Politics of ambivalence: how Zhou Shen’s androgyny survives under Xi Jinping

ABSTRACT

Since the recent state crackdown on effeminate stars labeled as niangpao (sissy pants), “insufficient” masculinity has once again become a focus of political controversy in China. Among these stars, Zhou Shen, a male pop singer known for his feminized voice and image, continues to enjoy immense popularity and perform in official programs. His growing fame and tolerance by the state call into question his cultural-political strategy. Conceptualizing Zhou’s androgynous performance as a political effect of a series of co-optation, compromises and negotiations, this essay offers a contextualized reading of the complex ways in which competing and contradictory influences shape his expression. In tracing the practices that configure his stardom, we investigate how Zhou’s androgyny paradoxically reaffirms and unsettles hegemonic norms in non-antagonistic ways. We describe how his engagement with Xi Jinping’s China Dream creates an ambivalent space for negotiating established norms. We argue that Zhou’s phenomenal success rests with the fusion of contradictory elements into his performances and his ability to cut across binary classifications. This process has nurtured a politics of ambivalence marked by ambiguity, confusion and contingency. It also sheds light on the limit and possibility of doing gender politics in an increasingly illiberal setting.

KEYWORDS:

• Zhou Shen
• androgyny
• zhongxing
• state co-optation
• politics of ambivalence

Acknowledgements

We thank the reviewers’ comments that help us refine our argument about Zhou Shen’s politics. We also thank the members of the Zhou Shen research group at the University of Macau, particularly He Hongzhu, for their help.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In response to the controversy, the government further clarified that masculinity refers not to male behavior but “developing good exercise habits and a healthy lifestyle, refining a strong will, and cultivating a cooperative spirit.” (Gemma A. Williams 2021).

2. This article uses the term zhongxing and “androgyny” interchangeably to describe Zhou Shen’s gender performances. The term “androgyny” captures the ambiguous feeling between femininity and masculinity brought about by his performances. Similar to zhongxing (literally meaning “neutral gender” or “unisex”) in Chinese (Li 2015), the Chinese translation of androgyny (cixiong tongti 雌雄同体) means “female and male in the same body” and cannot be placed in fixed gender categories. With its non-normative, intermediary, and liminal connotations, androgyny refers to cross-gender performances using either male effeminacy or female masculinity by media celebrities (Jiang 2018).

3. We drew the following threads from various social media platforms and the comments sections of Youtube, Bilibili, Douban, Dcard and Zhihu, among others, during August and September 2022.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shih-Diing Liu

Shih-Diing Liu is Professor of Communication, University of Macau. He is the author of The Politics of People: Protest Cultures in China (SUNY Press). His articles appear in positions, Third World Quarterly, Interventions and New Left Review.

Wei Shi

Wei Shi is Associate Professor of Communication, University of Macau. She has published in Journal of Youth Studies, Social Movement Studies, Chinese Journal of Communication, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies and Continuum. She is the author of Wandering in China’s Las Vegas: Migrant Workers in Macau (澳门移工, City University of Hong Kong Press).