HONG KONG – Nobody invited Bu Yunhao to be in their group for the annual class trip. The other fifth-graders at Shanghai Shangde Experimental School mocked the 11-year-old and called him ‘too girly’.
“I wanted to run away, straight from the classroom,” said Yunhao, now 13 and a first-year high school student in Shanghai, China’s largest city.
Some of Yunhao’s classmates made fun of his loud voice and the way he “screamed” as a class monitor as he tried to maintain discipline among his fellow students. Others teased him for spending so much time with girls and said he acted as if he was ‘trying to date’ the other boys in the class.
The bullying eventually stopped, but a recent announcement by the government that boys who did not fit into the traditional Chinese ideas of masculinity were singled out revived the painful memories. The plan to “encourage masculinity” among male students has sparked a debate over modern gender roles, as China’s government increasingly places emphasis on what many see as outdated and detrimental to stereotypes for men and boys.
“Boys do not need masculinity education,” said Lü Pin, founder of China’s largest feminist media channel, Feminist Voices, which was banned by Chinese censors in 2018.
“The concept of masculinity forces every man to be tough, which excludes and harms men with other kinds of traits,” she said. “It also strengthens men’s hegemony, control and position over women, which is contrary to gender equality.”
In January, the Chinese Ministry of Education published plans to “cultivate masculinity” in boys from kindergarten to high school. The initiative involves the appointment and training of more gymnasium teachers, to test students more comprehensively in physical education, to make health education compulsory and to support research on issues such as the ‘influence of the phenomenon of internet celebrities on the values of adolescents’.
The plan follows a warning from one of China’s leading political advisers that the country is experiencing a national “masculinity crisis”.
“Chinese boys have been spoiled by housewives and female teachers,” adviser Si Zefu said in a policy proposal in May. Boys would soon become ‘delicate, shy and exuberant’ unless action was taken, he said.
The issue is a matter of national security, he wrote, warning that the ‘feminization’ of Chinese boys ‘threatens China’s survival and development’.
Boys in China are traditionally expected to show strong leadership skills, achieve good grades in maths and science and excel in school sports, Fang Gang, a sociology professor at Beijing Forestry University, wrote in a blog post about the proposed changes on January 30th.
Meanwhile, girls are traditionally seen as less intellectual, and are expected to be less competitive. Gender norms are rooted in traditional philosophy, in which two elements rule the world: women are associated with the softer, more passive element of ‘yin’; men are represented by the tougher, more active element of ‘yang’.
However, ideas about gender roles have begun to change in recent years. Since 2010, more girls than boys have entered universities, and girls regularly perform boys in standardized tests, questioning the traditional view that boys are more academic by nature.
The change led to a common saying: “Yin in prosperity and yang in decay.”
The growing popularity of male Chinese pop stars wearing makeup and androgynous, sparkling clothes has also influenced youth culture. Inspired by Confucianism and South Korean pop culture, China’s young style connoisseurs have adopted the “soft style” look, a softer form of masculinity that contrasts sharply with traditional tough guys, offering more diverse forms of self-expression. enable.
The rising economic status of women and increasing feminism have also strengthened the traditional ideas of masculinity. China has a serious gender imbalance – in a country of 1.4 billion people, there are almost 37 million more men than women, a result of the preference for boys under China’s one-child policy, which was valid from 1979 to 2015 . however, women are more able to show competitiveness and leadership in the workplace, and they are able to take more initiative when it comes to dating and marriage.
Nevertheless, the Chinese government maintains a more conservative view of how men and women should behave. Depictions of gay relationships are banned from Chinese television under a 2016 law banning “vulgar, immoral and unhealthy content.” And although homosexuality was decriminalized in 1997, no law can prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation.
In September 2018, when a television special shown to students on the first day of school featured male Chinese pop stars, furious editorials in major newspapers called the stars a bad influence. The government-run news agency Xinhua described the performance as “like putting chili in your eyes.”
In 2019, Chinese sensors began fading earrings and colored hair at celebrities appearing in the shows, as part of a ban on female performances, and they removed scenes depicting homosexuality from the movie “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
However, the prospect of same-sex marriage is making progress, and the first same-sex kiss of the “Star Wars” franchise has made it into Chinese theaters.
Chen Yong, 50, of Shanghai, said he was not a supporter of the ‘feminization’ of pop culture, but that he believed people should have the freedom to choose how they live. However, he was more conservative when it came to his 13-year-old son.
“My son used to be fine and introverted, so I encouraged him to be more masculine by playing basketball and practicing taekwondo,” he said.
Chen said he would accept his son if he stayed “soft” even though he practiced more sports. But there were still ‘certain lines’ that he would not let cross, such as raising his little finger in the gesture known in China as ‘orchid finger’, which is stereotypically associated with gay men and transgender women.
Experts get problems with such gender stereotypes.
“Men are not necessarily aggressive, competitive and athletic, while women are not necessarily passive, emotional and gentle,” wrote sociologist Fang Gang. “Good qualities are unisex, which both girls and boys must learn.”
Geopolitics may be behind the government’s fear that ‘yang’ is declining, says Joshua Eisenman, associate professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, who is a senior fellow in China studies at the US Council for Foreign Policy is.
China’s preoccupation with the physical prowess of its people began during the ‘Century of Humiliation’, he said by email, referring to the period from 1839 to 1949 when the country was repeatedly colonized or fought in war by Britain , France, Germany, Russia and Japan.
‘The narrative taught to all Chinese children remains so under the [Communist] party leadership, China has strengthened itself to resist and overcome the West, “Eisenman said. What worries me most about this new policy is its distinctive appeal to a concept of masculinity defined by service of the state. “
In China, some teachers say the core proposal of the plan, a revision of the curriculum for physical education, is unrealistic given the pressure on the education system.
Guo Biyan, a gym teacher at a primary school in southeastern Zhejiang province in China, said he leads only two classes for physical education a week, although the government needs four weekly sessions. And even then, other teachers sometimes pressure him to limit the extent to which students practice in his classes so that they can save energy for their academic studies, he said.
‘Head teachers and many parents think it’s good if [students] not getting enough practice because PE is only a small part of the school exams, ‘Guo said.
Yunhao, who was avoided by his classmates because he was too feminine, said he is comfortable with who he is now and no longer has to try to be masculine.
“I’m a nice guy. I’m outgoing, modest, gentle and considerate. I’ve made a lot of friends now,” he said. “To say I’m girly ‘is superficial.”Zixu Wang and Xin Chen reported from Hong Kong, Caroline Radnofsky reported from London.