Global EditionASIA 中文双语Français
Europe

Are Chinese men a herd of cows?

By Wang Mingjie | China Daily Europe | Updated: 2015-07-17 09:05
Share
Share - WeChat

Researchers unlock the secrets of masculinity that may hold the keys to a treasure trove

What makes Chinese men tick? That question has received attention not only from scholars, but from advertising and media professionals, too, because anyone who can answer it will have a gold mine of marketing data on their hands.

Masculinity studies have developed greatly over the past 30 years, fuelled initially by the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s that propelled gender onto media and scholarly agendas, says Derek Hird, a senior lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Westminster in London.

 

Contestants take part in a bodybuilding contest in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Provided to China Daily

 

An advertisement for men's skin care products along Nanjing Road in Shanghai. Provided To China Dailycredit

The field has expanded to include a multiplicity of perspectives from scholars from many different backgrounds looking at masculinity everywhere since Anglophone sociologists formulated theories on the matter in the 1980s, he says.

"In the 1990s and 2000s, Chinese scholars based in Western universities began to write about Chinese masculinity in Chinese film and historical and contemporary Chinese fiction, and in the past five or 10 years, more studies of Chinese masculinity have appeared from a variety of scholars based outside China and in it as well that have continued this trend and that also investigate the lived experiences of different kinds of Chinese men."

Felicia Schwartz, founder and director of China Insight, a consultancy, says: "Businesses that do not study the Chinese man may want to implement a Western strategy based on the wants of Western men or may just make assumptions about Chinese men. In a fast-moving market such as China, it's important to keep a finger on the pulse of what motivates and appeals to one's target consumer."

Advertising and media businesses seem to be among the most keen to learn about the Chinese male market and its tastes, Hird says.

"Businesses often look for a magic bullet that can help them crack the market, such as a straightforward key to understanding Chinese men. But masculinities are multiple and diverse, so the reality is more complex.

"The value of our research is that it encourages businesses to appreciate this diversity and complexity, and to recognize the particular historical circumstances that have shaped and continue to shape Chinese masculinities in dynamic ways. It helps them realize that Chinese masculinities cannot be taken as interchangeable with masculinities in Western countries or reduced to simplistic stereotypes."

Schwartz says Chinese masculinity is not only different from its Western counterpart, but is also evolving rapidly, splitting into myriad sub-demographic groups.

"The speed of China's development means that there is a much more accentuated difference between men of varying ages, whereas a five-year difference, for example, is not considered as determining in the West."

China is huge and diverse geographically, Schwartz says, but "when targeting the 'Chinese man', one has to be clear whether one is targeting the urban male in a first-tier city or perhaps a wider target that might include lower development tiers and even rural areas".

Industrial experts say there have been huge shifts in Chinese masculinity in recent decades.

After reform and opening-up, "the working landscape quickly started diversifying, and new aspirational models such as the white-collar or company man appeared", Schwartz says.

Initially, the Western model of aspirations, including "the American dream", was pervasive, she says, but a more nuanced range of models has appeared in China in recent years, partially rooted in traditional China.

Examples include the comeback of the junzi, or Chinese Confucian gentleman, or the appearance of the xiaoxianrou (literally little fresh meat), a youth model that Schwartz believes is influenced by the pop culture of Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Sharon Chen, a strategist with the advertising company Leo Burnett China, says: "We always begin (our projects) by exploring the needs of people through market research, which could be quantitative or qualitative. Once we identify the insight, we parallel it against the benefits that the product can offer to nail down what is really relevant for the consumers."

The company has been involved in cases targeting Chinese males, one of which is the brand campaign for the car Buick Excelle, Chen says.

"Their target audience is males between the age of 25 and 40. The insight we found about this group of males is that they are a generation of niu (cattle), ai (love) and chong (dashing).

"Niu refers to catching up with others when everything happens so quickly at this point of time in history, they need to work like cattle to make it.

"Ai demonstrates that they have a strong mission to protect their families, and families come first for them. Chinese males are becoming more aware of their role in the family, not just as breadwinners, but also loving husbands and fathers.

"Chong shows that working hard is not good enough," Chen adds. "They will have to work with explosive momentum to fit the needs of and catch up with the pace of the fast-moving economy."

The perception of Chinese masculinity has recently been reflected in Men and Masculinities in Contemporary China, a book by Hird and Song Geng, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong.

In the book, Song and Hird offer an account of Chinese masculinity in media discourse and everyday life, covering masculinity on television, in lifestyle magazines, and at work and home.

"Masculinity has become increasingly hybridized and diversified in today's China, with a mixture of traditional Chinese discourses and the influence of Western types of masculinity such as businessmen and metrosexual types," Song says.

To build a connection between their research on gender in China and the industry of media and advertising in the West, Song and Hird hosted a workshop at the University of Westminster in May on "understanding Chinese men and masculinity".

Song says the new trends and new images in China that they talked of at the workshop may be useful for European businesses that want to explore the market of male customers in China.

"Men, especially Chinese men, have been largely ignored as gendered beings in the past, and this awareness of their gender will help promote products targeting the male market."

wangmingjie@mail.chinadailyuk.com

(China Daily European Weekly 07/17/2015 page22)

Today's Top News

Editor's picks

Most Viewed

Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US