Abstract
This chapter draws interview data collected from young urban Chinese women, aiming to find out how do young women respond to fashion and beauty culture in the age of the flourishing global consumerism. Based on my observation, I also provide a critical analysis of how contemporary social change in China transforms young women’s view on the body, fashion and power. Data emerged from interviews could be categorised as: hairstyle expressions, branded clothes to represent class and luxury consumption. Whilst I reveal the accommodation and resistance buried in these young Chinese women’s everyday practice, I also explain the uniqueness of girls and young women in China when they use resistance strategies to negotiate power and status boundaries in the local context.
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Notes
- 1.
Women of China is a monthly English-language magazine sponsored and administrated by the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) and published by the Women’s Foreign Language Publications of China since the early 1950 s. It is the authoritative English voice on Chinese women. The magazine strives to communicate the reality of Chinese women’s lives, their experiences and ideas through in-depth reports on women’s issues, concerns and viewpoints, and the development of Chinese women. Its content encompasses China’s nationalities, traditional cultures and customs, and the latest news on exchanges between women of China and other countries (see http://www.womenofchina.com.cn/about_us/).
- 2.
Xing Yanzi was born in 1940. Her father was a prosperous factory manager, but when Xing graduated from high school she decided to return to the countryside to try to improve the lives of peasants. She organised the ‘Xing Yanzi Pioneer Team’ to plough the land collectively with her neighbours, and made great achievements. In 1960 a story entitled ‘Xing Yanzi strives to achieve her agricultural blue’ appeared in the widely-read national newspaper People’s Daily. Since then, Xing became a national celebrity among young people and Chairman Mao singled her out for praise. In 1964, Xing Yanzi took part in the 9th Congress of the Communist Youth League of China and was elected as a deputy to the National People’s Congress.
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© 2016 Foreign Language Teaching and Research Publishing Co., Ltd and Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
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Zheng, J. (2016). Chinese Beauty and Femininity. In: New Feminism in China. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0777-4_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0777-4_4
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