Masculinities on transnational journeys: sexual practices and risk management among male Chinese immigrants to Canada

Abstract

Recent critical studies of men and masculinities have encouraged greater consideration of global, international and transnational perspectives and processes. Drawing on interview data from a larger research study of transnationalism and HIV risk through the experiences of recent male Chinese immigrants to Canada, this article examines the intersection of masculinity, sexual practice and the HIV risk in a transnational context. As a gendered strategy, transnational mobility is not only employed by men to cope with the challenges of masculinity enactment encountered in Canada, but also to facilitate sexual activities back in China. By highlighting particular risk factors arising from transnational spaces these men inhabit, the paper reveals the interactive and interconnected effects that such experiences have on Chinese immigrant men’s particular behavioural patterns associated with HIV risk, as well as their capacity to respond to this risk.

Résumé

Des études critiques récentes sur les hommes et les masculinités ont incité à une meilleure prise en compte des points de vue et des processus mondiaux, internationaux et transnationaux. En s’appuyant sur les données d’entretiens conduits dans le cadre d’une recherche plus importante sur le transnationalisme et le risque lié au VIH à travers les expériences vécues par des immigrés chinois de sexe masculin récemment arrivés au Canada, cet article examine particulièrement le croisement de la masculinité, des pratiques sexuelles et du risque lié au VIH dans un contexte transnational. En tant que stratégie genrée, la mobilité transnationale est non seulement utilisée par les hommes pour faire face aux difficultés de l’exercice de la masculinité rencontrées au Canada, mais aussi pour faciliter leurs activités sexuelles une fois qu’ils reviennent en Chine. En soulignant les facteurs de risque particuliers émergeant des espaces nationaux habités par ces hommes, l’article révèle les effets interactifs et interconnectés que ces expériences vécues à travers différents contextes socioculturels ont sur les modèles comportementaux spécifiques des immigrés chinois de sexe masculin, associés au risque lié au VIH, ainsi que sur leur capacité à répondre à ce risque.

Resumen

En estudios críticos recientes sobre los hombres y las masculinidades se ha dado mucha importancia a las perspectivas y los procesos globales, internacionales y transnacionales. A partir de datos de entrevistas de un exhaustivo estudio de investigación sobre transnacionalismo y el riesgo de infección con el VIH examinando las experiencias de recientes inmigrantes chinos de sexo masculino en Canadá, en este artículo se analiza en concreto la intersección de la masculinidad, la práctica sexual y el riesgo de VIH en un contexto transnacional. Como estrategia de los sexos, los hombres no solo emplean la movilidad transnacional para hacer frente a los retos de la representación de la masculinidad que encuentran en Canadá, sino también para facilitar las actividades que tienen de vuelta en China. Al poner de relieve los factores de riesgos particulares que surgen de los espacios transnacionales en los que viven estos hombres, en este artículo se revelan los efectos interactivos e interconectados que tienen tales experiencias en los diferentes contextos socioculturales en los específicos patrones de conducta relacionados con el riesgo de VIH de hombres inmigrantes de origen chino, así como su capacidad para responder a ese riesgo.

Keywords:

• Masculinity
• transnationalism
• HIV risk
• mainland Chinese immigrants
• Canada

Introduction

Since the 1990s, China has become a top source country of Canadian immigration (Government of Canada 2015). This new cohort from mainland China is often referred to as ‘highly-educated immigrants’ or ‘skilled workers’ because the majority of this group have completed university education. However, mainland Chinese immigrants realise soon after their arrival in Canada that there is a mismatch between their skills and employers’ expectations in the local labour market (Li 2008). Due to language barriers and recognised credentials, many Chinese immigrants experience downward social mobility and end up in low-skilled and low-paid jobs, if not falling into unemployment (Ho 2013). In the meantime, the new century is witnessing the ‘rise of China’ as a global phenomenon, which has created new economic opportunities in China for Chinese immigrants living overseas. The combination of settlement difficulties in host countries and better opportunities back home has produced a new ‘pull-and-push’ force for many immigrants to return to China and increasingly live in ‘transnational spaces’ (Kuehn, Louie, and Pomfret 2013), where their lives are not limited by the territorial boundaries of Canada but include their home country (i.e., China) as well.

