Copyright 2014 Meijiadai Bai COURTSHIP, RELATIONSHIP, MARRIAGE AND THE STATE: REGULATION OF CONTEMPORARY CHINESE POPULAR MEDIA BY MEIJIADAI BAI DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communications in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Angharad N. Valdivia, Chair, Director of Research Professor Emerita John Nerone Professor Cameron McCarthy Assistant Professor Anita S. Chan ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the regulation of sex-related popular media text in contemporary China, across the expected lifespan of procreative heterosexual marriage. The three case studies encompass regulation of television programming, television drama, and film. The regulative actions vary from public notices to official prohibition of the media text. Following the Foucauldian tradition of studying media regulation, and borrowing from feminist, queer and class studies, this dissertation records the contradiction-rifle contemporary history of media regulation in post-socialist, neoliberal China. Under what appear to be conservative, theocratic-like regulations, I argue that nationalism, the Party’s localized socialist ideology, and hetero-patriarchy are intertwined to secure a legitimized but under-supervised party-state governance. However, it is through these very prohibitions that a space for text about women’s gender consciousness has opened. Key Words: Media Regulation, Media Censorship, Discursive Regulation, Private Topics in Public, Regulation of Sexual Content, Representation of Sexuality, If You Are the One, Feichengwurao, Dwelling Narrowness, Woju, Lost in Beijing, Pingguo ii To My Mother and Alice Liao iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have wanted to write about the discursive regulation of Chinese women’s sexuality since the day I entered the Institute of Communications Research (ICR) at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. To be admitted to ICR is the best thing that has ever happened to me so far in my life. At ICR, I acquired the theories, methods, and academic confidence to write this dissertation as it is now. I thank Prof. Clifford Christians, then director of ICR, and Prof. John Nerone, then director of Graduate Studies of ICR, for making such a meaningful and formative decision. With the formal and informal education I received here, I believe I can contribute more to my fields in the decades to come. Words fail me in expressing my greatest appreciation to my adviser, Prof. Angharad N. Valdivia. She understands the difficulties I encounter as an international student and knows what troubles me even before I can clearly explain it. Prof. Valdivia has offered invaluable advice on career choices in the academy and shown me how to live as a confident, strong, and caring feminist media scholar. She pushed me to stick to what I want to write and supported me without reservation. The defense was made possible because Prof. Valdivia flew back from Spain during her sabbatical to host it for me. I thank the other members of my dissertation committee, Prof. John Nerone, Prof. Cameron McCarthy, Prof. Anita Say Chan, for supporting me, directing me to the more far- reaching research questions and major, related sources, and raising intellectually challenging questions. iv The courses I have taken built the theoretical and methodological foundation for my dissertation, for which I thank my doctoral committee and the professors with which I have taken great courses: Prof. Norman K. Denzin, Prof. Dan T. Schiller, Prof. Clifford Christians, Prof. C. L. Cole, Prof. Karen C. Flynn, Prof. Isabel Molina-Guzmán, Prof. Teresa Barnes, Prof. Siobhan Somerville, and Prof. Chantal Nadeau. Dr. Mariah Larsson provided much useful information to me for this dissertation and my other works, when she visited ICR. I am grateful to Prof. Deborah Davis, who explained her recent talk about Asian countries’ birth rate and age, as well as directed me to important related literature. During my study in this doctoral program, my friends have been intellectually stimulating, emotionally supportive, and altruistically resourceful. Among them, I would like to specifically recognize Alice Wanru Liao (late), Amy Hasinnoff, Dong Han, Ying Zhang, Wenrui Chen, Owen Kulemeka, Wencheng Fu, Dannis Redmond, Choi Gi Bae, Ran Ju, Hong Shen, Katia Curbelo, Richard Doherty, Jungmin Kwon, Alexandra (Sasha) Mobley, Koeli Moitra Goel, Robert Mejia, Ergin Bulut, Jungmo Youn, Ian Kivelin Davis, Steven Doran and Mel Stanfill. Librarian Lisa Romero, Nick Rudd, and Erik Chapman at the Communications Library have also been very helpful to me to fully utilize the resources available in the library, and to find the most relevant literature. I received help from Elizabeth Tsukahara, from the