Bouvier, G and Chen, A orcid.org/0000-0003-2394-9959 (2021) Women and fitness on Weibo: the neoliberalism solution to the obligations of Confucianism. Social Semiotics, 31 (3). pp. 440-465. ISSN 1035-0330
Abstract
This paper uses a social semiotic approach to analyse the posts of women fitness experts/influencers on Chinese Weibo. On the posts, we find a harmonized world where all parts of life can be managed by making the right choices and by having a striving attitude. Here, success and happiness become tasks to be worked on. Yet this is a decontextualized world, where there is no room for actual situations and dispositions. We discuss how these representations can be related to rising neoliberal ideas, values, and identities among the new Chinese middle classes, which, in these instances, are used to create a rather overdetermined stance against more traditional Confucian women’s roles with an emphasis on caring, knowing one’s position, and kinship obligations. But the one-size-fits-all rhetoric of empowerment, getting-ahead and choice leaves little room for sharing the actual restrictions, conflicts, and struggles faced by these women.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Keywords: | Fitness; influencers; Weibo; neoliberalism; discourse analysis; multimodal |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Media & Communication (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 14 Dec 2021 15:05 |
Last Modified: | 14 Dec 2021 15:05 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Routledge |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/10350330.2021.1930849 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:181529 |