THE MAKING OF “CONCUBINES”: MEDIA, AUDIENCE, AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA Fang Chen A Thesis In the Humanities Program Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Humanities Program) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada Spring, 2014 © Fang Chen, 2014 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Fang Chen Entitled: The Making of "Concubines": Media, Audience, and Social Change in Contemporary China and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Humanities) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: Chair Dr. T. Sedo External Examiner Dr. F. Xu External to Program Dr. S. Gabriele Examiner Dr. F. Shaver Examiner Dr. C. Rentschler Thesis Supervisor Dr. K. Manning Approved by: Dr. E. Manning, Graduate Program Director April 11, 2014 Interim Dean J. Locke, Arts and Science ABSTRACT The Making of “Concubines”: Media, Audience, and Social Change in Contemporary China Fang Chen, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2014 This dissertation examines marriage and sexuality in contemporary China through the lens of media and audience, with a specific focus on audience interpretations of the media discourse of “keeping a second wife” (bao ernai). The emergence of this discourse, one that can be traced back to socialist condemnation of concubinage in Maoist China, is an awkward and unexpected finding at a time when the state has purportedly retreated from private life, and the media is increasingly globalized. Even more unexpected, perhaps, is the startling diversity with which this discourse has been deployed, re-appropriated, and resisted by working and middle class women. The Dissertation draws on discourse analysis, digital ethnography, and individual and focus group interviews to argue that the relationship between the media and audiences in contemporary China is dynamic and mutually transformative. Moreover, the ways of interpretation link to audiences ’social positions and subjectivities that help to conceive individuals’ perceptions of self and society in relation to marriage and sexuality. The first part of the dissertation draws on content analysis of news accounts to analyze how the media has consistently coded “keeping a second wife” as an instance of “family crisis,” and in so doing re-affirm a Maoist-era idea of marriage and sexuality. The second part of the dissertation draws upon reception analysis to investigate three dominant themes that emerged in the interviews and social media: managing marriage, sexuality, and corruption. The dissertation iii argues that “managing marriage” is a key phrase deployed by women, with subjectivity breaking down along class lines: indeed, while middle class women employ new discourses to perform gender within the household, working class women understand the management of marriage through Maoist-era vocabulary and ideology. A reception analysis also allows new insight into contemporary practices of sexuality; in contemporary China the transformation of sexual norms is a complex process, in which the dominant, the residual, and the emergent are intertwined to constitute a fuller picture of sexual culture in China. Finally, the dissertation highlights a link between “keeping a second wife” and official corruption through story-telling and instances of “talking back” to the media discourse. I argue the audience’s own narratives and the ways in which they contest the media’s narrative illustrate that the media discourse of corruption has encountered vigorous resistance. iv ACKNOWLEGEMENTS This dissertation was completed thanks to the academic and personal generosity of a number of people. First of all, I would particularly like to thank Kimberley Manning, whose continued efforts and support have exceeded what could fairly be expected of a PhD supervisor. Her academic insight, her passion for life and work, and her warmth towards people have inspired me. My heartfelt gratitude also goes to Frances Shaver and Carrie Rentschler for their intellectual advice and encouragement. I would like to acknowledge the support of Concordia University, which provided funding to cover my tuition in the first four years. I would also like to thank Humanities Program for awarding me the Jacqueline and Richard Margolese Scholarship and Humanities Program Assistantship. I am especially appreciative of the administrative support of Humanities Program. My thanks go to Sharon Fitch, Erin Manning, and two former directors, Catherine Russell and Bina Freiwald. Some parts of this dissertation were presented at the annual conference of East Asia Council of Canadian Asian Studies Association in 2007 and the conference of Canadian Asian Studies Association in 2011. I would like to thank East Asia Council for providing small funding for my conference participation. I am deeply in debt to the women who participated in interviews and generously shared their intimate lives. Many friends in China offered help and support during my fieldwork. I want to thank my editor David Fiore for his patience and encouragement. Finally, I would like to thank my family that supported me in various ways over the course of my study. v Table of Contents List of Figures………………………………….