The Failure of Social Media Politics? Unpacking Interlocking Discourses in Contemporary China’s Online Anti-Surrogacy Sentiments

ABSTRACT

This paper combines automated scraping of Weibo data and critical discourse analysis to examine the online anti-surrogacy sentiments in China, and finds three nodal points in the interlocking anti-surrogacy discourses. Firstly, through a heterosexual male persona, anti-surrogacy sentiments argue that the legalization of surrogacy would reduce the number of women of marriageable age. Secondly, radical feminist voices argued that surrogacy would make women suffer more in the current gender relations. Finally, gay men were singled out and blamed for exploiting women’s body. Through a discussion of these three voices, we argue that despite their apparent diversity, they are fundamentally conditioned and restricted by the state-corporate power axis in China. As a result, they perpetuate current structures of gender and sexuality inequality, instead of engendering meaningful discussions and social change.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

¹ For details, please see via: https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_10847574

² For details, please see via: https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/zqgd/2021-01-20/doc-ikftpnnx9445496.shtml.

³ For details, please see via: https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/zqgd/2021-01-20/doc-ikftpnnx9445496.shtml

⁴ For details, see A Chinese Celebrity Scandal Puts Surrogate Births on Trial, via https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/world/asia/china-surrogate-baby.html?_ga=2.159114618.1367034804.1677301326–2032558099.1677301326, visited on 25^th February, 2023.

⁵ For details, see: https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404613871951282183, visited on 12^th November, 2021

⁶ 6B4T is a newly coined term used by local feminist, meaning six nos (bu) and four departures (tuo): not getting married, not having children, not falling in love, not having sex, not buying misogynistic products and rely on single-woman mutual assistance; 4T means to depart from the corset, religion, and otaku culture and toxic idolism cultures.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the The Chinese Ministry of Education’s Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project [22YJC860021].

Notes on contributors

Tingting Liu

Tingting Liu (Ph.D., University of Queensland) is an Associate Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China, and also holds the position of Adjunct Fellow within the Faculty of Design, Architecture & Building at The University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Dr. Liu’s academic pursuits delve deeply into media anthropology, digital culture, and popular entertainment, with a keen regional focus on both China and Australia. She can be reached at [email protected].

Mingliang Xu

Mingliang Xu (MA, Jinan University) is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Journalism at Fudan University, Shanghai, China. His research has focused on computational communication and data analysis methods. He can be reached at [email protected].

Lin Song

Lin Song (Ph.D., The Chinese University of Hong Kong) is an Assitant Professor in Communication at Jinan University. His research focuses on identities in Asian digital cultures. He can be reached at [email protected].

Jiawei Liu

Jiawei Liu (Ph.D., Washington State University) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Jinan University. Her research primarily delves into the intricate interplay between biological imperatives and environmental factors, exploring their influence on human behavior, information processing, and decision-making within health-related contexts. She can be reached at [email protected].