Given that men tend to have greater power and status in Chinese society than women, they are particularly affected by post-immigration downward mobility and experience more self-esteem conflicts (Chua and Fujino 1999; Hibbins 2005). As a result, they are more motivated to participate in return migration to evade employment-related difficulties encountered in Canada or to take advantage of better opportunities and social status back in China. For example, in these ‘astronaut families’ usually the wife and child remain behind in Canada to fulfil the residency requirements for Canadian citizenship and to educate their children in Canada, while the husband makes money in China to support their transnational family (Ho 2013). Although the phenomenon of astronaut or transnational family structures among Chinese immigrants is primarily interpreted as economically driven in the present literature, the social motivations for this arrangement – in particular, men’s pursuit of desired masculinity – should not be overlooked.

Particular values and cultural characteristics underpinned by Confucianism have remained influential for the construction of Chinese masculinities. These values and characteristics focus on connections, networks, interpersonal relationships, as well as social institutions (Yang 1994). Of particular importance in considerations of gender identity for Chinese men is the emphasis given to patriarchal paternalism (Cheng 1996); fidelity to patrilineage (Stacey 1983); and hierarchy with well-defined roles, including gender roles (Redding 1990). Recent ethnographically grounded studies open a new avenue for the field that attends to locally-situated dynamics, such as those entailed in medical discourse (Zhang 2015), sexual consumption (Zheng 2009) and networking and patron-clientelism (Osburg 2013), in constructing masculine identities that are intersected by class, generation, region and sexuality. After migrating to Western countries, however, Chinese immigrant men find themselves situated in a quite different cultural and geographic space of Western hegemonic masculinity. Legacies of white hostility, discriminatory immigration policies (Lowe 1996), gendered labour practices (Espiritu 2008) and degrading media images (Fung 1996) continue to influence diasporic Chinese masculinities and create anxiety and stress among ethnic Chinese men overseas (Lu and Wong 2013). With China as a growing global economic power, the rapid and enormous flow of people, goods and ideas across the national and cultural borders has made it impossible to understand masculinity in an isolated social or geographic context. A ‘transnational turn’ is critically needed to contribute to a more dynamic and less essentialised understanding of Chinese masculinities (Louie 2014).

By foregrounding masculinities as an amalgam of situated identities, ideologies and practices, transnational approaches to masculinity shed light on how masculinities are formulated/reformed, challenged, negotiated and operated in transnational social fields (Datta et al. 2009; Hearn, Blagojevic, and Harrison 2013; Pessar and Mahler 2003). Within this literature, there is an increasing interest in the relationship between transnational migration and masculinity. Immigrant men’s notions of manhood are often challenged by both downward mobility in socioeconomic status after migration (Chua and Fujino 1999) and local hegemonic variants of masculinity in the new territory (Hibbins 2005). As a response, men may use transnationalism as a ‘gender strategy’ to mobilise, and simultaneously evade, new opportunities afforded by the constraints of the different gender regimes in their communities of origin and new residential contexts of host countries, as demonstrated in Thai’s (2008) ethnographic study on transnational marriage pursued by Vietnamese migrant men in the USA. Furthermore, immigrant men might also develop more egalitarian gender relationships with their wives and other family members through, for example, their construction of transnational fatherhood that emphasises providing material support (Pribilsky 2012) and nurturing emotional bonds (Montes 2013) at a distance. The recent queer intervention of masculinity in a transnational context shows how the experiences of men who have sex with men differ from their heterosexual counterparts, including their negotiation of subordinated masculinity, which is constrained not only by the homophobia of their ethnic community, but also by racism in the gay community of host countries (Cantu 2009; Vasquez del Aguila 2014).

Because men often express and experience masculinity through sexuality (Kimmel 2005), sexual behaviours have become a key component of masculinity in relation to HIV prevention interventions. In the context of (international) migration, the connections between masculinity, sexuality and HIV risks are well documented (Cantu 2009; Gutmann 2007; Hirsch 2015). For example, ‘mobile men with money’ who are exposed to heightened risk of HIV in context of high population movement and economic disparity, have become one of the latest risk categories included in global HIV prevention discourse (Aggleton, Bell, and Kelly-Hanku 2014). In particular, Uretsky (2008) uses the same term as a descriptor for Chinese businessmen and government officials who engage in yingchou – socialising activities with food and alcohol – to build personal trust and expand business relationships. Women who work as entertainers and hostesses in these venues may also provide men with sexual services. Although people may complain about how such activities compromise family relationships and personal wellbeing, having yingchou opportunities is regarded as a sign of masculine status in today’s China (Osburg 2013).

