Gender Essentialism in Chinese Reality TV: A Case Study of You Are So Beautiful

This article provides a feminist analysis of Chinese reality TV, using the recent makeover show-You Are So Beautiful () as a case study. I argue that the notion of gender essentialism is highlighted in the production of You Are So Beautiful, which distances the Chinese show from its original American format-Queer Eye. This phenomenon is indicative of how existing gender power relations influence the production of popular cultural texts in post-reform China, where capitalism and authoritarianism weave a tangled web. The outcomes of the research articulate the interplay between post-socialist gender politics and reality TV production in the Chinese context.