Affect and Gender in China’s Political Culture

From political and social elites to netizens and activists, this innovative ethnographic study explores the role of affect and gender in shaping civil society in contemporary China. Affect and Gender in China’’s Political Culture demonstrates that the Chinese elite’s early education and experiences during the Cultural Revolution forged a misogynist world view that was fertile ground for strong-man politics and cults of personality that have been replicated in online and activist discourses. The book examines gendered attacks in online political discourse that characterise female participants as excessively sympathetic ‘holy mothers’ or man-hating ‘female boxers’, stereotypical, ‘saviours’, ‘sluts’ or ‘servants’ and female interests as secondary to abstract political causes. In its final chapters, the book shows a way beyond this demeaning culture by outlining an affective queer imaginary for community-building and a new queer methodology for study of Chinese political culture. In this way, the book goes beyond an institutional approach to to reveal the emotions, impulses and biases that drive political inclinations and behaviours and critiques the activist community for its deep-rooted patriarchal and authoritarian practices.