Mobile men are also involved in cross-border migration. Research has shown that post-immigrant changes in living environment (including intimate relationship) often lead to changes in sexual practices among immigrants, including immigrant men; these changes include the greater possibility of having casual sex, engaging in same-sex practices and using commercial sex services, which expose them to sexual health risks (Gutmann 2007; Regondi, George, and Pillay 2013; Zhou 2012). Rather than viewing such behavioural changes solely as a result of the changing environment in the host society, we might gain new insights by also taking into account the influence of these immigrant men’s conceptions of masculinity as shaped by their migration processes. These changing sexual practices reflect men’s negotiation of masculinity in relation to economic security, community respect and social integration (Decoteau 2013), which is increasingly complicated in a transnational context (Hirsch 2015; Maternowska, Withers, and Brindis 2014).

Drawing on interview data from a larger research project on transnationalism and HIV risk through the experiences of recent Chinese immigrants to Canada, this article examines the intersection of masculinity, sexual practice and HIV risk in a transnational context. Instead of presenting a relatively singular construction of masculinity as either privileged or marginalised, it pays close attention to the relational and contextual nature of masculinity that has to be situated in a broader transnational context of power relations in different contexts. After presenting the conceptual framework of the study that is informed by the theory of transnationalism, the research findings focus on how transnational mobility as a gendered strategy is not only employed by these men to cope with the challenges of masculinity enactment encountered in Canada, but also to facilitate their various sexual activities back to China. By highlighting particular risk factors arising from the transnational spaces in which Chinese immigrant men are increasingly living, as well as their capacity to respond that risk shaped by the same structural force, I hope to shed light on the critical linkages between masculinity, transnationalism and HIV risk.

Conceptual framework

The impacts of international migration on HIV risk in Western countries have been well documented. Situating immigrants’ health solely in host countries, however, may obfuscate the important fact that their lives are also simultaneously subject to the influences of their home countries because of increased access to travel and communications technologies (e.g., the Internet, telephone and online communication software). Informed by the concept of transnationalism, which emphasises the simultaneity of immigrants’ engagement in two or more nation-states and cultures (Basch, Schiller, and Blanc 1994), my analysis employs a transnational lens in looking at HIV risk – a lens that brings to the fore immigrants’ connections with their homelands and the impacts these connections have on their health (Brown et al. 2012; Mole et al. 2014; Hirsch 2015). Instead of treating participants’ experiences in homeland and host country as independent of one another, I wish to highlight the interactive and interconnected effects that such experiences across different sociocultural contexts have on their particular behavioural patterns with a deep implication for HIV risk.

Despite recognition of the effects of gender identities in general, and masculinity in particular, on people’s health (Mane and Aggleton 2001), inadequate attention has been paid to the relationship between masculinity and HIV risks in the context of transnationalism (Hirsch 2015). Findings from a pilot project conducted by Zhou (2012) have shown the home country of China continues to be important for the gender-related ideas and norms of Chinese immigrants to Canada, despite their changing sexual practices after immigration. We need to know much more about how Chinese immigrants’ construction of masculinities in a transnational context – simultaneously enabled and constrained by the different gender regimes in their home country and new host country which arise from the complex intersection of their race, class and sexuality as well as generational positions – influence the HIV risk faced by Chinese immigrant men and their capacity to respond to that risk. Only if we develop a more nuanced understanding of how social dynamics around masculinity are negotiated can we ensure HIV prevention efforts meet the needs of this population.

Methods

Study data were drawn from a larger qualitative investigation conducted between 2011 and 2016 that aimed to understand the HIV-related vulnerability of Chinese immigrants to Canada in a transnational context. Individual, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 66 immigrant adults (31 women and 35 men) from the People’s Republic of China, who had stayed in Canada for less than 10 years, who currently lived in Canada or China (Beijing, Shanghai, Toronto and Vancouver) and who were willing to talk about issues of sexual health (including HIV). While recruitment in Canada took place through Chinese community networks, Chinese community media (including the Internet) and word of mouth, participants in China were mainly recruited through the personal networks of Chinese team members due to the lack of other channels (e.g., social services and online communities) to locate possible candidates. Except for one participant, who preferred being interviewed in English, all participants were interviewed in Mandarin at a location of the participant’s choice.

This article is based on interview data of 35 male participants (Beijing = 8; Shanghai = 10; Toronto = 8; Vancouver = 9). Their ages ranged from 22 years to 58 years, with an average age of 37.1 years. Although the majority first arrived in Canada between 2000 and 2010, 15 men had stayed in Canada less than five years. Of these individuals, 7 were Canadian citizens, 21 were Canadian permanent residents, 5 were international students in Canada, 1 held a 10-year visitor visa and the residency status of 1 was unknown. With respect to relationship status, 9 individuals were single, 19 were married, 4 were living in common-law relationships, and 3 were separated or divorced. The majority of individuals self-identified as heterosexual, with 2 identifying as gay and 1 as bisexual.

