Patriarchal racism: the convergence of anti-blackness and gender tension on Chinese social media

ABSTRACT

By analyzing Douyin users’ mediated interactions with interracial couples in everyday contexts, this paper addresses the convergence of anti-blackness and domestic gender tension on Chinese social media. It introduces the perspective of ‘multiple triangulations’ to examine discussions of four types of interracial relationships on Douyin: black women and Chinese men, black men and Chinese women, white women and Chinese men, and white men and Chinese women. This approach complicates explanations of why Chinese social media users have been rejecting blackness in a potentially mixed-race China in relation to whiteness and Chineseness. It also illuminates how they have encoded gender tension in marriages in China into anti-black discourses. Additionally, this research highlights the race-blind digital infrastructure and the dynamic connotations of anti-black racism in contemporary China.

KEYWORDS:

• Patriarchal racism
• anti-black
• gender
• social media
• China
• racial triangulation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 China launched the foreigner permanent residency program in 2004, which aimed to attract high earners, investors, and foreign talent who would contribute to China’s ascendency. Because of the high bar, few foreigners have been granted permanent residency.

2 According to the World Population Review, as of 2004, white people of European descent accounted for 85% of the population in Metropolitan France. Because it is illegal to collect data about race and ethnicity in France, demographic information about race is not available for recent years. However, the statement that white people have dropped to 35% of France’s population is far from the actual figure.

3 ‘China’s Second Africa Policy Paper’ (2015), which was China’s second official paper about Africa policy, can be found through this link: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/XiattendsParisclimateconference/2015-12/05/content_22632874.htm ‘China and Africa in the New Era: A Partnership of Equals’ (2021) can be viewed at http://www.news.cn/english/2021-11/26/c_1310333813.htm.

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Zhiqiu Benson Zhou

Zhiqiu Benson Zhou is an Assistant Professor of Global China Studies at New York University Shanghai. He received his Ph.D. in Communication Studies/Rhetoric and Public Culture with a certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies from Northwestern University. His research interests lie at the intersection of sexuality, race, gender, digital media, and popular culture.