………........................................ix List of Table……………………………………………..……………………….x List of Acronyms………………………………………………………………...xi Chapter 1 Introduction………………………………………………………….1 Monogamy meets “opening up”…………………………………………......7 Media consumption in contemporary China…………………………….…20 Organization of the dissertation……………………………………………27 Chapter 2 Theoretical Framework and Methodology…………………….....30 Culture and representation…………………………………...………….....29 Audience activity…...………………………………………………………34 Feminist politics of gender and media………………………….……….....40 Methodology, research data, and the challenges of fieldwork…………......42 Discourse analysis…………………………………………………...44 Ethnography of media…………………………………………….....47 Digital ethnography……………………………………………….....54 Chapter 3 Creating “Family crisis”: “Keeping a Second Wife” in the News Media…………………….56 News and ideology: situating “keeping a second wife”……………………58 Creating “family crisis”…………………………………………………….60 The rebirth of “concubinage”: a crisis of monogamy?……………...62 The scripts of gender: promiscuity, wives and whores……………...69 The dangerous relationship: the news coverage…………………….75 Crime news: homicide, injury, and headlines….…..…….......77 Dispute of property...…………………………………….......84 vi Diseases, untamed fertility and the cuckold…………………86 Controlling the family crisis……………………………………………......92 Prescriptions to wives, husbands, and second wives………………..93 “Ruling the country in accordance with law”……………………….96 “Defending the family”: the role of the ACWF…………………....101 Concluding remarks………………………………………………………109 Chapter 4 “Managing Marriage”: Gender, Class and Modernity in Post-Socialist China………….113 The context: managing marriage and “harmonious family”……………...115 Middle class women manage marriage..………………………………….122 Consumers with suzhi: middle class in China……………...............122 Narrating the self: the subject of gender and modernity…………...125 Doing suzhi doing gender………………………………………….137 “Diligently and thriftily managing the family”………..………………....145 The urban working class…………………………………………...142 Memory and language……………………………….………….….148 Managing marriage in the working class household…………….…153 Concluding remarks………………………………………………………158 Chapter 5 Changing Sexuality: The Dominant, the Emergent and the Residual…………………163 The dominant, the emergent, and the residual……………………………168 Talking sex and sexuality…………………………………………………173 Struggle for meanings: reading the label…………………………..173 Love, desire and self……………………………………………….180 Now and then: making sense of times…………………………......188 Gendered sexual freedom…………………………………………..191 Concluding remarks………………………………………………………195 Chapter 6 Gender and Corruption: The Cultural Script, Narratives and Contentions………………199 vii The cultural script: “good women” and “bad women”…………………...201 Talking-back: story-telling and genres……………………………………208 Story-telling as resistance………………………………………….211 “She had no choice”: the survival narrative……………......213 “Something funny”: the morally-neutral narrative………...216 Talking Dwelling Narrowness……………………………...218 Genres: irony and ridicule as resistance……………………………224 Concluding remarks………………………………………………………234 Chapter 7 Conclusion: Media, Audience and Social Change In Contemporary China..................................................................235 Passive audience or active audience?………………………………….....237 Gender, class and modernity in the changing sexuality…………………..242 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………248 Appendix………………………………………………………………………..283 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: An official poster of the ideal family………………………………………………….60 Figure 2: A bra advertisement……………………………………………………………………67 Figure 3: A woman warrior in the Red Army…………………………………………………..231 ix LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Key contents of the news reports……………………………………………………….77 x LIST OF ACRONYMS PRC The People’s Republic of China ACWF All China Women’s Federation CCP The Chinese Communist Party KMT Kuomingtang (the Nationalist Party) ROC The Republic of China PSC The People’s Supreme Court xi Chapter One Introduction In 2011, a serial