Given the larger study’s focus on transnationalism, we were particularly interested in participants’ connections with their homeland through daily electronic communication, family, business and, especially, international travel (including return migration). The majority had travelled between China and Canada after immigration, three of whom had done so more than 20 times. The most common reason for travel was to visit family or for work. Although it was not feasible for the study to trace participants’ experiences in multiple sites, men were asked to compare their experiences in China and Canada during the interview.

Written informed consent was obtained before each interview took place. Participants were asked about their settlement experiences, relationships with sexual partners, decision-making on safer sex, interactions with the Chinese communities in Canada and with China as the home country. They were also asked questions related to HIV, including knowledge, risk perception and response, and access to HIV services. Given that the larger study was particularly concerned with the gendered vulnerability to HIV of Chinese immigrants living in such ‘transnational spaces’, themes relating to masculinity in a transnational context, including being man in China; challenged masculinity in Canada; racial stereotypes; sexual play; and condomless sex, emerged and are identified as the major focus of the current study. During analysis, it proved possible to develop a comprehensive synthesis of themes, with particular attention to how gendered identities as men ‘travelled’ between different even contradictory gender regimes. Pseudonyms are used throughout this article to protect participants’ identities.

Findings

Masculinity in Canada: challenges, stereotypes and heteronormativity

Due to cultural and institutional barriers, Chinese male immigrants often faced employment challenges after they migrated to Canada. At the time of their interview, more than half of the male participants recruited in Canada (10/17) indicated they worked ‘part-time’ or were unemployed. Because Chinese cultural values place stress on hard work and men being the provider, these men struggled to meet cultural benchmarks of normative masculinity. Comparing to their female counterparts, according to one participant, Zhao (aged 48 years), Chinese immigrant men often faced an extra barriers – men’s pride – when with dealing with post-immigration employment problems. He said:

Regardless of what a woman was doing in China, she could bend over doing a low-skill job like being a saleswoman in a supermarket. You could still raise a family. But for men, at least the majority, it would be [hard] – if he was a professional if not a boss himself back in China, how could he bend his noble head to be a salesman.

Travelling frequently between his private business in Shanghai and home in Toronto, Zhou discussed conflicts navigating different arenas of enacting masculinity. For him, specifically, the biggest post-immigration change was ‘from being crazily busy [in China] to totally idle [in Canada]’. In sharp contrast to his tight schedule in Shanghai, full of business-related activities, Zhao did not have much to do in Canada except share the household chores with his wife, who had a full-time job. Observing that ‘women gain more power at home after taking more economic responsibility’, he resolved his self-esteem issue and reclaimed his masculine role as breadwinner through return migration.

Such a living arrangement was also found among other male participants: that is, men pursued career or business opportunities in China and travelled frequently to and from Canada where their families remained.

Employment challenges, along with language and cultural barriers, prevented participants from expanding their social circle in Canada, which also negatively impacted on their sense of masculinity. Ma (aged 38 years), an investment immigrant residing in Vancouver, provided a simple definition of what it means to be a man in China:

[Men in China] should play well two roles – making lots of friends outside but being a good husband at home.

In the post-immigration context, however, men’s social lives and social networks are generally diminished. Their constrained ability to socialise outside home in Canada had resulted in a sense of social isolation, which was made even worse when communicating with friends back in China, as described by Jimmy (aged 35 years):

I live here like a monk, and feel so damned repressed. Because [I and my friends in China] often call each other, I hear them talking about being out drinking and having fun all day. I am so envious.

Shrinking social circles in Canada, manifesting in their general lack of yingchou opportunities, constrains participants’ access to normative expectations associated with masculinity as defined back in China, creating a heightened sense of inadequacy and stress.

These men were simultaneously disadvantaged by the hegemonic notion of masculinity in Canada. Although they might not be aware of the long-standing stereotypes of Asian/Chinese men before immigration, they become increasingly conscious of such stereotypes after living in Canada, especially among younger participants who received their college and university education there. Describing himself as an atypical ‘Asian man’, Andy (aged 27 years) talked about his daily frustration of dealing with people’s assumptions about Asian men during inter-racial encounters:

In Canada you have to constantly deal with that awkward feeling. For instance, you went to a house party full of white guys. Standing over there, I could still feel a little bit tension to handle the assumption that I should behave more reserved and less talkative since I am an Asian.

