ABSTRACT
The documentary Hard Love (炼爱) records the life of five middle- to upper-class women in Beijing, focusing on their love aspirations, romantic liaisons, and marital concerns. When acting on one’s freedom of choices, why is it that these self-empowered women find love to be so unattainable? I will argue that Hard Love reveals the regime of intimacy in modern-day China that is infiltrated and governed by capitalism, resulting in the perfect love script shaped by commodities, the media, romance industry, and that obstructs the ability of middle-class women to love in an imperfect world.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Misha Kavka for her invaluable suggestions, continued support, and encouragement. I also thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their generous feedback on this manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).