The Cosmopolitan Dream: Transnational Chinese Masculinities in a Global Age (Transnational Asian Masculinities)

The Cosmopolitan Dream presents the broad patterns in the transformations of mainland Chinese masculinity over recent years, covering both representations (in film, fiction, and on television) and the lived experiences of Chinese men on four continents. Exposure to transnational influences has made Chinese notions of masculinity more cosmopolitan than ever before, yet the configurations of these hybrid masculinities retain the imprint of Chinese historical models. With the increasing interconnectivity of markets around the world, the hegemonic mode of manhood is now a highly mobile transnational business form of masculinity. However, the fusion of this kind of cosmopolitanism with Chinese characteristics has not diminished the conventional class and gender privileges for educated men. On the other hand, the traditionally prized intellectual masculinity in Chinese culture, which did not hold commerce in high regard, has reconciled with today's business values. Together these factors shape the outlook of the contemporary generation of Chinese elites. At the same time globalization has increased the cross-country mobility of blue-collar Chinese men, who may possess a masculine ideal that is different from their white-collar counterparts. Therefore it is important to examine various types of masculinity with the recent, reform-era mainland Chinese migration. The migrant man--whether he is a worker, student, pop idol, or writer (all cases studied in this volume)--could face challenges to his masculinity based on his race, class, intimate partners, or fatherhood. The strategies adopted by the Chinese men to reinvent their masculine identities in these stories offer much insight into the complex connections between masculinity and the rapid socioeconomic developments of postsocialist China. What does it mean to be a mainland Chinese man in a transcultural world? What resources do mainland Chinese men utilise to perform a masculinity that is both Chinese and cosmopolitan? This volume demonstrates that the newly emerging formations of mainland Chinese masculinity, whether located in China or overseas, can only be fully understood through attending to the transnational dimensions of their construction. This volume maps multiple instantiations of the 'transnational turn' in Chinese masculinities, including portrayals of the transnational business masculinity of globe-trotting Chinese businessmen in Chinese and German TV dramas, transcultural models of caring fatherhood in Chinese reality TV shows, the transnational journeys of young Chinese entrepreneurs in search of a sense of cultural identity in Chinese blockbuster movies, filmic portrayals of Chinese gay identities ‘haunted’ by premodern masculine models, the integration of sexually liberated Western masculinities and historical __caizi__ images in contemporary fiction, the culinary masculinity of cosmopolitan Chinese TV chefs, the representation of Chinese masculinities in Japan and in online Chinese-language forums in the US, the effect of migration to Africa on Chinese fathering subjectivities, and Chinese fathers' involvement in the growing transnational phenomenon of 'birth tourism' in California. Contents 6 Introduction 8 Part I. Representing Chinese Men Transnationally 32 1. Cosmopolitanism with Chinese Characteristics 34 2. Order Restored? Chinese Masculinities in the German Crime Television Series Tatort 47 3. Transnational Chinese Masculinity in Film Representation 66 4. Haunted Chinese Gay Identity 80 5. A Free Life 94 6. Global and Local Phallic Creativity 109 Part II. Enacting Transnational Chinese Masculinities 132 7. Persona, Politics, and Chinese Masculinity in Japan 134 8. Tasting Food, Tasting Nostalgia 156 9. Idealizing Masculinity through Representation of Fatherhood 168 10. Just Fathers 187 11. Distant Husbands, Masculine Helpers 207 12. “North American Despicable Man” 225 Contributors 244 Index 247