In addition, some participants reported other stereotypes that are connected to the sense of inferiority wherein physical size is a measure of masculinity, especially around ‘penis talk’ (Fung 1996). Dave (aged 34 years) recalled such an incident that occurred as he socialised with a racially-mixed group of friends:

One time a 16-year girl of French descent approached me … she said ‘I heard that Chinese men have small penises, so you guys get small dicks.’ I said ‘I don’t know’, and then asked if that means white girls get bigger pussies? She said ‘I don’t compare with Asian pussies, so I don’t know.’ The conversation stopped. You can always answer back like that.

Direct confrontation against this stereotype provided Dave with a sense of empowerment. By associating himself with the local hip-hop subculture that is both hyper-masculine and misogynic, furthermore, he carved out an alternative path to assert his otherwise marginalised Chinese diasporic masculinity.

Not happy with their stable but ‘boring’ jobs in Canada, however, both Andy and Dave eventually returned to Shanghai. One currently works as a freelance writer and counsellor, offering dating advice for young people, and the other pursues his dream as a stand-up comedian. In making such unconventional career choices, both young men reported, they were conscious of their resistance to the prevalent stereotypes against Asian/Chinese men.

While feeling disadvantaged by their race, immigrant status and career prospects in Canada, some men in this study also demonstrated their manhood through endorsing heteronormativity, including homophobia. Despite the fact that Canada was one of first countries to legalise same-sex marriage, some participants expressed disagreement and, sometimes, even made explicitly homophobic remarks during interviews, as two men commented:

Canadian society regards homosexuals as normal. It is people’s freedom to act on their own sexual orientation, isn’t it? But if you ask my opinion, I don’t accept that. (Lin, aged 49 years)

Interviewer:

Do you have friends like that [homosexual] in your circle?

Dave:

I do know some, but I would keep distance from him right away. This is my thing – I call it homo fear.

As well, many participants said that they did not know anyone who was openly gay in their private circles. Uncoincidentally, none of the few gay participants in this study chose to have close ties with local Chinese communities.

Men’s sex back in China: transnational mobility, sexual indulgence and economic opportunities

Transnational mobility was used by some men in this study as a strategy to protect or maintain their sense of manhood. Having sex with women, many women in a few cases, back in China was also viewed by some men as a symbol to grain a sense of normalcy or to compensate their constrained access to sexual partners and sex in Canada. Staying in Canada for 12 years, Jimmy had met 10 women in China within three months after his first return trip from Canada and met 8 women through the Internet during his second trip. He explained his active sexual pursuit in China thus:

It felt like I did not have that [sex] in six to seven years here in Canada. Once I went back, I finally got the chance to meet people. I invited them to dinner, and have sex afterwards. It was like that every day.

Similarly, Michael (aged 41 years) was in high spirits as he bragged about his cross-border sexual ‘play’. He claimed to have had sex with more than 100 women in China, including the time before his immigration 15 years ago. He explained his pride and sense of achievement associated with the large number of female sexual partners:

Because the number of your sexual partners is indicative of your charm. How charming I am! People in my age can attract girls in their early 20s if not younger. This is quite extraordinary, isn’t it?

Yet his extraordinary sexual appetite seemed to only be enacted in China or upon return to China given his socioeconomic privilege there. When living in Canada, he admitted that he had had fewer than 10 sexual partners, including sex workers he visited. Like Jimmy and Michael, many men reported participating in various types of sexual play on return to China. Some had a stable ‘girlfriend’ or mistress, while others were interested in casual sex with local women met through the Internet. Some patronised sexually oriented clubs and bars to expand their business networks, while others visited these places for the purpose of leisure and fun.

Not surprisingly, the theme of the ‘unfaithful husband’ prevailed in the narratives of both men and women, although women’s narratives are beyond of scope of this paper. John (aged 38 years) described the arrangement of an astronaut family and gendered pattern of return migration that provide opportunities for extramarital sexual relationships:

Lack of opportunities cause Chinese husbands and wives to live in separation. It is just so common here. We seem to be the only couple left here living together. The others have houses, cars and children, but it is all like husbands making money in China, while wives taking care of children’s education here. Surely both parties have sexual needs. They just have to figure out their own outlets.

Having a long-term ‘girlfriend’ in Shanghai, while Zhao explained the relationship between long-term geographic separation, as a strategy to cope with the settlement challenges in Canada, and extramarital sex, he also drew a link between happiness and men’s access to extramarital sex:

Men in mainland China are pretty happy, but their wives prefer whole families staying in Canada. If the husband lives in the mainland for a long time, the wife would be constantly told by her colleagues and friends that you should get your husband back home. It is too dangerous in the mainland.

