Caring masculinity as caring capital in the field of marriage: Chinese rural migrant men’s engagement with digital dating

ABSTRACT

The concept of hegemonic masculinity has been used in Chinese sociology since the early-2020s to explain Chinese wealthy men’s power over women in the market reform era. Scholars have also paid attention to the ways in which rural, working-class men achieve a sense of manhood, but the links between digital media and gender theory have often not been explored. To fill in this gap, this article examines the ways in which Chinese rural migrant heterosexual men sophisticatedly employ digital technology and gain advantages in the highly competitive field of marriage, translating savvy digital media usage into cultural capital. Research findings drawing upon our long-term ethnography offer substantial evidence of a relationship between men’s active use of digital technology, caring practices, and the desirability of rural migrant men. As such, we develop the concept of caring capital in relation to men’s ability to: master romantic online courting manners, display caring behaviors during follow-up offline courtship, and please their (future) parents-in-law. Research limitations are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital technology
• Masculinities
• digital dating
• ethnography
• rural migrants
• cultural capital

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The song The Male Workers’ Dorm (男工宿舍) was written and published online in 2010 by the band Young Migrant Workers Art Troupe (新工人艺术团).

2 Please find the Annual Report on Rural-to-Urban Laborers (2016) issued by the National Bureau of Statistics of China on: http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/zxfb/201704/t20170428_1489334.html

3 For details on the gendered separation of male and female workers’ dormitories, please consult Pun (2007).

4 Analysis of these men falls out of the scope of the paper and thus is not included in the following analysis; please see the first author’s other publication for further information.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tingting Liu

Tingting Liu (PhD) is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Jinan University, Guangzhou, China. Her research interests center on new media, gender, sexuality, and their intersections. Recent publications include peer-review journal articles on Information, Communication & Society, Critical Arts, China Information, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Television & New Media and Feminist Media Studies among others. [email protected].

Zhongxuan Lin

Zhongxuan Lin (Ph.D.) is a Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China. His research interests include disability studies, cultural studies and communication studies. His work has appeared in Media International Australia; Chinese Journal of Communication; International Journal of Communication; International Journal of Cultural Studies; Media, Culture & Society; New Media & Society; and Information, Communication & Society among others. [Email: [email protected]]