Evans, who has been a pillar of support in numerous ways, and from I have learned so much. Her scholarly rigour, attention to detail, energy and dedication have set standards I can only attempt to emulate. Many thanks are also due to Alessandra Aresu, Natalie Wong and Elisabeth Engebretsen for their enduring friendship and intellectual support. Warm thanks also to Jacques Zen for his kindness and generosity during my years of study. I am hugely grateful for the boundless support and goodwill offered by my parents, David and Irene, and my sisters, Susan and Alison, which was increased unhesitatingly – and extremely helpfully - at critical moments. Finally, I have incurred a vast debt in immeasurable ways to my partner Jamie, who has consistently been a model of understanding, and unceasingly tolerant of the pressures on me. In acknowledgment of his patience, calm and unfailing support, I dedicate this thesis to him. 4 Contents Chapter One 8 Introduction Setting the Scene: Fieldwork 11 The Chapters 16 Chapter Two 18 Terms of analysis: concepts and themes Theorising the subject of white-collar masculinities 18 The subject and discourse 19 From performance to habituation 27 Hegemony and multiple masculinities 32 Modelling Chinese masculinities in academic writing 35 Contemporary uses of ‘traditional’ masculinities 35 Gendering the modern man: twentieth century perspectives 40 Middle-class masculinities 47 Chapter Three Looking the part: fashioning white-collar masculinities 54 Three portraits 57 Grooming the ‘new century man’ 61 What’s in a suit? 65 Seven lessons in being ‘man enough’ 67 Cars, apartments and travel 83 Chapter Four Learning the ropes: from school to work 90 Johnson’s Language School 92 Bodily and intellectual techniques of corporate masculinity 100 Jianguomen man 102 Business idols and business values between global and local 105 The ‘literate self’: English language skills 112 The ‘numerate self’: financial responsibilities 115 5 Chapter Five Time-out: White-Collar Men away from Work and Family 121 China’s new discourse of leisure 124 Leisure consumption and white-collar homosociality 127 Business socialising 135 Keeping fit and maintaining status 143 The religious economy and ‘apolitical’ white-collar man 148 Chapter Six White-Collar Husbands: Conjugal Ideals and Breadwinning Pressures 153 White-collar relationships in context: changing families in reform China 155 Power-sharing in the white-collar household 166 Breadwinning pressure on white-collar men 167 The spousal ideal and his discontents 172 Chapter Seven The sexual ambiguities of white-collar masculinity 183 Mediating the metrosexual 185 The androgynous spectrum 189 Legitimating contemporary narratives 195 The romantic white-collar ideal 199 The hidden homosexual 201 Conclusions 210 Select Character List 217 Bibliography 227 6 Figures Figure 1 The ‘white-collar male beauty’ 63 Figure 2 Lesson One: ‘How to read a paper without wind resistance’ 70 Figure 3 Lesson Two: ‘How to win a lady’s heart by dozing in the meeting room’; and Lesson Three: ‘How to answer the phone in a sophisticated way’ 72 Figure 4 Lesson Four: ‘How to court sympathy through sickness’; and Lesson Five: ‘How to carry one’s jacket’ 75 Figure 5 Lesson Six, ‘How to hold a cup in a café’; and Lesson Seven, ‘How to show manliness from behind’ 79 Figure 6 Hu Jun on the cover of Shishang xiansheng (Esquire) 82 Figure 7 Jianguomen man 103 Figure 8 A ‘metrosexual’ at home with some of his fashionable clothes and shoes 187 7 Chapter One Introduction The sleek and smartly-suited young man is an omnipresent figure in twenty-first century China. In magazines, television adverts, on billboards, walking in the streets of business districts, and seen through the windows of the plush coffee shops which have mushroomed in the upmarket retail and business areas in recent years,1 his sophisticated, prosperous and charming looks are emblematic of the global success of the economic reforms of the last three decades. His cool, metropolitan, appearance is associated with the location and look of the outlets he frequents, and the cost and conspicuous brand label foreignness of his clothes and accessories give him the symbolic, spatial and material attributes of fashionable, urban status. His clothing, hairstyle, bodily mannerisms, displays of knowledge (when ordering a latte, for example) and relative wealth (using his laptop) – give him a globally recognisable urbane ‘look’, which, in China, is synonymous with a ‘bailing’ (white-collar) identity. Unmistakably, the Chinese ‘white-collar man’ (bailing nanren) has arrived, and is stepping on to the global corporate stage with confidence as the model of middle class status to which young urbanites aspire. Men want to identify with and possess his attributes, parents urge their sons to attain the values and opportunities his image suggests, and women want to marry someone who exemplifies his achievements. Reflecting this popularity, numerous magazines catering to white-collar men – particularly as consumers intent on constructing a particular image of masculinity – have sprung up since the turn of the millennium.2 The contemporary prominence 1 This is such a popular activity for the urban middle-class that Starbucks has become one of the most well- known brands among 25 to 40-year-old white-collar workers, spawning many look-alike competitors. It opened its first outlet in China in 2000 and now has over 200 branches in 21 cities. The affluent young men who can afford to patronize Starbucks enjoy an exclusive atmosphere: the price of a coffee in Starbucks China is beyond the reach of most urbanites. See ‘Starbucks Soars in China’, Asia Times, June 15, 2006, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/HF15Cb06.html (accessed June 30, 2008). 2 These magazines include the Chinese editions of foreign titles, which I discuss in more detail in my methodologies section below. I briefly summarise them here: Nanren zhuang (For Him Magazine),
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