Although geographic separation may provide similar opportunities for wives left in Canada to engage in extramarital sex, their various obligations at home (such as caring for children) may function as a gendered barrier, as explained by the following quotation:

[Other people joke] ‘You are leaving such a beautiful wife alone in Canada, don’t you have any worry?’ There is nothing to worry about. How could she find time [after looking after three young children] to fool around outside, right? (Lin)

In response to the stories of the unfaithful husband in ‘dangerous’ mainland China circulating among Chinese immigrants, some men in this study tended to normalise this particular gendered practice. Since men see themselves as carrying the weight of responsibility to provide economically for their family, it is all right for them to enjoy some privileges. Rather than look at these as a moral matter, these men constructed it as an issue beyond their control. Individuals just had to come up with their own strategies to cope with it.

The ‘inevitability’ of the unfaithful husband was also justified by men’s need to engage in yingchou practices in China. Zhao, for example, attributed tolerance of extramarital affairs to yingchou as a gendered practice, which blurs the boundary between family time and work time and grants men’s control over their use of time outside home. He drew a comparison between China and Canada:

In Canada, men’s activities and time are controlled, while in China it is totally opposite, which creates more opportunities [for casual and commercial sex]. Nobody works overtime in Canada. There is also no yingchou – most social activities are family oriented regardless during weekdays or weekends. Everybody has dinner at home.

Given that sex is part of the norm of business-oriented socialising in mainland China, for some returning business men this also means their participation in the business subculture, in which commercial sex were consumed as part of process of building business network and also cultivating trust among a group of business men. Viewing his participation as non-optional, Ma explained:

If you are doing trade business, it involves lots of yingchou with government officials. First is eating, then drinking, and night life is the last step. Am I interested in this? Not really. But you have no choice in that environment. You can get nothing done unless you blend in with that circle.

For others, return to China meant needing to resume such forms of masculinity, which are part of the local gender culture.

Instead of being regarded as purely aggression and promiscuity, sexual play among Chinese immigrant men to Canada serves as a ‘sexual project’ in which ‘people use sexual performance and practices strategically to acquire desired ends, whether embodied, social and material’ (Hirsch 2015, S27). Their reassertion of heteronormative masculinity through transnational mobility is an important component of such sexual projects that are both socially-specific and globally relevant (Shen 2008). In addition to their impact on gender identity and family life, the sexual practices of Chinese immigrants across national and cultural borders have implications for other social issues with global significance, including HIV prevention and intervention.

Gendered vulnerability: the production and management of HIV-related risks

Despite the prevailing discourse of the unfaithful husband and its embedded gendered anxieties within the transnational families of Chinese immigrants, condomless sex was also reported as a way to test a partner’s fidelity and minimise such anxieties. That is, the use of the condom by married couples may generate suspicion and destroy trust in marriage, as Lin explained:

Keep this in mind: if any one of a married couple proposes using condom, there are only two reasons. One is the concern of pregnancy, and the other is out of suspicion. If the wife brings it up, she must suspect that her husband has something going on outside. If the husband proposes the same thing, he is either suspecting his wife of being unfaithful or has already done something unfaithful to his wife.

He asserted that he ‘never’ uses condoms in his marital life because there is ‘complete trust’ between him and his wife. In addition, his confidence in his wife’s fidelity is further reinforced by his assumption that extramarital opportunities favour men in transnational families.

For other participants who were open about their extramarital sex in China, their confidence in their sexual safety was largely attributed to the dominant gender ideology that emphasises Chinese men’s ability for self-control in dangerous situations (including situations involving extramarital sex) on the one hand, and which constructs Chinese women as more ‘domestic’ and less sexual on the other hand. Without denying his experiences of buying sex during yingchou, Zhao was quite conscious of the need to protect himself under these circumstances. He attributed this to his ‘responsibilities’ of being a man in the society:

You must take responsibilities for your family as well as the society. You must care about your own [social] image. If you get contracted with that [AIDS and/or STDs], you would lose a lot.

In contrast, a condom was not always used when Zhao had sex with his ‘girlfriend’ back in Shanghai:

She is not a sex worker. She doesn’t have many sexual partners, so she is pretty safe, which means you are also relatively safe.

Because the nature of their extramarital relationship prevented him probing into his girlfriend’s other concurrent sexual activities, Zhao admitted that his sense of safety was just a ‘perception’ without any verification.

Unprotected sex is not just about trust between sexual partners, but asserting gender power relations as well. The latter is particularly salient as some participants bragged about their sexual conquests in China in which the discourse of liangjia funϋ (good women) emerged. Literally meaning women from respectable families, local liangjia funϋ were targeted by these men when they travelled back to China:

Interviewer:

Did you have any [health] concerns [when you slept around in China]?

