BEAUTY PAGEANTS IN NEOLIBERAL CHINA: A FEMINIST MEDIA STUDY OF FEMININE BEAUTY AND CHINESE CULTURE By MENG ZHANG A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2013 1 © 2013 Meng Zhang 2 To my Parents 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to give my deepest gratitude to my advisor and committee chair, Dr. Cory Armstrong, who has shown me the dedication, spirit, and substance of a true intellectual and mentor. Without her persistent guidance, encouragement, and help in the past three and half years, this dissertation would not have been possible. I place on record my sincere gratitude to my wonderful committee members, Dr. Lisa Duke, Dr. Robyn Goodman, and Dr. Florence Babb; I am extremely grateful and indebted to every one of them for their expertise and valuable advice. In addition, special thanks are given to Dr. C.K. Shih, who gave me tremendous assistance and guidance during the dissertation process. I want to thank Dr. Michelle Wolf of San Francisco State University, who introduced me to academic research and inspired my pursuit toward a doctoral degree as well as my research interest in women and beauty. I would like to thank the staffers at the graduate division, especially Jody, Kim, and Sarah, for their wonderful service and great support. I want to thank my dear friends and fellow PhD students at UF who have made my life here in Gainesville so much more meaningful and memorable. I must express my endless appreciation to my parents Dahong Zhang and Shuhua Li. Their unconditional love, patience, and support have never failed to reach the bottom of my heart and I owe every achievement I have made to them. Also, to my beloved boyfriend Scott Gilton, I could not have done this without his encouragement and love. Lastly, I want to thank all the young women who participated in this study, whose experiences and insights provided flesh and meaning to this project. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 8 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 11 Background of Beauty Pageants in Neoliberal China ............................................. 11 Feminine Beauty and Mass Media .......................................................................... 15 Globalization and Transnational Feminism ............................................................. 17 The Present Study .................................................................................................. 19 2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ............................................................................ 22 Beauty Pageantry as a Feminist Project ................................................................. 22 The Miss America Beauty Pageant .................................................................. 23 Beauty Queens on the Global Stage ................................................................ 25 Beauty Pageants and China ............................................................................. 27 China’s Emerging Consumer Culture ..................................................................... 31 The Consumption of Beauty ............................................................................. 32 The Generation of “Singletons” ........................................................................ 34 The Pursuit of Beauty ............................................................................................. 36 Cultural Beauty Standards................................................................................ 39 Cosmetic Surgery ............................................................................................. 41 Mass Media and Globalization ................................................................................ 44 Media Representations and Stereotypes.......................................................... 45 Nationalism and Beauty.................................................................................... 47 Globalization ..................................................................................................... 49 Theoretical Framework ........................................................................................... 51 Feminist Film Criticism ..................................................................................... 51 Social Comparison Theory ............................................................................... 55 Transnational Feminism ................................................................................... 58 Contributions of Present Study ............................................................................... 61 Research Questions ............................................................................................... 63 3 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................... 64 Qualitative Research............................................................................................... 64 Qualifications and Bias of the Researcher .............................................................. 66 Textual Analysis ...................................................................................................... 67 Research Methodology..................................................................................... 67 5 Selection of Media Text .................................................................................... 68 Data Analysis ................................................................................................... 70 Focus Groups ......................................................................................................... 72 Research Methodology..................................................................................... 72 Selection of Participants ................................................................................... 74 Recruitment of Participants .............................................................................. 75 Snowball Sampling ........................................................................................... 77 Group Size and Number ................................................................................... 79 Focus Groups Guide ........................................................................................ 80 Conducting the Focus Groups .......................................................................... 81 Data Analysis ................................................................................................... 82 Interviews ................................................................................................................ 83 Research Methodology..................................................................................... 83 Research Site ................................................................................................... 85 Recruitment of the Interviewees ....................................................................... 85 About the Participants ...................................................................................... 87 Interview Guide ................................................................................................ 87 Conducting the Interviews ................................................................................ 88 Data Analysis ................................................................................................... 89 Relationships between the Three Methodologies ................................................... 90 4 FINDINGS ............................................................................................................... 92 Textual Analysis ...................................................................................................... 92 Representations of Gender Stereotypes .......................................................... 93 A feminine competition ............................................................................... 94 Pageant hosts and gender roles ................................................................ 97 Objects for the male gaze .......................................................................... 99 Beauty as an achievement ....................................................................... 103 Cultural Ideals of Feminine Beauty ................................................................. 106 Physical beauty of the pageant contestants ............................................. 106 Beauty on the Inside ................................................................................ 114 Nationalism, Consumerism, and Globalization ............................................... 116 “Beauty with Chinese characteristics and significance” ........................... 116 Special thanks to the pageant sponsors .................................................. 118 The global element .................................................................................. 121 Focus Groups 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