Chinese Masculinities Revisited: Male Images in Contemporary Television Drama Serials

Abstract

This article investigates the discourse of masculinity in contemporary Chinese popular culture by critical readings of TV drama serials ( dianshi lianxuju), a crucial and underresearched site for the study of ideology, shown on prime-time national channels in recent years (2003—2007). In particular, it examines the male images in three sweepingly popular TV programs— The Big Dye House ( Da ranfang), Halfway Couples ( Banlu fuqi), and Unsheathing the Sword ( Liangjian)—as “cultural types.” It looks at the social, economic, and cultural factors that have affected men and representations of men in today’s China against the backdrop of the dynamic interplay between nationalism, globalization, and consumerism. Building on the burgeoning research on Chinese masculinity in the past decade, it argues that forms of masculinity are becoming increasingly hybrid in a globalizing China and that the male images in these dramas are a product of social changes tied in with new formations of power.