Jimmy:

Any concern …. It depends on which kind of persons you are dealing with. If they were liangjia funϋ, I would not have any worry …. At least I know what they are doing, and they often have decent jobs or are just students, unlike the type I met in clubs whom I would not touch since I am not sure if she had any disease.

Interviewer:

Under this circumstance, would you use condom for protection?

Jimmy:

Usually not.

Interviewer:

How do they [one-night stands] differ from paying for sex？

Yang (aged 28 years):

You feel assured because they are liangjia.

Interviewer:

What do you mean liangjia?

Yang:

Liangjia funϋ, so they are disease-free.

Interviewer:

Did you use protection when you were with these girls?

Yang:

Nope.

This liangjia funϋ discourse is interesting because it highlights participants’ shifting self-perceptions as men that are rendered possible through transnational mobility. In contrast to Canada, where visiting sex workers occasionally may be one of the limited options available to them to validate their disadvantaged masculinity, these men’s masculine egos were greatly satisfied by sexual liaisons with local gentlewomen back to China.

Despite the fact that more than half of the participants reported having commercial sex for personal and/or business purposes, sex workers were often regarded as dirty, which distinguished them from liangjia women. Men in this study reported being cautious when they were using sexual services. The only exception appeared in Ma’s story and underscores another type of sexual trust with deep implications for HIV risks. He talked about how engaging in the sexualised yingchou was required to move his business forward. Even though such activities sometimes involved having sex with multiple partners or even group sex in private clubs, condom use was seen as detrimental in establishing trust with his guests whose power could determine future business opportunities. Ma provided a powerful account that reveals complicated relationships of sex, money, trust and HIV risk in his business circle:

Ma:

You must integrate yourself into the circle. When they [referring to his guests who were often government officials] look for excitement and don’t want to wear condom, if you wore it, they would think you were a person of different kind. In their eyes, there is nothing to hide among us, and we have seen through each other completely. With this kind of binding, you would not sell me out, while I would not betray you either, right?

Interviewer:

Does it mean under this circumstance, you all could establish total trust with each other?

Ma:

Exactly, that is the trust. Foreigners don’t understand that.

Ma was one of the very few participants who explicitly expressed worry about HIV risk. Migration to Canada, according to him, was one way to escape his business circle as well as deep anxieties associated with the lifestyle he described above. In order to support his family life in Canada, however, he still had to continue his business in China. During the interview, Ma shared his feeling of being stuck in a situation full of frustration and guilt. He was certainly aware of the health risks associated with the lifestyle back in China, but was unwilling to use condoms with his wife. Even worse, Ma felt nobody could help him because ‘foreigners don’t understand that’. Although Ma’s experience may not be representative of other men in this study, sexualised yingchou, for the purpose of exploring business opportunities or pursuing career development, frequently appeared in interviews with participants who returned to China.

Discussion and conclusion

The International Organization of Migration (2008) proposes a concept of ‘spaces of vulnerability’ to consider migrant-related HIV vulnerability as occurring in a particular social space where migrant and mobile populations interact with local communities in environments conducive to multiple concurrent partnerships or higher-risk sex. In a similar vein, both Canada and mainland China are connected transnational spaces of vulnerability in which particular risks to HIV transmission and other STIs are produced. Gender has become a powerful force that links vulnerability and these transnational spaces through particular patterns of mobility and types of relationship (Deng and Lyttleton 2013). For Chinese immigrant men to Canada, the interrelationships between settlement, masculinity, sexuality and HIV risk are not confined to a particular site/country. Rather, transnational mobility has a deep impact on their gender identities and intimate relationships which, in addition to vulnerabilities immigrants might otherwise face, produce interconnected risk or vulnerability across countries.

Chinese immigrant men’s negotiation of masculinities in a transnational context from their particular in-between position, which means their cultural beliefs and social practices are simultaneously influenced by both hosting countries and home country, is highlighted as an important contextual factor that generates structural vulnerability for members of this group. Given the combined effects of restricted employment opportunities and cultural barriers in the host country, Chinese immigrant men often feel more strongly about their downward mobility in Canada and its impact on their sense of privilege (including being a man). They are therefore more motivated to pursue compensatory masculinity through transnational strategies that enable them to return to their home country. When back in China they are able to move their career and/or business forward by taking advantage of preexisting social networks and capitals. Their experiences abroad can further elevate their status. In relation to different and often contradictory gender regimes in both host and home countries, they can adjust, and indeed readjust, their identities as men at each stage of migration.

