Are You the One? China's TV Dating Shows and theSheng Nü's Predicament

Abstract

This study looks into TV dating shows in post-millennial China. These widespread shows, exemplified by Fei Cheng Wu Rao (translated, by both local and global media, as If You Are the One), open up an ongoing social forum, which, to varying extents, enables self-articulations and renegotiations of class and gender identities and gives voice to selected female participants of the media. Through the lens of critical discourse analysis, the paper focuses on analyzing the stage arrangements and hidden rules of Fei Cheng Wu Rao, female participants' self-introductions, both male and female participants' depictions of their "ideal" spouse, and the remarks of the host and the two expert commentators. The study argues that these dating shows play upon the predicament of Chinese single women, especially those labeled as "sheng nü " ("leftover women"), who strive for upward social mobility, yet are constrained within the new gender mandate of a market economy. Stigmatizing single womanhood, the dating shows also grant a glimpse of the varied ways the media and women participants play a complicit role in reducing women's potential to resist new forms of male privilege in post-socialist China.

An (un)romantic journey: Authentic performance in a Chinese dating show

“…Ferris et al (2007) listed three dominant themes in reality dating shows: (1) women are sex objects, (2) dating is a game and (3) men are sex-driven. Despite the ‘choices’ in the hands of the women, it remains debatable whether women enjoy more freedom and independence through participation as revealed in the case of FCWR (Luo & Sun, 2014). Findings consistently pointed to the function of reality television as a platform to uphold certain hegemonic masculinities (Luo, 2017).…”

Disciplining Desiring Subjects through the Remodeling of Masculinity

“…Hence, this part was usually guided by the male participants’ own idealized versions of themselves. In contemporary Chinese society, courtship and marriage are regarded as important avenues for upward mobility, and women are expected to marry up into a better financial situation (Farrer, 2002; Osburg, 2013; Luo and Sun, 2014). Consequently, wealthy men often have more choices in the marriage market, and affluence becomes a very favorable quality in a man.…”

When dating shows encounter state censors: a case study of If You Are the One

“…However, these seemingly ambivalent idiosyncrasies of the show have not received adequate scholarly analysis. Existing studies of If You Are the One focus on the extent to which the diversified representations of participants factor into reinforcing or challenging gender norms, social hierarchy, and cultural stereotypes (Li, 2015;Luo and Sun, 2015;Morrow, 2014;. With few exceptions (Kong, 2013), the ways in which If You Are the One approaches expression of gender-related issues as they relate to broader social concerns remain understudied.…”