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Precis: " Popular Culture and Masculinity Ideals in East Asia, with Special Reference to China" (2012) by Kam Louie

In his paper “Popular Culture and Masculinity Ideals in East Asia, with Special Reference to China” (2012), Kam Louie argues that new forms of communication have had a major impact on gender and sexual ideologies and practices across East Asia, focusing on the post-Mao Chinese masculinities with respect to the dynamic relationship and influence between China, Japan and Korea. He also asserts that youth culture and the electronic media have generated a new ideal of Chinese masculinity that departs subtly but significantly from “traditional” and “modern” norms. He defines that metrosexual, particularly in China, tend to equate modernity with the West, and younger groups tend to identity with popular culture icons from Japan and Korea. Furthermore, he examines examples from popular electronic media such as anime, television series, and American Idol-style contests in order to show the emergence of a “soft” male ideal in the China-Japan-Korea culture which coincides with the increased buying power of women and the younger generations who are the primary social groups that use the Internet effectively. This leads to introduction of the the soft male as “girlie men” (one who has girlish qualities) or the “herbivorous men” (one who does not exhibit traditional manly characteristics such as aggressiveness and sexual dominance) as illustrated in his discussion on BL (Boy’s Love) influence, partly as they were the imagined creations of women for women, but have created an impact in the real social community of viewing gender aesthetics. Resistance to these ideal images are discussed by highlighting the conflicting ideologies of the “traditional” view of a man and the imaginarily conceived and propagated, in the background of modernity. As a study that can be both for socio-anthropological and media studies, this paper is meant for researchers and students of the field, delivered with effective explanation.

(November 08, 2016)

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