HONG KONG – Nobody invited Bu Yunhao to be in his group on the annual class trip. The other fifth-graders at the Shanghai Shangde Experimental School sneered at the 11-year-old boy, calling him “very feminine”.
“I wanted to escape, out of the classroom,” said Yunhao, now 13 and a first-year high school student in Shanghai, China’s largest city.
Some classmates from Yunhao made fun of his high-pitched voice and the way he “shouted” when trying to maintain discipline among classmates as a class monitor. Others teased him for spending so much time with the girls and said he acted like he was “trying to date” the other boys in the class.
Bullying ended, but a recent government announcement that highlights boys who do not fit into traditional Chinese ideas of masculinity has revived painful memories. The plan to “encourage masculinity” in male students has sparked a debate about modern gender roles as the Chinese government increasingly emphasizes what many consider stereotypes outdated and harmful to men and boys.
“Boys don’t need an education for masculinity,” said Lü Pin, founder of China’s largest feminist advocacy 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 types of characteristics,” she said. “It also reinforces the hegemony, control and position of men over women, which goes against gender equality”.
In January, China’s Ministry of Education published plans to “cultivate masculinity” in boys from kindergarten to high school. The initiative involves hiring and training more gym teachers, evaluating physical education students in a more comprehensive way, mandatory health education and supporting research on topics such as the “influence of the phenomenon of internet celebrities on adolescents’ values ”.
The plan follows a warning from one of China’s top political advisers that the country is experiencing a national “masculinity crisis”.
“Chinese boys were spoiled by housewives and teachers,” said the consultant, Si Zefu, in a policy proposal in May. The boys would soon become “delicate, shy and effeminate” unless action was taken, he said.
Addressing the issue is a matter of national security, he wrote, warning that the “feminization” of Chinese boys “threatens China’s survival and development”.
Traditionally, boys in China are expected to show strong leadership skills, obtain good grades in math and science and excel in school sports, wrote Fang Gang, professor of sociology at Beijing Forest University, in a blog 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 and more passive element of “yin”; men are represented by the strongest and most active element of “yang”.
Ideas about gender roles have started to change in recent years, however. Since 2010, more girls than boys have entered universities, and girls regularly outperform boys on standardized tests, questioning the traditional view that boys are naturally more academic.
The change led to a common saying: “Yin in prosperity and yang in decline.”
The increasing popularity of Chinese male pop stars who wear bright makeup and androgynous clothing has also influenced youth culture. Inspired by Confucianism and South Korean pop culture, young Chinese style connoisseurs have adopted the “gentle style” look, a softer form of masculinity that contrasts sharply with traditional tough tropes, allowing for more diverse forms of self-expression.
The growing economic status of women and the rise of feminism have also overturned traditional ideas of masculinity. China has a major gender imbalance – in a country of 1.4 billion people, there are almost 37 million men more than women, a consequence of the preference for children in the Chinese one-child policy, which was in effect from 1979 to 2015. Today, however, women are better able to show competitiveness and leadership in the workplace and are able to take more initiative when it comes to dating and marriage.
Still, the Chinese government maintains a more conservative view of how men and women should behave. Representations of homosexual relationships were banned on Chinese television under a 2016 law that prohibits “vulgar, immoral and harmful to health content”. And although homosexuality was decriminalized in 1997, no law prevents discrimination based on sexual orientation.
In September 2018, when a television special shown to students on the first day of school featured Chinese male pop stars, furious editorials in major newspapers called the stars a bad influence. The government news agency Xinhua described the performance as “how to put pepper in the eye”.
In 2019, Chinese censors began blurring earrings and colored hair on male celebrities who appeared on programs as part of the ban on female representations, and they excluded scenes depicting homosexuality from the movie “Bohemian Rhapsody”.
The prospect of same-sex marriage is advancing, however, and the first same-sex kiss in the “Star Wars” franchise has hit Chinese cinemas.
Chen Yong, 50, of Shanghai, said he was not a fan of the “feminization” of pop culture, but that he believed that people should have the freedom to choose how to live. He was more conservative when it came to his 13-year-old son, however.
“My son used to be delicate 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 remained “soft”, despite playing more sports. But there were still “certain lines” that he would not let him cross, such as raising the little finger in the gesture known in China as “orchid finger”, stereotypically associated with gays and transsexual women.
Experts disagree with these gender stereotypes.
“Men are not necessarily aggressive, competitive and athletic, while women are not necessarily passive, emotional and soft,” wrote sociologist Fang Gang. “Good characteristics are unisex, which both girls and boys must learn.”
Geopolitics may be behind government fears that the “yang” is declining, said Joshua Eisenman, an associate professor at the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame and a senior research fellow in China studies at the American Foreign Policy Council. .
China’s concern for 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 won in the war by Great Britain. Brittany, France, Germany, Russia and Japan.
“The narrative taught to all Chinese children continues to be that under the [Communist] party leadership, China has strengthened to resist and overcome the West, “Eisenman said.” What worries me most about this new policy is its distinct appeal to a concept of masculinity defined by service to the state. “
In China, some teachers say the plan’s main proposal, a revision of the physical education curriculum, is unrealistic due to pressures from the education system.
Guo Biyan, a gym teacher at a primary school in Zhejiang province in southeastern China, said he is teaching only two physical education classes a week, although the government requires four sessions a week. And yet, other teachers sometimes pressure him to limit the extent to which students actually exercise in their classes so that they can reserve energy for their academic studies, he said.
“The teachers of the main subject and many parents think that everything is fine if [students] don’t get enough exercise, because EF is only a small part of school exams, “said Guo.
Yunhao, who was shunned by colleagues for being too feminine, said he feels comfortable with who he is now and does not need to try to be more masculine.
“I am a kind guy. I am outgoing, modest, kind and considerate. I made a lot of friends now,” he said. “To say that I am ‘feminine’ is superficial.”Zixu Wang and Xin Chen reported from Hong Kong, Caroline Radnofsky reported from London.