Post-feminism and Chick Flicks in China: Subjects, Discursive Origin and New Gender Norms

Most research on post-feminist culture has been conducted in the Western context. Within the very limited scholarship on postfeminism in China, the conception of globally transmitted and duplicable post-feminism is dominant, which is usually rationalized in the global expansion of neo-liberalism. This article, however, argues that post-feminism in China exists but encapsulates notable distinctions from its Western counterpart, in terms of the class of its subjects, female elites' relationship with the state, and postfeminism's entanglement with local feminisms. To emphasize the transnational perspective, I would like to coin a new term for the Chinese equivalent of post-feminism, what I will call "consumerist pseudo-feminism" ((sic)), acknowledging the buzzwords 'consumerism' and 'pseudo-feminism' that are frequently used in the Chinese media. Anchored to this reconceptualization, Chinese chick flicks, burgeoning genre films with its niche audience of middle-class young women are analyzed. Through close-reading, I would like to investigate how consumerist pseudo-feminism is represented in terms of middle-class women's fantasies, the rhetoric of women's empowerment, and new gender norms.