Weibo and Xiaohongshu have become the main platforms for the expansion of activist feminism in China in recent years. This paper explores feminist activism in the context of the interconnection of gender politics and media in China. Applying feminist critical discourse analysis (CDA), through a case study of 20 posts from Weibo and 20 posts from Xiaohongshu, this study investigates how activist constructs their discourse, how such discourse deconstructs the current hierarchical gender pattern, and how they developed and expanded from the platforms to the whole society, with a further comparative analysis of the two platform—What conditions do the two platforms provide for the shaping of the discourse and how do they both differ in it. The findings suggest that as an undercurrent of feminism has been swirling on Chinese social media platforms since the Metoo movement, feminist activists now are consciously using the judgmental language of the "female gaze" to counter the male gaze, along with humorous use of the criticized male discourse and rhetoric. Furthermore, much of the discourse of feminist activism includes resistance to marriage and childbirth, and to some extent not only rebels against the dominant discourse but also shows signs of moving from rhetoric to practice.

Authors:
Feng Gu, Wuxi University, China

About the Presenter(s)
Ms.Feng Gu is currently working at Wuxi University as an assistant lecturer. Her research interests are discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, social linguistics, and American literature.

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