This article explores how white Western male vloggers have sought to maintain their positive imag... more This article explores how white Western male vloggers have sought to maintain their positive images among Chinese netizens on the Chinese video-sharing platform Bilibili during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the West and foreign migrants in China were lampooned and scorned due to rising Chinese nationalism. By analyzing these vloggers' self-representations and the Chinese audience's responses to them, the article discusses how white male identity is negotiated on China's state-regulated social media platforms in this critical time. It shows that while Western male vloggers carefully represent themselves as ideal foreign migrants in China, they are subject to criticisms from their Chinese audience. In this process, the meanings attached to white male identity have become increasingly debated.
To regard a woman as beautiful is a form of judgment that not only concerns the politics of gende... more To regard a woman as beautiful is a form of judgment that not only concerns the politics of gender and sexuality but also usually assumes a normative visual ability. This paper analyzes the Chinese film Blind Massage (directed by Lou Ye, 2014), in which blind masseurs' experience and understandings of sexual intimacy are influenced and manipulated by the normative image of female beauty. By examining its narrative and visuality, I reflect upon how the film critically represents and intervenes in the entanglement of beauty, sexuality, and disability. I argue that, on the one hand, the film helps to problematize and defamiliarize the social construction of normative sex. On the other hand, it effectively readjusts the social and cultural perception of peripheral embodiment.
To regard a woman as beautiful is a form of judgment that not only concerns the politics of gende... more To regard a woman as beautiful is a form of judgment that not only concerns the politics of gender and sexuality but also usually assumes a normative visual ability. This paper analyzes the Chinese film Blind Massage (directed by Lou Ye, 2014), in which blind masseurs' experience and understandings of sexual intimacy are influenced and manipulated by the normative image of female beauty. By examining its narrative and visuality, I reflect upon how the film critically represents and intervenes in the entanglement of beauty, sexuality, and disability. I argue that, on the one hand, the film helps to problematize and defamiliarize the social construction of normative sex. On the other hand, it effectively readjusts the social and cultural perception of peripheral embodiment.
This article explores how white Western male vloggers have sought to maintain their positive imag... more This article explores how white Western male vloggers have sought to maintain their positive images among Chinese netizens on the Chinese video-sharing platform Bilibili during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the West and foreign migrants in China were lampooned and scorned due to rising Chinese nationalism. By analyzing these vloggers' self-representations and the Chinese audience's responses to them, the article discusses how white male identity is negotiated on China's state-regulated social media platforms in this critical time. It shows that while Western male vloggers carefully represent themselves as ideal foreign migrants in China, they are subject to criticisms from their Chinese audience. In this process, the meanings attached to white male identity have become increasingly debated.
To regard a woman as beautiful is a form of judgment that not only concerns the politics of gende... more To regard a woman as beautiful is a form of judgment that not only concerns the politics of gender and sexuality but also usually assumes a normative visual ability. This paper analyzes the Chinese film Blind Massage (directed by Lou Ye, 2014), in which blind masseurs' experience and understandings of sexual intimacy are influenced and manipulated by the normative image of female beauty. By examining its narrative and visuality, I reflect upon how the film critically represents and intervenes in the entanglement of beauty, sexuality, and disability. I argue that, on the one hand, the film helps to problematize and defamiliarize the social construction of normative sex. On the other hand, it effectively readjusts the social and cultural perception of peripheral embodiment.
To regard a woman as beautiful is a form of judgment that not only concerns the politics of gende... more To regard a woman as beautiful is a form of judgment that not only concerns the politics of gender and sexuality but also usually assumes a normative visual ability. This paper analyzes the Chinese film Blind Massage (directed by Lou Ye, 2014), in which blind masseurs' experience and understandings of sexual intimacy are influenced and manipulated by the normative image of female beauty. By examining its narrative and visuality, I reflect upon how the film critically represents and intervenes in the entanglement of beauty, sexuality, and disability. I argue that, on the one hand, the film helps to problematize and defamiliarize the social construction of normative sex. On the other hand, it effectively readjusts the social and cultural perception of peripheral embodiment.
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