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Talented Celebrity Rene Liu: Spokesperson of the Left-Over Women (Sheng Nu)

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Female Celebrities in Contemporary Chinese Society

Abstract

In the highly developed culture and entertainment market of China, the idolization of celebrities fulfils an obvious social function in terms of constructing contemporary forms of identity and community. Serving as models of persona, celebrities exert enormous influence over their fan groups. This chapter examines the classic left-over women icon created by the Taiwanese actress, singer, writer and director, Rene Liu (Liu Ruoying) —an icon created via her songs, film and television drama roles, concerts, prose writing, interviews and microblog entries. This chapter seeks to clarify how, through these many entertainment activities, Liu builds her public image and acts as a spokesperson for professional single metropolitan females. Further, this chapter discusses the controversial left-over women social phenomenon—a huge social issue involving government interference and campaign, public concern and debate in current China, which mirrors the vicissitudes and evolutions of love and marriage issues in China.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The left-over women phenomenon is most observable among the educated females living in the metropolitan regions such as Beijing and Shanghai. Based on the statistics published on Beijing-based The Global Times, the number of leftover females in the capital of the PRC is more than 500,000.

  2. 2.

    The Chinese state attempt to manage the disastrous side effects of its own policy in population control—the one-child policy, which has led to widespread abortion of female foetuses in the preference for sons. Thus, in China, there are about twenty million more men than women of marriageable age. The Party’s fear of these agitated men, who are unable to find wives, has been enhanced by the eruption over the past few years of hundreds of ‘mass incidents’ (read: protests) throughout the country (Fincher 2014).

  3. 3.

    Liu describes her job in the music studio as mainly carrying the guitar for Chen, buying meals for her co-workers and cleaning the studio toilet.

  4. 4.

    For example, her acting in her first movie Siao Yu (Shaonu xiaoyu1995) won her a Best Leading Actress award at the Asia Pacific Film Festival. In 1997, she won a Best Leading Actress award at the Tokyo International Film Festival for the film Murmur of Youth (Meili zai change1997). In the following year, her performance in The Personals (Zhenghun qishi1998) again won her Best Leading Actress at the Asia Pacific Film Festival and a Press Award Special Mention in the 2000 Festival Paris Cinema. Her role in Double Vision (Shuangtong2002) won her Best Supporting Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards. In 2005, her acting in A World Without Thieves (Tianxia wuzei2005) won her Best Leading Actress in the Hundred Flowers Film Prize in Mainland China.

  5. 5.

    Chen Luyu is one of the celebrity hosts of the Hong Kong—based commercial satellite television channel, Phoenix Television. Her talk show, A Date with Luyu—which is the Chinese version of The Oprah Winfrey Show—is highly popular among Chinese audiences.

  6. 6.

    All the translations of Rene Liu’s original works appeared in this paper are the author’s.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC, Australia

    Shenshen Cai

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  1. Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC, Australia

    Shenshen Cai

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Cai, S. (2019). Talented Celebrity Rene Liu: Spokesperson of the Left-Over Women (Sheng Nu). In: Cai, S. (eds) Female Celebrities in Contemporary Chinese Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-5980-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-5980-4_6

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