Writer’s Workshop of the university, and Jonathan Lippman in editing this dissertation. Theresa Harris helped me a great deal in going through all the procedures for dissertating, exams, defenses, and depositing. I am thankful to the stipend provided to me by the Chinese Scholarship Council (No. 2009601027), matched with the tuition waiver furnished by ICR, without which I would not have had the luxury to concentrate on my study from 2009 to 2013. v I owe deep debts the people who supported me out of love and trust, even though they may worry about the political consequences of my work. My boyfriend, Jingjing, supported me, encouraged me, and believed in me more than I did to myself. He, along with his family, fought for me so that I could pursue my academic interests. My mother, Yongping, always backs me up with all that she has. My father believed in my intellectual ability and courage to pursue only the best and most valuable. I was suffering from severe allergy of unidentified source or sources for months before my final defense. Without all the support I received, I would not have completed this dissertation. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………1 Gendered Regulation of Sexual Content in Contemporary Chinese Popular Media ……1 Literature on Gender and Sexuality in China: Ruptures and Continuities from the Feudal to the Republic, Socialist, and Post-Socialist Eras ………………………………………3 Feminist and Queer Perspectives on Sexuality: The Constitution of the Public by Constructing the Private …………………………………………………………………8 Previous Research on Censorship and Regulation of Sexual Content ……………………13 Method: Reasons for Choosing These Cases and the Approach to Studying Them………19 Chapter Outline …………………………………………………………………………26 CHAPTER TWO: SINGLE GIRLS, STOP CHECKING OUT HIS POCKET AND LOOKS: IF YOU ARE THE ONE MODIFIED AFTER STATE INTERVENTION …………………………29 Chapter Abstract………………………………………………………………………….29 The Most Popular Show(s) Got Notices from SARFT……………………………………29 Social Background of Leftover Women and Men: The Phantom of State Influence…….34 Commercial Interests of FCWR: Not Gender Equal by Design before State Intervention………………………………………………………………………………41 Regulators Want Television to Represent the True Reality ……………………………52 A Morally Noble and Politically Correct Dating Show …………………………………66 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………73 CHAPTER THREE: REAL ESTATE AND SEX IN THE CITY: WOMEN’S SEXUALITY AND HOUSING IN DWELLING NARROWNESS ……………………………………………………75 Chapter Abstract………………………………………………………………………….75 What Is the Sex that Should Not Be Seen? ………………………………………………76 It Is Not Easy to Live in Chang’An: Structural Inequality and Women’s Sex Capital as a Means of Struggle ………………………………………………………………………79 The Basic Story of Dwelling Narrowness ………………………………………………83 Vulgar Content? Public Critique and Local Regulation …………………………………91 What Is Vulgar About Sex? The “Sexual” Content Edited Out from Dwelling Narrowness ……………………………………………………………………………..99 State-Nationalism Smuggled into the Shorter Version under the Cover of Censoring Vulgar Content………………………………………………………………………………….123 Conclusion ……………………………………………...………………………………126 CHAPTER FOUR: THE PROHIBITED TRANSGRESSOR: THE AWAKENED FEMALE MIGRANT WORKER IN THE “PORNOGRAPHIC” FILM LOST IN BEIJING……………..128 Chapter Abstract………………………………………………………………………...128 vii The First Film Banned After Public Release in China …………………………………128 The “Impure” Female Workers Representation in the News……………………………129 Lost in Beijing Got Lost in Inconsistent Government Reactions ………………………131 A History of Liu Pingguo and the Awakening Women in the Film ……………………152 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………159 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………161 What Kind of Country Is China? Internal Contradiction of Two Ideologies……………162 What Kind of Governance Is Exerted in China Concerning Media Regulation? ………164 How Are the Private Topics Allowed to Enter Public Media Discourses? ……………168 Is There Hope? …………………………………………………………………………171 REFERENCES …………………………………………………………………………………175 viii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Gendered Regulation of Sexual Content in Contemporary Chinese Popular Media In modern and contemporary China, whether to regulate the sexual content in the media is never a question. The problem is only how to regulate it and whose benefits and dignity to protect in this process. This dissertation explores the question of how sexuality is discursively regulated in contemporary Chinese popular media. Analyzing three cases across different media forms, including television and film, it unpacks how the regulation of sex-related content produced in the media industry balances the political requirement of the party-government