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Gender, Sexuality and Power in Chinese Companies pp 11–31Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Becoming ‘White-Collar Beauties’ in Urban China

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Part of the book series: Gender, Development and Social Change ((GDSC))

Abstract

This chapter examines the social, economic and cultural processes that lead to the making of a ‘white-collar beauty’ identity in post-Mao China. It is revealed how the discourse is embedded in a framework infused with state and market neoliberal forces: young educated heterosexual women are constructed to embody nationalist and neoliberal desires to break from the past ideology attached to socialist factory workers so as to endorse the youth, intelligence, beauty and materiality that are valued by a market economy. This chapter proceeds with an introduction of the research setting and a personal account of my research experience, reflecting upon how fieldwork relations were mediated by my own as well as participants’ positionalities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SOAS University of London, London, UK

    Liu Jieyu

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  1. Liu Jieyu
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Jieyu, L. (2017). Becoming ‘White-Collar Beauties’ in Urban China. In: Gender, Sexuality and Power in Chinese Companies. Gender, Development and Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50575-0_2

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