Department of Informatics and Media Master’s Programme in Social Sciences, Digital Media and Society specialization Two-year Master’s Thesis Discursive Construction of Chinese Women: Exploring the Multi-perception Discourses of the Reality Show Sisters Who Make Waves Student: Liming Liu Supervisor: Prof. Michał Krzyżanowski June 2021 Abstract This study explores the discursive construction of Chinese women in the Chinese reality show Sisters Who Make Waves, with a special focus on the discursive shifts and their relevance to the wider discourse of and about Chinese women. The analysis is carried out on two levels: the discursive construction of Chinese women in the said reality show and its recontextualisation across other discourses including in the public sphere and semi-private opinions of Chinese women. This research discusses the discursive construction of Chinese women in the Chinese media field and the discrepancy between “top-down” and “bottom-up” discourse. The project uses a multi-layer theoretical framework situated in media and society, gender and media representation, celebrity culture and digital labour to explore the discursive construction of Chinese women. The study applies to the reality show as the primary context, media perceptions as the recontextualising context, interviews with female employees in the Chinese internet industry as the secondary context. In order to investigate the arguments and discursive strategies in different contexts, this study employs a multilevel model of the Discourse- Historical Approach (DHA) in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The findings discover that the said reality show focuses on the topos of age and the topos of beauty. These two main topoi cause different representations of social actors in Chinese media perceptions. As the representatives of female digital labour, the female employees in the Chinese internet industry construct three discursive strategies of self and relate their self- perception to those of other women. Furthermore, the study implies the discursive shifts in the discourse on Chinese women. This thesis contributes to understanding the discursive construction of women in the Chinese context, particularly the media and gender representations in the Chinese hybrid media system. In addition, this study stands outside the Western world and expands the understanding of the topic in a non-western setting. Keywords: Chinese women, reality show, celebrity culture, digital labour, hybrid media system, Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) Word count: 25,302 words 2 Contents List of Figures and Tables ....................................................................................................... 6 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 7 Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................... 8 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 9 1.1. Why China? Why Chinese women? ............................................................................... 9 1.2. Research questions ........................................................................................................ 10 1.3. Relevance and contributions to the field ....................................................................... 11 1.4. Thesis structure ............................................................................................................. 11 2. Background ........................................................................................................................ 14 2.1. Women in Chinese context ........................................................................................... 14 2.1.1. Women in ancient China ........................................................................................ 14 2.1.2. Women in new China............................................................................................. 14 2.1.3. Women in reformed China..................................................................................... 16 2.2. New attention on Chinese women ................................................................................ 18 2.3. Labour market in China ................................................................................................ 20 2.4. Media industry in China................................................................................................ 20 2.5. Women in the Chinese media and Chinese internet industry ....................................... 21 2.6. Reality show triggers new attention .............................................................................. 23 3. Existing research ................................................................................................................ 25 3.1. Chinese media and society ............................................................................................ 25 3.2. Celebrity culture in China and Chinese media ............................................................. 26 3.3. Celebrity shows in China .............................................................................................. 27 4. Theoretical framework ...................................................................................................... 29 4.1. Media and society ......................................................................................................... 29 4.2. Gender, media and digital media .................................................................................. 32 4.3. Gender, gender roles and celebrity culture in media .................................................... 33 4.4. Gender and digital labour.............................................................................................. 34 4.5. Summary of theoretical framework .............................................................................. 36 5. Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 38 5.1. CDA as methodology .................................................................................................... 38 5.1.1. Critical Discourse Analysis.................................................................................... 38 5.1.2. Key concepts in CDA: discourse, context and recontextualisation ....................... 39 3 5.2. Analytical procedures ................................................................................................... 42 5.2.1. Entry-level analysis ................................................................................................ 42 5.2.2. In-depth analysis .................................................................................................... 43 5.2.3. Strategies of self- and other-presentation .............................................................. 43 5.2.4. Representation of social actors .............................................................................. 44 5.3. Empirical data ............................................................................................................... 45 5.3.1. Two-phase data collection ..................................................................................... 45 5.3.2. Empirical data and collection................................................................................. 47 5.4. Ethics............................................................................................................................. 51 6. Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 52 6.1. Analysis of the primary context: reality show .............................................................. 52 6.1.1. Entry-level analysis ................................................................................................ 52 6.1.2. In-depth analysis .................................................................................................... 53 6.2. Analysis of the recontextualising context: media perceptions ...................................... 59 6.2.1. Entry-level analysis ................................................................................................ 60 6.2.2. In-depth analysis .................................................................................................... 60 6.3. Analysis of the secondary context: interviews.............................................................. 67 6.3.1. Thematic analysis................................................................................................... 68 6.3.2. In-depth analysis .................................................................................................... 69 7. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 76 7.1. Summary of findings..................................................................................................... 76 7.2. Discussion ..................................................................................................................... 78 7.2.1. Discursive construction of Chinese women in Chinese media field...................... 78 7.2.2. Discrepancy between “top-down” and “bottom-up” discourse ............................