The location of ‘double masculine consciousness’ (McKay 2007, 630) may explain the sexual practices of Chinese immigrant men in a transnational context. Without understanding how the local practice of yingchou, as well as the sexual element it contains, is built into heteronormative masculinities among elite men in contemporary Chinese society, we cannot fully comprehend participants’ anxiety about physical and symbolic emasculation owing to shrinking social networks in Canada and returning migration. On the other hand, the sexual play or ‘fun’ these men had in China – for the purpose of either pleasure or business opportunities – has to be understood as a transnational status ritual through which men experience, display and intensify their upward position and identity as privileged, transnational individuals, against their relatively disadvantaged positions in the racialised gender hierarchy of Canadian society. Both processes have important implications for Chinese immigrant men’s vulnerability to HIV stemming from distorted sexual beliefs and risky sexual practices.

Another key issue linked to the construction of masculinity concerns homophobia among Chinese immigrants. Given the deep-rooted heteronormativity in Chinese culture, some participants openly made homophobic remarks during interviews. The maintenance of Chinese ways of thinking is an integral part of how they claim Chinese masculinity. At the same time, such statements may also be read as a conscious resistance to the dominant gender ideology in the Canadian society that has historically emasculated Chinese immigrants, or Asian immigrants in general. Therefore, Chinese immigrants’ homophobia should be situated in the contexts of both host and home countries. Associating HIV only with recognised high-risk groups like gay men further precludes them from recognising the vulnerable situation in which they were actually located.

Participants in this study can be characterised as well-educated, and most self-evaluated their HIV knowledge as ‘medium’ or ‘fair’. Rather than functioning as health-maximising, rational actors, as public health and social policy often assume, they continued to engage in risky behaviours, especially unprotected sex with multiple and/or casual partners. Motivations behind unprotected sex – covering marital infidelity, targeting gentlewomen for sexual fun or establishing trust to pursue business opportunities – are sustained in a transnational gender dynamic through which Chinese immigrant men negotiate and assert their masculinity. Sexual health risks may be viewed by these individuals as secondary and less important.

While this article has focused on the vulnerability of Chinese immigrant men to HIV in relation to constructing transnational masculinity, it also has implications for women in the context of broader gender inequality. The notion of liangjia funϋ is particularly relevant in this regard, since it concerns not only the female sexual partners back in China but also mens’ wives in Canada. In the former case, men underestimated the sexual risk that they faced, and put those women at risk as well. In the latter case, sexual risk cannot be properly acknowledged and responded to because of its moral implications for monogamous marriage. This makes both men and women vulnerable to HIV, though gender inequality is embodied in men’s presentations of masculinity in both non-marital and marital sex in China and Canada. In this sense, men’s individual and collective practices in a transnational context not only (re)produce gender inequalities, but also contribute to blurring of responsibilities, accountabilities and sources of power within and beyond national borders (Hearn, Blagojevic, and Harrison 2013).

The study took the form of an exploratory qualitative study, which aimed to reveal some novel dimensions of transnationalism in relation to the construction of masculinities. A small-size and purposively selected sample of men who continued to travel back and forth between Canada and China and simultaneously felt comfortable describing their (sexual) experiences was recruited to access their experiences. Therefore, the findings cannot be generalisable to Chinese immigrant men in Canada as a whole. It is also important to note that masculinity was not the focus of the larger study, but rather emerged as one key theme at the stage of data analysis. The lack of a more systematic examination of Chinese immigrant men’s own understandings and experiences of masculinity may have prevented the author fully recognising their effects in relation to the HIV risk and prevention. Despite this limitation, this study contributes to and extends the existing knowledge of the related HIV health risks faced by this group and the development of more responsive interventions at both local and transnational levels.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

This work was supported by Canadian Institutes of Health Research [grant number 111081] and a McMaster Arts Research Board Scholarly Publications grant.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to express his appreciation to the research participants of this study in both Canada and China. Generous help from Yanqiu Rachel Zhou helped shape the final version of the article. I also thank the project’s research associates and assistants (Helen Hong Su, Liping Peng, Emmy Arnold, Nancy Johnson, Xiaoqing Gao, Xiaoxin Ji, Jane Ma, Yujing Zhu, Jia’nan Zhang, Wenjuan Tian) and collaborators (Chi Heng Foundation, Shanghai, China; Institute of Sexuality and Gender, Renmin University of China; Asian Community AIDS Services, Toronto, Canada; St. Stephen’s House, Toronto, Canada) for their contributions at different stages of this study.