The pursuit of masculinity by young gay men in neoliberal Hong Kong and Shanghai

ABSTRACT

Recent debates in critical studies of men and masculinities center around the intricate relationship between neoliberalism and male identity formation. Drawing on narratives from in-depth interviews with young gay men aged 18–28 conducted in Hong Kong (n = 25) and Shanghai (n = 20) between 2017 and 2018, this article argues that young Chinese gay men negotiate neoliberal heteronormative values and accomplish masculine ideals in the spheres of education, work, and sexuality. They conform to and protest heterosexual masculinity to create a more reflexive gender and sexual script of ‘being a man’. The family and sexual communities, both embedded with neoliberal values, serve as important social institutions that enable and limit development of the entrepreneur of the self. Using Chinese young gay men's narratives, the article argues that they are embarking on a journey to create their own scripts of masculinity under neoliberal hetero/homo-normative constraints. The article contributes to understanding of the gendered nature of neoliberalism and its impact on the self-making process of the post-90s generation of gay men.

KEYWORDS:

• Masculinity
• neoliberalism
• post-90s generation
• homosexuality
• Hong Kong and Shanghai

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my co-investigators, Prof. Lin Chwen-der (Taiwan), Prof. Wang Tsen-Yung (Taiwan) and Prof. Wei Wei (China), for their generous help; AIDS Concern (Hong Kong), AIDS Foundation (Hong Kong), Midnight Blue (Hong Kong), The Boys’ & Girls’ Clubs Association of Hong Kong (Hong Kong) and PFLAG China (mainland China) for referring interviewees; and the editors and three anonymous reviewers of the Journal of Youth Studies for providing valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This research was fully supported by a General Research Fund from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (HKU17613316).