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The article discusses the intersection of feminist activism and civil disobedience in China, specifically focusing on the A4 revolution that occurred in late 2022. It examines how the protests, which initially began in response to extreme COVID-19 lockdown measures, evolved to incorporate feminist perspectives and address broader issues of gender injustice in China. It provides a scholarly analysis of these events through the lens of gender and feminist theory.

Drawing on critical discourse studies (CDS), this article foregrounds how British higher education institutions respond to gender-critical controversies sparked by their staff members. Adopting Teun van Dijk's sociocognitive approach, we analyse the University of Sussex's crisis responses on Twitter (known as X today) concerning de-platforming campaigns against Kathleen Stock. The analysis unpacks how Sussex employs various discursive strategies to validate its institutional stance in the Stock incident. Sussex's communicative actions aim to mitigate reputation damage caused by the incident. However, such discursive practices simultaneously indicate the university's attempt to evade its institutional responsibility for equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) advocacy, neither do they address the reputation crisis caused by fellow Twitter users' counter-narratives. The analysis points towards the need for a sociocognitive analysis of crisis responses to hold higher education institutions accountable for their core mission, amid trans-rights debates unfolding in wider society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a timely, critical analysis of the male gaze upon sportswomen in male Chinese fans' consumption of sporting megaevents. We use the most popular Chinese-language sports fandom platform, Hupu, as the data repository and scrutinise the threads of male Hupu users' postings about two elite sportswomen at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as the case studies. Drawing on feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA), we elucidate the discursive strategies that male Chinese fans adopt to sexualise sportswomen and trivialise their accomplishments. The research findings showcase how China's sports fandom has evolved as a masculine terrain, where men's visions of asymmetrical gender power relations are discursively negotiated and rationalised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay offers a timely analysis of how the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian warfare is observed in China through a gendered prism. Accounting for an anti-West axis in China's current political climate, we articulate how misogyny and nationalism converge in Chinese social media users' discussions about the military crisis currently unfolding in East Europe. This is revealed by a vulgar interpretation of the Russo-Ukrainian relationship and the sexualisation of Ukrainian/Russian women, which are both widespread in the Chinese-language social media sphere. With the patriarchal specificities of the Party-State polity in mind, the discussion yields a feminist perspective to foreground China's nationalist politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Portrayed by the media as the story of "how a female PhD juggles intimate relationship with four male PhD academics", the LM incident, named after the female main character of the story, was a high-profile case, which provoked public debates on Chinese social media in 2019. In this article, we explore how the stereotyping of female PhDs plays out in Chinese Internet users' discussions about the LM incident. We collected a total of 632 relevant posts from the most popular Chinese community question-answering (CQA) site – Zhihu and analysed them by drawing on critical discourse analysis (CDA). The research findings reveal how a sexualised portrayal of female PhDs, which is dramatically "different" from the traditional, asexual stereotypes of well-educated women, is established in Zhihu users' postings. Many Zhihu users, including both women and men, mobilise an overwhelmingly sexualised portrayal of female PhDs, which speaks to the normalisation of patriarchal discourses in the status quo of Chinese academia and beyond. The research findings shed light on post-socialist gender politics, which facilitates the perpetuation of gender essentialism in China in the post-reform era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores Chinese Internet users' discussions about Jacinda Ardern's maternity leave in the wake of her being elected as the Prime Minister of New Zealand, based on an analysis of postings retrieved from the most popular Chinese community question-answering (CQA) site—Zhihu. Drawing on critical discourse analysis (CDA), with the assistance of content analysis (CA), we reveal that Zhihu users' assessments of Ardern's electoral success are of a gendered divide in which women and men largely constitute the opposing opinion camps. In particular, male Internet users chiefly direct the discussion, attempting to rationalise the unsuitability of female politicians in Western-style democratic elections. In this process, they also legitimise the return of patriarchal orders to China, reflecting a domestic orientation of their engagement with international politics. The research findings shed light on the gender-politics nexus established in Chinese-language social media discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on uses and gratifications (U&G) theory, the current research investigates how social media users exploit different media affordances to satisfy their motives and how such motives are shaped by their personalities. A cross-sectional survey among college students (N = 190) was conducted to examine their most frequently used social media platforms, use motives, and perceived media affordances. Their personalities were also assessed along the Big Five and narcissism. An exploratory factor analysis yielded five broad categories of social media use motives. Structural equation modeling results revealed that social media use motives were differentially associated with affordances and that personalities play an influential role in shaping individuals' use motives and affordance preferences. The findings are discussed in relation to the theoretical contributions to the U&G approach as well as the practical implications to social media platform design and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a feminist analysis of Chinese reality TV, using the recent makeover show— You Are So Beautiful (你怎么这么好看) as a case study. I argue that the notion of gender essentialism is highlighted in the production of You Are So Beautiful, which distances the Chinese show from its original American format— Queer Eye. This phenomenon is indicative of how existing gender power relations influence the production of popular cultural texts in post-reform China, where capitalism and authoritarianism weave a tangled web. The outcomes of the research articulate the interplay between post-socialist gender politics and reality TV production in the Chinese context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses Chinese Internet users' discussions about the former UK Prime Minister—Theresa May. We gathered data from China's most popular community question-answering (CQA) site—Zhihu and analysed how Chinese Internet users discuss May. The research findings suggest that Chinese Internet users often deploy gendered discourses in discussing May and that these gendered discourses often contain sub-textual commentary on international politics more broadly. We, therefore, point to gendered mediation of Chinese political discourses, which is shaped by the current political climate and revival of patriarchy in Chinese society. This research contributes to feminist media studies by providing a Chinese example of the growing misogynistic voices in politics across the world and highlighting the role of gendered discourses in political commentary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional discrimination is a significant social issue that leads to divided societies. In China, people from Henan Province, who are verbally abused by non-Henan users on the Internet, are often victims of regional discrimination. This article presents a case study of Chinese Internet users' discriminatory practice against Henan people in the commentary sections of two major Chinese news portals – Tencent and NetEase. By advancing an affective critical discourse analysis approach with the assistance of content analysis, I analysed user comments on news reports that covered a news event relating to regional discrimination against Henan people. The analysis showed that Internet users' discriminatory practice was notably amplified by the locative IP-address function in NetEase's commentary section. The research findings shed light on the interplay between Internet users' discursive practice and the technological architecture of interactive digital platforms in the context of regional discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]